<p>I serve on the Board of a local non-profit, a relatively new member. We are hiring a new administrator and will be interviewing the candidates as a group—my first hiring interview. I’m curious about what you would wear in such a situation. I’m thinking I should dress professionally, perhaps a suit or separates with a jacket. Another member said she thought my suggested attire would be ‘overkill’ and she planned to dress more casually. </p>
<p>‘One only gets a single chance to make a first impression’ comes to mind. </p>
<p>I agree that you can’t go wrong with what you were planning to wear. You set the tone for the interview and the non-profit by your attire. I do see a lot of folks working for non-profits dressing sloppily and find it is really a turn-off and doesn’t project a professional image. For the interview, I’d expect the candidates to be wearing a blazer or tailored jacket and business attire.</p>
<p>The interviewer (on the employer side) wears whatever s/he normally wears to work in every interview that I have ever known of.</p>
<p>Of course, if you are a board member who does not do day-to-day work there, then you may have to consider how people who normally work there dress.</p>
<p>I’d say dress how regular workers dress so that the candidate has an idea as to what the office dress is.</p>
<p>For software engineers, we dress casually with the expectation that the candidate is in business attire. They then know how we typically dress in the office and that can be an important part of the attraction of working here because the expectation of a lot of software engineers is casual attire. And yes, people do wear flip-flops in the office.</p>
<p>If you’re in Massachusetts, I would say dress more professionally than you would if you were in, say, California.</p>
<p>As a woman, I would probably wear a grey suit and heels, or a skirt/jacket/camisole combo. I think that a black skirt suit and heels would be overkill.</p>
<p>I interview people a lot with my partner and if I have advance notice, I always make sure I have decent shoes on. Because I’m usually seated in a chair next to the interviewee (and thus my shoes are in view) vs being seated behind a desk (where my shoes wouldn’t be seen). </p>
<p>I guess if you know you’ll be behind a desk or seated at a conference table, I would put more thought into what will be seen (blouse, necklace, scarf).</p>
<p>One person I know who sits in a lot of meetings says she always wears an interesting scarf because it gives her something to look at.</p>
<p>There are lots of typically business casual places where employees step it up a notch in dress for conferences, client meetings, interviews etc.</p>
<p>I think it also depends on what you do. I work at a non-profit and many of our board members come to meetings and such after work and some wear full business formal attire. Others dress more casually but still nicely.</p>
<p>I absolutely don’t think it would be a problem to wear a suit if you’d like, but I think you’d generally be fine with business casual. The only way it would be overkill would be if everyone else in the office was in sloppy jeans – which would have its own issues.</p>