men's fashion - interview clothes

[87tg]

I appreciate that this section tends to be for women's fashion, however, I have a question about men's fashion. DH (45) has a couple of interviews at mid-sized consultancies and is a bit concerned as to what he should wear. He currently WFH so a little out of the loop. If you DH works in London - what do they usually wear - a full suit, suit plus shirt, chinos plus shirt plus formal shoes? I have no idea as I work in a university and our rues have always been pretty different and cant advise.

I sometimes work in City offices and it depends on the department. For an interview I'd expect a man to turn up in business clothes. Suit, shirt and tie, polished shoes.
In the office, open necked shirt and trousers not jeans, was fine, but in customer-facing departments suit and tie. Women in suits and blouse or jacket and dress. Hair, beard, make-up, fingernails etc to look groomed

I'd err on the side of being over-dressed/too formal.

He could check out the company website and linked in to see if there are any staff photos.

Our company website shows most men in a suit and open shirt, that was requested when we had photos done. Day to day we dress down apart from meetings, external events etc.

As a hiring manager I would be a bit surprised to see a man turn up for interview in anything other than suit, shirt and tie. A three piece suit wouldn't be necessary. I think trousers, shirt and blazer would be ok, especially if someone normally works from home or in an area where more casual dress is common.

Suit with an open neck shirt would look a bit lacking effort/care. Just because a tie is so easy to add, low cost and not size dependent.

Trousers, shirt and tie, or trousers and open neck shirt seems a bit under dressed unless it is a school leaver, or an interview for a role that would normally wear uniform or casual wear.

I think you should always dress more smartly for interview than you would expect to dress for the role day to day. I would wear a suit myself for an interview.

That said, dress is a minor point, we recently recruited someone who both interviewers thought was a bit casual/scruffy for interview but was a better candidate than the one in a suit. If it is close though it can make a difference.

I’ve been wondering this a long time, so am hijacking the thread a little since there’s someone on who actually recruits: What does it matter if someone wears a suit at an interview? I’m Swedish and work in local government and our dress code is “dressed” ;) so I don’t understand this nuance. I see a dress code as a sort of uniform, and I wouldn’t expect people to wear the uniform before they’re hired. What am I looking for - that they own a suit? That they scrub up well? - can I not see that with a less formal level of clothes? I’d love it if I those of you who work in recruitment could explain!

@banivani The suit wearing is to reflect the importance of the occasion to the suit wearer. It says I am so excited and keen to be interviewed for this job that I have gone to the trouble of wearing this formal outfit.
Ditto weddings, funerals and black tie dinners. The clothing signifies the importance the wearer attaches to the occasion.

PS. I don’t work ‘in recruitment’ but I have recruited for professional office based roles in the past.

The difference being that for funerals, weddings, formal dinners the same dress code is applied to everyone, not just one person - is there an expectation that the ones interviewing also wear "interview clothes"? Otherwise the analogy limps a little, to use a Swedish-ism.

And just being generally clean, tidy, relatively dressed up ("smart casual" I suppose) doesn't qualify? I wonder especially at jobs that don't have a suit dress code per se but the expectation is still to come dressed in a suit to the interview.

(There are definitely jobs here where I can imagine that they place an emphasis on what you wear to an interview, but I don't move in those circles. I've sat in on many interviews here and what people wear is so far down on the list compared to what they say and actually act as regards to the job, so it's a cultural difference for sure. I think from our perspective we'd find it rude/unreasonable to expect peopel to conform to a dress code when they're interviewing in their spare time, iyswim.)

As an interviewer the power is usually in your hands so the desire to impress is usually on the interviewees side.

I haven't interviewed a man wearing a suit for about 7 or 8 years. Usual dress is chino's, shirt, proper shoes and sometimes a v neck jumper. These are senior roles.

Thank you everyone. Really interesting to hear everyone's different experiences. Might encourage DH to wear a suit just to be on the safe side.

It massively depends on the interviewer so I would say a suit is safer.

I recently interviewed a few candidates for a mid level role, after I had gone through their cv, what parts of the role they were interested in, etc etc our head of department came in to meet them too and had a few of his own questions.

I thought that one person (male) came across really well and was a great fit for the role. The first thing my senior manager raised was the candidate's attire, which had not stood out to me at all either positively or negatively (chinos, white shirt, boat shoes) he said it was a massive no-no to dress like that for an interview and the candidate couldn't possibly be serious about the role.

I thought this was nonsense and in the end it had no impact but there are still employers out there who think this way.

Once employed, the dress code is much more relaxed. It's an interview thing and giving the right impression I think.

You're never going to damage your chances of success by wearing a business suit to an interview for a professional role. It wouldn't register with the interviewer whereas something too casual might stick in the mind.

Thank you for your replies! I don't think I agree with the reasoning but I appreciate the answers.