I don’t know nothin’ from nothin, but I’m suprised at how many people are saying to wear suits to interviews. I mean I believe you, but at my company located in the suburbs (engineered to order material handling machines/cranes, also with a shop to build the stuff) not even senior managment wears ties, let alone suits.
I mean if someone showed up in a suit my initial inclination would be to ask “Are you going to prom later?”
I’ve been thinking about looking for a change lately, and i figured if i get an interview i would probably just wear slacks and a button down shirt (probably no tie), with maybe a swearter over top if its cold. Maybe its time to dust off a suit.
Only places I know of that still make most people wear ties to work are banks/credit unions and law firms. But not even all banks/CUs do that now. For example at my credit union nobody wears a tie. But another local CU they still wear ties.
In software/engineering/biotech people have not worn ties for decades.
The funniest thing I saw was the low paid copier repair guys wearing a suit while dealing with all kinds of dirty parts and messy toner. But they now wear business casual.
Generally speaking, I always wear a suit to an interview. You can easily say “woah, think I overdressed but I always wear a suit. Would you mind if I lose the tie, take off my jacket and roll up my sleeves?”
You can always kinda jokingly lose the duds, but there’s no way you can grow a tie. To say it another way, usually it’s better to over dress rather than to under dress and shows you’re making an effort at least. I’m not saying this is a 100% rule, you need to match the environment, but wearing a suit to an interview is a decent rule of thumb.