Female programmers: what do you wear to work?

April 24, 2012 3:00 PM

Female programmers: what do you wear to work?

I'm starting a junior programming job next week and am struggling to put a wardrobe together. I used to work in admin and wear a lot of skirts and heels. This will no longer do. Which is why I'm asking:

In a business casual environment, what do female programmers wear? What can I wear that will be comfortable but not overly casual? Should I be wearing a lot of collared shirts? Or can I get away with those buttonless sorts of non-sloppy-looking cotton/polyster shirts with some kind of embellishment that make them look a little bit dressy? Plain? Patterned? What kind of shoes do I want to get? What kind of image do I want to project? Any other wardrobe advice is appreciated.

posted by kitcat to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (26 answers total)

It really really depends on the organization. Can you describe what other people (including men) are wearing there?
posted by aabbbiee at 3:15 PM on April 24, 2012

Is your office actually business casual? If so, a standard business casual outfit would be slacks (not jeans), a tidy shirt (a polo, plain T-shirt with no screen printing, button-up, short-sleeved blouse), and shoes that are neither open-toed nor sneakers. You can add a blazer or cardigan on top of the whole thing, which I'd particularly recommend if you go the plain T-shirt route.

If you're having trouble coming up with or picturing outfits that look like this, check out the Gap/Banana Republic/Old Navy "wear to work" sections -- they usually have several pre-fab business casual outfits with pants.
posted by shamash at 3:15 PM on April 24, 2012

I wear jeans and a plain scoop-neck or v-neck T-shirt. For shoes: sandals or low chunky heels. But that's what I wear in my offtime too. One female developer in my department wears a T-shirt, hoodie, jeans, and sneakers; another often wears boots/tights/skirt/hoodie.

For reference, most of the 35-and-under guys in my department wear jeans and T-shirts; over 35-guys wear button shirts with a white t-shirt underneath. Our official dress code is "wear what you want."

My best advice is to wear what you're comfortable in, and what you feel like you look good in.

What did you wear to your interview?
posted by homodachi at 3:17 PM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also: I would recommend you can start your job with a few conservative, non-patterned outfits, and slowly add to your wardrobe as you observe the corporate culture in your particular department. You can't go wrong with dark colored slacks, T-shirt, and cardigan or blazer for the first few days, and start adding in more colorful/casual/personality-reflecting pieces as you acclimate.
posted by shamash at 3:18 PM on April 24, 2012 [4 favorites]

I wore smartish trousers in neutral colours and whatever reasonably nice tops I felt like. I had boots with heels most of the time, and a black pair of trainers when I was lazy - but the kind of trainers that could be mistaken for casual shoes if you don't look too closely. I also have a few neutral dresses, again worn with boots.

Skirts/tights/pumps combos are a bit above "business casual".

Wearing things that are just very slightly kooky or interesting helps differentiate you from the admin staff.

Where I work now it's all about the jeans and hoodies, but I wouldn't call that "business casual".
posted by emilyw at 3:19 PM on April 24, 2012

Response by poster: The only people I know so far are the male team lead and the female HR rep I interviewed with - on a Friday. He wore slacks and a short-sleeved collared shirt and her dress was what you might call 'business sexy' - very nice, but not appropriate for me. The interview was at my school, so I didn't get a chance to peek at others within the company. It's an IT department within a utility company.
posted by kitcat at 3:19 PM on April 24, 2012

All workplaces are different. Rock up in black pants and a nice black top on day one and evaluate from there.
posted by mleigh at 3:21 PM on April 24, 2012 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: At my interview I wore dressy but understated black pants, a light blazer, black collar shirt and interesting heels. I would wear this, I think, to a meeting with clients, but not daily.
posted by kitcat at 3:22 PM on April 24, 2012

Best answer: That's about what my team lead and HR person wear as well. :)
Give the HR person a call and ask if there's a dress code, and what programmers usually wear to work.
You can err conservative your first few days while you figure out what the vibe is; I'd avoid major clothes shopping until then.
posted by homodachi at 3:22 PM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

Where I work (large tech company in California), all tech-oriented employees (other than upper management) pretty much wear nice jeans, tshirts, and hoodies or cardigans. Sometimes you'll see a woman or a man in a button-down shirt or a very casual blazer, but it'll usually be open over a tshirt, worn with jeans. Converse and Toms shoes seem to be ubiquitous.

However, an IT department within a utility company may have a very different standard of dress than your stereotypical California tech company. Sounds like the Gap or Banana Republic "Wear to Work" look may be more along the lines of what you might be looking for. You might want to pick up a few outfits along those lines, and adjust your style accordingly after a week or two.

You really can't go wrong with a few pairs of simple trousers and a few nice shirts of some sort.
posted by erst at 3:28 PM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also: be wary of adhering too much to an official or tacit dress code aimed at men. Your focus should be on looking good and fitting in visually without taking the dress code literally (i.e., just because a place is "business casual" doesn't mean that you must wear polo shirts or button shirts (unless they say so)). That was one of my missteps in my first job out of school--not the hugest mistake in the world, but I had spent money on all these clothes that fit the tacit criteria for being appropriate for work, but that I didn't feel comfortable in.

For example, even if nobody on your team wears printed T-shirts, it doesn't mean you can't get away with a plain scoop-neck one. It's a hard line to walk because you're often the only female programmer, so you have to really listen to your gut. :)
posted by homodachi at 3:35 PM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would definitely hold off on buying tons of clothing until you get a feel for what goes on there. I'm way on the casual side of business casual - we have people in various departments wearing everything from yoga pants/baseball caps to dress shirts/jeans/converse shoes.

The two female programmers (me and one other one) usually wear sweaters and jeans/slacks. Not too dressy, not too casual.
posted by getawaysticks at 3:39 PM on April 24, 2012

I used to wear jeans and t-shirts (usually either nerdy, Threadless, or music-related), but I decided I wanted to look a little bit more mature, so now I wear dark-wash bootcut jeans and nicer shirts, such as solid-color or patterned v-neck or scoop-neck knit or rayon shirts, something with a bit more femininity but still comfortable and casual.
posted by matildaben at 3:44 PM on April 24, 2012

Here in the silicon valley everyone wears anything they feel like. Common for both men and women are jeans and the free t-shirts they give you with the company logo on them. Like others have said, it depends more on where you're working than your job title or gender.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 3:48 PM on April 24, 2012

Echoing "what kind of business are you a programmer for?"

I work at a dotcom; we do jeans and flipflops kind of programmer dress. But you could be a programmer at a finance firm and wear suits every day... I'd echo advice to wait until you're there for a bit before buying a lot of clothes.

As homodachi said, though, if you're the only girl you do get to kind of make up your own general dress code. If you want to wear blouses and dress pants, go for it.

Side note, I sadly find I do pay attention to how I dress so that I don't get too fancy when I attending meetings with folks I don't know. If I'm in jeans, tshirt, sneakers and cardigan I get fewer questions in large meetings that assume I'm an admin instead of technical staff. If I wear heels, a skirt, and a nice blouse and then go to a large meeting with people I don't work with every day, I do get some questions that seem to assume that I work as an admin. YMMV. I just chalk it up the extreme scarcity of women in these meetings and shrug it off best as I can, but if it will bother you, then you might want to lean more towards dressing like sloppy programmer style at first. Yes, this is lame.
posted by lyra4 at 3:50 PM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

I would say wear slacks, simple flats, and a blouse on your first day, and then look around and go shopping if you don't have enough of the type of clothes that people wear. Even if everyone is super casual there, it doesn't hurt to look nice on your first day!
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 3:53 PM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm probably the last person in the world to be answering a fashion question, but I am a female programmer, and I just started a new job with a new dress code, so to give you some data points:

(FYI, this is in San Diego, which tends towards the casual end of any given dress code.)

My last job was with a defense contractor. The office was almost entirely technical folks, and the clothes ranged from things I wouldn't wear out of my house for a few people to slacks and button-downs. I pretty much wore dark (but not "dressy") jeans and plain t-shirts, polos, or sweaters with the occasional button-down. My office was cold, so I usually had some kind of jacket or zip up sweater on. Khakis/slacks and collared shirts were reserved for business trips. Brown or black sneakers regardless. I don't think I ever wore anything but jeans into the office for fear of looking like I was interviewing.

My new job is with a medical services company. The office is probably 40/60 tech/non-tech. Most of the non-tech people have medical administrative backgrounds. The dress code here is officially business casual Monday - Wednesday and jeans/t-shirts Thursday and Friday. I do see a lot of people wear jeans earlier in the week. I'm mostly wearing what I would have worn on business trips at the old place, but I think I'm still playing it safe. Of my two closest teammates, the woman seems to be mostly wearing cargo pants, and I rarely see the guy out of a hoody (still in slacks though). The non-tech people definitely dress nicer.

Like everyone else is saying, it depends. I'd stay out of jeans for the first week (barring explicit casual days) and go from there. You probably don't need to be in heels and a blazer either.
posted by natabat at 4:11 PM on April 24, 2012

In my office, we have 20 or so people, 13 are engineers (if I count right). Of the 13 engineers, 3 are women. Two of them wear t-shirts or casual tops and jeans or khakis. Very casual. The other, by her choice, dresses goth-chic. Most of the male engineers wear t-shirts and jeans/khakis, although one of the engineers wears button down shirts regularly, but I don't think I've ever seen them tucked in.

Out parent company is very much more formal where button downs are di-rigeur.
posted by plinth at 4:14 PM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I used to be a dev - now I'm a sysadmin, but have always been the only woman in the techie dept at my various workplaces. Today I wore a short denim skirt with long striped socks over tights, combat boots and a nyan cat t-shirt. This or jeans/Converse is and has always been pretty standard for me. I don't actually think we have a dress code, though. For a while last year I had scarlet hair and no one batted an eyelid.

My first week or so I think I wore smarter tops with slacks/boots, and gradually faded into (very) casual. Best to err on the side of caution.
posted by corvine at 4:16 PM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

The two female programmers (me and one other one) usually wear sweaters and jeans/slacks. Not too dressy, not too casual. (Quoting myself) But on Fridays or days we have ice cream or root beer floats or whatever, I might wear a nerdy t-shirt like matildaben said above.
posted by getawaysticks at 5:12 PM on April 24, 2012

Best answer: I (a female) once worked as a programmer at a utility company. We wore dressy slacks, pretty much any kind of shirt/blouse that wasn't a cotton t-shirt, and dress shoes. In my experience, utility companies tend to be a little more conservative than other industries, but this is very much a generalization. I would wear your interview outfit the first day, and when you're being introduced to your coworkers, notice what they wear. Or take a few minutes to walk around on your own and check out everyone's clothes.

Whatever wardrobe you end up acquiring, be sure to get a nice neutral cardigan to keep at work to throw on when it's cold. Surprisingly, it's often colder indoors in the summer months when the air conditioning is cranked up high.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:25 PM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

Where I work the female engineers range from dressing in skirts and biz casual to wearing ratty t-shirts and shorts. No one cares. The ones -- male and female -- who are biding their time and want out of engineering into PLM or marketing seem to dress a bit nicer.
posted by rr at 6:45 PM on April 24, 2012

On the job, I dress like Mary Poppins, but I'm a weirdo, so there's that.

The other gals in IT tend to wear slacks and lightweight sweaters. You could start with that, and see what flies once you've been there awhile.

(This is a somewhat old-school, stodgy non-tech company.)
posted by quivering_fantods at 7:51 PM on April 24, 2012

I work as a programmer in a mostly business casual environment (defense contractor). In my office the as the roles get more technical the interpretation of "business casual" gets sloppier... I wear flats, slacks and a plain (non printed) t-shirt most days in the summer or a plain sweater in the winter. The other women in the department are in more business-y roles and tend to dress up a little nicer with jewelry and blouses/cardigans/layering.. complicated stuff that I don't understand..
posted by everybody polka at 9:18 PM on April 24, 2012

First day, I usually black slacks, a dressy-casual shirt ('dressy' enough to wear to dinner with family, but not a button-down formal look), and a black blazer or shrug jacket that I could pull on or take off during the day depending on how formal I wanted to look.

That also happens to be my interview outfit.

If you were comfortable in yours during the interview, I would suggest to wear it again for your first day. Being a bit better dressed on the first day is a common behavior, and you can make a note of what your co-workers are wearing.
posted by Lady Li at 11:56 PM on April 24, 2012

Best answer: Blazers. I have many, many blazers. For one, they are a nice layer in the chilly offices. And for another, they make both sparkly camisoles and witty graphic tees look good. Underneath the blazer is a toss-up between formal and casual (dress shirts/camisoles or funny tees). I'll wear jeans or a skirt, and either Sketchers or cute flats. Jewelry, perfume, and cosmetics depends on my mood.

I will occasionally go fully dressed up to work, and people will joke that marketing has come to give a presentation. Sometimes I'll wear something ModCloth-y, but then I tend to look like a total child. So the mix of blazers/layers helps me to have both structure and leeway at work and still look snappy.
posted by ntartifex at 3:33 AM on April 25, 2012