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This should be called "How To Dress Like Mark Zuckerberg." This is the standard college student/wannabe entrepreneur uniform, but you will find a lot of context
by gregjor 15y ago
This should be called "How To Dress Like Mark Zuckerberg." This is the standard college student/wannabe entrepreneur uniform, but you will find a lot of contexts where a t-shirt, hoodie (!) and hemp Vans aren't going to cut it. Unless you are Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs.
Jeans and t-shirts are OK in a lot more places than they used to be but on the East Coast or in many other countries dressing so far down is disrespectful. If you are under 25 a hoodie is not out of place but for anyone older a hoodie looks juvenile. So do Vans. And try getting into some of the nicer restaurants in New York or San Francisco wearing a t-shirt and hoodie. Unless you're Mark Zuckerberg.
If you are going to wear jeans in a professional context you should dress them up with nice shoes, a dress shirt or button-down, and a blazer or sport jacket. And not gray. Gray jackets are for car salesmen and floor managers at Car Toys. If you only have one jacket it should be navy. Think Richard Branson, but if you're not Richard Branson don't expect to be taken seriously dressed like you don't give a shit.
Clothes don't make a lot of difference if you look dirty or poorly-groomed. The dirty hipster look is fine for watching an indie band at a faux working man bar swilling a PBR, but not at many other places. And go easy on the tattoos and piercings and big rings in your ears. Err on the side of caution when you only get one chance to make a good impression. Your business plan and elevator pitch count for nothing if you immediately offend your audience or distract them with your affectations.
You might think it doesn't really matter, but you won't know when you're not being taken seriously or laughed at because people who have manners won't say anything.
- pg 15y agoyou will find a lot of contexts where a t-shirt, hoodie (!) and hemp Vans aren't going to cut it Those however may be disproportionately contexts to avoid.
- karjaluoto 15y agoI agree. The only garment request we've made of our staff, is: no spandex bike shorts. One of our designers liked wearing them. They showed off his junk. (No one found that a pleasant sight.)
- timsally 15y agoYou get at an importent point. However, it is important to add Richard Hamming's orthogonal idea: "I wasn't dressing properly. I had to make the decision - was I going to assert my ego and dress the way I wanted to and have it steadily drain my effort from my professional life, or was I going to appear to conform better? I decided I would make an effort to appear to conform properly. The moment I did, I got much better service." Contexts in which dress matters may disproportionally be contexts to avoid, but there are contexts that are worthwhile in which dress is very important.
- karjaluoto 15y agoIt can go the other way, though, too. I'm a partner in a digital agency and used to think that if I dressed better, we'd sell more work. The inverse turned out to be the case. We actually lost one potential job for looking "too corporate" (their words). Recently, our largest client noted something similar: that they sort of expected to see me in a hoodie, and would feel weird if I showed up in a suit. The point isn't to look sloppy. Instead, it's to make the clothing something that they don't even think about.
- timsally 15y agoYour comment is subsumed by Hamming's point. Dressing properly does not always mean dressing "up".
- charlie_joslin 15y agoAs long as you don't look like you belong in a slum, I'm not going to care what you wear. It should be about the good/service you're trying to sell. Google has talked about how people come in dressed like they're going to the beach then blow them away in job interviews where the guy in a suit and tie was so-so. Overdressing is just compensating.