Telling candidates to dress casually

[Anonymous]

I would find it helpful if you defined casual- business casual, wear jeans, or do you want me to shorts and a t-shirt to "fit in"?

[Anonymous]

There's a lot of not-so-subtle ageism and generationalism in this thread. I can't imagine what would happen if a person in their fifties interviewed at an organization run by Millenials and dared -- dared! -- to show up inappropriately (!) dressed in a suit. And was laughed at in email afterward. And not hired despite his or her perfect resume and skill set.

As we say in employment law, email is discovery. You might consider that.

[Anonymous]

Yeah baby boomers really have it tough out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would find it helpful if you defined casual- business casual, wear jeans, or do you want me to shorts and a t-shirt to "fit in"?

I am curious about this too. What would expect someone to wear to a casual interview?

[Anonymous]

It's too confusing to tell candiates to dress casually unless you get more specific. And if you do - you're not exactly letting their "true self" show through. Even if someone told me to dress causually, I would likely still wear a suit. And I work in research in finance, so it's not like I'm ever client facing. Unless someone is completly unkept, what does it matter what they wear? That tells you nothing. I do like asking about attire on interviews b/c honestly not going to take a job that requires a suit every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah baby boomers really have it tough out there.

Actually, boomers have it very tough right now. They are expected to work long hours, they are the sandwich generation, and when laid off, they frequently can't find new work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah baby boomers really have it tough out there.

Actually, boomers have it very tough right now. They are expected to work long hours, they are the sandwich generation, and when laid off, they frequently can't find new work.

Right, but they also labelled a portion of their tax payments as social security but then used that money to fund government services so that they could pay reduced taxes throughout their lives. Now they consider the money they never actually paid into their social security accounts to be an entitlement, and the younger generation will never be large enough or turn out enough voters to change it. So they will be just fine.

In any case, my non-snarky point was that I don't see how some tech guys judging baby boomers for dressing in a stuffy manner is any different from baby boomers judging younger people for not dressing nicely enough. The PP was implying that its age discrimination, and it is not. Surely if a 30-something decided to move from the tech sector to a law firm and wore a short-sleeve madras shirt to his interview he would not get the job, but he would not be able to sue the law firm for age discrimination.