[ale] Since we're on the subject of jobs lately

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 22:39 -0400, James Sumners wrote:
> I'm not understanding this bit of advice. I've been under the
> impression that you want to dress nicely for a job interview. And it
> seems to me that the accepted "nicely" for guys is a suit and tie. So
> how would wearing a tie indicate that I don't know what I'm doing? I
> know that one of the questions I will ask at every interview I go to
> will be about the accepted day-to-day dress. I much prefer jeans and a
> t-shirt, but I don't believe that is appropriate for an interview.

Yes and no.  Really, it depends on the norms for the company and the
field.

If you're going to interview at IBM, given their history as a
suit-and-tie company (and the fact that many of their managers, last I
was around those parts, were still very much into that mind-set), then
it'd be appropriate to wear a decent dress shirt, slacks, jacket, and
possibly a tie.

It would seem that if you were going to interview at a new company, such
as Google, or for businesses that are purely technical, then _what_ you
wear doesn't matter so much as how you carry yourself.  Personally, I
think it should always be that way; I've long hated arbitrary rituals
associated with roles that people play in society, be they time-light
roles such as interviews, or heavier roles such as management.  What
makes all the difference in the world is how you carry yourself:  your
confidence, your ability to meet the requirements of the job, and so
forth.  Even so, sometimes how you carry yourself is more important than
your portfolio or your ability to meet the requirements of the job!

Spend time time reading down (with no filter on the comments) the
comments on Slashdot from the "How To Show Code Samples?" article from
Friday [1].  Particularly, the threads that have things pertaining to
dress in the subjects.  Of course, as is always the case on /., some of
the best little nuggets are hidden behind the default thresholds.  I
wouldn't say that it's etched in the stone or anything, but I am hearing
more and more about dress really not mattering as much as coming across
as the person they want.  After all, clothing is easy to change;
personality and such, much harder.

All in all, though, it really does depend on _where_ you're interviewing
and _who_ is interviewing you.  All you can really do is be yourself.

	--- Mike

[1] http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/11/2233225

-- 
My sigfile ran away and is on hiatus.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20080716/e54feb41/attachment.bin