There’s an interesting cultural difference that I’ve observed. My grandpa was a senior engineer and he was proud to dress immaculately. He went to work in a suit and he never wore less than business casual even when going to the beach. I don’t think he owned any shirt that wasn’t a button-up long-sleeve. I’m an engineer (with a different specialty) and I only wear a suit to job interviews. Generally when I’m at work I’m in jeans and a short-sleeved shirt.
I wonder if it’s a matter of generations or countries or both. When and where my grandpa was young, a suit was very expensive and hierarchies were rigid.
I think its generational. I even see the generational differences across my office. when meeting with our customers for formal meetings, the 35+ engineers are in a suit, or at least a blazer. The 20 somethings are wearing torn jeans and burkenstocks
I think at the places where I’ve worked, torn jeans would be a little over the line in the office, although managers who said something about it would be perceived as stuffy. However, I would ask before wearing business casual to a meeting with clients. I would assume that a suit was expected and I think I would be in real trouble if I wore torn jeans.
But then again, I’m 35+ now. Do you work at a small startup?
I work at a daughter company of a bank that develops said bank’s internal software. Torn jeans are A-OK and might only get commented on when visiting the parent company. My team’s architect is virtually never seen without a Chaos Computer Club hoodie.
Earlier in my career I worked for a well-established company in the medical sector. The only person in the company who dressed up was the boss – and only when meeting someone external.
I am 35+ and I’m both companies we had older team members.
I’m an engineer (with a different specialty) and I only wear a suit to job interviews.
I’m in a position that does interviews for software engineering. In my entire time working in this field I’ve seen one person wear a suit to an interview. It made them stand out all right, but not in a good way. We all wondered wtf was wrong with that guy after the interview.
Maybe this says more about me than anything else… But for me, I’d rather be judged by my work than appearance or credentials. The worse I can look in a corporate environment and still maintain a reputation of a great engineer the more authentic I feel my reputation is.
When I retire I aspire to be well respected by everyone in spite of looking like a category 5 dumpster fire.
I think it’s 90% because of silicon valley and the tech industry. Software developers often make more than licensed engineers of other disciplines these days, so why would a young engineer model themselves after their professional body and older members instead of the disruptive adjacent industry?
I’m a software engineer myself but I have only ever worked on the east coast. Maybe that’s the difference?
I’m on the east coast myself, in my 40s, also tech (mostly hardware/design, but some software in support of that hw or just doing something experimental).
I will 100% show up with a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. If I have a meeting or its the fall/spring, I have a sportjacket, but I’ve admittedly shown up in a zip up hoodie before (though that was specifically in a space I was doing some concepting in, not a boardroom).
Client meetings with their c-suite will get a collar, but its a golf shirt in the summer.
That said, I work from home pretty much exclusively, so its all t-shirts now. I wouldn’t even worry about straight up Donald Duck’ing it if it were more comfortable (its not).
I think its just generational.
Im not in the US and here most IT people wear casual. The exception is those in fintech which usually have a more formal dresscode. Im always wearing comfy clothes like cargos and a hoodie… And really i couldnt care less if someone at work didnt like what i wear. Im not there to look pretty for them, im there to make stuff work better and make the company more monkey.