Job Questions (how much, to live, light rail)

[tazzz]

Aloha,

I am a civil engineer from California looking at working in Hawaii, I have 2 questions:
1. What do people wear to job interviews? Is wearing a suit and tie acceptable or overboard in HI.
2. Most jobs are in Oahu but I like to live on the Big Island. Are there people who "commute" between islands?

Thanks

[hotzcatz]

Suit and tie would be overboard. A nice understated Aloha Shirt - Tori Richard's or Reyn Spooner's are good brands - and a pair of non-blue jean pants does real well for interviews. If the company has a company color, then pick an Aloha shirt in a matching sort of color to seem as part of the team. Shoes instead of slippers are good too. I used to work in a lot of engineering offices as a draftsperson and that's what the engineers wore. The techs and draftspeople would wear the same or polo and tee shirts depending on how much we interacted with the public.

Some of the big engineering firms have branch offices on the Island of Hawaii, although most of the work is on Oahu, especially now when they are working on that light rail system. You can commute, but it can be expensive. It used to be that airfare was cheap enough that folks could go back and forth every day. Now, when they commute, they stay somewhere during the week and come back on weekends.