LEGAL NOTE: All reviews are based entirely on student opinion and do not represent or claim to represent any facts.
College Works Painting, Branch Manager
Reviewed: 9/25/2008 at 12:10:10 am
| Location: Ann Arbor, MI | Compensation: Average Pay | Hours Weekly: 45+ |
Comments:
My responsibilities at College Works Painting:
- Manage my own exterior house painting business, everything from SALES to PAINTING the house
- Direct marketing to get "leads", run door-to-door offering free estimates to house owners, drop off flyers & brochures, email and calling. Start marketing in the Winter so if you live in the Midwest, you are in for a long winter!
- Recruiting marketers and painters
- Training painters for production, you will learn how to set-up all equipments, proper painting techniques and managing supplies
What I have learned:
- Incredible hard work! Being a branch manager is very time consuming, even though it's only part-time during the school year, you start marketing around December and is expected to put in 20-30hrs weekly.
- Definitely gain great communications skills, since direct marketing pushes you out of your comfort zone forcing you to "sell" to homeowners.
- Leadership skills, you have to manage your marketers and painters who are often older than you! And you manage their payroll.......
Workplace atmosphere:
The Ann Arbor-MI College Works Painting team is simply amazing - my District Manager, Cary Gahm is very knowledgeable, charming, and just a great motivator and leader overall. Most DMs are willingly to help you, but it's definitely hard to mingle as a girl (about 80% guys each year)
Downsides....
- They promise high compensation, but ultimately it all rests on luck. My territory had 15 other college kids working at the same time, so I was only able to produce $30,000 paint jobs. But if you have a rich neighborhood and no competition, you can produce up to $120,000. The amount of time & money you have to pay up front doesn't always balance out either.... I didn't make any money from my internship, even lost money! But it was a great experience and you will gain skills that are helpful in the future.
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Tips for getting accepted to internship: Interview and call all past interns, they typically provide you with a list of "alumni" that you can contact! Learn about the internship and decide if it's right for you.
Employee Hotness
: 3 / 5
Potential for a date 
: 5 / 5