18 ms·
You underestimate us. The people we accept without an idea most likely have accomplished a lot. They simply don't have an idea that they are excited about, perh
by paul 15y ago
You underestimate us. The people we accept without an idea most likely have accomplished a lot. They simply don't have an idea that they are excited about, perhaps because they've been focused on accomplishing something else.
Also, I don't think we've ever accepted anyone who wore a suit to interviews.
- thesauce25 15y agoNote to self: If offered an interview, do not wear a suit.
- blhack 15y agoIsn't this kindof given on the west coast? I can't imagine a single hacker I know wearing a suit (and meaning it).
- SatvikBeri 15y agoPeople who're not on the west coast apply to YC too.
- thesauce25 15y agoFor me personally, I've always worn suits to interviews, but they haven't been for hacker positions. For me it was to show that I took the application process seriously and I really wanted the position.
- anamax 15y ago> I can't imagine a single hacker I know wearing a suit (and meaning it). With the exception of the very small companies, every company where I've worked has had at least one hacker who wore a suit. The suit-wearing hackers may outlast the lumber-hacker look.
- rdl 15y agoI'm fine with wearing suits on sales calls in the right contexts, but it's more about wearing what is appropriate. At YC (or really any tech event on the west coast), a suit isn't appropriate -- at most, a button-down shirt w/o tie and MAYBE a jacket in the evenings. It's kind of obvious when the guy on the other side of the table is wearing shorts and sandals that perhaps a suit and tie is inappropriate...
- itmag 15y agoIs there some hack for those people who like wearing a suit but don't want to come off as try-hard status-whores? For instance, wearing a scruffy t-shirt and jeans with the suit to signal non-pretentiousness? Personally, I enjoy wearing suits but if I ever go to Silicon Valley, I would like to avoid committing a faux pas :)
- caw 15y agoI think the hack is jeans + (t-)shirt + blazer look. I haven't had the context to try it, but it's supposed to be a bit more "trendy" than a suit.
- mseebach 15y agoI can't speak for the US west coast, but it seems to me a good start is to actually know how to wear a suit. It absolutely has to fit correctly and be the right size. Unbutton your jacket when you sit. Tie your tie correctly and tighten and straighten it, top button of your shirt buttoned - OR loose it completely, opening the top button - there is no middle ground.
- burgerbrain 15y agoIf you are able to, you might be able to pull of a "dishevelled Tom Waits" look. Very hard to do without looking homeless or hungover though.
- Natsu 15y agoI'm in the same city as you and I wear a suit... but only to interviews. Wait, I guess I wore it to my brother's wedding, too, but other than that it stays in the closet.
- einhverfr 15y agoIf offered an interview, I would be tempted to show up in silk batik....
- dmazin 15y agoThis is why I'm excited about this experiment - without it we probably wouldn't have been able to apply (though we were going to try anyway). It's not like my friends and I don't have ideas floating around, it's just that we have no one concrete idea to apply with. I do't think this means we're not good startup material. We have the excitement, it's just not directed towards a very strong idea yet.
- jl 15y agoActually, we once accepted a group wearing suits. It was for the very first summer batch in 2005. We told them to ditch the suits for Demo Day.
- williamcotton 15y agoWhy ditch the suits? I love wearing a suit. Why is our industry so adverse to celebrating the art of clothing and in turn the aesthetics of the human form? Why is it OK to be wearing ill-fitting jeans and an oversized stained t-shirt from a tech conference? Is it thought that if someone is in to dressing well that they've taken time away from learning a new technology or focusing on their product? Disclaimer: I dress in a somewhat dandyish manner.
- waterlesscloud 15y agoThe simple answer is that it's identity group signalling. This is the costume which indicates you belong to our group. That is the costume which indicates you belong to their group. Not necessarily rational, but certainly one aspect of how people work.
- paulgerhardt 15y agoIt's no coincidence that fashion and faction are etymological doublets.
- Tyrannosaurs 15y agoAnd there's nothing even vaguely approaching a hacker uniform is there? looks around the office at a sea of jeans and t-shirts The issue with this argument is that almost anything you can say about suits applies to all clothing. It's no co-incidence that during the dot com boom managers started dressing down. Did that make them better managers than when they wore suits? Or were the good ones still good and the bad ones still bad, they'd just adopted a different uniform? If you pick on a particular uniform (in this case suits) rather than the concept that uniform matters then you don't solve the problem you just move or hide it.
- 15y ago
- sown 15y ago> The people we accept without an idea most likely have accomplished a lot. I'm taking that to mean, as an engineer, accomplishing a lot would entail building a lot of things? Or at least a few neat things? Even if they're in my spare time for fun, like the cummy OS I'm trying to write or for startup ideas I have that probably won't pan out? I can't think of anything else because everything about my resume and past is just unimpressive at it's kindest and failure at it's honest.
- wooster 15y agoOne of the very best people I ever hired wore a suit to the phone interview.
- mikeleeorg 15y agoOne of the very best people I've ever hired wore a dark navy 3-piece suit with pristine french cuffs and gold cufflinks, if I remember correctly. The team almost dinged him for that, if not for his amazing technical talent, problem solving skills and eidetic memory.
- TeMPOraL 15y agoIt probably helped him to feel in the right way for an interview.
- screwt 15y agoA friend of mine used to where a suit for exams. He said it helped him get in the right mindset.
- ratsbane 15y agoHow did you know?
- wooster 15y agoHe told us after we hired him.
- mikeleeorg 15y agoI imagine you'd prefer a team that at least has some general market/problem/area in which they have a strong passion, yea? I know there are some great entrepreneurs that can build great things, but I have a feeling that great entrepreneurs + passion would go a lot further due to their irrational optimism and tenacity in their market/problem/area.
- eternalban 15y ago> I don't think we've ever accepted anyone who wore a suit to interviews. How about basic hygiene? Is that a no-no, too? "She is clean and doesn't smell. Must be covering for her incompetence." /s I feel perfectly comfortable working in a T, jeans and sandals, and I pretty much wore a shalvar-jaaf (Kurdish pants) my entire graduate years, but if I am to meet anyone initially in a professional context I will wear a suite (fully aware of the reactionary views of the sub-set that apparently is so focused on surface matters that they would ignore technical competence and make decisions based on the fact that one wore a suite to, say, an interview.)
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]