UPDATE!! But first . . . DS has a very expensive, beautifully tailored suit that he wore to my sister's wedding seven years ago. It's still fits him great but looks just awful on him. I felt so sorry for him at the wedding because he just looked miserable. I had him try it on recently and his shoulders were scrunched up and chest puffed out. I told him to relax and he said he was relaxed! He feels so uncomfortable and not at ease so he doesn't hold himself right. So I went with Lynn's suggestion. For his second interview he wore a brown tweed sports coat with suede elbow patches, a blue gingham shirt, NO TIE, olive chinos and brown dress shoes. He was so comfortable and confident looking! Anway he had his second interview yesterday and they hired him on the spot!! First job interview and bam! I'm so proud of him. He's so personable and smart I should have known it would have worked out that way. As he was leaving, he jokingly asked if he was dressed okay. They said they loved it and that he looked like a liberal arts college professor. He said that he almost wore a tie and one of the interviewers said that would have been a big mistake because that would have indicated that he was out of touch with Austin culture - something very important to the store. So I guess "dress for the job you're applying for" held true in this instance. This job will be just perfect for him because he's going to graduate school in the Fall and they are willing to be flexible with his schedule.

I think it depends on the job you are applying for. If you are applying for a plumbers apprentice, a suit would not be what I would wear. There are a lot of people who don't even own a suit. For a warehouse job, I would think clean jeans and a nice shirt would be alright. The things I would not wear would be dirty wrinkled clothes, sweats and dirty hair. We stopped at my step daughter's home for a visit and the grand daughter was getting ready to apply for a job at a car dealer ship. She came out in an outfit with her belly showing. I told her I don't think that is appropriate for apply for a job unless it is a bar. She said this is the way people dress. I told her not when you are applying for an office job or dealing with customers who are mostly seniors and married people. Her mother said she is right, go change.

Hey, hey, hey, I'm a boomer. You just watch your mouth you young whippersnapper, you. :) As a boomer who had kids late I know how hard it is for these kids with rising tuition, housing etc. When I graduated from university in 1976 with my commerce degree, tuition was $562 for the year and you could budget $150 for books. Wages for part time work was about $1.50 - $2.00. I did live at home as I lived 20 minutes from university but I could earn enough in the four months of summer to get me through the year. Tuition has gone up at least 10 X since then, a single book can easily be $150 and wages for part time work has NOT gone up by 10 X. Unless these kids have parents who can help with the financial load they now come out of university with thousands of dollars in debt. Our kids were lucky that we could help them and if that is possible it does give them a huge financial boost. But they still had to work part time during the school year. All generations have their struggles and are often unfairly criticized but they all bring something interesting to life.

Moosemac, my apologies for not answering you sooner. I just now noticed your answer to me. I am disappointed, though not surprised as to the police being the reason you cannot hire ex-offenders. To be clear, I understand the optics and am far from being pro-crime, yet I feel strongly that some populations are more agressively policed and convicted than others. This cycle is very expensive for society. We are telling people that once they find themselves on the wrong side of the law, there is no getting back to the right side. As for your quarel with my use of the term lower socio-economic, it is what it is. Blue collar work, no matter how renumerative is blue collar work. That is why it's called socio-economic, and not just economic standing. There are all sorts of capital in society which do not correspond to money in the bank, though there may be a correlation. My education, formal and informal, gives me privileges (outside of my profession) which others do not have. David Brooks wrote an excellent piece in the Atlantic last month explaining how difficult it can be for people not in the upper echelons to even learn the basic social codes to gain entry into that class. If you watch the film adaptation of JD Vance's memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, on Netflix, you may remember a scene where Vance needs to call his girlfriend in order to navigate an important business/hiring dinner at his law school. Nobody would have noticed or minded had Vance used the wrong water goblet (taking his neighbor's instead of his own,) but the discomfort it caused Vance could be a real impediment to his successfully putting his candidacy for employment in a White Shoe law firm forward. It's hard to shine when you are sweating social details. I realize this can all sound quite snobby. Reality can be tough. I for one admire and respect people who earn their living in any honest manner, bonus points for showing initiative and integrity. Here is David Brooks's piece from The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/09/blame-the-bobos-creative-class/619492/ A little about Hillbilly Elegy: