Career fair to include business-wear fashion show Tuesday

 by Alan Bradford
 published on Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Photo courtesy of ASU Career Preparation Center

JOB HUNT: Students talk with a potential employer at the Polytechnic campus’s career fair in 2006. Tuesday’s career fair will be the campus’s sixth career fair.

Flip-flops and tanks may be ideal for keeping cool while walking around on campus, but when it comes to impressing potential employers, this garb should stay in the closet. Dillard's is making sure students are in the know about what to wear to impress interviewees by hosting a fashion show Tuesday where models will strut appropriate interview attire.

The Dress for Success Fashion Show, held in conjunction with the Polytechnic Spring Career Fair, will be held at 2 p.m. in the Cooley Ballroom C. Students will be modeling fashions ranging from business formal to business casual clothing.
Students who attend the show will have the opportunity to receive 20 percent off any purchases made Tuesday at the San Tan Village Dillard's, located at Williams Field and Greenfield roads.

Aeronautical management technology freshmen Heath Spence and Andrew Hopwood both said that while they understand the importance of business clothing, they don't think they will attend the fashion show.

"We both want to be pilots. We know that we'll eventually have to wear a uniform," Hopwood said. "I probably wouldn't be very interested in a fashion show."

Spence said he agreed with Hopwood, but also added, "... for other people, it's probably a really good idea to show them what they should wear when they meet with a company."

The career fair, which will be held Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Cooley Ballrooms, will be the campus's sixth career fair — the campus has hosted one each semester since 2005.

Justin Finnerty, director of career preparation and the career fair organizer, said he is excited for another successful career fair because it has been a successful avenue for making the public aware of the growing Polytechnic Campus. He said the fair has also opened up a lot of sponsorship opportunities for events on the campus.

Students will have the opportunity to meet with 50 companies that will be looking for intern candidates as well as potential employees.

Scottsdale-based company GoDaddy.com will be one of the 50 employers in attendance Thursday. Stimulated by its eyebrow-raising marketing efforts, GoDaddy.com has grown to become the world's largest domain name registrar, currently managing over 26.5 million domains.

Kimberly Cilke, vice president of human resources for GoDaddy.com, said the company is thrilled to be returning to Polytechnic's career fair for the second time because Go Daddy has always found "very high-quality candidates."

"GoDaddy.com has hired nearly 200 employees over the past year, and we are continuing to grow. As we make plans to expand internationally, GoDaddy.com is searching for interns as well as employees," Cilke said.

For a full listing of employers that will be at the career fair, visit poly.asu.edu/students/career. Students can also use this Web site to upload resumes for interested companies to browse, as well as to RSVP to a particular company.

Some employers will be doing interviews on-site at the career fair, and others will be scheduling interviews for later in the week.

Additional information regarding the career fair can be obtained by calling the Career Preparation Center at (480) 727-1411.

Reach the reporter at alan.bradford@asu.edu.