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Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

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Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

#11

Post by aantix »

As for the suit, you're a developer, not a consultant for What Not to Wear. The real tragedy is when the developer shows up for the interview in his (so-called) nice button up shirt (that has a small gravy stain on the pocket) and polished (yet orthopedic looking) black shoes.

The suit gains you 5 seconds of respect until you open your mouth. Then hopefully you will actually know something.

Do yourself a favor; instead of taking an hour the night before to make sure your shirt is pressed and your socks match get on the web, research the company you are interviewing at, try to assess some of the problems that they may encounter, study up on the languages that they utilize, review your algorithms book, and treat the interview like you're applying for the lead position for the development of an auto-pilot software system for a Boeing 787.

If you know your field and know it well superficialities such as a wrinkled shirt will take a back seat.

Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

#13

Post by cperciva »

sidsavara wrote: post #9
cperciva wrote: post #2

In my CL template, I end up talking about how, in high school, I woke up at 5:00 am to practice for contest math tests Take that out. It doesn't matter what sort of job you're applying for -- the words "high school" should never appear in the resume or cover letter of anyone who has a college degree. As for the rest: Dress like the job you want to have, not like the job you're applying for. If I was applying for a ma…

Agreed on taking out high school. I'm 28 and recently began taking out all references to college as well a couple years ago (my resume lists my degrees). I agree dress like the job you want to have, but I disagree with the t-shirt bit. I've worked at 4 different companies, and always show up wearing professional, clean clothes to my interview (suit and tie the first time, since then just button down shirts and dress…

The t-shirt and jeans can wait until you've proven yourself for a few months.

There's no contradiction between what I said and what you're saying -- we just happen to want different jobs. I don't want a job which has expectations for clothing beyond "yes please".

It's up to the original poster to decide what sort of job he wants and dress appropriately for that -- odds are, the job he wants is one which neither of us would want.

Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

#14

Post by LPTS »

I guess it depends on the job, but I can't stand people in suits. It's so obsolete now. That kind of tired attention to surface conformity only encourages the same old thinking that is responsible for everything sucking. Wear what is comfortable and looks decent. The sooner the puritanical idea that you have to dress yourself in that ridiculous, uncomfortable costume and prance around like some peacock samurai in full ceremonial garb to be a serious job applicant dies, the better off we will all be.

Don't view the cover letter as artifical. View it as the HR guy will spend two minutes looking at it while waiting for his internet porn to download. What do you have to say about yourself that is so compelling he'll not notice when two minutes pas and his porn finished downloading because he's still looking at your resume. I'll give you a hint, it's not that you wake up early.

Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

#15

Post by ojbyrne »

Having come up against the dress code issue recently - the standard advice is to make your best guess about the dress code hierarchy and dress one level higher than the job you're applying for.

The covering letter should be seen as the chance to make an argument as to why you're the right person for this specific job. You shouldn't really have a template for your covering letter.

Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

#16

Post by corentin »

Basically, there are two kinds of companies: the ones that do care about dress code, and the ones that don't. The first kind would like you to wear a suit (with a tie). For the second kind: well, since they don't care, you can wear a suit as well! In this way, you can't go wrong (I've never encountered a company requiring people to wear used jeans and Rock band shirts anyway).

Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

#17

Post by LPTS »

cperciva wrote: post #13
sidsavara wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed on taking out high school. I'm 28 and recently began taking out all references to college as well a couple years ago (my resume lists my degrees). I agree dress like the job you want to have, but I disagree with the t-shirt bit. I've worked at 4 different companies, and always show up wearing professional, clean clothes to my interview (suit and tie the first time, since then just button down shirts and dress…

The t-shirt and jeans can wait until you've proven yourself for a few months. There's no contradiction between what I said and what you're saying -- we just happen to want different jobs. I don't want a job which has expectations for clothing beyond "yes please". It's up to the original poster to decide what sort of job he wants and dress appropriately for that -- odds are, the job he wants is one which neither of us…

I don't want employees that spend all that time fretting over what they wear. I want employees that would look at me funny if I asked them to dress nice. I'd want to see a funny, bewildered, slightly pained look on their face that said "I'm one of the best people at what I do, I'm doing important work, I could work anywhere, each second I waste on this is something that doesn't go into designing the future, and you want me to worry about wearing what?"

Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

#18

Post by mlinsey »

corentin wrote: post #16

Basically, there are two kinds of companies: the ones that do care about dress code, and the ones that don't. The first kind would like you to wear a suit (with a tie). For the second kind: well, since they don't care, you can wear a suit as well! In this way, you can't go wrong (I've never encountered a company requiring people to wear used jeans and Rock band shirts anyway).

Well, unless you get interviewed by this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwYy8R87JMA

Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

#19

Post by gojomo »

A cover letter that's actually responsive to the position/company is a giant win. But also, a polite email with that same info counts as a "cover letter". ("Cover letter" describes the role it plays introducing you, not the formalities of delivery/medium.)

Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

#20

Post by corentin »

tc7 wrote: post #8
cperciva wrote: post #2

In my CL template, I end up talking about how, in high school, I woke up at 5:00 am to practice for contest math tests Take that out. It doesn't matter what sort of job you're applying for -- the words "high school" should never appear in the resume or cover letter of anyone who has a college degree. As for the rest: Dress like the job you want to have, not like the job you're applying for. If I was applying for a ma…

"Dress like the job you want to have, not like the job you're applying for." Very nice. Put into words my vaguely-formed concept of why I won't be pulling out the suit for future interviews. For interviews, the best advice I've heard is to remember that you're evaluating them as much as they are you. If they demand/care that you dress a certain way, perhaps it's a good sign you don't want to work there (unless you're…

I'd rather hire someone who is comfortable in any situation (mechanics clothes or business suit) than a rigid smartass who won't change they way he or she dresses no matter what...
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