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-- Candidate wore a business suit with flip flops. God, who cares? -- Dressing inappropriately - 57 percent If dropping your dress code expectations will

-- Candidate wore a business suit with flip flops. God, who cares? -- Dressing inappropriately - 57 percent If dropping your dress code expectations will increase your potential hire pool by over 50%, that is a serious competitive advantage over more stodgy companies.

ShabbyDoo 17y ago
Yeah. Either (1) this company actually requires suits in the workplace or (2) the company failed to tell its candidates that they could dress more casually. Or, sadly (3) the company enjoys making candidates dress up in suits as a way of showing who has the power. When I worked at a Jeans & T-shirt sort of place, I always told candidates that they too could dress casually. Many found the idea scary and dressed up a bit anyway.
radu_floricica 17y ago
It's not about the suit, it's about the message. As an employer you want to hire people who make an effort, and want to avoid people who can't be bothered to. Dressing well for an interview is so obvious it's actually a pretty good way of sorting candidates. This may apply less for programmers and high-end technical positions, but this is the exception not the rule.
- xenophanes 17y ago
  If you hire people that make a relevant effort, and don't punish people for failing to make an irrelevant effort, won't that give you a competitive advantage? Shouldn't we hire people who know what actually matters, and what doesn't matter, and prioritize?
  - francoisdevlin 17y ago
    If they can't bother to do something as simple as dress nice for something as formal as an interview, I don't want to have anything to do with the candidate.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
    - xenophanes 17y ago
      You don't want to hire me. And I don't want to work for you. You should be glad that I'm willing to signal in such a way that we find that out quickly, instead of pretending I think more like you and possibly getting hired even though I'd be a bad fit working for you.
    - GHFigs 17y ago
      Why are you even interviewing candidates that you don't want to have anything to do with? Why don't you just filter those candidates out at some earlier point in the hiring process?
- pg 17y ago
  What you're overlooking is that attention is a limited resource. Someone who pays attention to how they dress has thereby paid less attention than they might have to something substantive. So not only don't we care how people dress at YC interviews, dressing up is actually a (minor) red flag. We'd rather you spent that effort on something else.
  - prospero 17y ago
    I'm not much for dressing up, but I feel like this is asking why someone was meditating when they could have spent that time thinking about stuff. Some people use clothing as a means of mental preparation for entering a non-casual situation. I agree there's some empty ceremony to wearing a business suit, but I don't think that's all there is to it.
  - radu_floricica 17y ago
    In certain domains this applies (and indeed, given the blog's background it's on the mark). But in large segments of the job market I still think it's important to dress reasonably well. Even if attention is a limited resource, the interview usually is a place where first impressions matter, so I'd say budgeting some attention towards looks is not misguided at all.
    - pg 17y ago
      You're right that dressing well matters in large segments of the job market. But I'd argue that this is a pretty good heuristic for deciding which segments of the job market to avoid.
      - radu_floricica 17y ago
        That is true. However there still remain the entry-level interviews. When most of what you sell is potential every detail under your control matters.
  - byrneseyeview 17y ago
    Attention is a limited resource, but some people have more of it than others. Paying attention to how you dress is a signal that you're generally attentive, just as driving a nice car is a way to show that you have lots of money--even though you spent a bunch of it on a car.
mhartl 17y ago
I'd be more likely to hire the flip-flop guy, especially if he also played Dungeons & Dragons.
GavinB 17y ago
Look at it in the reverse. Dressing appropriately dramatically increases your chance of being hired. Do you really want to hire the kind of person who can't figure out how to avoid this disadvantage?
- xenophanes 17y ago
  It dramatically increases your chances of being hired by the wrong people. I don't think it could possibly dramatically increase your chances of being hired somewhere really awesome. (Because if hiring decisions were affected by dress that much, you wouldn't have really awesome coworkers). Dressing up can be a signal that someone is desperate for work. And failure to dress up can indicate confidence and other options. The point is it can be a positive or negative sign, depending on various things.
  - dolepies5 17y ago
    I doubt Goldman or McKinsey would hire you if you wore flip flops to an interview.

ShabbyDoo 17y ago

Yeah. Either (1) this company actually requires suits in the workplace or (2) the company failed to tell its candidates that they could dress more casually. Or, sadly (3) the company enjoys making candidates dress up in suits as a way of showing who has the power. When I worked at a Jeans & T-shirt sort of place, I always told candidates that they too could dress casually. Many found the idea scary and dressed up a bit anyway.

radu_floricica 17y ago

It's not about the suit, it's about the message. As an employer you want to hire people who make an effort, and want to avoid people who can't be bothered to. Dressing well for an interview is so obvious it's actually a pretty good way of sorting candidates. This may apply less for programmers and high-end technical positions, but this is the exception not the rule.

xenophanes 17y ago
If you hire people that make a relevant effort, and don't punish people for failing to make an irrelevant effort, won't that give you a competitive advantage? Shouldn't we hire people who know what actually matters, and what doesn't matter, and prioritize?
- francoisdevlin 17y ago
  If they can't bother to do something as simple as dress nice for something as formal as an interview, I don't want to have anything to do with the candidate.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - xenophanes 17y ago
    You don't want to hire me. And I don't want to work for you. You should be glad that I'm willing to signal in such a way that we find that out quickly, instead of pretending I think more like you and possibly getting hired even though I'd be a bad fit working for you.
  - GHFigs 17y ago
    Why are you even interviewing candidates that you don't want to have anything to do with? Why don't you just filter those candidates out at some earlier point in the hiring process?
pg 17y ago
What you're overlooking is that attention is a limited resource. Someone who pays attention to how they dress has thereby paid less attention than they might have to something substantive. So not only don't we care how people dress at YC interviews, dressing up is actually a (minor) red flag. We'd rather you spent that effort on something else.
- prospero 17y ago
  I'm not much for dressing up, but I feel like this is asking why someone was meditating when they could have spent that time thinking about stuff. Some people use clothing as a means of mental preparation for entering a non-casual situation. I agree there's some empty ceremony to wearing a business suit, but I don't think that's all there is to it.
- radu_floricica 17y ago
  In certain domains this applies (and indeed, given the blog's background it's on the mark). But in large segments of the job market I still think it's important to dress reasonably well. Even if attention is a limited resource, the interview usually is a place where first impressions matter, so I'd say budgeting some attention towards looks is not misguided at all.
  - pg 17y ago
    You're right that dressing well matters in large segments of the job market. But I'd argue that this is a pretty good heuristic for deciding which segments of the job market to avoid.
    - radu_floricica 17y ago
      That is true. However there still remain the entry-level interviews. When most of what you sell is potential every detail under your control matters.
- byrneseyeview 17y ago
  Attention is a limited resource, but some people have more of it than others. Paying attention to how you dress is a signal that you're generally attentive, just as driving a nice car is a way to show that you have lots of money--even though you spent a bunch of it on a car.

mhartl 17y ago

I'd be more likely to hire the flip-flop guy, especially if he also played Dungeons & Dragons.

GavinB 17y ago

Look at it in the reverse. Dressing appropriately dramatically increases your chance of being hired. Do you really want to hire the kind of person who can't figure out how to avoid this disadvantage?

xenophanes 17y ago
It dramatically increases your chances of being hired by the wrong people. I don't think it could possibly dramatically increase your chances of being hired somewhere really awesome. (Because if hiring decisions were affected by dress that much, you wouldn't have really awesome coworkers). Dressing up can be a signal that someone is desperate for work. And failure to dress up can indicate confidence and other options. The point is it can be a positive or negative sign, depending on various things.
- dolepies5 17y ago
  I doubt Goldman or McKinsey would hire you if you wore flip flops to an interview.