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Just because suits are going out of fashion, doesn't mean there isn't a dress code anymore. A programmer at a typical startup has a dress code that's just as st
by acabal 3y ago
Just because suits are going out of fashion, doesn't mean there isn't a dress code anymore. A programmer at a typical startup has a dress code that's just as strict as a suit and tie ever was - except that now it's unspoken.
In other words, try showing up to your job as a programmer at your typical west coast startup wearing a fine suit and tie, just because you like the look. (Like I do!) I think you'll quickly find that the de facto dress code is, in fact, old jeans plus graphic t-shirt/hoodie, or flat-front chinos plus gingham shirt, and that your coworkers are going to sneer at you for your choice to buck this unspoken dress code.
Wearing a suit and tie for pleasure to your basic programming job might even limit your career, because it might signal to your coworkers and bosses that you're not a team player. So much for no more dress codes!
Fashions don't deserve to last forever - suits and ties are inevitably fading away even as we might hand-wring about the continuing destruction of fine dress in American society. But to suggest that dress codes are disappearing is not correct. Dress codes are as alive as they ever were, now they're just unspoken.
- makeitdouble 3y agoNot west coast by an ocean, but in my experience there's no specific dress code as you try to cast it, instead there's a dismissal of suits in particular. You can dress up in Goth fashion and play it Cyberpunk if you want, people will whole fully accept it. And it's also not unspoken at all, startup culture is straight pitched as disrupting traditional business, which makes suits a faux pas. I'd compare it to wearing a Jonny Walker cosplay at a Anonymous Alcoholics meeting. It's not the dress code, it's what you're trying to convey.
- notacoward 3y ago> a typical startup has a dress code that's just as strict as a suit and tie ever was - except that now it's unspoken Kind of like the idea of "leaderless" or "structureless" groups, in which the leadership hierarchy practically always ends up being obscured but no less real. Here's a really good old essay about this phenomenon in early feminism. https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm IMX the "Silicon Valley uniform" doesn't really have anything to do with being more casual or relaxed. It's just another kind of conformity, comforting for those who do like to conform and stressful for those who don't or can't.
- paulddraper 3y agoTry an untucked long-sleeve shirt and nice jeans.
- locopati 3y agodo it anyways. i worked with a guy who wore suits and ties most days because he was stylish. we ribbed him a little but he got respect because he looked so damned good.
- acabal 3y agoOh I definitely do anyways, though I don't work in a typical programmer job.