Ever wonder what to wear — or not wear — on a job interview? Macalester College has some suggestions.

It's using Pinterest, a popular social media site, to share fashion tips and other dos and don'ts with job-seeking students.

On the college's "Dress for Success" site, www.pinterest.com/maccdc/dress-for-success/ — which looks like a virtual poster-board — you can find such helpful features as "Fashion Faux Pas at Work" (picturing a hot-pink dress with a big black bow).

Or "How to Dress Professionally When It Is Freezing Outside (Great stuff for those of us in MN!)."

Associate Dean Denise Ward said that Macalester's Career Development Center started using Pinterest a few years ago as a quick and easy way to reach students. Now it has 21 Pinterest boards on everything from résumé design to cover letters to thank you cards.

Most college career centers churn out a blizzard of information to help students prepare to launch their careers. But much of it, Ward admits, can be a bit dry. On Pinterest, it's anything but. "This is all about images, infographics, quick little snippets," she said.

Career center staffers regularly post images that strike their fancy and, they hope, will resonate with students. Some of it's irreverent, but that's part of the appeal, says Ward.

Macalester's "Interview" board, for example, includes the "most common interview blunders" (don't chew gum or answer your cellphone). And "10 things you should never ask during a job interview." (No. 1: "Never never ask: What the company does!")

The school also has Pinterest boards devoted to "books worth reading," grad school, budgeting and other topics. It's hard to know how many students use them, Ward says. So far, the entire group has only 171 official "followers."

But anyone can peruse them at http://www.pinterest.com/maccdc/. And even parents have been known to check them out. "That's one of the beauties of Pinterest," said Ward. "The idea is to share things."

maura.lerner@startribune.com