Are interviews just more casual now?

[Anonymous]

It actually hurt me to wear a tie as too stuffy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you notes are outdated. It’s an employee’s market rig but now.

Dressing up is not outdated, even for virtual interviews. If there is a camera on, the candidate should look like they are going to an interview.

Saying thank you is never outdated.

[Anonymous]

Where do you expect the candidates to take the interview from if not their current office? Their car? Rent an uber to sit in if they take public transit? The bathroom?

They shouldn't be sloppy but I think you have some odd expectations.

I always send thank you/follow up emails after interviews and think it is kind of odd when people don't, but I do a lot of interviewing. Less than 10% of people have ever sent them, in person or virtual. Also, I've noticed usually recruiters seem to set up the virtual invitations and I rarely get the interview panels' email addressed directly. Usually I can figure it out, but not always.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you notes are outdated. It’s an employee’s market rig but now.

Dressing up is not outdated, even for virtual interviews. If there is a camera on, the candidate should look like they are going to an interview.

Saying thank you is never outdated.

This, plus it's an opportunity to finalize your pitch and clarify anything in the interview.

[Anonymous]

Showing up late is not great for sure, but fine if they apologize and blame tech issues.

The dressing up part - I'm interviewing candidates with similar experience and it depends on what you mean. I would think it would be very silly if they were in like a blazer in their apartment. But I expect something other than a sweatshirt.

[Anonymous]

I think of it as post-apocalypse casual.

[Anonymous]

The thing about the thank yous is that they're a bit classist. That's the kinda thing people with professional parents who run in professional circles know to do, but other people may not. So I like to think of them as a bonus, but I don't penalize someone for not doing it - they honestly could just have no idea that's a good idea.

The dressing thing is so, so varying. On both sides of the aisle, I've struggled with this. I tend to lean towards a suit (I'm a woman, FWIW) when I interview. I'm 37, and for sure when I was in my early 20s, that was pretty standard, so it's really just habit now. Interview = suit. And I work in a pretty casual industry - I've been on both sides of a lot of interviews where the interviewer was wearing jeans and the interviewee was wearing a suit. But I've had people say they think that's too formal, or I'll look out of place. So I might take it down a notch next time. Hard to say. On the other hand, as an interviewer, I do prefer to see people in suits - it shows they take it seriously. But it's a hard needle to thread. Where I've landed is that people should look somewhat put together (unshowered, scraggly two days of facial hair growth, messy hair, pajamas, those are all bad) and should dress in the top 25% of people at the company. So if most people wear jeans and tshirts, but some people wear more business casual (khakis and a polo or a casual dress) at the company, then I will negatively judge an interviewee in a t-shirt. If nearly everyone wears jeans and t-shirts to work, then I won't. It's a fine line. It's also not necessarily a dealbreaker - it's context. Does the person look a little too casual, but he's bright, engaged, with a prepared list of questions, and well versed in the company (ie, has done his research)? Then I'll probably let it go. If they look a little too casual, and also are slumped in their chair and ill prepared? This is a poor choice.

Lateness of less than five minutes with a sincere apology AND a good reason "I'm so sorry, my computer died and the charger was upstairs!" is fine. Lateness of more than that, you better be falling all over yourself with an apology and a FABULOUS reason "My car broke down and I didn't have my computer with me and I had to call a friend to pick me up I'm so, so sorry!" Other than that - this would be a huge red flag for me.

[Anonymous]

Another thing with dress today - if the candidates are currently employed and fitting in a virtual interview between work meetings, they may flag themselves as interviewing if they are way overdressed compared to the company dress.

Even pre-Covid, people would get teased that they were interviewing if they wore a full suit to work for no apparent reason. I remember one interview where I needed to change in a Starbucks bathroom to not gain attention at work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another thing with dress today - if the candidates are currently employed and fitting in a virtual interview between work meetings, they may flag themselves as interviewing if they are way overdressed compared to the company dress.

Even pre-Covid, people would get teased that they were interviewing if they wore a full suit to work for no apparent reason. I remember one interview where I needed to change in a Starbucks bathroom to not gain attention at work.

I have definitely done “take a change of clothes to work and change in a random restaurant”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm hiring manager for a manager level position requiring 5+ years of experience. I've had interviewees join the virtual interview from their current office, not dressed for an interview, join 2-5 minutes late, or don't send a thank you. Am I being too picky or is this how it is now? Our HR department conducted the screening interviews, so these are candidates that passed that.

I've been interviewing a lot lately and I was 2-5 minutes late for a couple of interviews due to weird connectivity issues. Every interview I've had via Microsoft Teams, the software has crashed for me when I loaded it on my home computer (a MacBook Pro). So it may be something simple like that. I installed MS Teams to prepare for these interviews and I set up a virtual background, but when I accept a meeting invite from a corporate Teams account, my virtual background won't load. It's possible your interviewees were going through something similar.

I wore blazers to first few interviews, but I felt odd when the people on the other end were dressed down, so I started just wearing a nice sweater and necklace to future interviews. Maybe that was a bad judgement call on my part, but the rules seem fuzzy now when we're interviewing virtually.

I didn't realize that sending "thank you" notes was still the norm. I haven't sent them.

[Anonymous]

Expecting a candidate to write a thank you note is really old school. Did you write them a thank you note? They're interviewing you just as much as you're interviewing them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you notes are outdated. It’s an employee’s market rig but now.

Dressing up is not outdated, even for virtual interviews. If there is a camera on, the candidate should look like they are going to an interview.

Saying thank you is never outdated.

This, plus it's an opportunity to finalize your pitch and clarify anything in the interview.

It's my company policy not to provide interviewees with emails for anyone who interviewed them, so no thank you notes allowed. At previous places I worked, I hated receiving and responding to them, so I am onboard with this policy. I think they're going the way of the cover letter, also falling out of favor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you notes are outdated. It’s an employee’s market rig but now.

Dressing up is not outdated, even for virtual interviews. If there is a camera on, the candidate should look like they are going to an interview.

Saying thank you is never outdated.

This, plus it's an opportunity to finalize your pitch and clarify anything in the interview.

It's my company policy not to provide interviewees with emails for anyone who interviewed them, so no thank you notes allowed. At previous places I worked, I hated receiving and responding to them, so I am onboard with this policy. I think they're going the way of the cover letter, also falling out of favor.

What? You’re not expected to respond to a thank you note. It’s true in a social setting and true in business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to focus energy on job fit and skill fit, not petty details like where they dial in.

Disagree. These details are revealing. They indicate sloppiness, carelessness and even arrogance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently had a virtual interview and was given prior instructions to dress up (I had already planned on doing this, a no brainer) but was surprised to see the interviewers in hoodies/tshirts.

thank you notes are pointless. Either interviewers don't reply or employers aren't allowed to reply until the hiring decisions have been worked out.

I recently hired an occupational therapist for my daughter and the intake meeting was virtual. I was SHOCKED when she joined in a hoodie (with a cut collar), visably dirty messy hair thrown on top of her head, and a sweat band-ish headband. This is someone charging me hundreds of dollars an hour and can't even be bothered to pretend to care

That is the nature of her job. She rolls around with kids all day.