Wearing Suits…Yes or No?
WSIL News & Views January 30th. 2007, 5:10pmI suppose I will inaugurate the blog for 2007. Here’s a link to an interesting blog post by Mark Cuban on why he doesn’t wear suits.
Personally I used to really dislike wearing suits, but now I find them to be tolerable. Perhaps we should adopt a compromise solution…dispose of “business formal” attire and only require “business casual” attire.
This reminds me of my experience at Globecom 2004 in Dallas, where I saw one presenter give a talk wearing a hooded sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:57 am
This is a complicated issue, Caleb. In an ideal world, dress wouldn’t matter and we’d all be judged by our brains and hearts. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world and casual dress can convey disrepect or laziness to some professionals. I think it’s better to err on the side of formal rather than casual. Most people who aren’t concerned with dress aren’t going to judge you negatively because you are overdressed. However, the converse is not true. If you are a student at an interview or conference I think you’d better wear the suit. Mark Cuban had to wear suits at one point too. Luckily he’s now in the position where his dress doesn’t matter. The rest of us aren’t that fortunate.
January 31st, 2007 at 8:37 pm
I think dress is very important. Students should err on the side of dressing more formal than necessary. Too many times I have seen students presenting to industrial affiliates where the student is wearing blue jeans and dirty sneakers. I find it really distasteful. Mentally, people are thinking if this person doesn’t take the time to look nice, can I trust them to have the attention to detail I need at my company?