I'm a ruby engineer and I was applying for a job at a 30+ employee startup in Brooklyn. I wore a nice grey pinstripe suit for the interview - nothing crazy, just a classic looking suit. When I got declined, I asked for feedback and he said "Well, some people thought you were here todo our taxes" and "You just aren't the right fit". Haha.

I rib people who wear suits to an interview, but I wouldn't exclude anyone because of it. It's impossible to really know what the dress code of a place is going in. "Business casual" or "Casual" or "Use your best judgement" don't mean anything at a software company.

He was interviewing at a startup dude. They probably didn't have a hiring manager and have no clue about how saying stuff like this can backfire.

What would you sue over? I don't believe clothing choice is a protected class for employment discrimination.

A suit suit would be interesting, though.

There seem to be a lot of people who think that "you must wear a suit" is a dress code, but "you can't wear a suit" is not. I assume it comes down to never considering that someone might ever wear a suit voluntarily, so thinking that forbidding it has no actual effect.

The funny thing is, I'm sort of jealous of the people that are "forced" to wear a suit every day. You mean they get to have an excuse to wear something that the average guy looks way better in every day without having to explain themselves because they have a built in excuse? That's awesome!

The funny thing is, casual clothes often take more thought. With a suit you can blend in, with casual clothes, even if they're not great, they're /yours/; no hiding from your choices. Sure you can screw up a suit too, but it takes a lot more trying. As long as it fits well and it's not weird, it's a suit. There's not a lot to think about. It's basically like the classical Jobs' uniform of jeans+turtle neck, but way better looking. Unfortunately it now has the stigma of being "stuffy".

It really depends where you live.

In Sydney, I find it impossible not to see the suit and tie as an arbitrary cultural hold-over from a different climate.

The suit causes the company to waste thousands of dollars on air-conditioning, and introduces a gendered Cold War, because we simultaneously make the female staff wear clothes that strike a delicate balance between professional and attractive.

The suit is so impractical and stupid in this climate that it's hard not to think negatively about an office culture that demands it, or those who haven't questioned its place as a status symbol.

Yep. As a South African I felt the same way about my high school's overly warm boys' uniform. (And unlike wealthy corps, my school didn't have air conditioning.)

The little moments of "everything's optimised for being on the other side of the planet" are everywhere once you notice them.

All of our suburbs have peaked, ceramic tiled roofs. That design makes perfect sense when you have regular snowfall, which you need to run off the roof.

Here, a slightly sloping concrete roof would be a pleasant roof-top garden, or a more easily accessible place to put a solar-powered hot water tank.

The tiled roofs are expensive, costly when they're damaged by our frequent, heavy hale, and a good place for possums to get trapped and die.

All because our architects regularly pretend we're in England.

Fair point, I'm coming at this from a northern climate where I usually am comfortable wearing a coat indoors anyway.

I would totally agree, I have no real "enforced" dress code but I choose to wear a suit when I go to clients (even though they never do), I am usually with sysadmins, developers or Security teams. I feel like wearing a suit sets me apart and also gives impact when I enter a room, I also (being young) find it gives me a little more automatic respect which always helps too. I think people should have the choice but I really think this whole "suits" are stuffy thing is stupid, suits are comfortable, can be worn multiple days in a row and make you look fly.

This, suits look classy. They also can be quite comfortable.

Suits only look classy if you are impressed by the cultural narrative they represent.

Nonsense. Suits look good because they have hundreds of years - literally - of refinement into something that flatters the human shape. You might as well complain about the cultural narrative of subconscious, instinctive body language.

For that idea to have a shred of validity, you'd have to explain why there is no such convergence in women's attire.

Suits are admired because they developed from the dress of the aristocracy and military and represent established wealth and power. They are a clumsy design, full of anachronisms, for example the buttons on the cuffs of a suit coat originate from Napoleon trying to stop soldiers from wiping their noses on their clothes. The second pocket on the right of many jackets is a ticket pocket introduced to hold an English gentleman's railway ticket in the time when rail was an exclusive way to travel.

If they really represented an evolved ideal way to make the human body look 'good' we'd all love to wear them and this debate wouldn't be happening.

I like you, can we be friends?

This is correct IMO, because in my experience when I wear a suit or a tuxedo I feel sort of superior to others around me. This could have something to do with my personality or with the images that I have been fed or both. The idea has been implanted that "suits" == "good jobs" and "good jobs" == "good money" or "suits" == "obedience" and "obendience" == "climbing the success ladder". When I wear my black sweatshirt everyday to my engineering job, I wear it for comfort and it in no way make me look or feel inferior to other people.

Right - I wore a Brooks brothers suit to a courthouse to a speeding ticket hearing. I was treated with the utmost courtesy by the security guards who even held the door open for me, and once into the courtroom I was invited to sit with the other attorneys.

Obviously this wasn't because the suit made my body look great.

If you live somewhere warm, a suit is quite literally 'stuffy'. You'll sweat a lot more in a suit than in a T-shirt.

If I wore a suit today, out of the blue, I would get a dozen people ask me if I was going to a job interview...

Which is a pretty reasonable thing to ask, given a dramatic shift from your normal wardrobe to something much more formal. I don't see a problem.

Same here. That's why I wore a tshirt and jeans to the interview for my current job - also a convenient filter for what kind of company it is - if they don't want me wearing that every day, I didn't want that job.

I would always recommend asking up front - but if in doubt, I find it's better to start off smart and dress down later.

If in doubt, I'd reject the offer rather than end up somewhere with the expectation of a suit.

Maybe not in SV, but a lot of places are still business casual. Which means a sweater and nice pants.

I've seen people do it. You'll get a few "witty" comments, but you're not going to get a talking-to from your manager like when you violate an actual dress code.

If you do it after you've established your competence, you'll get interrupted a lot by "witty" remarks.

If you do it at an interview or something, you'll get a lot of people questioning your competence and fit.

It's still not remotely the same as an actual dress code, which you will get in trouble for violating even after you've established your competence.

A good point.

Where I work, my group has instituted "Fancy Fridays" where people wear bow ties, suits, button down shirts, etc. It's not mandatory (participation is maybe 20%), and no one from other teams really notices or cares. One of our RF engineers and one of our PMs likes designer clothes, but most don't. One software engineer dresses like a pirate (seriously). Tie-dye is somewhat popular. And of course, T-shirts and hoodies are common.

I've also interviewed many people wearing a wide variety of clothing, and no one cares about that either. If we judged interviews based on what people wore, drove, ate, etc. we'd never get any competent engineers. A good culture fit means they interested in technology and our product, not that they fit some (in my experience false) stereotype.

As for your test, if there is a big change in how you dress (in any way) after people know you, it will garner notice.

We have a few people who wear suits, or nice dress shirts and slacks. It's just not a big deal. No one cares.

I think many people would get less reaction with the latter.

There's trying to cross trends for other people (your example) and trying to cross trends in order to find your own niche within expectations. Witness all of the not-quite-fits in the examples the author found.

I think you'd find that an amicable suit-wearing programmer could easily do well at an interview.