the only people who wear a suit for an interview in tech are the people who don’t think they can cut it on their technical skills and the people hiring know this
I’d bet against this.
Socially clued-in people who have poor technical skills will understand that they should show up in a hoodie to not tank their chances. (Insofar as interviewers are actually selecting in the way you say.)
I bet there will be some brilliant programmers who are so socially clueless that they listens to their mom’s advice and foolishly show up in a suit. (Or immigrants from a country with very different norms in tech, also comes to mind as someone who could get this wrong.)
It’s still plausible that a hoodie is still overall bayesian evidence that someone is good at programming. But I think it’s weaker than you say. And I don’t think it just operates via confidence in technical skills. Eg I think you’re selecting at least as strongly for being very familiar with programmer culture. (Which is evidence of being a good programmer! But evidence of a very similar kind to the way a suit is evidence that someone will be a good lawyer.)
I worked in engineering at Google from 2007-2015. I conducted … I can’t remember, definitely more than 100, maybe something like 200 in-person onsite technical interviews. (In addition to loads of phone screens, but I couldn’t see those people.)
Not a single person wore a suit.
If anyone had, I would have been very surprised and I would have immediately started wondering what other memos that candidate had not received.
For anyone reading this: if you’re ever in a situation where you wore a suit when others are less formal, Do Not Panic.
Remove tie (if wearing tie) and place in inside jacket pocket. Remove jacket and place out of view. Unbutton top button of collar, if buttoned. Roll up sleeves. Sit in a way that pants aren’t visible, if possible.
Boom, you’re now down to something much less formal in under 30 seconds.
Ok, so maybe both ”people who don’t think they can cut it on their technical skills [and so wear suits]” and socially oblivious people with suits are rare. And so the dominant signal would just be that the person is an outlier level of culturally out-of-touch.
(Though maybe suits start seeping in more at less prestigious and culturally iconic tech companies than google.)
Like: It doesn’t sound like you were confident enough in your technical skills that you were like ” it doesn’t matter how I dress”, since you thought a suit would tank your chances. Sounds like you understood that it was very important how you dressed for the interview, and that you just knew what the dress code was.
I’d bet against this.
Socially clued-in people who have poor technical skills will understand that they should show up in a hoodie to not tank their chances. (Insofar as interviewers are actually selecting in the way you say.)
I bet there will be some brilliant programmers who are so socially clueless that they listens to their mom’s advice and foolishly show up in a suit. (Or immigrants from a country with very different norms in tech, also comes to mind as someone who could get this wrong.)
It’s still plausible that a hoodie is still overall bayesian evidence that someone is good at programming. But I think it’s weaker than you say. And I don’t think it just operates via confidence in technical skills. Eg I think you’re selecting at least as strongly for being very familiar with programmer culture. (Which is evidence of being a good programmer! But evidence of a very similar kind to the way a suit is evidence that someone will be a good lawyer.)
I worked in engineering at Google from 2007-2015. I conducted … I can’t remember, definitely more than 100, maybe something like 200 in-person onsite technical interviews. (In addition to loads of phone screens, but I couldn’t see those people.)
Not a single person wore a suit.
If anyone had, I would have been very surprised and I would have immediately started wondering what other memos that candidate had not received.
For anyone reading this: if you’re ever in a situation where you wore a suit when others are less formal, Do Not Panic.
Remove tie (if wearing tie) and place in inside jacket pocket. Remove jacket and place out of view. Unbutton top button of collar, if buttoned. Roll up sleeves. Sit in a way that pants aren’t visible, if possible.
Boom, you’re now down to something much less formal in under 30 seconds.
Yay, empirical data!
Ok, so maybe both ”people who don’t think they can cut it on their technical skills [and so wear suits]” and socially oblivious people with suits are rare. And so the dominant signal would just be that the person is an outlier level of culturally out-of-touch.
(Though maybe suits start seeping in more at less prestigious and culturally iconic tech companies than google.)
Like: It doesn’t sound like you were confident enough in your technical skills that you were like ” it doesn’t matter how I dress”, since you thought a suit would tank your chances. Sounds like you understood that it was very important how you dressed for the interview, and that you just knew what the dress code was.