What should I wear to an engineer interview for tech startup?

[brianmanahan]

your place of work obviously doesn't care about 5S

5 sigma, no

galaxy 5s, yes

 

[ControlD]

5 sigma, no

galaxy 5s, yes

Pfft. Maybe a S5. Don't want to start a war here.

 

[piasabird]

Park outside the company and watch people leave or show up for work and see what people are wearing.

 

[brianmanahan]

Pfft. Maybe a S5. Don't want to start a war here.

sorry, lysdexia

 

[baydude]

If you are truly interested in being hired for this job, I suggest sending a card with a short handwritten message thanking the interviewer. If more than one, a card to each. Of course this is very old school. Maybe people don't do this anymore.

No cards given but I don't think it'll matter at all. It was the most technical interview I've ever been in where I had to draw technical diagrams on the whiteboard and explain each layer and best practices. Was grilled pretty hard on the questions. They seemed to care only about how much I know and what I can do vs my personality and whether I'll fit in.

 

[soulcougher73]

Straitjacket

 

[nakedfrog]

i never said wearing a suit === common sense.

i said NOT wearing a suit === you are lacking common sense.

Not wearing a suit means you lack common sense, but not because wearing a suit is common sense? Can you expound on this for me?

the fact we're having this discussion just means a lot of people on this forum lack common sense in social environments, which is obvious about this forum as long as i've been here. it's a nerdy tech forum, of course a lot of people lack common sense when it comes to "normal" social things.

A job interview is not a social environment 😉
Either way, you're the one making weird extrapolations based on wardrobe selection (which I've already said run counter to my anecdotal experience).

 

[yuchai]

No cards given but I don't think it'll matter at all. It was the most technical interview I've ever been in where I had to draw technical diagrams on the whiteboard and explain each layer and best practices. Was grilled pretty hard on the questions. They seemed to care only about how much I know and what I can do vs my personality and whether I'll fit in.

I wouldn't do the written note thing. You can send an e-mail thanking the interviewers for their time but honestly I don't think that matters either. People get so many e-mails these days that they just don't miss getting another one that doesn't really affect them at the end of the day.

 

[nakedfrog]

yeah i've never done that.

had one guy send one to me after i interviewed him, but it just seemed weird.

I wouldn't do the written note thing. You can send an e-mail thanking the interviewers for their time but honestly I don't think that matters either. People get so many e-mails these days that they just don't miss getting another one that doesn't really affect them at the end of the day.

+1 on not doing the handwritten note thing, that would come across as weird, as stated.

No cards given but I don't think it'll matter at all. It was the most technical interview I've ever been in where I had to draw technical diagrams on the whiteboard and explain each layer and best practices. Was grilled pretty hard on the questions. They seemed to care only about how much I know and what I can do vs my personality and whether I'll fit in.

Even in technical interviews like that, you can still get a lot of sense of the interviewee's personality. And your personality/fit doesn't matter much if you can't do the job, yeah? 😀

 

[purbeast0]

Not wearing a suit means you lack common sense, but not because wearing a suit is common sense? Can you expound on this for me?

A job interview is not a social environment 😉
Either way, you're the one making weird extrapolations based on wardrobe selection (which I've already said run counter to my anecdotal experience).

i said that if you don't wear a suit you are showing me you lack common sense.

if you do wear a suit, that doesn't automatically mean you have common sense. you just aren't letting me know at first sight that you don't lack it.

 

[baydude]

I wouldn't do the written note thing. You can send an e-mail thanking the interviewers for their time but honestly I don't think that matters either. People get so many e-mails these days that they just don't miss getting another one that doesn't really affect them at the end of the day.

When I said no cards given I meant no business cards were given by any of the interviewers so I have no way of emailing them except through the recruiter. But I agree, it won't matter. These guys know exactly what they want and a thank you email will make no difference at all.

 

[nakedfrog]

i said that if you don't wear a suit you are showing me you lack common sense.

It doesn't tell you a damn thing about their common sense or smarts.
Not a single.
Goddamn.
Thing.
I have a hard enough damn time finding people that can actually do the job without dismissing them based on entirely superficial reasons.
But, you do your thing, if you're hiring engineers, maybe you'll start to understand.

 

[purbeast0]

It doesn't tell you a damn thing about their common sense or smarts.
Not a single.
Goddamn.
Thing.
I have a hard enough damn time finding people that can actually do the job without dismissing them based on entirely superficial reasons.
But, you do your thing, if you're hiring engineers, maybe you'll start to understand.

that's all i've ever interviewed being a software engineer myself and all i've ever had is people coming in a suit and tie. and these are from 50k positions to positions well over 6 figures.

 

[baydude]

So it's been a week since my interview and no offer even though they said they'd make a decision within a few days so going to move on as I have other interviews lined up that seems more appealing to me. It was still a good learning experience.

 

[chitwood]

So it's been a week since my interview and no offer even though they said they'd make a decision within a few days so going to move on as I have other interviews lined up that seems more appealing to me. It was still a good learning experience.

well... what did you wear??

 

[brianmanahan]

well... what did you wear??

op wore the full regalia

I wore a suit and tie. Was a pretty tough interview but did my best so now I'll wait for a response with fingers crossed.

 

[Harrod]

Sending a card has worked for me twice, they were for jobs I really wanted and my bosses later said it made all the difference.

 

[smackababy]

Sending a card has worked for me twice, they were for jobs I really wanted and my bosses later said it made all the difference.

I generally send emails and not once have a been told it made the difference. In fact, a dev we interviewed sent a physical card and we made fun of it.

 

[Thebobo]

Dress for success

 

[pimpin-tl]

I generally send emails and not once have a been told it made the difference. In fact, a dev we interviewed sent a physical card and we made fun of it.

Yeah, it shouldn't make a difference at all. It's almost like your begging for a job.