On the academia stack exchange site a recent question came up about how to dress for academic interviews. The verdict was over-dressing is better than under-dressing. I had come across similar (although somewhat discordant) advice previously, but it is always good to have second opinions.

I will mention the previous blog posts I had come across, as they have good advice for giving academic job talks in general;

• Matt Might’s blog post, Advice for Academic Job Hunt, suggests more causual dress.
• Portrait of a Supposed Scholar, Academic Job Interview Part 1, suggests a suit.

I think my advice is just give a talk so awesome no one cares about what you wear! But, take that advice with care, it is coming from a person who not only doesn’t know what he wore yesterday, but has on occasion wore shirts backwards (in public) all day long. I would probably only notice if you showed up dressed like Dilbert in this strip;

If you have other questions related to academia head on over and check out the Academia stack exchange site. Here a few examples of some of my favorite discussions so far;

• Scope for the role of peer-reviewer
• Subtle (and not-so-subtle) humor in scientific literature
• Is web-presence important for researchers?