Dressed in a blue dress shirt and a black suit with blue pinstripes last night, Juan Morales looked like he was headed for a job interview.

Morales (junior-hotel, restaurant and institutional management), who wore threads inspired by his trips to Puerto Rico, said the business world is becoming more of a fashion statement.

"It's not a résumé anymore. It's either you got it or you don't," Morales said. "It's more of a fashion-business world."

Last night, more than 40 students gathered in the Pollock Rec Room for the National Hispanic Business Association (NHBA)'s eighth annual "Dress for Success Fashion Show" as part of Hispanic Heritage Month at Penn State.

Morales, who is also NHBA's corporate relations chair, said business students are taught how to dress for job interviews. "We learn the basics," Morales said. "You need to wear a shirt, tie [and a] suit -- that needs to be clean."

He said the purpose of the fashion show was to demonstrate business etiquette and how to dress in style to be successful in job interviews. "We believe our generation is bringing a little bit of a new style," Morales said. "The whole concept is not only do we have a good résumé, but we also have a good sense of style."

NHBA President Melissa Kung said the résumé only gets a prospective employee 40 percent into an employer's door and the remaining percent depends on attitude and confidence.

"A résumé paints a picture, but you bring it to life," Kung said.

During the fashion show, nine members from the NHBA executive board modeled blue, black, tan and checkered business suits and shiny dress pumps from Jack Harper's Young Men's Shop, 114 W. College Ave., and Connections, 130 S. Allen St., as they strutted to salsa music.

The executive board members also performed skits of the "do's and don'ts" of job interviews.

Kung said the skits focused purposely on the don'ts of job interviews to an "extreme" in a comical way.

One skit included Morales as a recruiter at a career fair and Kung as a prospective employee who flirtatiously tried to get the recruiter's attention by tugging at her shirt.

Other skits included members biting their nails, tapping on the table, wiping their noses on their dress jackets, putting their feet on the table and answering their phones during job interviews.

After each skit, the executive board offered tips such as being assertive, arriving at the interview early, taking notes and wearing minimal makeup and jewelry. Norman Bonano, NHBA's public relations chair and a participant in the fashion show, said it was important for prospective employees to learn proper business etiquette in order to become noticeable to employers in a competitive business world.

"A lot of people don't know the do's and don'ts of business etiquette," Bonano said.

"Even though [they're] obvious don'ts, people still do them."

Bonano said those who do not know what to wear to interviews often dress too flashy or too plain. "The women really don't know what to wear," Bonano said. "They feel they have to look pretty and look cutesy. That's very unprofessional."

Aviel Braunstein, NHBA treasurer and webmaster, said his skills in business etiquette landed him an internship starting this spring break at Tuition Painters, a painting firm that teaches college students skills to open their own businesses. Braunstein said during his internship he will serve as a manager of a crew that will paint private residences, churches, synagogues and local business buildings.