Job Interview - outfit help

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - How do you know that's why you didn't get the job?

I'm curious as well...
And yes, I'd just go with a suit - and I've worn plenty of pant suits before and have not had a problem.

Me too -- attorney who has worn a pant suits to every interview since law school and has never (knowingly) been passed over for this apparent faux pas. Still would wear only pant suits; they are way more comfortable than skirt suits, particularly for summer interviews (because you have to wear hose if you wear a skirt to an interview).

I'm the one who said I was passed over for a job because I wore a pants suit. It was about 10 or so years ago at a very large/well-known law firm in Louisville, KY. I was young and fairly broke and it was my 3rd and final interview -- I was out of skirt suits, so I wore a nice black pants suit for the third interview, which was before a panel of attorneys/partners. I was sent there by a recruiter. After the interview the recruiter called me and asked me why would I wear a pants suit to the interview? She then explained to me that I should never do that and that the senior partner at the firm told her that she wasn't interested in me and that she thought the pants suit was inappropriate. I was, of course, outraged. Even more so by the fact that that partner was a woman. At first I thought I'd wear what I damn well pleased on interviews and screw her! But the more I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that if wearing a skirt instead of pants would land me a job, it was a small concession. Once I landed the job, I'd wear pants every freaking day!

Is it possible there was something else that made them decide not to hire you but instead of saying what that was, they went with pant suit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - How do you know that's why you didn't get the job?

I'm curious as well...
And yes, I'd just go with a suit - and I've worn plenty of pant suits before and have not had a problem.

Me too -- attorney who has worn a pant suits to every interview since law school and has never (knowingly) been passed over for this apparent faux pas. Still would wear only pant suits; they are way more comfortable than skirt suits, particularly for summer interviews (because you have to wear hose if you wear a skirt to an interview).

I'm the one who said I was passed over for a job because I wore a pants suit. It was about 10 or so years ago at a very large/well-known law firm in Louisville, KY. I was young and fairly broke and it was my 3rd and final interview -- I was out of skirt suits, so I wore a nice black pants suit for the third interview, which was before a panel of attorneys/partners. I was sent there by a recruiter. After the interview the recruiter called me and asked me why would I wear a pants suit to the interview? She then explained to me that I should never do that and that the senior partner at the firm told her that she wasn't interested in me and that she thought the pants suit was inappropriate. I was, of course, outraged. Even more so by the fact that that partner was a woman. At first I thought I'd wear what I damn well pleased on interviews and screw her! But the more I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that if wearing a skirt instead of pants would land me a job, it was a small concession. Once I landed the job, I'd wear pants every freaking day!

Is it possible there was something else that made them decide not to hire you but instead of saying what that was, they went with pant suit?

I suppose that's possible, but it was the way the recruiter relayed the information to me - she was absolutely incredulous that I would do such a thing -- as if I should have just known better. It was the one and only reason I was given for being passed over -- I was not given any other feedback (positive or negative) by the recruiter, nor do I believe that she was given any other feedback by the partner. I know it's a bit hard to swallow, but hopefully they are a bit more progressive in their thinking now. I'm tempted to post the name of the firm, but wouldn't it be my luck that they'd sue me for libel?

[Anonymous]

Speaking of skirt suits, a friend of mine worked briefly at a place with a very specific dress code for women, and I would venture to guess that anyone interviewing there would be turned away for not wearing a skirt suit with hose. It was most definitely NOT the sort of place that from the outside you would suspect of having such rigid rules. Of course, my view is if you aren't hiring me because I'm wearing a pants suit instead of a skirt suit, I don't want to work for you anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm the one who said I was passed over for a job because I wore a pants suit. It was about 10 or so years ago at a very large/well-known law firm in Louisville, KY. I was young and fairly broke and it was my 3rd and final interview -- I was out of skirt suits, so I wore a nice black pants suit for the third interview, which was before a panel of attorneys/partners. I was sent there by a recruiter. After the interview the recruiter called me and asked me why would I wear a pants suit to the interview? She then explained to me that I should never do that and that the senior partner at the firm told her that she wasn't interested in me and that she thought the pants suit was inappropriate. I was, of course, outraged. Even more so by the fact that that partner was a woman. At first I thought I'd wear what I damn well pleased on interviews and screw her! But the more I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that if wearing a skirt instead of pants would land me a job, it was a small concession. Once I landed the job, I'd wear pants every freaking day!

That's interesting. I'm an earlier PP who posted that I've worn pants suits to every interview since law school. It actually doesn't surprise me that this was a small Southern law fim (I mean small in the context of national BigLaw firms, not small in the context of its Louisville, KY, size). I've heard similar 'conservative dress' stories coming out of smaller non-national law firms in the South. Strangely, these law firms are actually more likely to ding you for something like this than the very prominent, so-called conservative Washington and New York firms, where pants suits are very much a reality (as are real women associates and even some women partners!).

[Anonymous]

I know of a national law firm in Richmond where women are expected to wear skirts. Well, at least I knew of one, as this was about 8 years ago. My company had a female partner on retainer for employment law counsel and she told me this. I was shocked.

[Anonymous]

A few years ago I worked for a small DC law firm that did not allow women to wear pants, even during winter. I remember a secretary wearing pants on a day after we'd had a snow storm, and she brought a dress to change into. Before she got changed, one of the partners (a woman) saw her and said "I hope you don't think you can get away with wearing pants today." You also were not allowed to dress down if you came in on the weekends, when no clients would be around. It sucked.

I thought it was pretty unusual though, not the norm.