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      04-22-2013, 11:04 AM   #33
reedo302
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That's fine to go with. The thing to avoid at all cost is the khakis with shirt, tie and blazer. Or the pants with shirt and tie, no sport coat/blazer. I have been involved in interviews at my agency and while we don't knock people for the type of suit they wear, we do knock people who don't wear actual suits.

Khakis, shirt, tie and blazer (usually blue/navy) means you took the lazy way out and bought a blazer to go with your church clothes. If you can't be bothered to buy an actual suit, you won't get very far. A lot of the inexperienced younger applicants do this, which is why we don't typically hire them very often. They all look the same. They need to borrow money from mom and dad, or ask for it for a birthday present, or they need to go to Mens Wearhouse and get a clearance priced suit. We could care less, just wear a matched suit.

Shirt and tie w/ no jacket means you aren't taking the process seriously. You don't think this is a formal enough or important enough event to necessitate a suit. We then don't think it's an important enough effort to invite you back for a second interview.

There's a new thing recently with wearing a shirt, tie and jacket with fashionable "dressy" jeans and dress shoes. For us, showing up with jeans is an automatic fail. I don't care if the jeans are $200 designer jeans, they're still jeans and you fail. This is typically with people who are big into looking trendy and fashionable. It's better to look like you're going to a funeral than to a fashion show.

I can generally tell the difference between a cheap suit and a good suit, but so long as the applicant is wearing a suit in the first place, it's all kosher and I leave it at that. Shoes do need to be dress shoes, not Doc Martens or Lugz.
Suit fitment also is important. Not for looking trendy, but for the fact that many people tend to put on weight and then try to squeeze themselves into a suit. If your suit fits poorly, you look sloppy.

And also, as stated in a previous post, look at what their stance is on hygiene and grooming. Not policy, but their view/stance. We have very strict standards for no earrings/facial/mouth jewelry for men, and for women it's only one earring per ear. We also have requirements for hair length and facial hair. Being in law enforcement, the only people allowed to show up to interviews looking like hippies or bums are guys who are working for other agencies in undercover or investigative roles. Kids just out of college better not show up with shaggy hair, earrings or goatees. Sadly, we get these kids coming in looking like that, and when we ask why they didn't get a hair cut, they either say "I just did", or "I want to wait until I get a job offer before I cut my hair". We then explain to them that they need to show up looking like they want to do the job from the start and groom accordingly. If your mentality is that you won't meet our standards before the interview, our mentality is that you have a sense of entitlement about you, and as such we will immediately deposit your application in the shredder.
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