Second round interview attire?

Go with the suit and tie. I'm sure you've heard that it's better to be overdressed than underdressed. Banking is more of a conservative field anyways so sticking to the traditional interview attire of suit and tie is your best bet.

Nobody will reject you for being "too professional" for wearing a suit and tie, but people will reject you for being unprofessional for wearing a T-shirt.

Considered dropping the tie? They will notice you adjusted to their customs and you are not intended to force the tie culture on them, however you still look smart.

This is tough, because this is the second interview. First interview is a no-brainer, but this changes things a bit. They could think "well, we've signaled to him how we dress during the first interview, why did he wear a suit and tie again?" But more than likely if you show up in a suit and tie and they think you're overdressed, they'll just welcome you to take off the coat and/or the tie.

When I interviewed at a smaller boutique, all team members wore business casual (chinos + button down, vests, sweaters, etc). From their website I had gathered that they wore business casual in the office, and I was sweating it because I didn't want to be the weird guy to show up in a suit and tie and be too overdressed, but I also didn't want them to be offended if I showed up without a suit. I was lucky, though, because in an email I received from one of the interviewers he said "See you [day of the week]. Business casual is fine." And if I had worn a tie or anything beyond business casual, it definitely would've been weird (they were pretty laid back). But he explicitly told me to wear business casual; had he not I probably would've rocked the full suit just to be safe.

tl;dr - What you wear to the interview is really firm-specific; air on the side of caution and wear a suit unless they specifically tell you otherwise.

There is no conversation to be had here. You are interviewing. You wear a suit. It's a simple "checkbox" showing that you know the basic rules/social norms of interviewing.

I don't care if it's a $10b hedge fund and everybody is wearing Tommy Bahamas and Uggs. They're employees. You are not.

Good luck.

Not sure if you know this OP but this is how pretty much everyone in front office finance dresses. People only wear full suit and tie day to day if it is necessary. If you're just at your desk all day or only seeing internal people there's little reason to wear a suit most days. As an interviewee, it's different. Wear the suit.

Yes, definitely the suit and tie. You could wear a blue shirt and striped tie to give an ounce of informality, but that's it.

if they dont say business casual, assume you should wear a suit. the most casualness you get is in 1 item of attire. instead of navy or charcoal you can wear a gray suit, but your shirt has to be white and your tie not too distracting. if you wear a traditional suit you can more than likely get away with a soft blue purple or pink dress shirt, but still keep with a boring tie. if you have a patterned tie it would really only look good with a navy suit and a white shirt.

Always suit and tie when interviewing. No matter what. /End Thread