Have you found it difficult to obtain professional style clothing without spending an arm and a leg? As a part of the Career Days Fair this year, Career Services is making free professional clothes available to Clark students from April 19-20.
Starting at 10 a.m. in PUB 258, on both days, students will be allowed one outfit each to help prepare them for job interviews. Clothes donated throughout the year have been sized and sorted, creating a well-organized clothing shop. Changing rooms will also be available.
Sharron Orr, event coordinator, said that the Career Services Department has found throughout the years students often can’t afford interview clothing, like slacks or blazers.
Orr discussed the clothing closet in reference to the greater goal of the Career Services Department and what it means for the Career Days Fair on May 1-4.
“Any career motivated decision, college decision, transfer decision, any of those things, we want to be able to help with,” Orr said. “We have such a wide variety of options that we want to put that into a three day event, with outside speakers and employers from our community that our students want to work for, and get them involved and engaged. It’s taking that secret weapon and turning it into this big event.”
Orr said students often think of Career Services as a one-destination program, ending in Clark’s internal workings, but the opposite is true.
“Career Services in general is a very well-kept secret on most college campuses, most people go to a career services department to find a job on campus,” Orr said. “But they don’t realize the extent of most career services departments.”
Orr said that the idea of fewer jobs being available for students because of their lack of experience is a misconception. “We house an online job board where employers come to us and say ‘We want to hire your students,’ and we have hundreds of jobs on that site that never get looked at.”
Clark’s 11th annual Career Days Fair aims to shed light on the connections and resources available for students in need of work.
“We have so many options out there housed under one roof, and most people don’t know about it,” said Orr. “So now can we get that verbiage out there and put 90 employers in front of our students that want to hire them.”
