Whether it’s for a class presentation or a job interview, students of all majors will at some point need access to professional clothing and the University of Utah Career Closet is a resource that aims to fill that need.
The closet exists as part of U Career Success, a new resource on campus dedicated to helping students with anything they need to successfully pursue their careers.
The center is located in the Garff Building in room 1300. It offers resources like free professional headshots, an interview-ready video studio, one-on-one counseling with a career coach and of course, the career closet. U Career Success can also look over a resume or cover letter and provide advice for how to improve it.
These resources are accessible Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to any U student with a valid ID.
Diana Woodbury, director of communications and intern support for U Career Success, said the career closet was started about four years ago by Katie Hoffman-Abby. Hoffman-Abby is the director of the U Career Success Center, and also serves as a special advisor to President Taylor Randall.
The clothes that fill the closet were donated the local community.
“It started with donations from local businesses, and when I say businesses, I mean people who worked at local businesses rather than the businesses themselves,” Woodbury said. “So, individuals who had professional clothing that they could donate to and wanted to donate to other students to help them along.”
Mikkel Robb, marketing and communications director for U Career Success, said the career closet is not a resource students may usually think about when seeking career help at the U.
“Students will assume that we can help them write their resume and find a job and all that stuff, but the fact that we have a closet full of clothes that they can borrow probably isn’t something that they would assume,” she said.
Robb said she has noticed plenty of students using the career closet and the headshot resource back-to-back.
“People can come for their professional headshot,” she said. “And they could change into professional working clothes right before they get their professional headshot.”
Students can check out clothing for a couple of days and then return it. The checkout process is similar to a library. All students have to do is present a UCard to get the clothing checked out. U Career Success asks that clothing is returned within three days to be cleaned and returned to the closet so other students can utilize it.
Robb said clothes will be cleaned upon return at no additional cost to students who use the resource. The closet is maintained by a few student interns who sort newly donated clothing and organize the closet.
Woodbury said the closet is always looking for more clothing donations.
The biggest takeaway that Woodbury wants students to know is that the resource is there to build career confidence, and they should use it as often as possible.
“The key thing is that we want them to use it — they shouldn’t be shy to use it,” she said. “It’s there for them. We’re happy to provide it; we want students to feel their best when they go into an interview situation or a presentation. We want them to feel confident.”
