Turning up to interview in jeans and trainers

[Cuffi]

Awaiting for interview/assessment day. Out of the ten waiting. Three are wearing pale jeans, trainers, Adidas tracksuit bottoms.

All the rest including me wearing smart trousers, tops and shoes.

From what few workers I have seen, some are wearing dark jeans.

I think everyone needs to wear smart clothes for interviews. Doesn’t matter if the prospective employer has a casual dress code

Some years ago, before Lockdown, I was interviewed by a young man with three quarter length skinny chinos, no socks and sneakers!

It works both ways, the interviewer should dress appropriately too.

But maybe that WAS appropriate for that company/environment?

About ten years ago I used to do a lot of interviewing in a large casual dress company. Most candidates still went towards the smarter end of casual for interviews. I thought nothing of it if a candidate was very smartly dressed - I just assumed it was their standard interview outfit.

However, a newly promoted manager (who’d worked in the company a long time) was on his first interview loop and was genuinely surprised at a candidate turning up in a suit. He wanted to know whether we’d briefed candidates/agencies properly about our dress code - in which case he “felt really sorry” for the candidate - or if he just hadn’t understood the company very well, which could be a red flag.

While most of us thought he was being a bit OTT, as smartly dressed candidates weren’t uncommon, it did make us think how what some would see as the right way to dress could be interpreted as the wrong way in other circumstances. After that, the recruitment team made a point of emphasising in the ads that there was no need to dress up, and also encouraged us as managers not to dress any differently to a normal working day, to avoid candidates basing their first day attire on ours.

Gym PT? You're not going to go round the gym showing you know how to use all the equipment in a suit are you?

Being appropriately dressed is a great way of creating a good first impression. My 18 year old son went for an informal interview/ look round when applying for an apprenticeship in the summer. He went in a suit, it was suit or trackies and trainers as that’s all he had. When he left the HR manager shook his hand and thanked him for going so smartly dressed and that it had been noticed. He got the job and now wears work trousers with lots of pockets, safety boots and the company polo shirt and fleece. I think he’d have looked a bit odd if he’d turned up with pockets full of tools and the suit was absolutely the right choice.

Exactly this. My dad is fond of giving me well-meaning advice whenever I apply for or start a new job, and I nod and smile, but in reality, it’s 25 years since he worked in a company of the scale I work in. Advice like “Make sure you put your actual age on your CV rather than just your date of birth”, whereas most of the time you’d probably avoid referencing your age at all now.

I can remember my tutor at college telling us not to pay too much attention to parental advice on which were the good universities, pointing out that what was good/bad 25 or 30 years ago wasn’t really relevant now.

Experience it was multiple 16 year olds going for a job with a 4 hour contract earning less then £5 an hour none of them had experience.

in one way i love the fact that work wear is no longer the suit and tie etc but i also dont love how the other end of casual it has become. I get that that job might not require you to dress a certain way but i think you should be wearing smartly dressed clothes, there are smart version of jeans but i would have changed the runners to shoes or boots. Its not that hard and there are plenty of options for people regardless of their budget. We by the nature of being human will automatically judge you on appearance, you cant control that a mental opinion of that person will be automatically formed in your brain, within the 1st few mins of meeting that person. People might not like it but that is human nature, always make a little effort

Some of it is just industry specific too.
I help do recruiting in a specialised animal care role that's full of people who've clearly been pushed into it by bad advice. We get people 100% insistent we must take their CV (haven't done CV based recruiting in years!) and don't accept no for an answer, people insisting on speaking with management to ask about jobs (jobs all go out via a website) and sending us long emails about how much they love animals and have a cats, done a duke of Edinburgh and would be willing to do free trial shifts.

When we can we respond and let them know what would put them in better positions but it's hard if they are getting lots of advice else where.

Some of it might working in family owned, poorly run places but most places that are a decent size with hr departments etc just don't recruit in that way

@Wexone "We by the nature of being human will automatically judge you on appearance, you cant control that a mental opinion of that person will be automatically formed in your brain, within the 1st few mins of meeting that person. People might not like it but that is human nature, always make a little effort"

You're projecting your own attitudes and prejudices. In some countries, or in some industries and within many companies, appearance is of no matter whatsoever - and job candidates are not "judged" on this. As a number of HR professionals on here are pointing out, employers are going out of their way to remove any prejudices, for example by using blind or anonymous CVs, removing photos from applications and generally filtering out as many potential subjective issues as possible in order to recruit the best person for the job (and to avoid rejecting excellent candidates based on subjective opinions).

Not projecting my own attitude its fact
The brain immediately determines an opinion in your head before it's fully perceived
No matter how unbiased we think we are, we may still have subconscious negative opinions towards certain people or things.

If you dress completely out of norm for the job often it will raise red flags that you don't understand the role.

Wearing suit to an interview as a gardener would be weird. Wearing chinos and a quarter zip jumper would be good.

You have to look like you fit the culture of the place but slightly smarter as it's an interview. If you turn up in something very formal when the culture is relaxed they'll likely think you are a poor fit for the company.

@KimberleyClark

Why would immaculate turn out be a red flag?
Because if the job is manual and dirty, someone turning up in a Saville Row bespoke suit would just not look right for the job. The face has to fit as it were

It's all about being appropriate.

You were interviewing for a customer facing role so of course you should look very smart. If you were applying for a job as a ranger/factory machinist/dog handler or tree surgeon you would look silly turning up in a suit and you wouldn't be able to go out on site and complete any tasks to check competency. You'd look like someone with no clue

Definitely a no from me. It just says I'm not arsed about getting the job. It's an office job so smart casual at a push. Definitely no jeans no trainers.

I always remember about 35 years ago a mate was interviewing for a job in the insurance company we worked for. A guy turned up in jeans. My mates first comment was "you couldn't be bothered to make to make an effort, I can't be bothered to interview you" got up and walked out. HR started to bollock him during the debrief. Our big chief who was ex army and blunt... "Well the scruffy fucker was never getting a job here" . The meeting had to be adjourned because of the laughter was interrupting the claim team next door.

But working in the funeral industry I am constantly surprised at the number of men without trousers, only jeans...surely you can pop in to a charity shop for your mum's funeral !

A friend of mine has someone who turned up with their girlfriend.
Don't think he got the job.

but would you give snide comments to a man who wore a suit for an interview?

@Havanananana

"As a number of HR professionals on here are pointing out, employers are going out of their way to remove any prejudices, for example by using blind or anonymous CVs, removing photos from applications and generally filtering out as many potential subjective issues as possible in order to recruit the best person for the job (and to avoid rejecting excellent candidates based on subjective opinions)."

That all sounds incredibly worthy but there's just one snag - and it's called being human. It is impossible for almost anyone to be completely unbiased towards someone they meet in person. It is part of the very core of our being and a natural reflex either consciously or sub-consciously to judge, trust, assess, like or dislike. It is a vital and primeval survival tool.

Jeans and a top can be smart. I think a full suit or blazer and skirt is quite dated now, unless you are applying for a job where you’re expected to dress like that all the time. When I’m interviewing someone I will judge their skills over what their wearing. You also need to think about the type of job. For example, I work in a non customer facing office role so we don’t have to go overly smart. It would look odd if someone was dressed really formal and I wouldn’t expect them like that at an interview. Our clothes policy is no ripped clothes, no offensive slogans, and nothing you’d wear to the beach. Most of the team were in hoodies and jeans today as everyone was cold and had post Christmas blues.

Did not think of that, trackie bottoms would make sense for that role for sure.

Of course you should look smart and unless for a particular type of company you know you should dress smartly and that does not include jeans and trainers

you will find many people excusing people who just can't be arsed

I have interviewed many people and its quite obvious there are some who have no interest in the role and are ticking boxes for the job centre.

It varies hugely depending on the culture of the company. As a starting point a suit is usually good insurance if you’re going for a white collar job but not always.

As PPs have mentioned in a lot of tech startups a suit would be a definite red flag: they define themselves in part by being “not suits”. You have to read the room a bit culturally before deciding what to wear. I often have to do a couple of meetings in a day, one with “City” people and then later on with “tech” people and the dress codes are very different even though the actual roles can be quite similar.

And in a lot of blue collar jobs you would just look daft if you tipped up in a suit. It’s not nearly as uniform as people are making it.

I think you have to make an effort but that would mean different things for different people.
I think it's important that you are be clean, fresh and make a good impression of yourself.

As PP have said some people don't have 'dress shoes/clothes' and can't afford to buy them esp if quickly organised interview.

On a similar note many yrs ago we had to ho to family court (for a good reason). DH, DS and myself smartly dressed.
Other people waiting were dressed in dirty jeans, and jumpers etc and I can remember thinking I wouldn't have gone 'anywhere' planned looking like that. The thought of making a good impression obviously of no concern at all.

The whole point of these "worthy" initiatives is to rule out what you neatly describe as "a natural reflex either consciously or sub-consciously to judge, trust, assess, like or dislike."

Which is why there is rarely only one interviewer, why there are often set, unbiased questions, and why there are unbiased scoring systems.

The "vital and primeval survival tool" is no such thing. Prejudices and opinions about how people dress, speak, walk, about their appearance and about many other attributes (e.g. the school or university that they went to, their gender, background, religion etc.) are all learned.

In other countries, for example where I live in Europe, nobody wears a suit. Society here has not been brought up to believe that the right attire, the right tie and the right accent is any indicator of ability or trustworthyness.

I totally agree.