<p>Interview season is starting and I have a question I hope some can answer here. My D is starting to get interviews. If I was asking this question on the parents forum I would get this answer: buy an expensive suit and expensive shoes. Must be expensive.</p>
<p>How would you handle attire for engineering students. She will have some on campus interviews and there I think she will wear a suit, if we can find one to fit. She is slim with very long arms, finding a jacket is near impossible. But she will also have some onsite interviews. If she's traipsing around a factory, should she wear pants and flat shoes. Seems crazy to be in a factory in a skirt and heels.</p>
<p>I hope some engineering managers have some insight. Do you notice if an interviewee has an expensive outfit on? Do you notice their shoes? How much do you notice what someone has on? She will be nice and neat and professional looking.</p>
<p>Our budget is limited and it seems crazy to spend a ton of money on a suit that she will wear once. It's not like a suit for a man, you will wear that over and over again and you have flat shoes on so site visits are easier. </p>
<p>Also what about a bag. Do you think she needs a briefcase or something like that? She does have a portfolio and I not sure what she would put in a briefcase for an interview.</p>
<p>Thank you so much. I hope I'm not sounding ignorant.</p>
<p>I can only tell you about my son -he has had many interviews with good companies , and never wears a suit . He wears slacks , a nice shirt , and tie . He is a kid , for God’s sake ! His advice is keep it real ! His scholastic record speaks for itself . Good luck !</p>
<p>My D just came through the interviewing cycle. For the on campus interviews, she would wear nice black dress pants with a cami and jacket. She loves to wear stylish pumps when possible and a bit of jewelry. She likes to carry a black Longchamps tote bag (Le Pilage) on interviews to bring a copy of her resume and other paperwork. When she got her internship, she would keep a hardhat and boots in the trunk of her car for site visits. When she returned to the office, she would be back to business casual. Now that she is working, she wears dark jeans, button up shirts, jacket or sweater, no jewelry and her work boots. She always brings an extra pair of shoes to change out of the work boots. On days in the main office, she wears business casual. She has long hair but always wears it up when headed to work. She has now figured out a clever way to attach her work boots to her back pack to make walking easier.
Good luck to your D during the interviews!</p>
<p>Thank you so much. The link karp4170 posted had great information. I think we will look for a nice pants suit, which she could wear without the jacket if she needs something else.</p>
<p>windbehindwings, thank you so much for your insight. It’s very different when you have girls. My S just went through this and it was easy, he wore a suit because he had one lol! Bought a new shirt and tie and he was done. I’m not even sure he wore the jacket that much.</p>
<p>We are from the midwest and my D goes to school on the east coast where people seem to be dressier. I always think there is some unwritten code that we haven’t got the memo on lol! She went to a informational session, she came from the computer lab and had on nice black jeans, a dressy sweater and ballet flats. She said most of the people were much dressier than her. But the recruiter remembered her from the job fair so maybe it wasn’t bad how she was dressed.</p>
<p>I think I will try to see if I can buy her a Longchamps bag. They are very popular at her school and I think she will use it for a long time. She has a birthday coming up and I think this would be a great present.</p>
<p>Is he in college? If so, he’s not a kid. The lack of a suit sends the signal that he is unprofessional, immature, does not interview frequently, and/or does not spend time researching customs. What would happen if you had to put someone like that in front of a client or customer?</p>
<p>I’ve conducted literally hundreds of on-campus interviews with college students. Only once or twice has the person not worn a suit. Someone who doesn’t wear a suit will stand out in a very negative way and unless he’s incredible impressive probably won’t go any farther.</p>
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<p>It varies from person to person. Though I will caution that women are more critical than men when it comes to noting clothing, and women tend to be more critical of other women.</p>
<p>I’ve been in post-interview panels where a manager has said “Did you see his suit? It costs thousands!” then proceeded to hire the guy based on the suit. But for the vast majority of cases, it doesn’t matter as long as the suit is professional, a standard color, and reasonably well fitting.</p>
<p>To echo Banjo, a well-fitting, somewhat-in-style suit is important, price is generally not (for engineering positions, at least) - while no one will fault you for a dearth of funds as a student, they expect a certain formality for professional positions. I wore the same suit (the only one I owned that was tailored) to every single suit-requiring event for two years.</p>
<p>For subsequent meetings, assume the same unless directed otherwise. At my company, the second round of interviews is onsite and includes tours that go from executive offices to the factory floor, so we direct interviewees to simply follow our own daily dress code - slacks, nice shirt, casual walking shoes, no tie, no open shoes. Show up in a suit and it means that you cannot follow directions, enjoy walking a lot in formal attire, and maybe are a little too uptight. Show up in jeans and it means that you cannot follow directions and don’t understand the line where casual becomes unprofessional.</p>
<p>Basic suits really aren’t that expensive. Do yourself a favor and get one as it will get plenty of use over your college career, and like BanjoHitter pointed out, it’s worth it.</p>
<p>But make sure that they (and dress shirts) fit properly. Most male university students seem to have little idea of how to get a properly fitting suit and dress shirt. While that may partly be due to such clothes mostly being made to fit older (fatter) men, they may not have experience suit shopping, and some of their fathers may not be in suit-wearing occupations that would give them experience in suit shopping. The result is that that suit and dress shirt wearing intern and new graduate candidates often look pretty bad in poorly fitting suits and dress shirts.</p>
<p>The employees cannot really help if all of the suit jackets that fit at the shoulders and chest are way too big at the abdomen to be within reasonable alteration range (even if the jacket and trousers are sold as separates, which they are not for many suits).</p>
<p>Dress shirts have the same kind of problem.</p>
<p>Some people may need a custom or made to measure suit for this reason (though it seems doubtful that university students would be looking there).</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who responded. It has been very very helpful. We are going out this weekend and trying to find something. I will update everyone with what we found on Tues.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t “older (fatter) men”, it’s the fact that you have a higher than normal drop from your chest to waist. If you go to Men’s Warehouse, you might be stuck with the standard sizes, but that’s how they keep prices so low (not much actual size variety). On the other hand, slightly more expensive stores will stock suits with ranges of drops to better fit more people off the rack. Having more size variety is one reason more expensive stores are more expensive.</p>
<p>It can be very difficult to find more professional clothes for very slim young women. My daughter is a size 00 or 0 in slacks depending on the cut of them. She’s found that NY & Co goes down to a 0 and has styles that are more appropriate for work that are also in her budget.</p>
<p>For whatever reason, it is hard to figure out which stores actually stock them from web searches. A web search for “athletic cut suit” bring up mostly mail order offers, often for colors other than the usual conservative charcoal (going to the stores associated with the mail order offers in order to try on the suits tends not to actually find them there).</p>
<p>So it is not surprising that a university student age man, who might not even know that an athletic cut theoretically exists (though it may still not have enough drop if he is actually athletic) will have trouble finding a properly fitting suit and dress shirt by going into suit stores (and they won’t necessarily have the budget for more expensive or made to measure or full custom tailored suits).</p>
<p>So do a lot of people, but just university age students. And it’s not just guys who are in shape, it’s guys with barrel chests regardless of age and physique.</p>
<p>Skip the discount stores like Men’s Wearhouse and go into actual stores. You’ll get much better service and advice, even at a mall store like a Nordstrom’s.</p>
<p>Son goes to a well-known co-op school and is about to start interviewing for co-op positions. I saw the printed recommendations for intervew attire just this morning. Recommended attire for men is either a suit or a jacket/slacks/tie. For women it is either a suit or a dress with a jacket. So, this is an either/or condition. I did not take it as one strongly recommended over the other, although I will agree that a suit is more formal. I think either choice will be regarded positively and don’t think it is necessary to go out and buy a suit if one has a jacket etc. </p>
<p>Son has a nice navy blue jacket, khaki pants and dress shirt and tie. That is what he’ll be wearing to his interviews. I have recently intervewed some women (2) and one had a suit (a pantsuit I think) and the other wore a dress with a sweater.</p>