Ginger, if it's any consolation, I often feel a tinge of unease anytime I interact with groups of non-engineering Googlers. I'm the shortest, least-well-dressed, least-"popular" kid in the group. But to my relief and surprise things still always seem to work out okay :-). I think, like you, I still am haunted by the painful non-conformity/nerd days of primary school. - Adam Lasnik

i've decided that if sergey can wear crocs, then so can i :) - don loeb

Adam, it is a consolation. I've met so many people at Google who were geeks like me in school. Most are on the engineering side of things, but there are some geeks in sales, too, I'm happy to say. - Ginger Makela Riker

I spend my summers on the iron range, yeah it is hick country:) - Devin Anderson

what's the inside line on us guys in finance? are we the worst dressed at google? - Alex Gawley

Alex, what's the dress code like in finance? I don't know any finance people. - Ginger Makela Riker

There's a dress code? It took me 3 weeks to stop dressing like someone who worked in an investment bank. Some days I dress scruffily enough to be an SRE and others I realise that I'm just a tie away from being in a suit. It's never been an issue. At least in London - Adewale Oshineye

In sales, there is a dress code. I was told that I can't wear ratty ironic t-shirts, torn jeans, and/or flipflops. - Ginger Makela Riker

The only dress code is "wear something," but when dealing with clients, use your best discretion. I'll send more in an email. :) - EricaJoy

@Adewale, do you think SRE dress worse than eng? @Ginger, I think it's awesome how we have a Banana Republic on the 1st floor for emergency wardrobe change days :) - ௸ (k2g)

SWEs tend to come from all sorts of backgrounds (in London there's a conspicuous number of people from banking/consulting) but SREs tend to come from a much more uniform Unix Sys Admin background. Consequently there seems to be a higher proportion of beards, ponytails and t-shirts bearing the names of obscure Linux distributions. As registered Linux user: 204175 I'm in no position to criticise but those guys always seem to be the geekiest people in any room. - Adewale Oshineye

No dress code in finance (luckily). I'm pleased that the atmosphere at Google finally let me unleash my inner ginger beard ;-) - Alex Gawley

Before engineering started in NY, there was a dress code applied to the entire office, regardless of whether the job was customer facing. For some reason csilvers wouldn't go along with it. - Larry Greenfield