To not wear a suit in financial services?

[newlycorporategirl]

I'm starting a new role in financial services at a bank based in canary wharf (entry level having transitioned from a different career).

I have lots of smart dresses etc but i'm wondering if the norm is to wear a blazer/suit style outfit for the office every day or a blouse/shirt and cardigan okay?

I don't want to have to spend a fortune on new clothes but my partner thinks I may need to get some suits/blazers depending on the vibe (however they don't work in a similar industry)

YABU - suck it up and buy some blazers
YANBU - a blouse and cardigan is fine

If you're in cyber security then I'd start by getting yourself a couple of nice dresses or trousers and a couple of blouses for your first few days so that you can see the vibe.
Also, check out their website and social media pages to see what kind of stuff is posted on there.

By suits I mean more casual pyjama style suits!! They looked great

City worker here - definitely don’t wear a jacket. Smart dress and cardigan is fine, to be honest a nice pair of jeans and and a smart shirt or even smart jumper is also acceptable. Suit jackets in a lot of places just aren’t worn anymore, unless it’s a super important client meeting but even then it’s a juxtaposition between old school suits and jeans / nice shirt. Once you are there you’ll get the vibe of the dress code and then totally just dress smart, tidy but in a way which is authentic to you. Good luck!

Thanks! I love stuff like this. I actually do own a couple of blazers but they are purppsely oversized ones as that's a style that im into so I might just go with those as they are smart but not at all stuffy.

Smart Cardigan sounds like an indie band

😂 The humble cardigan is divisive here...

I'm a corporate lawyer which I imagine is pretty similar - thankfully now in-house which is very much on the casual side of smart/casual, but even when I was working in big City law firms suits were rare. Maybe some of the older partners might wear more formal clothes but generally speaking it would be (for women) smart dress or skirt or smartish trousers with a nice top, cardigan on top would be fine day to day but I think most of us had a fairly plain/versatile blazer that lived in our office to add an extra layer of 'smart' if you had an important client meeting or something. Mine was rarely used but I was glad of having it when I needed it!

Oh just seen you're in the cyber security department - if you're not going to be client facing I wouldn't bother with the blazer (unless you want to!). Definite NO to a suit, you'll stand out but it won't be for the right reasons! Dress and cardi absolutely fine.

Wear your existing dresses for a few days until you get the hang of it. I think that oversized blazers look a bit weird with smart dresses so maybe not them.

My office wears dresses mostly, or long pleated skirts for those tall and slim enough to pull them off.

Suits are not a thing for women, though the men absolutely still wear them. I still have my old suit jackets and skirts from a decade ago but I wear the jackets over dresses or tweed skirts and the skirts under jumpers.

Should have mentioned in the original post that im in cyber security but I just assumed the formality might still apply as its a huge bank! These are great suggestions thank you.

I used to work in one of the big 3 banks and the only time you'd see women in suits was for client meetings. But every other day you can wear pretty much anything other than jeans. Smart trainers are fine too tbh.

Depends on the workplace. I’m financial services currently working for a bank and we dress very casual.

I would get yourself a blazer which you can wear with your dresses ( personally not a big fan of cardigans) and then you can gauge how your colleagues dress - maybe smart trousers and blouses as it’s back office. Better to start smart than too casual.

This is exactly the vibe I was thinking of, Thank you. I feel that office wear is a minefield for women!

You'll probably find your colleagues in cyber security wear a geek tshirt and jeans! They certainly do in my organisation.

I think it very unlikely you'll need a blazer never mind a suit.

Smart dress, no cardigan on your first day and take it from there.

I reckon in cyber you'll probably be fine but I'd consider having a single blazer in your wardrobe for if you need to go to anything extra smart.

Personally I find jumpers slightly smarter than cardigans so they're my preferred choice for knitwear.

I think you'll be able to judge much better after day one so I would go relatively smart for the first day and see once you have the lie of the land.

Business-smart is usually a pretty smart dress code I think. My old big corporate place had moved to "business casual" /"dress for your day" by the time I left.

If you’re on a floor with tech, there will probably be someone in shorts and flip flops lol

I’d just aim for a smart ish dress on day one and take it from there. Better to be over dressed when you don’t really know!