If you can't bother to dress up properly, you probably won't bother to do well at the job.
Prove me wrong - and be honest: if you just wear "whatever" for the job interview, will you really go "all out" during the job, when the company has deadlines and work is piling up?
People who don't dress proper convey that they don't really care about the job. I'd be worried that you'll leave again a few months in, and all the time and money we sank into you was for nothing. I'd want commitment, someone to rely on. The fact that you care to dress up properly shows that you take this seriously.
If I'm interviewing someone I expect them to be presentable. Its not difficult to put on a decent pair of pants, a dress shirt and nice shoes. Women have a lot more options when it comes to office wear but as long as it doesn't look trashy its good enough.
I have had job interviews where I was specifically told not to dress up to attend. I am a biochemist, so often interviews (particularly the tour section) go through areas that can indirectly damage clothing. Industrial QA are especially adament as they request that you wear boots sue to OSHA considerations.
That said: the OP mentioned Front Desk and Marketing positions, where one's dress style can play a role in the job.
So somebody has a tattoo they automatically can't do their job? Look up Matt Taylor, a project scientist at ESA. Blame liberals and hipsters or whoever makes you feel better about it and fits your sweeping generalisation
If you have sleeve tattoos and wear a suit to work, what's the problem? The problem is dressing appropriately for the job, professionalism goes further than how you look.
1) Load the amount of weight I would deadlift onto the bench
2) Unrack
3) Crank out 15 reps
4) Be ashamed of constantly skipping leg day
depends on a job. lawyers, doctors, etc have pretty specific dress codes. basically the rule of thumb is - the more likely you are to interact with clients - the stricter the dress code becomes, regardless of your actual salary. someone who works behind the scenes and doesn't interact with clients? has a lot more leeway.
personaly, I tend to go with neutral when interviewing. not necessarily a suit, but no jeans either. usually either some sort of a button down, or in case of colder seasons, neutral turtleneck and some sort of neutral bottoms - medium length solid color skirt, or basic pants. neutral barely there makeup. this might seem boring, but it allows me to let my experience and personality shine over my clothing choices. once you have scheduled the interview, you are going to get seen. I'd rather create a "reserve a judgement until they talk to me" first impression one way or the other. been working for me so far.
You keep missing the point, like all those who say buying a suit is no big deal. You can't afford to buy a suit, if you are unemployed, seeking for jobs (this costs btw) and have barely enough after bills to have some food on the table. Not every unemployed person deals drugs for money you know.
Again, I dont want them to buy it at 16. And you dont get a summer job / part-time job to eat, you get it to have some cash to spend when you are a teen. Im assuming that if you are underage or still in university you are being supported by your parents, since you dont have a proper job yet, but you can always work to get enough for whatever you may want to do that your parents wont pay for / cant afford (traveling abroad, buying a new phone etc).
Welcome to 2016 where people are supposed to be able to express themselves and their identity any way they want without other people being douche-bags about it. You're asking the wrong question, really. The question is not why they can't, it's why they won't. Because they can. They just choose not to. Because superficial stuff isn't supposed to matter anymore. I'm working as a web developer and people dress all kinds of ways around the office. But as long as you get the requirements of the product we're building, write stellar code in a good pace and are a nice person there's no problem. Get with the times, dude.
Suit culture in most places is largely antiquated. By "look clean" I mean wear clean, not ripped, not stained, no skulls or otherwise "questionable" designs, etc.... A Plain T-Shirt with clean, un-ripped jeans and a belt with clean shoes is enough to have your aesthetic (the way you look) to not really affect the interview... in many places.
I'm not going to pretend that "suit culture" doesn't exist anymore, but the places where you need to wear a suit and therefore where a suit would be required for the interview would be pretty obvious I'd think.
All anyone is asking/ expecting for an interview is to be prepared for the interview, call the recruiter or look up information online for what "acceptable" attire is. If you can't or won't do that, and you show up looking like you're going to an 8 AM class in college after waking up at 7:55 AM... Why should the employer take you seriously as a candidate when other candidates are available?
I work in telco and wore a suit to my current job interview and walked away with a 75k USD job offer. The only thing I needed to do at the time was walk across the stage from college a month later.
Pretty sure the folks who are giving the OP grief about this are folks who have no clue how the true world operates. Sure one of you may get lucky and find that one start up where you make decent coin and can dress like an antelope, but you my friend are an outlier and not the norm.
Funny how people are discussing suits in this thread when all the OP wanted as for people not to go to interviews like they went there straight out of prison or just woke up.
https://www.dressforsuccess.org/
https://careergear.org/
also - you don't actualy need to buy a suit. you can buy coordinating jacket and pants, with a basic shirt, at salvation army and other thriftshops (and it will look close enough to a suit to pass). still requires some monetary investment, but... with above links, you may not need to make it until you actualy get the job and thrifshops will tide you over, in case your job requires you to keep wearing a suit.
not every interview requires this, but.. in case of certain professions - it helps a LOT. so...