by Arlos » Thu Nov 08, 2007 4:37 pm
Out here, formality of dress largely depends on how much personal face-to-face interaction you have with customers. Even then, the rule of thumb is "business casual", ie, dockers & polo shirt. Only very rare occasions, or only for really stuffy companies like banks do you see people in shirt & tie, and even rarer with a suit jacket. Hell, most high tech companies have no dress code at all. Last one I interviewed at even specified in the confirmation for the interview that casual attire only for interview. They downcheck people who show up for interviews in suits cause it shows they didn't read the directions.
Hell, in a technical enough position, most places really couldn't care less how you dress. You're not meeting the customers, so as long as you're not showing up naked, who cares. I knew a coder who used to have half of his hair dyed pale green, shaved the top off, and would come to work in black punk band T-shirts (Black Flag was most common), black bicycle shorts (the lycra ones with padding, etc.) and doc martins boots. No one said a word.
If I HAD to wear a tie as a dress code, I would probably get the most ugly and disturbing tie possible and wear that, or make it into a complete joke. I know someone who had a joke tie that would be perfect. It was actually all made of clear plastic (it didn't "tie", the neck part was 2 halves of a loop with velcro, so it could fit any sized neck). Now, inside the tie down at the bottom was sand and a plastic palm tree, and below that, in a seperate compartment of blue clear plastic were a bunch of small plastic fish. Painted onto the tie was a bright tropical sun & clouds. So, yeah, it was a whole tropical island (with fish, and real sand!) in a tie.
-Arlos