Direct-sales companies, where people are selling or offering a product or service, typically pay their interns only when they have made a sale or a job is completed.
“I actually don’t remember signing up for it. I just got a random call one day from this girl who wanted me to go to an information session,” junior TJ Ragsdale said. “I guess I did sign up for it, though, on a piece of paper in class.”
Ragsdale interned for College Works Painting, a company at which the interns paint houses and manage teams of painters.
Interns from College Works Painting pass around sign-up sheets in large classes to recruit students.
“You don’t get money until you actually get a job done,” Ragsdale said.
But interning at College Works Painting proved successful for Ragsdale, who later was a contract recruiter for the company from August 2014 to January 2015.
“For me, personally, it worked out. I was able to finish the whole internship, and I made about $15,000, and they gave me a free trip to Cancún,” he said. “I think it’s really good for people who want to get into entrepreneurship or sales.”
Pete Murphy, a sophomore intended business major, also interned at College Works Painting. Unlike Ragsdale, Murphy said he dropped the program after about three weeks.