Telling candidates to dress casually

[Anonymous]

The tattoo thread, with the people who said they would never hire a candidate with visible tattoos, reminded me of this questions.

I do a lot of the hiring at my organization. Researchers, analysts, etc-- not fundraisers or directors other staff oriented towards the public. When I schedule interviews, I tell the candidate to dress casually. One of my colleagues questioned this. Said that candidates should wear suits and such to show a professional demeanor. For my part, I don't give a toss what they look like. I'm looking at their experience, their interests, their potential for excellent work. I sort of got the feeling that my colleague was of the (unstated) opinion that "I had to suit up, so should they".

In addition to just not caring about their clothes (or tattoos), I prefer for a candidate to present their true self instead of some packaged ideal. I want them to be as comfortable as possible so I can get an idea of what kind of colleague and employee they'll be. We are a very casual office; the only people who ever wear suits are the directors, and then only when they have meetings or public appearances scheduled.

So what say you? Is there any benefit to candidates appearing in their very best professional clothes, when the job they're interviewing for will never again require them to wear such things? They wouldn't be coming in for an interview at all if their resume didn't earn them one.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you. I would want to see how they will dress in your office setting.

[Anonymous]

fully agreed.

infact you are doing what many in the valley do when they reach out for interviews..especially to younger or employees that have never worked in that kind of culture before...they explicitly tell candidates not to wear a suit or dress 'up'...just come comfortable as you normally would for a regular work day here.

[Anonymous]

I think you are creating an impossible situation for these candidates. You are telling them that you don't care what they look like but obviously your colleagues don't agree or wonder about your views and when the candidate shows up he/she will be judged and may make a poor impression on an office tour or walkaround. In addition, my notion of "casual dress" may be entirely different from yours or your offices. Having a universally shared notion of an interview suit takes the pressure off a candidate -- you actually create more pressure by telling them to dress casually. They don't know your office culture, OP and they don't know what a regular work day is.

Beyond interview wear, I'm also put off by your notion of presenting the "true self" which strikes me as you hiring people that are just like you and your colleagues or presenting a sort of personality test which as an employment lawyer I can tell you usually serves to lessen workplace diversity and means that you have a workplace in which you hire people like you exclusively -- your educational background, your socioeconomic background, your religious and cultural background. I think you need to think about hiring as skills and merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you are creating an impossible situation for these candidates. You are telling them that you don't care what they look like but obviously your colleagues don't agree or wonder about your views and when the candidate shows up he/she will be judged and may make a poor impression on an office tour or walkaround. In addition, my notion of "casual dress" may be entirely different from yours or your offices. Having a universally shared notion of an interview suit takes the pressure off a candidate -- you actually create more pressure by telling them to dress casually. They don't know your office culture, OP and they don't know what a regular work day is.

Beyond interview wear, I'm also put off by your notion of presenting the "true self" which strikes me as you hiring people that are just like you and your colleagues or presenting a sort of personality test which as an employment lawyer I can tell you usually serves to lessen workplace diversity and means that you have a workplace in which you hire people like you exclusively -- your educational background, your socioeconomic background, your religious and cultural background. I think you need to think about hiring as skills and merit.

Well said, +1

I'll pile on. What is useful about the interview uniform is that it prevents clothes from being a stressor or a judgement criteria. It allows you and the interviewee to focus on the conversation.

[Anonymous]

I tend to agree with OP. When I interview, I will always wear a suit, but my job requires me to were one sometimes. But, I do not present a nice prepared package; rather I present me as I am. The reason being is I want a job that is right for me. I do not want to have to reinvent myself for the job. If I as me work at the interview, things will go well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you are creating an impossible situation for these candidates. You are telling them that you don't care what they look like but obviously your colleagues don't agree or wonder about your views and when the candidate shows up he/she will be judged and may make a poor impression on an office tour or walkaround. In addition, my notion of "casual dress" may be entirely different from yours or your offices. Having a universally shared notion of an interview suit takes the pressure off a candidate -- you actually create more pressure by telling them to dress casually. They don't know your office culture, OP and they don't know what a regular work day is.

Beyond interview wear, I'm also put off by your notion of presenting the "true self" which strikes me as you hiring people that are just like you and your colleagues or presenting a sort of personality test which as an employment lawyer I can tell you usually serves to lessen workplace diversity and means that you have a workplace in which you hire people like you exclusively -- your educational background, your socioeconomic background, your religious and cultural background. I think you need to think about hiring as skills and merit.

Well said, +1

I'll pile on. What is useful about the interview uniform is that it prevents clothes from being a stressor or a judgement criteria. It allows you and the interviewee to focus on the conversation.

Agree. And if someone told me to dress casually, I would still wear a suit, since it has been stressed so many times to wear a suit no matter what the culture is. So would I lose points for "not following directions" or gain points for looking professional. I think this is an impossible situation as well.

[Anonymous]

Do what you think is right. If it does not work out, it was not a good fit, anyway

[Anonymous]

Please don't tell people what to wear. There is no reason to tell them to dress casually- what does that even mean?
People generally have an interview outfit they wear. Do you want candidates to have to stalk to your employees before the interview to figure out what people wear in your office? You suck!

[Anonymous]

I think it's more confusing to be told to dress casually. I would have no parameters for what that meant and it would make me more stressed out. If it doesn't matter to you what a candidate wears, why mention it at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you are creating an impossible situation for these candidates. You are telling them that you don't care what they look like but obviously your colleagues don't agree or wonder about your views and when the candidate shows up he/she will be judged and may make a poor impression on an office tour or walkaround. In addition, my notion of "casual dress" may be entirely different from yours or your offices. Having a universally shared notion of an interview suit takes the pressure off a candidate -- you actually create more pressure by telling them to dress casually. They don't know your office culture, OP and they don't know what a regular work day is.

Beyond interview wear, I'm also put off by your notion of presenting the "true self" which strikes me as you hiring people that are just like you and your colleagues or presenting a sort of personality test which as an employment lawyer I can tell you usually serves to lessen workplace diversity and means that you have a workplace in which you hire people like you exclusively -- your educational background, your socioeconomic background, your religious and cultural background. I think you need to think about hiring as skills and merit.

Well said, +1

I'll pile on. What is useful about the interview uniform is that it prevents clothes from being a stressor or a judgement criteria. It allows you and the interviewee to focus on the conversation.

Agree. And if someone told me to dress casually, I would still wear a suit, since it has been stressed so many times to wear a suit no matter what the culture is. So would I lose points for "not following directions" or gain points for looking professional. I think this is an impossible situation as well.

wearing a suit to a facebook, ms, amazon, or google interview if you aren't in marketing or HR is definitely not a good idea. for example, at MS when you go on our 'superday' interview, and the interviewers are all emailing each other inbetween your interviews, they will laugh if you are 'overdressed' compared to their culture.

[Anonymous]

I think tech is different enough that it can go unsaid. I got from OP's original post that this was an industry where interviewees would normally dress formally and this was a particular circumstance where the interviewer was expressly directing candidates to something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think tech is different enough that it can go unsaid. I got from OP's original post that this was an industry where interviewees would normally dress formally and this was a particular circumstance where the interviewer was expressly directing candidates to something else.

not just tech.

worked at a hedgefund (well known, decent sized AUM)....HR stressed not to wear suits to interviews since casual wear was wha everyone wore.

What I got from the OP was her/his work place was like this...i.e. people normally wear suits to high finance interviews....but the op's workplace had a casual dresscode for non-client facing positions (similar to what we had at the HF)....and so the OP is telling the interviewees to dress as if they were working in the OP's department.

that's acceptable.

[Anonymous]

Hr bitch here. I want people to look neat. No rumpled clothes, no dirty fingernails. But I don't care if the interviewee is wearing flats or heels.

[Anonymous]

I agree with th "impossible situation" folks. In my industry, I would advise a candidate to wear a suit EVEN IF the hiring coordinator told them not to. So you're just putting the candidate in the position of either making a bad choice or doing the opposite of your explicit instruction.

I get that some industries are exceptions; many of my friends work at a startup that makes fun of suit wearers during the interview.