[ndt]

"It's stupid psychology but it's reality. In business, you want to be perceived as "professional" even if you're not."

It depends on your job description. I don't trust a programmer who wears a tie and I'm the guy who hires them. OK not really, but for a technical position, the only thing I'm interested in is what you have done. Appearance, and even formal education takes a distant back seat to real world experience.

[KoRn]

"Appearance, and even formal education takes a distant back seat to real world experience."

Wow! People such as you are very rare. You do hiring and know what to look for. I've seen far too many complete idiots in IT who get the job because they have a BS degree and dress nice. They start working and don't know sh1t about anything. Reminds me of the time I had to show someone with a Masters in computer Science how to map a network drive.

[dmz]

As a guy who did his fair share of IT recruiting, I cared about 2 things, first, do you have the skills necessary to do the job. But 2, and damn near as important, are you a team killer. If so, I don't care how good you are as a coder.

Appearance, couldn't care less.