Yes and no. Dressing abnormally does indeed show that you're either unfamiliar with the norms in the industry or you're deliberately violating them. Agreed. I

Yes and no. Dressing abnormally does indeed show that you're either unfamiliar with the norms in the industry or you're deliberately violating them. Agreed. In finance, it's sort of reasonable to be concerned about someone showing up in jeans and a hoodie. A good part of that job is being able be "corporate" and adhere to norms. If you can't do that in an interview, how will you treat clients? In a coding interview for a tech company, adherence to social norms is not particularly valued. Weirdness is tolerated, if not celebrated. So it's fairly different. Tech companies would be far more accepting of a candidate in a suit than a finance firm would be of a candidate in jeans and hoodie. That said... it's still probably best to just avoid the risk of subconscious (or even unfair conscious) bias.