Interviews can be very intimating, and with only seven seconds to make a good first impression, it is no wonder that time and again people reiterate the importance of wearing professional attire for interviews. Unfortunately, professional clothing is often times expensive and this can pose a challenge for some. Dress for Success looks to address that difficulty for disadvantaged women by providing professional attire to help them secure employment. The nonprofit promotes economic independence for disadvantaged women by also creating a support network and offering career development tools for entering the workforce. The Symantec Women’s Action Network (SWAN) Mountain View Chapter has supported the San Jose Dress for Success affiliate for the past few years.
Creating community is integral for personal and professional growth. Within SWAN we understand the importance of creating networks for women to support professional development. SWAN is a collaboration forum for women and men to skyrocket women into leading, learning and thought provoking opportunities. It is a wonderful group that gets together to support and launch initiatives that aim to address growth, learning and networking for women within Symantec. We also encourage volunteer initiatives to give back to our community.
The week of August 3-7, Symantec’s SWAN group hosted a business attire clothing drive for Dress for Success. We were looking for interview appropriate suits, blouses, handbags, portfolios, briefcases, closed-toe shoes, jewelry and scarves – items to complete an interview outfit! In addition to clothing, we created a donation page on the Giving Station to collect financial donations to help support the nonprofit’s work.
We are very excited about the success of the event! The support (and clothing volume) surpassed all expectations and was a great show of Symantec’s community spirit and generosity! We received enough suitable business attire to outfit hundreds of women in the workplace, estimated at over $10,000 in value. In addition, more than $2,900 in cash donations was received through the Giving Station, which Symantec will match through our employee matching gift program.
All of the clothing was delivered to Dress for Success, and they were absolutely blown away – Symantec delivered the largest single donation ever received by their office. This drive could not have been what it was without the support of the great SWAN women involved! Cora Schumann, Elise Shelley, Liz Cherene, and Melody Baltazar were key leaders for the event. They actively promoted the event across the Mountain View campus by posting up flyers and writing campus-wide emails to spread the word. We also had lots of volunteers that help with the collection and sorting of clothing. Thank you to all who participated in the clothing drive. We helped dress over 100 women for their next interview!
Sheri Rhodes is Symantec's VP, Information Technology