<p>If you were a recruiter/employer, is the young age of an applicant going to be a factor in your decision? </p>
<p>If so, what would you need to see from the applicant to overcome the age issue? </p>
<p>Do engineering grad schools factor age as part of their decision process?</p>
<p>The company my dad works for hires 18 year old engineers all the time.</p>
<p>As far as I’m aware, companies aren’t allowed to ask your age (but they can request proof of eligibility to work in the US). So for all they know, you just look young for a 22 year old recent college grad.</p>
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<p>And where are they finding these 18 year old engineers “all the time”? There are very few since they would have had to start engineering school when they were ~14.</p>
<p>Honestly having a degree saying you are an engineer ought to signal to most companies that you are competent enough to be hired. I don’t know if any would discriminate, but if they did it would likely be due to purely age/maturity rather than ability. In that regard, you will run into problems no matter what your major is in all likelihood.</p>
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<p>Yes, though as someone else mentioned, an employer won’t ask your age in an interview. If I could tell that someone was very young, the key concerns have to do with maturity and the person’s ability to manage / relate to others. These can easily be overcome by a student who has work experience or extracurricular experience where he or she is in a leadership position and handles the situation well. </p>
<p>As an interviewer, you can also resolve concerns about maturity in the interview. You can listen to the person’s language (does he or she use childish phrasing or “like” all the time?) look at how he or she dresses, and get an idea of the types of mannerisms being used.</p>
<p>If you’re extremely worried, the easiest thing is to “dress” older. Go with a dark suit, have it fitted (nothing says “young” more than a suit that doesn’t fit), wear french cuffs, and have a conservative tie.</p>
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<p>They sometimes do, and this is harder to overcome. If you have excellent credentials, they won’t care. If you’re borderline for that school, have one of your references comment about your maturity level. That’s really all you can do.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, finding an off-the-rack suit that fits properly (or is within reasonable alteration range of fitting properly) may be difficult for a younger man with a small waistline (actually any man with a small waistline, but younger men are much more likely to have small waistlines than the older men who comprise most of the suit-buying market). Same goes for dress shirts.</p>
<p>Yes, there is custom tailoring or made to measure, but that can be more expensive or more hassle.</p>
<p>If you’re bright enough to get your BS at 19, I would definitely think you’d want to go on for your master’s degree! Grad schools won’t care.</p>
<p>If I were the employer, I would not hesitate hiring you if you acted maturely.</p>
<p>My dad finished his engineering PhD at 26, which was young at the time. When he started working as an assistant professor, he was often mistaken for a student! That was 47 years ago, and he’s still teaching.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies! Those were my thoughts too, that age is itself is not a major factor. It’s nice to know I’m not deluding myself!</p>
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<p>Most stores like Nordstrom’s will have a tailor on-site who will fit you to the suit for free (or at a reduced cost). If you shop at a discount chain, just take it to a tailor and have it fit (Google search for a local tailor). It takes less than a week and doesn’t really cost that much. This is what people who frequently wear suits normally do. If you also know to do that, it gives the impression that you wear suits frequently, which is a sign of maturity (there are many places outside of work where you wear a suit as an adult).</p>
<p>Walking into an interview with a very baggy suit makes you look like you don’t own a suit and are borrowing your big brother’s or your father’s and gives a negative first impression. If I expect that you’re immature, I look for signs of immaturity in the interview. That’s not what you want.</p>
<p>I’ve actually seen people outright rejected for jobs and others hired based on the suit they wore. Women are much more likely to judge based on clothes, in my experience.</p>
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<p>However, the off the rack suits that I have tried recently would have needed 4" to 6" of alteration to take in the jacket around the waist for me (my waist is more typical of a university-age guy than someone of my age). From what I have read, it is harder to make simple alterations greater than 2" and still have the suit fit well and look good at the end. And if the suit is not buyable in separates, the waist being 4" to 6" too large becomes a problem when altering the trousers.</p>
<p>Off the rack dress shirts have a similar problem.</p>
<p>You really shouldn’t have that much trouble around the waist. Most off the rack suits come as small as 36, which is designed for a 30" waist. If you go smaller than a 30" waist, it sounds bad, but you can shop in the boys department and find suits with waist sizes in the 20’s.</p>
<p>The problem you might have is a big chest with small waist - say a 42" chest with a 32" waist. If that’s the issue (I wouldn’t exactly call it a problem), most designers have athletic cut suits designed for big chest/small waist guys. The coats taper in around the waist.</p>
<p>In a worst case scenario, you can buy suit separates to get something that fits you. The waist of a coat can be brought in a lot, so find a pair of pants that fit and a coat that fits around the chest, then have the waist of the coat brought in.</p>
<p>I had no idea suit shopping was this difficult.</p>
<p>Signed,
A girl who finds it impossible to find clothes because of how short I am (5’1’', but cannot buy in the kids as suggested for men because it’s not the simple for women).</p>
<p>It’s usually not that difficult. A guy “typical of a university-age guy” is a 32" waist. There are standard suit sizes to fit that. If the guy has some unique aspects to his size (neck sits to the front, barrel chest, big arms, put belly, etc) then the suit is taken out by a tailor to fit. There are short and long sizes to fit, as well. All paints are finished after purchased, so they always have the right length.</p>
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<p>I probably need a 40" to 42" jacket and 30" to 31" trousers. Stores don’t seem to stock “athletic cut” suits that I can try on to see if they are within reasonable alteration range (also, not every suit is available as separates). While my dimensions may be rare for my age, they don’t seem to be especially rare among university age guys or recent graduates.</p>
<p>Dress shirts have the same problem.</p>
<p>Fortunately, I don’t need a suit very often (casual dress workplace). But I would like to be able to find one that fits well for the few times I do wear one.</p>