Naked in public during a job interview

“Do you want to come interview for a job in Hawai’i?"
“Maybe. Do you have a job description I can read?"
“Yes. Your resume.”

Interview dress codes are fraught. Generic office decorum makes it less so. The few times I formally interviewed for a job I asked about dress code beforehand. Based on the answer and what I could learn about the company I would decide suit vs business casual.

The answer from my potential boss on a rock in the middle of the pacific was vague. He urged me to wear shorts and feel comfortable. I learned there would be a swimming portion of the interview and to bring a swimsuit. Working in ocean robotics this was not a surprise. Swimming was even less of a surprise knowing that a scuba certification was a job requirement.

The first half of the day long interview was typical. Meeting people, touring the shop, questions from potential coworkers and the like. After lunch we parked by the small harbor next to facility where my eventual boss told me change into my swimsuit.

I stood stunned in the dirt parking lot. He grabbed a towel from the truck bed, wrapped it around his waist, shimmied out of his shorts, and put his board shorts on under the towel. This was a maneuver I would repeat many times a week once I moved to Hawai’i.

The towel he gave me to wrap around my waist was near dish towel sized. I did the wiggles until my kakhi dress shorts and undies were around my ankles. Before I slid my own board shorts up under the towel I became comfortably aware that I was naked in public during a job interview.

Thirty minutes later I was in snorkel gear a mile and a half off the Kohala coast.

This summer here in Massachusetts I got out of my car and changed my t-shirt into a dry one. Standing shirtless in the grocery parking lot I was irrationally self conscious.

The getting naked during a job interview story is one of my go-to anecdotes about living in Hawai’i. What is clear now is that spending a few shirtless hours soaking wet with my future boss is way weirder than being naked under a towel in public.

My house in Hawai’i was up at about 2700 ft elevation on the wet side of the Big Island. It was chilly and rainy and we had a wood burning stove in our house. My work was at sea level on hot dry side. My truck backseat was filled with clothing for any climate. I was in and out of the water most days of the week. That meant changing my clothing opportunistically as was the culture to do.

Being shirtless in public on the mainland is unbecoming. On the Big Island being shirtless and sometimes mostly naked was acceptable.