[JackMorgan]

Story time.

One time, I wore a suit to an interview (where the recruiter forgot to tell me to wear casual) and was literally mocked for doing so. Not just a good natured ribbing either, this was a good five minutes of really angry tear-down. And this was no startup, they had probably 200+ people. I got to stand there in front of maybe ten interviewers getting "dressed down" for my attire, like some sort of boot camp grunt. I lost all respect for my interviewers at that moment. If a group is so single-minded that me dressing up a little "too much" gets mocking, I'm happy working elsewhere. This same group also picked on me for using Linux instead of a Mac.

If conforming is so important to a group that someone dressing up or using a different OS is so offensive they cannot even pretend to be decent people, I'm happy to see that signal as early as possible.

But please, if you find yourself acting like this: turning down (or even openly mocking) candidates for their formal attire, please consider that you are hiring people who disregarded common wisdom about interviewing. You are hiring people who, when dealing with something as important as interviewing, decided "it's recommended I do x to increase my chances, I'm too cool|awesome|unprofessional to bother with that!"

That doesn't mean mock someone for being sloppy either, I'm just tired of clothes being such a big deal either way.