Question for anyone who works for an Internet company

[drumwolf]

I have a job interview next week for an Internet startup, and I have a question regarding what's appropriate to wear to the interview. Should I wear a suit? Or can I get away with just wearing a nice shirt and slacks and a tie, essentially bordering on business casual?

I realize that tech employers have gotten somewhat more formal since the dot-com bust. It's not like the late '90s, when companies were so desperate for qualified skilled workers that they'd gladly hire someone who came to an interview wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

[Moochy]

1. Depends on what job you are interviewing for

Either way, whatever you feel more comforable in.
I'd say a tie without a jacket would suffice for almost all jobs, especially given its summer.

If it's a sales or marketing job where you'll be in front of clients alot, then a full jacket etc. would be appropriate to show them you gots the gucci.

I never wear a tie to interviews because it gives them the false impression that I'd wear a tie while on the job.

I wore a suit & tie for almost a year, and it sucked. I never got used to it, never liked it, and always thought i looked like some anonymous dork. Ripped off the tie like it was a fucking leash at 5:01. Felt like a noose.

[drumwolf]

2. It's a web development job, doing programming and web site production.

I've always worn a tie to job interviews. My understanding has always been that you always dress more formally during an interview than you expect to when you're actually on the job.

And, like I said, this ain't the good ol' days where anyone who knew PHP /MySQL and Java was assured of finding a high-paying job within a week. So I imagine things would be more formal now even among techies. I could be wrong, though.

Personally, I've never had a huge problem wearing a tie -- what I despise is having to wear a dress shirt and slacks. But in the last job I had where I had to wear "proper business attire," I figured out how to dress as casually as possible while staying within my company's formal dress code. I wore casual button-down shirts and cotton slacks from the Gap and Doc Marten shoes, and I was just fine.

[Moochy]

3. I've been contracting recently, its a little more causal

A Dress Shirt, slacks and a tie was what I had to wear, in really hot weather.

I've interviewed alot of people and I think I tune out what they are wearing, but I'm a techie geek who cares more about how well the interviewee can explain their previous jobs and projects.

The one nice thing about the dot com bust was that unqualified people were much less prevalent on my projects. I'm a good teacher but it gets tiresome explaing basic build process to people at dotcoms. Like the CEO's nephew or some art student who picked up a java dummies book. :)