Dress code for tech business training in California

score:3

Accepted answer

Some general advice that might apply anywhere, except that in general a suit is "fail safe" and I think for the bay area you should aim for something less formal:

  • Be sure you are comfortable with what you choose (you want to exude confidence and not be distracted in any way by something as mundane as clothing).
  • If in doubt, dress casual. As a traveller you have some excuse and even if the company you visit is formal the staff would probably envy, possibly respect, your choice.
  • Be smart. So perhaps buy new, quality, clothes specially for the visit.
  • Don’t wear anything that is associated with your origin – it would only serve to reinforce any preconceptions (ie don’t wear camouflage if you come from a hunting area!) Better be seen as (slightly) eccentric than a caricature of your origins.
  • If visiting for more than a day make sure you have a change of clothes that would allow you, on subsequent days, to blend in and, hopefully, dissipate any unfavourable impression from the first day.
  • I’d suggest something like a jacket, white shirt and black jeans/chinos to start with. That can easily be made formal by keeping the jacket on, or (the next day) less with a coloured shirt and hanging up the jacket.
  • Carry a tie on you. It might not be too late to put it on if you find that seems to be the dress code and you find you are about to be presented to a bigwig or taken to a fancy restaurant.
  • Check out the company's web site. If they have pictures of the Board anything less than suits and ties is a sign that casual is "the way to go". (Any chance you know someone who knows someone who has visited there recently?)

Upvote:1

I mainly agree with @pnuts answer but feel that points 2 (dress casual) and 6 (jacket, white shirt, and chinos/black jeans) are in conflict. So some things to think about

Because you are not going there for training only, but to meet other software engineers and foster a stronger relationship between the two companies, I believe you should dress in business casual. Another way to look at this--if you were representing the company in a booth at a conference, what would you wear? Probably not jeans and a t-shirt that advertises your favorite band. Chinos/dockers, not jeans, a polo (at minimum) or button-down shirt, not a t-shirt.

If you feel comfortable with one or more of the other software engineers already, ask what their boss wears--not what they wear.

Upvote:3

Although I'm not living there now, I spent 25 years in the Bay Area. Although in a number of companies like Google and Facebook, I am sure there are lots of programmers wearing T-shirts and jeans, I think it would be safer to wear chinos/khakis and either a polo shirt or a buttoned shirt, but probably not white. With latter, I would think a sweater would be too formal.

No suits. Not even a sport coat.

For shoes, you can either wear traditional leather loafers (certainly not wingtips) or non-athletic sneakers (sort of a contradiction in terms, but I'm sure you know what I mean).

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