[Closed] Brown shoes and loud ties hamper bankers

As a fresh faced 18 year old in the City I wore brown shoes my first week and a double breasted suit with a slight greenness to it 😯 ... bear in mind it was the early 90's and I was the first in my family ever to don a whistle for work... I didn't have a clue

Got told in no uncertain terms not wear the shoes again and that if I wanted to wear green I should go and work for Havering borough council ... 😆

by and large I'm not bothered about the dress code stuff - even I can manage to wear a suit for a job interview. But stuff like this makes me chuckle -

Dont wear brown shoes, silly ties, comedy socks and silly cufflinks.

...a reminder that there are people out there for whom wearing a pair of brogues is functionally the same as dressing like a clown 😆

At uni me and a housemate bought Debretts Modern Manners and used to read it stoned, laughing and wondering at this strange parallel universe populated by people who think that black socks are only for butlers and chauffeurs.

Fashion is a weird thing...

Ro5ey - at some point did you start to wonder if you wanted a career with nitwits to whom such things had the slightest importance?

Hey DrP

I'd wear what ever they want me too .... for the money I was/am being paid.

😀

M

Mr Corbyn doesnt wear a tie most of the time, just a jacket and a shirt open at the collar, and Sir Brian Souter, who built up Stagecoach group, buses and trains companies, would turn up at bank meetings in red shoes and a carrier bag full of financial forecasts.

don't recognise the (sometimes) public perception of people who work in the City as coming from highly privileged public school back-grounds. In my experience they are not, they are well above average intelligence and extremely motivated and hard working

Indeed but that doesn't fit into the banker-bashing/class war narrative

and again from the article we are discussing 0 where no doubt the academics are class warriors with a narrative rather than educated folks with the facts to hand and no political axe to grind said

The report noted that in the UK, 7% of children attend fee-paying schools, yet the Sutton Trust found in 2014 that 34% of new investment bankers had attended a fee-paying school.
Dress 'reassures clients'
Dr Louise Ashley, from Royal Holloway University of London, who led the research on investment banking, said: "Access to front-office roles in investment banking is extremely competitive for all candidates, but our research suggests students from less privileged backgrounds are less likely to get the top jobs - no matter how talented they are."

The stats dont lie despite some posters best efforts to discredit them by simply ignoring the REAL facts and just doing weak political slogans#posttruthpolitics

It draws disproportionately from certainly clases. its indisputable.
Why are you disputing it?
WHy are you using childish political slogans to do it?

Mr Corbyn doesnt wear a tie most of the time,

Indeed, someone really should have a word. At least french socialists maintain a sense of style.

Junky, serious, none provocative question. Does that means they're biased to people from public school as they're from public schools or is it simply because people from public schools are better prepared/qualified/skilled for the job and their school is irrelevant?

given the move towards blind interviews, perhaps we will see....

did a lot of grad recruitment for two banks in the 90s/early naughties and school, uni made little impact. They were all bright and you [b]took that as read[/b]. I wanted people with the correct skills, motivation and ability to fit in with the team*. Oh and something a little different. Little else mattered, certainly not school name or type.

*the 1am pizza test

How many BME people did you employ?
How many women?

How did they fit in with the team?

Plenty and well - good interviewer 😉

I have had many very diverse teams: races; religions; sexuality; backgrounds etc. And not that long ago had to manage direct race and sex quotas with positive discrimination.

Given current legislation I tended to worry more about whether the lively debates between such diverse groups would end up with some form of court case as almost impossible for someone not to be offended at some point!! There must have been a lot of MTBers in the industry!!

Interesting, in the interviews I've been involved in, the ability to fit in is absolutely crucial to the extent that the right candidate is sometimes not the best qualified. It's certainly a skill..

the All Blacks prove that.....no wa@@@rs, however good they are on paper. I agree fit is critical for both parties

Having worked for different nationality companies in the same industry in the past, the differences in culture and behaviour are marked. Candidates need to know that for their own benefit.

@ lunge
If the school was irrelevant we could be damn sure the parents would not be paying the massive fees
.
the original link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37244180
actual 158 page article [url= https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/549994/Socio-economic_diversity_in_life_sciences_and_investment_banking.pdfhttp:// ]here[/url]
its not clear but

[b]our research suggests students from less privileged backgrounds are less likely to get the top jobs - no matter how talented they are."[/b]

Different rates of access to these sectors can be explained because young
people from more privileged backgrounds are advantaged at different stages
of the recruitment and selection process, while those from non-privileged
backgrounds are more likely to experience challenges, which may add up to a
cumulative disadvantage overall. These challenges start with the recruitment
process and originate in the relationship between leading employers and elite
universities.

Clearly private education means you get better A level results and therefore into a better university - why else would your parents pay for your education if it had no outcome?

If they then get the best degrees and the best jobs one can argue its because they are the most talented or because they got the most help and the best education
I think the later is much more likely and important than the former

Everyone life chances would be improved by going to Eton.
Does it make you more talented or more privileged... definitely the later and probably the former too.

I think there are a lot of people who either haven't read this or are ignoring the actual research. It isn't a case of people turning up at interview in a tracksuit and not getting the job. It's people turning up at the interview in a suit, but it's the "wrong" suit and not getting the job despite being good candidates.

In STW terms, they're disqualifying half the field from a race because they turned up on Saracens and don't know where Hebden Bridge is, regardless of whether they make qualifying pace.

Having spent my entire working life, and now nearing retirement age, working in an environment that allowed me to wear combats, shorts, tee shirts, skate shoes or combat boots, I now find myself in an environment where it's a requirement to wear smart trousers, no jeans, a smart shirt and tie, and smart shoes, no trainers.
I've successfully managed to subvert this by wearing plain, unadorned black jeans, plain black Vans, and check flannel shirts with a plain tie.
My job is picking up and delivering cars from and to auction sites, dealers and private residences.
Go figure, as they say.
Oh, and I have to wear a hi-viz as well; quite the natty ensemble! 😉

Oh, and I have to wear a hi-viz as well;

In the car?