not following. is your company business formal on normal days? if not, how is dressing more formal for an interview than you would in the office show that you understand the company’s culture?
i’m specifically talking about interviewing at business casual offices.
Sure, except we’ve established that most of us do not dress up for work, even before covid, yet somehow the expectation is that you should wear a suit to an interview? That’s not understanding the culture of anything, that is wasting money, dressed up to be uncomfortable for an hour for no good reason. It reeks of pretentiousness.
Our policy is business casual and jeans are permissible but I am the only actuary who wears them outside of Friday’s.
Lots of execs and those who aspire to be them wear suits every day. Many dress far above what is required, at a minimum (again, except me).
And when I worked in consulting, suits were expected for anything involving client interactions, so anyone who was credentialed wore them often.
so, you expect candidates to dress in a way that you don’t even dress yourself and claim that it’s a part of fitting into the culture. that makes zero sense. so they should wear a suit while you’re interviewing them in jeans?
so you have higher expectations for people you hire than you do for yourself?
Knowing that candidates get the advice prior to the interview that lots of execs wear suits and will be wearing one in the interview, if one showed up in something else would send a message that they weren’t paying attention, didn’t get it, or don’t care. Fine, but unless they’re the actuary of the century, probably not a point in their favor.
I always dress up when I interview someone. In part because I know they will be dressed up and want them to feel comfortable.
Kind of a chicken and egg situation, isn’t it?
you didn’t mention that the candidates were specifically told that execs at the company wear suits and therefore it’s expected of them too on an interview. you held back that information. if they didn’t wear a suit, that would show that they don’t know how to follow directions and is entirely different from what you implied.
while I still think it’s a silly policy to require them to wear suits, I would also judge them if they ignored specific directions.
.
fine, well I missed that candidates are specifically told how to dress. in that case, we have no issues here.
I come across as combative without meaning to be, online. It’s not one of my (admittedly numerous) positive traits, and I’m sorry when that shines through. I shouldn’t engage in arguments on here because in hindsight, I can be hotheaded. Anyway, sorry.
I wasn’t being snarky in that comment about not looking for a new job. If you have the expectation that you won’t have to wear a suit, you might find yourself disappointed by reality. Maybe that will change with covid and WFH, though. I hope so. I’d love nothing more than to be able to wear athleisure to work at some point in my career. I’ll be 60 wearing very unflattering leggings and a tshirt while everyone around me is finally starting to wear jeans WITHOUT tucking in their shirts and wearing a belt. Hell, they might even wear sneakers once in a while, too.
sorry I came across as combative too and misunderstood your stance.
I actually would likely default to wearing a suit on an interview because I assume they expect it, but still think that expectation is silly and should change. I give my current employer credit for telling me prior to the interview not to bother with a suit.
I wore flats at my wedding, too. I wanted to be able to dance, and enjoy the day.
Yup. My grandmother wore heels so often that her achilles tendon shrank, and she couldn’t walk in flats. She had slippers with heels to walk around the house. (big stable heels, not little wobbly ones.) But that’s not healthy.
Re interviews: When I’m interviewing, I try to wear a nice thing that I might wear on a typical day. I want to be respectful of the candidate, but I also want to accurately signal what the work environment is. I tend not to notice other people’s clothes, so I might not remember if they wore a suit or a nice shirt. On zoom, I probably wouldn’t notice anything from a boring suit to a clean solid-colored t-shirt, honestly. But most people pay more attention to that stuff than I do.
Interestingly enough, the person who performed best in yesterday’s interviews was also the best dressed. Well, possibly except for one bc I couldn’t see that person’s clothes.
Regardless, no points were made or lost due to clothing bc other factors were a lot more important.
I still think dress could be a tie breaker for close candidates. I’ll be interested to see how the next round goes.
is that even something you can bring up during the group evaluation?
“I didn’t really like the way he dressed”
More, “can you believe they tried to pull off THAT shade with their undertones? Just, ew. And brown socks with black shoes? Offensive.”
Yes, but it would have to be something fairly objective. “I was distracted by the stain on his shirt, and wondered why he didn’t find a clean shirt for the interview”. “All the other candidates wore suits, and he wore a polo” would be an okay comment, but in the age of zoom interviews i doubt anyone would hold the polo shirt against the candidate.
Many years ago i interviewed a candidate who wore a brown corduroy suit. There was a lot of gossip about that at the interview debrief. We hired him, but he was advised to buy a new suit, and not to wear the cords in front of clients.
Providing that kind of feedback would be awkward and for that reason I’m glad it’s well outside my pay grade.
I love corduroy, but it feels more appropriate for an academic setting than a professional one. Which is a shame, because I find it charming.
If they specifically say not to wear a suit that’s pretty different from if nothing is said one way or the other. Certainly if you are told not to wear a suit then you should follow directions.
I could see this having a subconscious effect on how I perceived a candidate. I don’t think I’d bring it up in the post-mortem discussion unless it was egregious: the aforementioned coffee stain. for example. But if we are interviewing three candidates I’m always asked to rank them and it could easily have a subconscious effect on my ranking.
Certainly my sense that a candidate knows his/her stuff and will be a good fit is more important. But across two similarly-qualified candidates I could see it affecting my perception.
Clearly he was too far ahead of his time
Please elaborate. Would dress factor (even subconsciously) into your evaluation of a person’s “fit” or is this something more objective?