Recruiter told me business casual. But there's a huge variation in that definition. Can I pull off tennis shoes, jeans, and a button down? Also, I'm not very familiar with general Bay Area / tech industry expectations of work attire. Enlighten me.
For engineering roles, just don't show up naked.
There's non verbal queues though. If I over dress, it could appear than I think I'm better than everyone else or that I'm trying to hide something (lack of hard engineering skills). If I under dress, I risk being taken not seriously.
You're overthinking it. The overdressing point does happen (particularly for lack of technical skills), but no one will think any less of you if you wear a T-shirt and jeans. Ask yourself if you'd want to work at a company that prejudices engineers based on clothing anyways, and proceed accordingly.
I think you’re taking this too seriously. If you want to hedge your bets, wear khakis and a button down. Not too formal, not too casual
I've kind of wrapped up with leetcoding so I found new things to worry about.
If you want to be “safe” without looking overdressed, wear dark, unripped jeans and a button up plaid shirt with leather shoes or dressy sneakers. You could tuck in your shirt and wear a nice belt. You’ll probably be slightly better dressed than most of your interviewers but you won’t look out of place.
Pink
This is about as dressy as I was thinking but I have been told this would be over doing it. Thanks for the advice so far. I hope someone from Lyft chimes in
I once interviewed for a company that rejected me cuz they didn’t like the “shoes” I was wearing. The recruiter gave me that feedback. I told the recruiter that I have prosthetic legs and that was the reason I was wearing those “shoes”. She apologized and told me that she is gonna go back to the hiring manager and ask him if he would reconsider. I told her not to bother since I am no longer interested.
jeans with either plaid button down if you must dress up or t-shirt or hoody. sneakers.
Maybe this will sound kind of crazy but you could just ask the recruiter... no shit, they’ll actually tell you and won’t think any less of you. Just say “hey... I know the definition of business casual differs from company to company. What’s it mean at Lyft?”
Business casual? If it’s for an engineering role you can wear whatever you want - my interviewers were all wearing tshirts and hoodies (or something similar)
I'm interviewing for an engineering role. A T4/T5 level, for some perspective.
I’ve never heard of business casual for an eng interview (at a tech company). Not sure if your interviewer misspoke or if lyft is just being weird. They have non-binary bathrooms, I imagine they wouldn’t care if your shirt has a collar on it or not