What do you wear to work (especially during the summer)? (employees, applying)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I graduated from college last weekend and I've been applying for jobs and trying to find a great interview outfit. But now I'm just wondering what do people actually wear to work? Suits?
And during the summer do you also wear suits? I'm from the South so the summers are long, hot, and humid, so I wear sundresses (everything from super bright Lilly Pulitzer to more simple JCrew) almost every single day, starting on Easter and ending on Memorial Day... and then I just switch my closet to my fall dresses for football season.
What type of work places allow stuff like that? I'd hate to work in a place where I couldn't be comfortable.
Do companies usually have very specific dress codes? And if they don't, can you get fired/reprimanded for showing up in a bright dress with like, a cardigan or something?
I graduated from college last weekend and I've been applying for jobs and trying to find a great interview outfit. But now I'm just wondering what do people actually wear to work? Suits?
And during the summer do you also wear suits? I'm from the South so the summers are long, hot, and humid, so I wear sundresses (everything from super bright Lilly Pulitzer to more simple JCrew) almost every single day, starting on Easter and ending on Memorial Day... and then I just switch my closet to my fall dresses for football season.
What type of work places allow stuff like that? I'd hate to work in a place where I couldn't be comfortable.
Do companies usually have very specific dress codes? And if they don't, can you get fired/reprimanded for showing up in a bright dress with like, a cardigan or something?
Most of this depends on what type of office setting but in a generally sort of way you should think of interview clothes as being held to a higher standard than the clothes you will actually wear at work.
For most office jobs a cardigan/dress would be fine, just keep the hemline down and the neckline up. Spaghetti straps might not be great, but if you keep your cardi on no one would notice.
It really depends on the individual office. Make a note of what people are wearing when you go for your interview.
As for me, I wear a sundress, capris and a tshirt, skirt and shirt, pajamas... depending on whether I have a meeting with a client via Skype or whatever else I have going on that day!
it depends a lot on the company but in my experience most places these days are office casual. so officey, a little dressy, but not suits. dresses with cardigans are probably fine in that kind of environment. just take a look at what people are wearing when you go on interviews.
my current job, i was told that it was office casual but actually it's just casual. people dress neatly but they wear jeans and t-shirts. i have a pretty casual for office casual work wardrobe, but i am the fanciest person in this joint most days!
when i was temping in nyc and had to wear at the very least a cardigan every day (to cover my tattoos), if not a suit, i used to wear a tank underneath and fling it off as soon as i got out of the office. i also put my tights on wet if i was wearing a skirt or dress that wouldn't show it. it's usually freezing in office buildings so you really only need to worry about being too hot when you're outside.
Most places are business casual, but it depends. I'm just taking a guess that business casual is the majority of office jobs.
For an interview, I would go a little more formal. Meaning, even if it's business casual, wearing a suit isn't wrong. For the interview I just went on, I wore a suit jacket and a skirt though in Northeastern US Summer weather. It wasn't too bad. The office was colder than the outside.
You'll find a lot of variation depending on the industry, the company, the branch office, and the geographic region. In my experience, outside of a few specific more conservative fields (like law), most offices are business casual.
My office is actually pretty casual, lots of shorts and funny geek t-shirts in the summer. I usually dress a bit nicer, but not so much that people wonder if I just came from a job interview. My summer work wardrobe is a lot of nice, tailored capri pants with cute twinsets. Very Talbots & Banana Republic. I also do appropriate dresses & skirts -- I never wear sleeveless to work without a jacket or cardigan.
I own & operate a small painting company so what I wear is painters' whites, a tee shirt and closed-toe shoes. Every day. Just the simplest thing ever.
My dress code for employees is similarly simple:
Whites (aka painter pants or shorts), tee-shirt or whatever as long as it has no off-colour (LOL @ my own pun) images or words on it, closed toed shoes. Be reasonably clean and neat and don't smell.
Just chiming in to say that as Wry_Martini points out, what one wears to work will vary greatly depending on the industry. A huge percentage of the population doesn't wear suits, business casual, heels, skirts or anything like that for work.
If someone is really tall (therefore has really long legs) is wearing skirts that are "normal" length on average height women but like 2" shorter on you, really all that inappropriate? Or do people write it off as "whatever, she's tall" or would it be some huge office scandal? I always had that problem in grade school when it came to shorts. All the other girls could wear shorts, but when I wore shorts I got sent to the principals office! They were never shorts that showed my butt or anything ridiculous, but they were shorter than the "4 inches above the knee cap" rule.
i think people would be judgy in a lot of offices and you might break dress code. it's unfortunate, because it's hard to find things that aren't too short when you're tall. but people are going to look at the amount of skin you're showing and not take into account the actual length of your skirts.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
