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I think it's mostly subconscious. I doubt anyone consciously thinks "That guy's wearing a suit. Don't hire him." However, people probably tend to take it as
by j_baker 16y ago
I think it's mostly subconscious. I doubt anyone consciously thinks "That guy's wearing a suit. Don't hire him." However, people probably tend to take it as a sign that someone is dressing up to compensate for a lack of ability.
- powrtoch 16y agoThe article a few days ago about people not liking overly-enthusiastic, helpful team members comes to mind. It might be that some people just get an impression like "This guy thinks he's better than us", or the fear that the new guy will dress up, making them look bad if they continue to dress more casual.
- pierre_M 16y agoI think it's more to do with people being uncomfortable about being in a room with somebody significantly better-dressed, especially if the better-dressed person is in the inferior position. So they'll feel the need to make a joke about the suit-wearer's suit in order to put things back in the right order. (This is, of course, flipped if the power difference is big enough; if the CEO is wearing shorts and the junior engineer is wearing a suit then the CEO won't feel uncomfortable -- it only works when there's a similarity of ranks.) The rule of thumb is to wear to an interview a standard of dress just one notch higher than you expect to wear on the job. For a shorts-and-tshirt job you wear long pants and a shirt. For a long-pants and a shirt job you wear a sports coat, for a sports coat job you wear a suit, and for a suit job you wear a really nice suit.