Bethany Mills proudly wore her maroon shirt on Maroon Friday while the laughter and conversations from the ground level outside floated up through the slightly open window of her office on the third floor of Montgomery Hall.
After a busy week of career fairs, the Mississippi State University alumna and executive director of the Career Center finished the final clicks of her keys, wrapping up some work from that morning. Mills turned her attention away from her desktop to discuss the Career Center and College of Business’s newest project, designed to relieve stress and provide professional dress knowledge: a career closet for all students.
“It’s just stressful already when you know you have this professional experience about to happen,” Mills said. “I saw it this week. I saw the nervousness of students, like when you walk into The Mill ballroom and there are 50 employers all spread out. It’s overwhelming. It’s nerve-wracking, and the thing I don’t want students to have to worry about is how they look.”
The Career Closet is a virtual rental service for professional clothes available to all MSU students. Mills came up with the idea after hearing about a similar service from a colleague at the University of Miami Career Center this summer. After six months of demos, fundraising, purchasing, installing the website and more, the Career Closet came to life on Jan. 17.
Students can visit the Career Closet website, enter their information and sign up for a virtual consultation with a stylist. After meeting with a stylist and providing details about size, style and occasion, the student can expect to receive a box containing two outfits for $60, which they can rent for the next 30 days. At the end of the rental period, if the students wish to keep the outfits they can purchase them for a discounted rate; if not, they can return them to the vendor.
“It just reminded me so much of Stitch Fix for professional clothing,” Mills said, referring to the popular online personal styling service.
Students in need of financial aid can reach out to receive a voucher for the Career Closet. Business students must go through the College of Business for that aid, while all other students need to go through the Career Center website to obtain it.
When Alice Ann Haab, a junior communication major and a campus-wide senator for the Student Association, brought up the idea of a career closet last semester, she had no idea that it had already been in the works until she emailed the Career Center about the project. She thought that must be a sign that more students were asking for something like this.
“Well, I feel like, for students, it’s super crucial for them to be able to be prepared for anything that may come their way in college, whether it’s interviewing for an on-campus job, internships, anything that can kind of fall under that category, even presentations,” Haab said. “And I think it’s not only a thing where it’s about clothing. It’s about confidence.”
When Kimberly Jackson, the employer outreach and career development coordinator for the College of Business, was in college working full-time and searching for internships and opportunities, she paid a lot of her way in school. Now, working closely with the Career Closet, she knows how valuable this program can be.
“I think being comfortable in professional clothes is hard at any age,” Jackson said. “Even at my age, it’s sometimes hard to find comfortable clothes and feel good when you’re walking into a big presentation or a big interview or wherever that may be.”
Jackson said that this program aims to supply students with the tools and resources to obtain nice business clothes and educate them on what clothes are appropriate for which events.
“I think if we can give them that aspect of confidence through us, through giving them a way to not have to worry about what their outfit is going to be and figuring out how they’re going to afford it, I think that would be huge,” Jackson said.
Although the Career Closet is aimed at helping those who lack the resources or knowledge about professional clothing, it can also help students like Timothy Walker, a graduate assistant at MSU. Walker, who received his first suit in high school from his suit-loving father, was always so prepared for professional occasions that his friends often borrowed clothes from him when they needed them.
Walker participated as a test subject in one of the initial trials of the Career Closet. He received two dress shirts, slacks, a jacket, a watch and a sample of cologne in his rental box. He mentioned that the process was easy and convenient. His clothes fit well, but he was not expecting his consultant to determine his neck size over Zoom.
“All I did was give her my address and she sent it in, and she was very educated on this,” Walker said. “I think she’s been doing this a long time because I didn’t know some of my sizes. I think she asked my neck size. I had no idea what it was, and she was just kind of estimating, just looking at me, and she got it right.”
Mills expressed her excitement about seeing her idea come to life, even though she recognizes that this semester will reveal a few elements needing adjustments, such as arrival times. She said the Career Center expects to learn a lot from this semester. Still excited, though, Mills chuckled as she looked off into the distance and smiled, remembering her college years.
“When I think about some of the things I wore, I just think we had a different idea of what professionalism meant,” Mills said. “I was more concerned with looking cute than I was in looking professional… I was pretty resourced coming up in college, but I was not educated [in professional dress]. And so, I think, that piece would have really benefited me. But I get that there are some students who were not as resourced as I am. So, that’s the thing that I’m most excited about. It’s just kind of leveling the playing field, for sure.”
