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Company earns mixed reviews
By Callie Martell
Tuition is rising yet again, and many college students are struggling to pay for school. One option that many students are tempted by is a company that offers a minimum of $7,000 and the chance to build a resume.
Southwestern Company is a book selling company that recruits college students to sell a wide variety of educational books all over the country. They train their employees to sell the materials door to door and pay through commission.
In other words, if you don't sell, you don't make money.
Those involved are gone for 14 weeks during the summer and work 80 hours a week. Kirsten Moen worked for Southwestern last summer and made about $14,500. She heard about it through a friend that had done it the previous summer and was recruiting students.
Moen learned a lot about herself and running her own business.
"It was interesting, like a whole other world," she said.
"I became very independent." Southwestern requires its employees to visit 30 houses a day along with daily paperwork.
At the beginning of the first interview, the Southwestern manager states that only one out of 30 houses purchase material. Even so, Moen highly recommends it to other students.
"It looks really good on a resume and at the end you feel like you really accomplished something."
The daily schedule for a Southwestern employee is a demanding one. Rise and shine at about 5:30 a.m. and try to be knocking on doors by 7:30 a.m. Employees work until about 10 p.m., calculate the sales from the day and try to be in bed by midnight. That is the schedule for most salespeople Monday through Saturday. Sundays they wake up early and drive to the location where their weekly meetings are held. These last from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. but get shorter as students get more comfortable with their sales presentations.
After their meeting they return home to do laundry, shop for groceries, clean and start any paperwork for the next day.
Not all students appreciate the experience like Moen did. Josh Wilde returned home after a two-week trial with the company. "I was putting over a hundred miles on my car each day and all I did was work," he said.
Although Wilde enjoyed the people he worked with and is still on good terms with them, he did not like the job. "Summer is summer, you know," Wilde said. "You have to have a little fun."
Southwestern requires its employees to work long, disciplined hours. They cannot listen to the radio or watch television. Moen stated, "We didn't have time to watch TV, but we couldn't watch it or listen to the radio, only CDs, because of the negative thoughts. It's all about the attitude," Moen said.
Southwestern Company's student program has been around for over 100 years and originated as a Bible selling company. Although many students have had positive experiences and return to work 80 hours a week, places such as Madison are warning their students about it.
The Web site www.channel300.com�have written that the company is up front about the procedure, but warn that Southwestern's sales pitch may be misleading.
"We want people to know that you might bomb out and be in the hole trying to earn money for next semester," State Consumer Protection spokesman Glen Loyd said. All in all, Southwestern Company is getting mixed reviews
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