Don't wear white shirts or brown shoes if you want City job, research finds

Hatty Collier1 September 2016

Graduates who wear brown shoes and white shirts are missing out on top jobs at investment banks in the City, new research has found.

A new study by the government’s social mobility watchdog found that employers are still using unspoken dress codes to weed out the wrong sort of person in City job interviews.

Bright working class candidates are often rejected for jobs as they are unaware of the "opaque" dress codes that richer children grow up with, experts found.

Firms also often select recruits who display “polish” and place as much importance on a person’s speech, accent, dress, behaviour and skills as their skills and qualifications, researchers said.

The report by the Social Mobility Commission warned that unwritten rules of dress and behaviour could leave some poorer applicants floundering.

"Relatively opaque codes of conduct also extend to dress,” the report said.

"To provide one example, for men, the wearing of brown shoes with a business suit is generally, though not always, considered unacceptable by and for British bankers within the investment banking, corporate finance, division."

A candidate from a non-privileged background was told at one bank that while he was “clearly quite sharp”, he was “not quite the right fit” and that his tie was “too loud”.

One anonymous banker admitted that such discrimination was commonplace: “In corporate finance, if you've got the wrong cut of suit, if you are wearing the wrong shoes, or tie, or you look awkward in a suit, you're done before you start."

The report also found that banks mostly hire from a handful of universities including Oxbridge and the London School of Economics (LSE)

Alan Milburn, the Commission's chairman, said: "Bright working-class kids are being systematically locked out of top jobs in investment banking because they may not attend a small handful of elite universities or understand arcane culture rules.

"While there are some banks doing excellent work in reducing these barriers, there are still too many that need to wake-up and realise that it makes sound business sense to recruit people from all backgrounds.

"It is shocking, for example, that some investment bank managers still judge candidates on whether they wear brown shoes with a suit, rather than on their skills and potential."

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