Genuinely curious. Are you saying that if you wear a suit to an interview at Google, you're going to be automatically dinged and not hired because of what you're wearing? I admittedly don't interview candidates for engineering positions at my company, but I can't imagine marking someone down for wearing a suit even though you basically never see anyone in a suit day-to-day in the office.
I have literally listened to a senior VP laugh about a candidate after the interviews were done, during the hire/no hire discussion, for wearing a suit to an interview, and ultimately we turned the candidate down.
In that specific case the candidate might not have been hired, anyway, they were pretty marginal. But it is 100% a real thing that Bay Area tech people will ding you for wearing a suit to an interview.
Have you never heard people joke about and dismiss people in the tech industry because they're wearing suits? I have.
I don't think there's literally a box on the feedback form that says 'were they dressed appropriately', but I think it's part of the impression people will form of you and will judge you by.
I have certainly heard the term "suits" used dismissively and generically in the same unthinking way as "pointy haired boss" etc. gets used.
But, no, I don't think I've ever heard someone comment about an individual being "overdressed" in a negative way. But then I don't work in Silicon Valley.
Genuinely curious. Are you saying that if you wear a suit to an interview at Google, you're going to be automatically dinged and not hired because of what you're wearing? I admittedly don't interview candidates for engineering positions at my company, but I can't imagine marking someone down for wearing a suit even though you basically never see anyone in a suit day-to-day in the office.