Business & Campus Attire Do’s & Dont’s
Several Winston-Salem State University Career Services staff members attended a Professional Development Conference in August 2007 to share Best Practices for students and their professional development. A university in Florida shared their professional development Dress Cards and a member of our Career Services staff recommended that we do the same here on our campus.
Current-generation, traditional college students are much more casual than previous generations. On just about any campus nationwide you will find that young people are pretty casual when it comes to attire. This, in fact, is characteristic of the millennial generation. On our campus, scores of students were dressing inappropriately for career fairs and job interviews, so we thought this would be an excellent way to teach and get the message across to the masses. The purpose of this initiative was to share with our students a guide for appropriate business professional and business casual attire.
WSSU’s Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs assisted by funding the project while the WSSU Office of Marketing and Communications assisted with the card design and branding. The cards were placed in attractive displays around campus in various high-traffic offices. We attached the Office of Career Services logo and contact information to the display stand as a marketing tool.
After the professional development cards were printed (Professional and Business Casual Dress), there was a request for this office to develop the Campus Attire Do’s and Don’ts dress cards. Along with assistance and input from the WSSU Student Government Association, these cards were created and added to the display stand as well.
Initially, the cards were handed out during career fairs and major functions. In our office, we also had setup mannequins in the front of the office displaying professional business attire. The students immediately embraced the cards, even faculty and staff reported using the cards as a guide for their personal use. We have also shared them at Open House Events and University Prep Week. They serve as an excellent resource for students who may not know or understand the standards of appropriate attire for class, job interviews, career fairs, social events, internships, etc.
Today, students are increasingly dressing properly for interviews, career fairs, and other special events. We have also noticed improvement in the student’s dress on campus. In addition, we provide students with recommendations and suggestions on how to acquire affordable presentable attire. This has been a great success for the WSSU Office of Career Services and for our students.