At any startup I would want to work for wearing a suit would at best be neutral.
At any startup I would want to work for, wearing a suit would at worst be neutral.
Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
61–70 of 83 posts
Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
#62Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Umm, yeah. And if a candidate had spelling mistakes on his resume, would you think "well, I'm hiring him to code, not to write documentation"? Or would you in fact not even bother to interview him at all?
Well a resume conveys useful information, which is important. Dress does not. It's a signal to noise ratio thing. Incidentally, bad spelling in an otherwise smart person is a good sign of creativity, because it's correlated with personality types that correlate with creative thinking (when intelligence is evidenced at all).
Do you have a source for the typo thing? That would be very useful information.
Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
#64dress for your interview one-tier above the formality of dress the company you are applying to wears. if the company standard is business casual - wear a suit if everyone is in shorts / tshirts - wear slacks and a shirt with a collar
And what if you're applying to Morgan Stanley or something? Do you wear a tux? A Pope outfit?
Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
#65These things depend on location. Where are you? Here's how things work in SV. Cover letter is exceptionally useful. It should explain in simple English why you are qualified for this particular job, highlighting relevant experience and showing that you actually bothered to figure out what this job/company is about. Doing this well is a huge advantage. At your level 1 out of 100 applicants will do it right. Cover lett…
I'm in New York, where dress is a bit more formal due to the Wall Street sphere of influence. However, the position I have in mind has nothing to do with finance. What defines a good and bad cover letter, in your opinion? What mistakes do the writers of the 99 bad cover letters make?
Although I can't say for sure (never hired anyone), I think the notes above about "Relevant experience" really hits it on the nail. Resume's have a lot of info on them, and are often short on details. You should explain to them what you've done that makes you ideal for that specific role. Don't talk about your life dreams, just keep it simple and direct.
On what to wear: Dress smart. If it seems like a fun place, dress a bit fun. In NYC, a nice pair of jeans, with a sharp shirt and jacket would probably be a really appropriate attire. I don't think i'd ever show up for an interview with just a t-shirt on, but i guess it depends.
Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well a resume conveys useful information, which is important. Dress does not. It's a signal to noise ratio thing. Incidentally, bad spelling in an otherwise smart person is a good sign of creativity, because it's correlated with personality types that correlate with creative thinking (when intelligence is evidenced at all).
Do you have a source for the typo thing? That would be very useful information.
I emailed you info, we're getting too far off topic here.
Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
#67In 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…
There are certainly counterexamples to the "excise high school references". Consider for example one of the NYC magnet high schools such as Bronx Science (or Stuyvesant), which on paper at least have a track record of producing 1 physics Nobel Laureate and 1 Turing award winner each per decade (on average). In such a school, a characterization of where one was on the continuum of creative intelligence can be a pretty strong statement.
(granted most High Schools aren't that magical on paper, so the parent post has a valid point in principle)
Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not interested in someone who writes "creative" code that someone else has to debug.
That's not what I mean. You are deliberately taking the worst possible interpretation of what I wrote. No one wants typos in code. But, a programmer who's written english is bad, but who is highly intelligent will probably not evidence the same typos in programming as in typing written english. It's the same sort of thing as dyslexia being different at a neurological level in chinese then in english. English dyslexic…
OK, every word processor these days can check your spelling for you. You don't even need to do anything; it will underline words it doesn't know by magic. Given that big a shove in the right direction PLUS the manual proof-reading that ought to be done, it is incomprehensible that typos get through. It can only be carelessness. This isn't an IRC conversation; it's a professional document.
Clumsy use of English from someone for whom it isn't their native language is a completely different matter, I don't care about that.
Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
#69I interviewed for my current position at a startup with a tie and I don't think it detrimentally affected me whatsoever.
That said, a polite, to the point email is awesome. A collared shirt is all you need for an interview, although we hire people who turn up in t-shirt and shorts.
I'd try to get a vibe from the people you speak with there. Also ask yourself if you want to work somewhere they expect a suit...
Re: Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?
#70I've done a fair amount of hiring at startups. The main thing I looked for was years of experience and previous job title. I never cared what the person wore, as long as it was appropriate. A cover letter was nice, but I didn't use it as a filter...I was more concerned with the information contained in the cover letter than whether or not it was there.
The biggest thing is to give people information about you. The math contest thing would stand out because it's unique and somewhat interesting, but it wouldn't be particularly important for any of the positions I hired for. I was far more impressed by previous job titles (ie, "Intern, Google Inc") than I was any of the extracurricular stuff.
If you don't have any previous experience, the most important things are an impressive GPA (3.8+) or some kind of impressive course work, such as an artificial intelligence project or ideally a startup of your own.