"Dress professionally" is not advice. It's a platitude that means completely different things depending on whether you're interviewing at Figma or Goldman Sachs. Getting it wrong in either direction signals that you haven't done your homework.
The rule is simple: wear what the company wears, one level up. The complication is that the baseline varies enormously. Here's the breakdown by company type, with specific examples.
Figma, Linear, Notion, Vercel - design-led and product-led tech
Employees at these companies are in quality tees, clean sneakers, and dark jeans. Some wear hoodies. The office aesthetic is intentional and casual.
One level up from that: dark, well-fitted jeans (not distressed), a structured tee or simple button-down, clean leather or suede sneakers or loafers. A blazer is too much here. A wrinkled shirt is too little. The goal is "put-together person who works in tech," not "person who dressed up for an interview."
What to avoid: a suit, a tie, anything that reads as "I dressed for a different company." These are design-conscious environments and showing up in business formal reads as a cultural miss.
Google, Meta, Apple, Netflix - FAANG and late-stage public
More range here because these are large companies with many different team cultures. Engineering teams are casual. Finance, legal, and business development teams dress up more.
Safe default: business casual. Dark chinos or tailored trousers, a clean button-down or blouse, leather shoes or quality loafers. A blazer works and won't hurt you. A full suit is uncommon but not offensive for business-facing roles.
If you're interviewing for an engineering or product role at any of these companies, err toward the smart casual end. If you're interviewing for a policy, finance, or legal role, err toward business professional.
Stripe, Rippling, Brex, Palantir - fintech and enterprise SaaS
These companies sit between the design-led startups and traditional finance. The culture is professional but not buttoned-up. Engineers and PMs dress casually; business and ops teams dress a step above.
Business casual is the right call for most roles here. Fitted chinos or dark trousers, a clean collared shirt or blouse, leather shoes. If you're interviewing for a revenue, finance, or ops role, lean toward business professional. A blazer always works.
Stripe in particular has a high-craft aesthetic: clean, minimal, considered. Your outfit should feel that way too.
Series A startup (10–80 people)
This is the context people get wrong most often. Early-stage startups are casual in daily work, but you might be meeting the founders, the CEO, or half the company in a single day of interviews. The stakes feel different.
Don't show up in a suit. Do show up looking like someone who takes the meeting seriously. Smart casual: clean dark jeans, a well-fitting button-down or structured blouse, leather sneakers or loafers. The goal is "person I'd want representing us": put-together, not stiff.
One practical note: early-stage companies often care a lot about culture fit, and showing up overdressed can read as "doesn't understand startups" just as much as underdressing reads as "doesn't take this seriously." Split the difference and land somewhere considered.
Fortune 500 and established enterprise (non-finance)
Think large tech companies outside of FAANG, manufacturing conglomerates, healthcare systems, consumer goods companies. These environments vary more than people expect.
Business professional is safe: dress trousers or a tailored skirt, a blazer, a collared shirt or blouse, dress shoes. A full suit isn't required but won't hurt. Lean conservative on color: navy, charcoal, grey, white.
Research the specific company before defaulting to anything. A Fortune 500 retail company and a Fortune 500 defense contractor will have different cultures even if the headcount is similar.
Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Kirkland & Ellis, Big Four - finance, consulting, law
This is where the old advice applies. Business formal. No exceptions.
Dark suit (navy or charcoal), white or light blue dress shirt, conservative tie for men. Tailored suit or blazer and dress trousers for women, conservative color palette. Shoes polished, bag structured, no distracting accessories.
These industries still run heavily on presentation signals. The interview is partly an evaluation of whether you can represent the firm in front of clients. Deviating from business formal in these environments doesn't read as confident or creative. It reads as unprepared.
Virtual interviews: three rules
Dress as if you're going in-person, minimum from the waist up. The panel you're meeting doesn't know or care that you're at home.
Avoid white tops and all-black looks on camera. White overexposes under typical home lighting; black absorbs shadows and makes you harder to read. Medium tones (blues, greens, grays) work best on screen.
Test your setup the night before. Camera angle, lighting, background. A clean background and soft front lighting does more for how you present than any clothing choice you can make.
What actually gets noticed
Hiring managers who've run hundreds of interviews stop noticing what you're wearing and start noticing what you haven't taken care of: wrinkles, clothes that don't fit, shoes that look like they've been in a closet since 2019.
Fit matters more than formality. A well-fitting pair of chinos and a clean button-down reads more professional than an ill-fitting suit. If you're investing in anything, invest in fit.
Fragrance: minimal or none. Scent sensitivity is common and this is one of the few things interviewers remember negatively without ever saying.
Night-before
Lay out the full outfit. Check for wrinkles, stains, missing buttons. Things you'll only notice when you're five minutes from leaving.
Shoes: clean and appropriate for how much walking you'll do. Don't break in new shoes at an onsite.
Bag: structured leather or canvas tote works everywhere. No backpacks at traditional companies. At casual startups, a clean minimal backpack is fine.
The short version
Look up the company. Look at employees on LinkedIn or the company's team page. Match their level, one step above. In tech, that's almost always smart casual to business casual, not a suit. Prepare it the night before so it's not a variable on the day.
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