Genre and Sub Genre — Verbal Folklore: Orally relayed experiences and beliefs

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Hailing from Bellevue, Washington, Andrew Liu is a junior at Dartmouth College majoring in Computer Science and Math. He has been successful in securing both winter and summer consulting internships. He is interested in tech sector as well, and has been looking at specific firms in the area.

Social/Cultural Context: In a country where employment opportunities abound, it is often hard for people to decide what it is they want to do professionally. And given the myriad of choices one often has, it becomes imperative to do one’s due diligence about different fields of work so one can make an informed decision about what one’s best career path may be. In the same vein, it is also important for one to pursue something they’re passionate about. This is something particularly emphasized in American culture and impressed upon graduating college students. And so, in order to understand this particular aspect of corporate recruiting, we collected folklore surrounding the experiences and beliefs people had with respect to pursuing particular fields of work, and in this particular case, Consulting. To this end, Andrew Liu was interviewed by Mark Cui one-on-one in a quiet area in the library. We interviewed other individuals as well, but for the sake of brevity, have simply included some of their insights here.

Item: Andrew Liu cited a host of different reasons for pursuing Consulting. He noted the opportunity to work in a vast array of different industries as being particularly compelling. He also cited the opportunity to help companies contending with a vast array of different problems as being something that drew him to Consulting. He also cited his interest in the more theoretical aspects of problem solving vs. implementation as being something that motivated his interest in Consulting. Others interviewed noted the ability to develop hard and soft skills within Consulting as being something that drew them to consulting. The wide-transferability of skills one develops in Consulting is also something that made consulting compelling for some of our interviewers. Also the ability to travel frequently and all around the world was something we heard time and time again by our informants as being particular selling point for Consulting.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 00:00 — 1:12

Transcript of Associated File:

• Mark Cui: How does that goal align with your pursuit of Consulting?

• Andrew Liu: So I think Consulting is a very interesting field in that you.. you get exposed to a diverse set of industries… you’re not limited to just one sector that you stay in for a long time.. Um.. and so .. there are advantages and drawbacks .. one of the advantage are that you get to .. hopefully .. help out people in very different circumstances … and so you might have one case in the healthcare industry and then another case in the tech industry and you can help out both companies… in that process.. ultimately .. you get to solve some of the problems they are facing.. .and help the companies

Collector’s Comments:

• Informant was very lucid and had a good understanding of the motivations behind pursuing a career in Consulting and why he himself was particularly drawn to Consulting.

Collector’s Name:

• Mark Cui

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Folklore, Experiences, Shared Beliefs

Genre and Sub Genre — Verbal Folklore: Finance Stereotypes

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Matthew Kang is a senior at Dartmouth College and an Economics major. Matt is from Tallahassee, Florida, where his parents work for the state government. He has participated in numerous rounds of finance recruiting interviews here at Dartmouth, and he has had finance internships ranging from venture capital to investment banking. He will also begin his career in the finance industry after graduation in New York City. On campus, Matt is part of Dartmouth Business Journal and Dartmouth Finance Society.  

Social Context: Given prevalence of notions surrounding the type of character that pursues Finance, the folklore in question here is shared amongst people of all interests, all of years, and of all sexes.

Cultural Context: It is often said that those who pursue Finance exhibit certain behaviors and characteristics. And given how often people are inclined to construe professionals in Finance or those aspiring to positions in Finance in a specific way, we might characterize these deeply entrenched ideas about Finance more generally as stereotypes. We were therefore interested in exploring the stereotypes people generally ascribe to “Finance people”, be they positive or negative. Towards that end, Joseph Wang interviewed Matthew Kang one-on-one in a quiet area in the library.

Item: Matthew noted a host of different stereotypes within Finance. For example, he noted that people who go into Finance are often construed as being greedy and prestige-hungry. He also noted it is generally believed that people who pursue careers in Finance tend to be good with numbers, driven, hard working, intelligent, and ambitious. He also noted that Finance is generally construed as being very cut-throat and hyper-competitive. Another one of the the stereotypes he noted is that networking and connections sometimes beats out meritocracy.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 2:01 — 3:10

Transcript of Associated File:

• Joseph Wang: What are the kind of general positive and negative stereotypes about the Finance Industry as a whole?

• Matthew Kang: …So I’ll start with positives.. Surrounded by a ton of smart people.. So I think the general stereotype of a Finance person would be like very intelligent..you know good with numbers… very driven .. hardworking.. These are all positive stereotypes… in terms of negative stereotypes I think.. greedy.. you  know corporate.. Doesn’t really care about social issues or humanitarian issues.. More focused on actually making money … sort of cut-throat .. very competitive. Another potential negative thing about it would be .. you know like the idea that networking sometimes beats out meritocracy.. you  know smart people don’t always necessarily get the best jobs.. I think that counts as a negative

• Joseph Wang: Awesome!

General Comments:

• We generally heard the same stereotypes about Finance people echoed among all our informants. We heard them described as being, ambitious, greedy smart, snakes, and a host of other adjectives, some good and some rather unsavory. There were no meaningful variances in the accounts we received.

Collector’s Name:

• Joseph Wang

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Folklore, Finance Stereotypes, Good & Bad

Genre and Sub Genre — Verbal Folklore: Riddles & Brainteasers

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Nan hu ’18 is a senior here at Dartmouth. He is a computer science and mathematics double major. Nan is from Seattle, Washington, where his parents worked in the technology sector. Nan interned twice, once sophomore summer as a software engineer at a company called Pegasystems in Cambridge, MA, and another time junior summer as a software engineer at Microsoft. He is a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. After graduation, Nan will return to Microsoft as a software engineer.

Social Context: Given that aspiring Tech professionals are often anxious about what technical questions they can expect within interviews, they will often ask more senior undergraduates what particular questions they encountered within their interviews. The folklore in question here is therefore shared among “techies” of both sexes, and of all academic years.

Cultural Context: Given the very competitive nature of Tech interviews and the premium placed on the ability to think in a structured and logical way, interviewers will often ask prospective candidates to solve complex technical questions, relating to coding or otherwise, on the spot. Given the prevalence of this particular practice, we wanted to gather definitive stories illustrative of people being asked to solve complex questions, or brain teasers as they are often called, within the context of a tech interview. Towards that end, Trent Shillingford, one of our collectors, interviewed Nan Hu on-one-one in quiet setting in the library.

Item: Nan Hu noted having been asked to solve the following question. He was asked by the interviewer to, after having been given restrictive parameters within which to operate in looking for a potential solution, to find the next highest  palindrome of any given number

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 14:45 — 16:50

Transcript of Associated File:

• Trent Shillingford: What is a question that was out of left field for you when you had your interview?

• Nan Hu: …Um the questions I received during the interviews seemed pretty reasonable.. Although I think… I guess .. I don’t really have any specific examples off the top of my head but I think some more general out of the blue ones.. are if there are a lot of stricter parameters on the problem so basically.. Sort of it’s a problem that you might be able to solve but they are they expecting or trying to push you to solve it in a specific way that you might not know or that you’re not comfortable with or just like generally hard problems.. There are algorithmically difficult problems that can be given you to solve .. like what the heck.. Something from the general category that everyone knows is difficult

• Trent Shillingford: Can you give me an example of an interview question that you had and how you solved it .. high level ?

• Nan Hu: Essentially… ahh .. so the question was given a number, find the next highest palindrome.. So, basically let’s say I give you a 100, you have to write a function that returns 101

Collector’s Name:

• Trent Shillingford

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Folklore, Trick Questions, Riddles, Brain Teasers

Genre and Sub Genre — Verbal Folklore: Urban Legends (Unsuccessful Interviews)

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Matthew Kang is a senior at Dartmouth College and an Economics major. Matt is from Tallahassee, Florida, where his parents work for the state government. He has participated in numerous rounds of finance recruiting interviews here at Dartmouth, and he has had finance internships ranging from venture capital to investment banking. He will also begin his career in the finance industry after graduation in New York City. On campus, Matt is part of Dartmouth Business Journal and Dartmouth Finance Society.  

Social Context: Given that aspiring Finance professionals are often looking for ways to ensure their success in Finance interviews, they often inquire about stories of unsuccessful interviews in order to know what exactly they should avoid doing. The folklore in question is therefore shared among aspiring finance professionals, of both sexes, and those pursuing business degrees or with interests in pursuing a career in Business.

Cultural Context: Given the very competitive nature of Finance interviews, it is said that interviewers may often be looking for things by which to revoke one’s candidacy. And because this can often be the case, people are advised to not lie on their resumes, overstate their particular involvement in any endeavor, or engage in any action that might otherwise call into question their eligibility or fit for a particular position. Because there are so many things people can do to undermine their candidacy, we were looking for definitive stories illustrative of people behaving in ways harmful to their chances of securing employment in Finance. Towards this end, Joseph Wang interviewed Matthew Kang one-on-one in a quiet area in the library.

Item: Matthew Kang cited having heard a story of an individual who had two superdays on the same day and pocketed the money one of the firms gave him for lodging as opposed to letting one firm know that he would not need the monetary funds. Much to the individual in question’s dismay, the two individuals that interviewed him spoke and somehow discovered the interviewee’s deceit. Needless to say, the interviewee’s candidacy was  revoked at both firms and he was left without a job.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 4:35 — 5:41

Transcript of Associated File:

• Joseph Wang: And then the last question I have is… Kind of urban legends about successful vs. unsuccessful interviews.. What have you heard within your…  from your peers.. In the Finance industry .. about urban legends surrounding that

• Matthew Kang: So I heard one pretty funny story about that… this is a negative story.. So usually when you go into the city like New York for a final round interview.. The company will pay for your hotel and your bus ticket… so this one guy I heard.. Got two final rounds in the city on the same day.. And two companies were offering to pay for his hotel.. So he stayed at one hotel.. And pocketed the money from the second firm to stay at the hotel.. Then they figured out.. because apparently the people that interviewed him talked.. The two people at the different firms talked then they realized… that he did this… definitely a horror story that people tell to deter you from doing that..

Collector’s Name:

• Joseph Wang

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Folklore, Urban Legends, Unsuccessful Interviews, Horror Story

Genre and Sub Genre — Verbal Folklore: Urban Legends (Successful Interviews)

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data:Caroline Hsu is a senior at Dartmouth College and an Economics major. Caroline is from Middletown, New Jersey, where her father is an engineer and her mother is a nurse. Similar to many other seniors going into finance, she has done multiple corporate recruiting rounds and received internships in investment banking. After graduation, Caroline will most likely go into consulting. On campus, Caroline works as a Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Associate, an Undergraduate Advisor, and a sister in Kappa Delta.

Social Context: Given that aspiring Finance professionals are often looking for ways to ensure their success in Finance interviews, they often inquire about stories of successful interviews in order to discern what in particular made someone successful. The folklore in question is therefore shared among aspiring finance professionals, of both sexes, and those pursuing business degrees or with interests in pursuing a career in Business.

Cultural Context: It is often said that people skills are more determinative of one’s success than technical skills. This particular adage, if one can call it that, rings particularly true in fields of work such as Finance. And because we had this general sense, we wanted to inquire around so as to find definitive stories illustrating the principle in question. Towards this end, Joseph Wang interviewed Caroline Hsu in a quiet area in the library.

Item: Caroline Hsu notes having heard a story of a student interviewing for a position in Investment Banking who spoke with his interviewer about golf the entire interview, as opposed to something more substantive like Credit Default Swaps or Put Options. And because the student spoke about golf, found a commonality between he and the interviewer, and ultimately connected with the interviewer, he secured a very competitive position at an Investment Bank.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 7:40 — 8:22

Transcript of Associated File:

• Joseph Wang: What about more successful type of interviews.. Like what urban legends have you heard that led to a positive outcome ?

• Caroline Hsu: Umm… I think being confident..I mean.. I can’t speak to any particular story.. But being confident in general and preparing super hard and trying to connect.. .oh actually..so I think this goes along with what I said about.. ahh.. trying to connect on a personal level.. I heard one time my friend .. um.. is really good at golfing.. So he spent the entire time talking about golfing with his interviewer and he got the job.. I think that goes along with connecting on a personal level with your interviewer

Collector’s Name:

• Joseph Wang

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Folklore, Urban Legends, Successful Interviews

Genre and Sub Genre — Customary Folklore: Behavior, Tradition, Practice

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Esteban Acevedo is from Westchester NY. He is a neuroscience major and a senior. In his free time, he enjoys playing racquetball, watching movies and hanging out with friends. Currently, he is doing corporate recruiting and has interviewed with several companies in NYC.

Social Context: Given the stakes involved in Consulting interviews, aspiring Consultants are often antsy about how it is they ought to behave in an interview. And so much like the case in the other folklore collected here, more junior undergraduates will reach out to those who have done Consulting interviews in order to get a better sense of how they ought to behave. And so the customary folklore in question here is shared among males and females, those generally pursuing business related degrees, and between those who are more junior and those more senior in their academic careers.

Cultural Context: Given that people who work in Consulting share a set of common beliefs and practices, they themselves constitute a folk group, a folk group to which one is seeking entry when one recruits for a job in Consulting. In light of this fact, one has to exhibit certain behaviors and characteristics that someone already in the sought-after capacity might display. In order to explore what exactly constitutes the “right behavior”, one of our collectors, Danny Li, interviewed Esteban Acevedo one-on-one in Novack in order to get a better sense for the right behaviors.

Item: Esteban noted that one must exhibit one’s knowledge about the Consultancy with which one is interviewing. He also noted that one must be able to articulate why they are interested in Consulting. He also noted that one must be calm during the interview and that no matter what transpires, one should retain their composure. Authenticity is also something he cited as being very important for one to display during a Consulting Interview.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 5:49 — 6:20

Transcript of Associated File:

• Danny Li: What do you think is key to you landing a job .. and doing well in an interview?

• Esteban Acevedo: There are a lot of things that are important… You have to um.. You have to… know why Consulting.. why the company.. You have to have those things be clear… You have to like.. Prepare for cases.. I think it is important to remain calm… I think it’s important to be authentic.. Yea.. things like that

Collector’s Comments:

• Esteban’s extensive experience in the Consulting interviews has made him a particularly interesting person to speak with and someone who in particular has illuminating thoughts on the customary folklore associated with Consulting recruiting

General Comments:

• Our informants generally noted that one should exhibit a high-level of personal hygiene and that one should dress business formal with a well-fitting suit. Given the uniformity of our responses, no variances were discerned.

Collector’s Name:

• Danny Li

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore, Consulting Interview Behavior, Practice, Interview Tradition

Genre and Sub Genre — Material Folklore: Consulting Interview Dress

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Kai Yan was born in Guangzhou, China and moved to Iowa at a young age. He is a senior at Dartmouth College majoring in Economics and Chinese, and will be working at Parthenon-EY full-time in the fall. His favorite hobby is playing basketball.

Social Context: Given that appropriate dress within the contexts of interviews, Consulting or otherwise, can often be a confusing issue for many prospective interviewees, interviewees will reach out to those who have conducted interviews and have ideally secured offers from the interviews in question. And so the material folklore in question here is shared among more junior undergraduates, who have yet to really begin recruiting in earnest, and those who are more senior  and who more than likely have secured offers and have already worked in professional capacities. This folklore again is shared amongst both males and females, and among those pursuing degrees in Business more generally.

Cultural Context: Appropriate dress is something emphasized in cultures throughout the world. However, what constitutes appropriate dress changes based on the situation or the particular context one finds one’s self in. Given the highly competitive nature of Consulting Interviews and the myriad of things one needs to get “right” in order to secure an offer, we wanted to explore how one ought to dress in a Consulting interview and get a better sense for what constitutes appropriate dress. Towards this end, Kai Yan was interviewed by Mark Cui one-on-one in a study room in the library.

Item: Kai Yan noted that one must wear a well-fitting suit and that one must be cleanly shaven. He noted that one should also wear a tie. He also noted that one should maintain a high level of personal hygiene.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 7:45 — 8:10

Transcript of Associated File:

• Mark Cui: What’s the Perfect way to dress for an interview in Consulting?

• Kai Yan: Definitely wear a suit … Make sure it’s not too baggy.. um .. it’s not 2002 anymore or the 2004 NBA draft with everyone’s suits like that .. so make sure you’re dressed clean.. Make sure you’re cleanly shaven … have a good tie….

General Comments:

• By and large, what we were told by our informants jibe. No meaningful variances noted.

Collector’s Name:

• Mark Cui

Tags/Keywords:

• Material Folklore, Consulting Interviews, Dress, Appearance

Genre and Sub Genre — Verbal Folklore: Orally relayed experiences and beliefs

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Hailing from Bellevue, Washington, Andrew Liu is a junior at Dartmouth College majoring in Computer Science and Math. He has been successful in securing both winter and summer consulting internships. He is interested in tech sector as well, and has been looking at specific firms in the area.

Social Context: Given the very high-stakes nature of Consulting jobs and the host of sacrifices one is compelled to make as a junior employee, prospective graduates must have a high level of conviction that a career in Consulting is truly something they want to pursue. In light of that, senior undergraduate students will often question those younger than them who ostensibly want to go into Consulting why exactly it is they think they might be interested in Consulting. As such, the folklore in question is not only circulated among Econ and Business majors more generally, but among those who are more junior and those who are more senior in their undergraduate careers. This verbal folklore is shared amongst both males and females who aspire to careers in Consulting.

Cultural Context: In a country where employment opportunities abound, it is often hard for people to decide what it is they want to do professionally. And given the myriad of choices one often has, it becomes imperative to do one’s due diligence about different fields of work so one can make an informed decision about what one’s best career path may be. In the same vein, it is also important for one to pursue something they’re passionate about. This is something particularly emphasized in American culture and impressed upon graduating college students. And so, in order to understand this particular aspect of corporate recruiting, we collected folklore surrounding the experiences and beliefs people had with respect to pursuing particular fields of work, and in this particular case, Consulting. To this end, Andrew Liu was interviewed by Mark Cui one-on-one in a quiet area in the library. We interviewed other individuals as well, but for the sake of brevity, have simply included some of their insights here.

Item: Andrew Liu cited a host of different reasons for pursuing Consulting. He noted the opportunity to work in a vast array of different industries as being particularly compelling. He also cited the opportunity to help companies contending with a vast array of different problems as being something that drew him to Consulting. He also cited his interest in the more theoretical aspects of problem solving vs. implementation as being something that motivated his interest in Consulting. Others interviewed noted the ability to develop hard and soft skills within Consulting as being something that drew them to consulting. The wide-transferability of skills one develops in Consulting is also something that made consulting compelling for some of our interviewers. Also the ability to travel frequently and all around the world was something we heard time and time again by our informants as being particular selling point for Consulting.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 00:00 — 1:12

Transcript of Associated File:

• Mark Cui: How does that goal align with your pursuit of Consulting?

• Andrew Liu: So I think Consulting is a very interesting field in that you.. you get exposed to a diverse set of industries… you’re not limited to just one sector that you stay in for a long time.. Um.. and so .. there are advantages and drawbacks .. one of the advantage are that you get to .. hopefully .. help out people in very different circumstances … and so you might have one case in the healthcare industry and then another case in the tech industry and you can help out both companies… in that process.. ultimately .. you get to solve some of the problems they are facing.. .and help the companies

Collector’s Comments:

• Informant was very lucid and had a good understanding of the motivations behind pursuing a career in Consulting and why he himself was particularly drawn to Consulting.

General Comments:

• By and large, what we were told by our informants jibe. No meaningful variances noted.

Collector’s Name:

• Mark Cui

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Folklore, Experiences, Shared Beliefs

Genre and Sub Genre — Customary Folklore: Behavior, Tradition, Practice

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Deven Orie ’19 hails from Queens, NY. He is currently a Junior studying economics and computer science. His parents work as radiologic technicians at NYU. He has always been passionate about technology, especially programming, and he had hopes of becoming a software engineer at one of the big tech companies in this kind of position; at Dartmouth, he created the social media app called Kipper, which shows how many people are in every building on campus and has an anonymous chat. However, this year has been one of discovery for him: he realized that his preference is not to become a software engineer, but a project manager within the technology sector. Deven is member of Chi Gamma Epsilon.

Social Context: Given the stakes involved in Tech interviews, aspiring Tech professionals are often antsy about how it is they ought to behave in an interview. And so much like the case in the other folklore collected here, more junior undergraduates will reach out to those who have done Tech interviews in order to get a better sense of how they ought to behave. And so the customary folklore in question here is shared among males and females, those generally pursuing more quantitative related degrees, and between those who are more junior and those more senior in their academic careers.

Cultural Context: Given that people who work in Technology share a set of common beliefs and practices, they themselves constitute a folk group, a folk group to which one is seeking entry when one recruits for a job in Technology. In light of this fact, one has to exhibit certain behaviors and characteristics that someone already in the sought-after capacity might display. In order to explore what exactly constitutes the “right behavior”, one of our collectors, Trent Shillingford, interviewed Deven Orie one-on-one in a study room in the library in order to get a better sense for the right behaviors.

Item: Deven Orie noted a host of behaviors one should exhibit during a tech interview in order to be successful. He noted that one must exhibit one’s technical competency while simultaneously illustrating that one has a wholesome grasp of all the different aspects related to designing and ultimately building a product. He also noted that one should exhibit their knowledge of business more generally, particularly if one is interested in securing a managerial role in tech. He also noted that one must exhibit extensive knowledge about the company one is interviewing with. Deven also noted one’s ability to communicates one’s technical as well as soft skills as being largely determinative of one’s success in securing a job offer. Finally, he noted that one should remain professional and exhibit the level of decorum and comportment that is expected of an interviewee.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion:  7:30 — 8:57

Transcript of Associated File:

• Trent Shillingford: What are some of the things that happened in your interview? What are some of the things you picked up on? ….

• Deven Orie: You know… ah I think during the interview… they wanted to see if you were technically skilled while at the same time … you were able to think… you were able to have a wholesome overview of the design thinking aspect…. Its seems that a lot of the PM’s that work for microsoft are very technically skilled and they like technically skilled PM’s who can code reasonably well and who can also think in the minds of consumers .. .so the interviews were also based around design thinking and how you would think about building a product for a user or how you code something out on a whiteboard

Collector’s Comments:

• Deven’s extensive experience in the tech space has made him a particularly interesting person to speak with and someone who in particular has illuminating thoughts on the customary folklore associated with tech recruiting

General Comments:

• Virtually universal and uniform findings here. No meaningful variances noted in what was relayed.

Collector’s Name:

• Trent Shillingford

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore, Tech Interview Behavior, Practice, Interview Tradition

Genre and Sub Genre — Material Folklore: Tech Interview Dress

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Emily Lin is a senior at Dartmouth College and a Computer Science and German double major. Emily is from Richardson, Texas, where her mother is a dentist and her father is an engineer. After graduation, Emily will work as a software engineer. On campus, Emily is the sponsorship and marketing director of HackDartmouth and is a sister in Kappa Delta.

Social Context: Given that appropriate dress within the contexts of interviews, Tech or otherwise, can often be a confusing issue for many prospective interviewees, interviewees will reach out to those who have conducted interviews and have ideally secured offers from the interviews in question. And so the material folklore in question here is shared among more junior undergraduates, who have yet to really begin recruiting in earnest, and those who are more senior  and who more than likely have secured offers and have already worked in professional capacities. This folklore again is shared amongst both males and females, and among those pursuing degrees in Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics.

Cultural Context: Appropriate dress is something emphasized in cultures throughout the world. However, what constitutes appropriate dress changes based on the situation or the particular context one finds one’s self in. Given the highly competitive nature of Tech Interviews and the myriad of things one needs to get “right” in order to secure an offer, we wanted to explore how one ought to dress in a Tech interview and get a better sense for what constitutes appropriate dress. Towards this end, Emily Lin was interviewed by Yixuan He one-on-one in a study room in the library.

Item: Interestingly enough, Emily Lin noted that dressing in any particular manner was not emphasized for tech interviews. She intimated that one had a greater level of latitude in dress for tech interviews as opposed to what one might encounter in either Finance or Consulting interviews. She noted that a nice pair of jeans and a shirt are fine. She also noted that many companies, in the interview preparation packets they provide, urge students to wear whatever they would be most comfortable in. She also notes that one would actually be out of place wearing a suit to an interview. Based on what she intimated, one gets the sense that dress is not as important in tech interviews. The emphasis is more on one’s technical competency as opposed to one’s appearance.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 5:55 —  6:49

Transcript of Associated File:

• Yixuan He: What about for interviews…?
• Emily Lin: It’s a little bit fancier… So Jeans and a nice shirt effectively .. You could wear whatever you want … um..
• Yixuan He: What would happen if you showed up in a suit?
• Emily Lin: Nothing would happen..
• Yixuan He: Would they think negatively of you?
• Emily Lin: I don’t think so.. It’s just out of place… When you get your interview packet … where they tell you how to prepare… they tell you to wear whatever you want

Informant’s Comments:

• Don’t stress about your outfit in tech interviews!

Collector’s Comments:

• Informant’s perspective was particularly illuminating. This aspect of tech corporate recruiting folklore, namely the material folklore of tech recruiting, is not always something the broader public necessarily has an appreciation for.

General Comments:

• The only variance noted here was that one informant suggested a suit and blazer for an interview, whereas the other two informants suggested one had a great level of latitude in terms of dress with respect to interviews. This variance could perhaps be a consequence of the particular tech roles being interviewed for.

Collector’s Name:

• Yixuan He

Tags/Keywords:

• Material Folklore, Tech Interviews, Dress, Appearance