Suit Culture, NYC, and the Fall of Lehman

[HKTenor]

Originally Posted by RSN125

As far as the sell-side vs. buy-side, while I cannot think of one buy-side firm requiring suits, there are many who wear em anyways.

I work at a hedge fund now, and we do require suits for meetings with clients, companies, and most brokers. I wear one every day unless feeling particularly out-of-it.

I definitely agree that this is not the norm, but I still think it matters. If someone is going to trust you with tens or hundreds of millions of their money, it is disrespectful to meet them wearing anything but a suit in my opinion.

Someone from a major bulge bracket firm showed up a few weeks ago to try and get more balances from us wearing no coat, no tie, and a wrinkled shirt open three buttons down the front. To me it showed that he wasn't serious or professional about his work, and it bothered me. Thinking I was just a crotchety old man that day, I didn't say anything to my partners at the time, but it turns out a few days later we were discussing the meeting and it came up several times without my broaching the subject at all - it had been noted unfavorably even by those who prefer to wear jeans to work if they aren't seeing anyone that day.

This guy will never know it, but his inappropriate dress is one of the things costing him money.

 

[rsmeyer]

(1) Much of Wall Street goes "business casual" (2) Much of Wall Street dies Anyone see a connection?

 

[constant struggle]

Originally Posted by dah328

The only firms I know that required suit and tie were Bear and Lehman. From experience, MS, Goldman, Citi, Merrill, BoA, Barclays, UBS, and JPM were all business casual. In addition, while I do not have first-hand experience with more than a half-dozen or so, I didn't see a single hedge fund where a suit dress code was in effect.
not true, bear didn't require a suit from all employees...