Whether one hears about College Works Painting from an announcement in a large lecture class or from a friend who chose to participate, nearly everyone returning to the University this fall has heard of the internship opportunity. The College Works program intends to provide participants with business experience and the potential to earn thousands of dollars in the summer. It certainly sounds like a good deal, for those who are interested in business. In fact, it almost sounds too good to be true. For some, the program does provide an incomparable summer internship experience. For others, though, College Works Painting is not the $10,000 fun summer job they learned about in the Economics 201 lecture hall.
Operations
The College Works Painting program was founded in 1987 in order to help college students "acquire real-world business and leadership skills through business ownership," according to the College Works Web site.
Since its conception nearly 20 years ago, the organization has taught students how to manage and operate paint companies during the spring and summer. The organization now operates in 18 states and employs over 1,000 students per summer, according to the company's Web site.
Recruitment
Former College Works district manager and University alumnus John Struckmann (CLAS '06) said graduating from the University was easier than succeeding at this internship. In order to find students capable of the College Works challenge, Struckmann said the company is "very aggressive" in recruiting.
In order to attract a large applicant pool, College Works leaders advertise the internship in classes and hold interest meetings, at which company representatives "focus on the benefits more than the challenges," Struckmann said. There are plenty of potential benefits to discuss, Struckmann noted, including resume building and average earnings of $10,000.
District manager and third-year College student Toby Truslow said he spoke to approximately eight to ten thousand University students last year through short presentations before large lecture classes.
As students demonstrate interest in the program, meetings and interviews begin in order to determine who is qualified to hold the position of branch manager. As former intern and second-year College student Annie Humes explained, the selection process involves a series of three interviews in which district managers and upper-level management officials explain the program and evaluate characteristics such as the candidate's ability to overcome problems.
Truslow said about one out of every 15 people who began the interview process eventually was hired by the company.
Training
Once hired, the new branch managers undergo a series of training meetings that Truslow compared to "Business 101."
In early meetings in March, new employees learn how to make sales and how to conduct professional phone calls, Struckmann said. Next, the branch managers learn about production-related topics such as hiring painters.
Throughout the spring, branch managers travel home on weekends to begin to build their businesses, branch manager and second-year Engineering student Chris Alexander said. These trips home allow branch managers to recruit workers for their companies and to market their services to residents.
Struckmann said interns can be overwhelmed by the experience.
"You only work 20 hours a week in the spring, but during those 20 hours, you'd better be hustling," he said. "It [requires] a lot of perseverance."
Struckmann said College Works covers all start-up costs for the new interns' companies.
"We actually lose money when kids quit," he said.
The last step of the training process involves actually learning to paint. Truslow said he helped new interns learn proper painting techniques by booking a few painting jobs across Virginia. Eight to ten branch managers spent about three days painting each house while learning proper techniques such as how to handle a paint sprayer or how to make smooth brushstrokes. Truslow said all branch managers went to at least one training session.
The Successful Intern Experience
During the recruitment process, district managers like Struckmann and Truslow can rely on their own personal experience as branch managers to entice potential interns. Both managers were chosen for the position of district manager in part because of their outstanding success as branch managers.
Struckmann said he was the number-two seller in the nation when he was a branch manager, earning $36,000 during the summer. He attributes his achievement to persistence and perseverance.
"You have to put your skills on the line and learn a new skill set," he explained. "Its not like school, it's the real world."
Truslow was similarly successful, earning $28,000. He said the experience of hiring 40 people to work for him was a valuable way to learn organizational and management skills.
One of this summer's success stories belongs to Alexander. Struckmann recalled Alexander "struggled hard" at sales during the spring but continued to work hard.
Alexander said finding laborers to work for his company was also a challenge. Though he spoke to 40 high school students who were initially interested in the job, he found they were not mature enough to do the work.
"When they come out and realize it's hard, it's hard for them to get past the first couple of times," Alexander said. "I didn't have too many people stick it out through the spring."
Alexander was, nonetheless, able to start his business, using credit from the company in order to buy supplies like ladders, brushes and power sprayers. Even once the cost of these items was subtracted from his company's earnings, Alexander said he earned a profit of eight to nine thousand dollars by the end of the summer.
The Unsuccessful Intern
Not all interns are nearly as successful as Alexander, Truslow or Struckmann. In fact, there are many who never make it to the point of actually painting a house. Struckmann said about 40 percent of those hired do not make it through the summer.
"Some of the kids join a club or rush a fraternity, or don't want to work every weekend," Struckmann said.
University second-year College students Hannah Gondreau and Annie Humes were among the 40 percent who quit before summer arrived.
Gondreau said she became interested in applying for a College Works position after a friend told her she would be able to own her own company while also earning more than $10,000. After applying and being accepted for the internship, Gondreau found the work to be more demanding than she expected.
Gondreau said interns were told to find people to do jobs such as door-to-door marketing, but "about 50 to 70 percent of the people that were doing it couldn't find anyone."
Gondreau said when she and others encountered problems, their supervisors reiterated the same strategies that had previously failed.
Gondreau said she had to quit the internship at the end of May, because she did not have $25,000 in paint jobs lined up for the summer.
As a result of not completing the internship, Gondreau said she lost approximately $1,000 as a result of participating. Because Gondreau never completed a painting job, she was unable to earn money to cover costs of supplies that she purchased during the spring.
"They said if you put the money up, you'll get it back," Gondreau said.
Humes said she had a similar negative experience with College Works. She was initially attracted to the program because interviewers told her they would help her with time management and would help her learn how to work successfully in a business environment.
After being hired, Humes said she spent "an inordinate amount of money" on gasoline for the required marketing trips each weekend. Humes also invested in management supplies.
One of the biggest problems Humes encountered was the area in which she was assigned to market. She said her supervisors originally said she would be assigned to work in an area near her home, but she was instead assigned to a lower-income area even farther from Charlottesville than her hometown. According to Humes, the area had few homes that would be interested in her business, since most were either owned by low-income families or had vinyl siding.
The long commute home from Charlottesville also complicated her life during the marketing period in the spring. Humes said the long hours she worked had a negative effect on her schoolwork.
"My grades were dropping because I never got extra sleep on the weekends, and I would be totally exhausted all the time," Humes explained.
Too Good to Be True?
Given the 40 percent failure rate of those hired, one might think the College Works Painting internship is a scam, or at least misleading.
"They definitely made it seem like everyone can do this," Humes said. "I never got the impression that it was something I could completely screw up."
Struckmann said that the recruitment process is not misleading.
"You've got to put things in the right order," Struckmann said, explaining his method of emphasizing the economic and educational benefits of the program rather than the risk of failure during interest meetings. The difficulty of the internship is discussed during the later stages of the interview process, Struckmann said.
Even for those who made it through the program, earning the supposed average wage of about $10,000 was surprisingly difficult.
Alexander said he hoped to make upwards of $25,000 because he thought he was more ambitious than other students. But because of the problems he encountered, he fell slightly below the $10,000 mark.
Another branch manager, third-year College student John Howard-Smith, said interns were told they could keep approximately 20 percent of the money from each completed job. Howard-Smith said that about 50 percent of his company's total earnings went to overhead costs and to the national company, while the remaining earnings were used to pay workers, to purchase insurance for workers and to acquire painting materials before the branch manager could receive any profit.
Because of the many costs associated with running a business, Howard-Smith said branch managers "have to rip people off to make money."
Howard-Smith said companies would advertise "pro-work" while charging a high price for what turned out to be "a job that's not too good."
"I guess it ended up being kind of scammy," Howard-Smith said. "You have to do really well to [make] any kind of money."
Professional Perspective
Chris Henkel, owner of Charlottesville's Prestige Contracting LLC, said he has considered running a company similar to College Works painting, since the business venture "seems to work well with painting."
Henkel explained that some customers are interested in hiring students in order to help them work their way through college. The College Works program, however, is a scam, Henkel said, since there is a larger company making "a bunch of money" off of the students' work.
Henkel said the work of the student painters is also not professional.
"I've had College Works call me when they have gotten into a spot they couldn't handle," Henkel said.
Henkel said his company has not faced much competition from College Works, as the people who hire him would not choose to hire College Works students.
"It's a different end of the spectrum as far as I'm concerned," he said.
Lessons Learned
Howard-Smith said despite the College Works internship's shortfalls, the program was worthwhile.
"The experience gain was really good to see how business works: what not to do, what to do," he said. "I think the experience was worth it."
Other successful painters agreed.
"It's the best experience I've had in my life," Struckmann said. "I'm ready to get out on my own and do something crazy."
Even some of those who failed to complete the internship learned something from the experience.
Gondreau said she had planned to be a business major, but the program made her change her mind.
"Now I'm planning on majoring in Spanish," she said.
Read More
Board of Visitors Finance Committee hears presentation on budget process
By Cecilia Mould | YesterdayThe Committee will review and vote on the budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year when the full Board reconvenes for its June meeting.
Police forcefully clear encampment near University Chapel, detain protesters
By Thomas Baxter and Finn Trainer | 3 days agoThe University declared the encampment an unlawful assembly at 2:44 p.m.
Student Council passes appointment bill, approves new CIOs at final meeting of semester
By Arshiya Pant | 4 days agoMendoza Gonzalez also said she will be meeting with Kenyon R. Bonner, vice president and chief student affairs officer, to discuss further strategies for the Student Council Endowment Fund.
