What are the cultural norms of office/business life in San Diego (San Francisco: home, schools)

[stevechang103]

Hello,

In certain styles of business enviornments such as San Francisco Dotcoms, New York Investment Banking firms, Texas oil firms, Southern old money firms, Arab oil firms, etc there are specific sets of norms that pertain to that specific culture.

What are the social norms of office/business life like in San Diego? For instance, what is the dress code like, how hirearachal versus egalitarian is it, how open are companies to new ideas, how fast versus slow paced is it, to what extent does ivy league pedigree count.

I know that every company and industry is different, but if you had to sum up what the business/office culture of San Diego was like what would be some characteristics in terms of culture, expectations, social norms, etc.

I would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks

[Ray1776]

See the thread on dumpy casual. In my experiences in engineering offices, dress code is polo shirts and jeans/khakis for the developers. Systems engineers may dress up a bit more with slacks and long sleeve dress shirts, possibly because they interface with upper management and customers more often. On Fridays, just like in the movie Office Space, almost everyone is in jeans and some bust out the "Hawaiian" shirts or Padres/Chargers gear.

Common conversations revolve around how your weekend/vacation/holiday was, DIY home improvement projects, medical issues, last night's game, and major newspaper headlines involving death.

Other than that I've seen it vary quite a a bit in terms of hierarchical versus egalitarian, innovation, pace, and importance of educational stature. I believe that flows down from the leadership of a company, division, or even project within a company. In general, I think most San Diegans are easy going and conform to whatever culture dominates their work environment.

[kettlepot]

Regarding Dress Code:

Government, Legal, and Finance have the highest expectations. Defense contractors come in the second tier because of their interface with government and military. The technology industries can be all over the place, and probably depends on their size. Larger companies will have more people who actually where a a shirt and tie. Small technology companies, less than 100 employees, will probably only have the CEO wearing an actual suit, and a smattering of managers wearing a tie.

Ivy League pedigree - on the West Coast Ivy League means Stanford, UC Berkeley, Cal Tech, and a second tier of UCLA, UCSD, USC.

[futbol]

Originally Posted by kettlepot

Regarding Dress Code:

Government, Legal, and Finance have the highest expectations. Defense contractors come in the second tier because of their interface with government and military. The technology industries can be all over the place, and probably depends on their size. Larger companies will have more people who actually where a a shirt and tie. Small technology companies, less than 100 employees, will probably only have the CEO wearing an actual suit, and a smattering of managers wearing a tie.

Ivy League pedigree - on the West Coast Ivy League means Stanford, UC Berkeley, Cal Tech, and a second tier of UCLA, UCSD, USC.

Regarding tech, UCSD and USC are not second tier, IMHO. My alma mater would be second tier (U of Hawaii). The best companies actively recruit from UCSD and USC. New engineering grads from those schools are highly coveted.

Also in tech, it also depends on the person. There are many people from outside the US. They will wear T-shirts, or white button-down shirts, or polo shirts. It is very rare to see someone with a tie.

Some people even wear slippers.

For me, it is polo shirt, 501 blue jeans, and business casual shoes (e.g., Sketchers), sometimes a Charger jersey.

Women tend to dress up more than men, and some women from India will wear their traditional garb.

[kettlepot]

Originally Posted by futbol

Regarding tech, UCSD and USC are not second tier, IMHO. My alma mater would be second tier (U of Hawaii). The best companies actively recruit from UCSD and USC. New engineering grads from those schools are highly coveted.

Also in tech, it also depends on the person. There are many people from outside the US. They will wear T-shirts, or white button-down shirts, or polo shirts. It is very rare to see someone with a tie.

Some people even wear slippers.

For me, it is polo shirt, 501 blue jeans, and business casual shoes (e.g., Sketchers), sometimes a Charger jersey.

Women tend to dress up more than men, and some women from India will wear their traditional garb.

Second tier means the next tier down. It doesn't mean "All the rest". I'm just saying that Caltech, Stanford, UC Berkeley are the first tier. UCSD, UCLA, and USC are the second tier, and then there is all the rest.

If only a smattering of managers where a shirt and tie, that leaves a lot of other people (90%) wearing jeans, cargo shorts and such to fill out the rest of the office and technical staff.

[tonyinsd]

You sure you don't want to live in DC, where people actually give a crap about that Ivy League pedigree?

[Clevelandgal]

both my husband I noticed very hierarchical/top down/traditional leadership structures where we work (and I prefer not to say where lest they track me down and punish me LOL ). In 2 prior states in our respective organizations we both had much more autonomy, self direction and shared decision making power. Here everyone is afraid of whatever level of management is above them which does not exactly bring out the best in employees IMO. Its a real puzzler since you would expect everything to be less formal here, but apparently that is only when it comes to work clothes!
Military influence maybe?

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by Clevelandgal

both my husband I noticed very hierarchical/top down/traditional leadership structures where we work (and I prefer not to say where lest they track me down and punish me LOL ). In 2 prior states in our respective organizations we both had much more autonomy, self direction and shared decision making power. Here everyone is afraid of whatever level of management is above them which does not exactly bring out the best in employees IMO. Its a real puzzler since you would expect everything to be less formal here, but apparently that is only when it comes to work clothes!
Military influence maybe?

OTOH, I work for a gov'ment contractor where military influence is plastered into the walls. I don't find that sort of hierarchy here. Other groups up here have that sort of thing. So I think it's about who the effective managers (as opposed to nominal managers) are, and how they want things to be.

[Cardiff Kook]

Originally Posted by tonyinsd

You sure you don't want to live in DC, where people actually give a crap about that Ivy League pedigree?

qft. most people i work with (I work in DC) have PhD's from Ivy League schools. Its disgusting how under educated I feel

[tonyinsd]

Originally Posted by GMUAlum08

qft. most people i work with (I work in DC) have PhD's from Ivy League schools. Its disgusting how under educated I feel

And that's the wrong attitude to have. Who cares if you've got an Ivy League degree if you're a total doofus?

I once interviewed someone for a job who kept on stressing how he went to Harvard.

I finally got pissed and said, okay, I get that you went to Harvard and that you're proud of it. But tell me why I should hire you and how you'll do the job.

It was like he expected the job just because he got a degree from Harvard.

I ended up hiring someone who went to East Carolina. And when I sent him the rejection letter, I put a line in there about how his education was impressive but I found someone whose skills better fit the requirements of the position.

For some reason, I think that was lost on the recipient.