Los Angeles Real Estate Dress Code
I received an offer for an LA-based role and want to know what people in this market typically wear to work. I’ve worked all over the country at firms that expected full suits, to business casual, to golf attire, to a polo, jeans, and clean sneakers, and I’m fine with whatever, but I don’t want to stick out in a weird way.
I wore a suit to the interview of course, but I highly doubt that is standard corporate attire out there. It barely is on the east coast these days.
If you work in LA, or just in corporate life on the West Coast in general, what do you wear to work?
I work at a brokerage. The only "rule" we have is to wear a collared shirt. And by "rule" I mean that basically the boomers will bust your balls if you're not wearing one but nothing else will happen. I usually wear khaki pants or lululemon ABC pants with a polo. I rarely ever wear a button up shirt. Quite a few of the older guys in the office wear jeans with a button up shirt tucked into the jeans lol.
We only dress up for client meetings or events in the office.
Appreciate it. Would you say this is typical for your development or real estate private equity clients as well or are they more or less formal?
Tough to say, it varies a lot. I think you can't go wrong with business casual and a blazer (with no tie). If you feel overdressed then you can just take the blazer off and roll up your sleeves for a more casual look. Wear a nice belt and watch with it.
Depends on the type of shop and product type. Big institutional groups will still go tucked collared shirts. Smaller groups or groups doing things like industrial might be more polo.
Was at a larger PE firm - Slacks and button up
Now at small operator - Jeans and a T shirt unless meeting with investors or lenders
Was at a development shop in LA where our dress code was casual, wearing jeans and a polo were the norm. For any client meetings we'd step it up to a dress shirt and slacks or dark colored jeans. We were not a big institutional shop for reference. I worked at bigger place prior, not in development but capital markets. The dress code was typically business casual, dress shirt and slacks, no jeans. I rarely saw suits, when i did it was typically older guys, boomers, wearing them.
Do you remember what your interviewers were wearing when you went? have you not asked them or HR what's the dress code?
My interviews were with a woman and the regional bigwig. It’s difficult to infer what the average guy wears to the office from either of those instances. HR/Recruitment is in a different state entirely.
“What do I wear to work every day?” was not a key topic during the interview process. I will of course just check with other people who work there, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask WSO. Don’t see how it’s a big deal either way.
Appreciate all of the advice, guys.
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