An observation...

[Lee]

These days I'm noticing something:

Just about everyone is coming to job interviews wearing street clothes.

Is just me, or is something wrong with that picture?

There has been lots of people coming to my place of employment wearing nothing but jeans and a t-shirt for job interviews.

Whatever happened to coming to an interview dressed in at least a polo shirt and dress pants? My thing is, I don't care if you're interviewing at MCD's, come dressed professionally.

Any thoughts on this?

[sportsvoice]

I've always worn dress pants, dress shirt, and tie and minimum, but usually also a sport coat if not my full suit.

If I get the job, then I fall back to the usual dress code.

[AmpedNow]

I had a friend who was top manager at Shoney's, and he said you wouldn't believe what he's seen... One guy came in with purple hair and a nose spike. Not a ring, an actual spike thru the middle of his nose. He wanted to be a waiter.

Needless to say, he wasn't "selected".

This was ten years ago. I can only imagine how people show up now...

As for me, I've always did black/dark jeans and a tucked-in collared shirt. Seems to work ok.

I never have been one for dress clothes, but I can make casuals look good. Just tucking in your shirt works wonders...

[genlock]

Dress like the guy who is interviewing you.
Works every time.

[Hoosier Daddy]

It's today's attitude that "I" am more important than "the job".
Sadly, managers are being told to deal with it and meet these applicants on their terms.

[cgarison]

Dress like the guy who is interviewing you.
Works every time.

In my world, my interviewers are dressed business casual, but I normally wear a good suit.

[lastone]

Over the last fifteen years, it has been my observation that they have only two questions about the job;

1 What does it pay?

2 When is pay day?

SAD and getting worse.

[The Interpreter]

Hmm. I had an interview just over a week ago. What'd I wear? Dickies cotton work pants, khaki, with cell phone pocket; an ecru (I refuse to wear white shirts, period) Pima Pinpoint LL Bean Buttondown Shirt; a nice but not flashy silk tie that cost more than anything else I had on; a navy blue blazer from Lands End that I bought on clearance at Sears and Roebuck (well, Sears...), and a black pair of New Balance walkers. How'd it work? I don't know yet. My major goal was to look like an engineer attempting to dress up for an interview. I also was not about to outdress anyone who was interviewing me, which I think would have been a mistake, nor to dress like some of the people who do my current job, which I also think would have been a mistake.

I truly believe my answers to their questions and questions to their answers were far more important than how I dressed. I also do believe my employer to make decisions based on merit, thus my major goal was not to commit some sartorial faux pas such that they even remember how I dressed.

[Hoosier Daddy]

My major goal was to look like an engineer attempting to dress up for an interview.

[Ace Purple]

These days I'm noticing something:

Just about everyone is coming to job interviews wearing street clothes.

This isn't a new thing -- circa 1993, when Nashville had two minor league baseball franchises (the AAA Nashville Sounds and the forgettable AA "Nashville Xpress") I went in for an interview for a bat boy position. I didn't get the job (they were already booked for the spots at that point as I found out during the Q&A), but the interviewer went out of his way to praise me for dressing up for the interview (I was decked out in a suit). Apparently some of the other candidates showed up dressed very casually.

[genlock]

A Bat Boy in a suit might have made the cover
Of "Weekly World News".