Appropriate dress for 23 yr old male engineering job interview?

i am 52 yrs old and have a 'dated' view of clothing. In my day, a solid navy wool suit, wine rep tie, white shirt was the look college grads were interviewing in. i have a 31 year old version of moloy's dress for success book which recommends looking like the president.

my wife is thinking black suit for my son, which to me is soo funeral, or high school dance. if he were interviewing for an ad agency, maybe but an engineering job? i say no.

what is the current recommendation?

wow guess i posted in wrong category, food service? Hmmm sorry.

Depends on the company, you can typically ask the HR dept. what "Attire expectations" they have for interviewing or employees- if you don't want to ask, look at the website for the company you're interviewing with and see if you can get a feel of their culture. I am an HR manager for a Fortune 500 Construction firm, we hire different types of engineers straight out of college and experienced ones from other sectors- we are very casual and specifically tell candidates to not wear suits to interviews....but we don't specify further...just no suits. We expect candidates to have done some sort of research on us if they want to come work with us- so they will see that we wear nice pants and button up shirts, ties are up to the individual's discretion.
The older and more experienced candidates always show up with suits anyway, we automatically judge them based on inability to follow directions, or adapt to the ever evolving field (being too "old school"). When they show up in a polo shirt and khakis, that tells us they are sloppy and didn't bother to talk to anyone or ask questions about appropriate dress-as if they took no pride being presentable- neither look good to hiring staff.

Long answer, I know, but I am trying to give you details that will hopefully help. The previous engineering firm I did HR for, it was a standard to wear nice pants and button up shirt except for our sales dept. they were always in suits, yet candidates were expected to be in suits for interviews. So again, research what kind of company they are. Lastly, I spent some time as a job-coach and in general, standard surveys of employers always preferred candidates to be in colors like blue, gray, brown, or even tweed blends- black tends to be quite an imposing color, while olives and creams are too relaxed. So while I woulnd't say "funeral or high school dance" I would say it's too strong.

Shirt & tie

Black or gray suit is fine, go a little less conservative with your tie and colored shirt that coordinates with tie. The blue navy and white shirt with conservative tie will look stodgy.

I'd say shirt and tie as well. I'm a 25 year old engineer, so I was interviewing not so long ago. The answer in part depends on the region of the country and the kind of company. I live in Silicon Valley in California, so here you could dress in a more casual way. With a stodgier company or in a more formal part of the country (Washington DC, New York, etc), I'd dress up a little more. If you want to err on the side of caution, pick a gray or dark blue suit with a classic tie.

I'm an HRAD Supervisor, dress longsleeves and slacks with tie, make sure that you dress neatly and sleek. Apart from that, bring the confidence in you.