Our CTO commented today that, "there are no ties in technology." I think he was quoting somebody, but I'm not certain. Anyway, his statement was in reference to a QA Engineer candidate who showed up for his interview wearing (what I consider) business semi-formal attire. In other words, he wasn't wearing a suit, but he was wearing a collared shirt with a tie. The tie didn't bother me a bit - but it did stand out. It also got me thinking about how my career has steadily increased my professional responsibility while inversely affecting my attire.
As listed in my LinkedIn profile, I've had four professional software development jobs in my career. At Louisiana-Pacific (LP), I was just out of school and a very junior programmer. Our dress code was dress slacks and collared shirt. Some people wore ties, but most did not. Following that I went to work on the other side of town for Integra Telecom as a mid-level programmer. Their dress code was still very professional, but since IT had our own floor, we got away with a more relaxed appearance. I generally wore khaki pants and polo shirts, but on Fridays we'd go collar-less and sometimes blue jeans.
A few months after we moved to Newberg, I found a job with DAC working out of the bottom floor of a large house on a private vineyard. My responsibility increased a bit more as I was basically given sole responsibility for one of the major subsystems - but still carefully supervised by our chief architect. There were only five of us, and there were no clients and no big bosses, which meant we wore whatever we wanted. Typically I dressed up more than the rest, wearing jeans and polo shirts or nice tee-shirts. But in the warm months, I wore shorts.
Flash forward to today and I'm sitting at work wearing nothing ... just kidding. I'm still wearing jeans and polo shirts, but the dress code is no more formal than it was at DAC. Some of us wear tee-shirts, some wear slacks and polos, and some wear shorts. No one, however, wears a tie. My responsibility has grown even more as I'm now expected to operate with little to no oversight and will likely be directing others as our team grows. It's a challenge I'm really enjoying and I look forward to doing it - in my own style.
Oh, and in case you're wondering; no, the candidate didn't get the job. But it had nothing to do with his appearance...
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The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.
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