<p>Wow, I am currently working for College Works as a painter and this is the biggest *<strong><em>-show I’ve ever seen in my life. I usually work construction for summer jobs and make good money doing it. But this is the biggest scam I’ve ever seen. First of all, my pay rate is flexible meaning my salary is based on the time frame I paint the house and my “performance bonus” is strictly based on how fast I paint the house, not how well I perform. Considering that College Works really only trained him how to sale and nothing about painting he has no idea what he’s doing or exactly how ti bid a house because he doesn’t know what work is involved. So, he has under bid every house that we’ve painted and I’ve been paid nothing but min. wage since I’ve started. Since I’m the only one who knows what to do I have to delegate and manage, even him, and most of the time I wont even do it because he pays me such a *</em></strong> wage. Oh and the whole like “your learning how to run your own company, you don’t paint you manage” thing is a crock of *<strong><em>. I’ve worked for multimillion dollar construction companies and if our job site was running behind or something wasn’t going right, the owner of the company would be out with a shovel in his suit and tie running *</em></strong>. Basically, I think the first thing they should teach these cocky little pricks about running your own business and making a profit is, GET YOUR ****ING HANDS DIRTY! I could rant about what a horrible company this is for a long time. I may even post some more because I have to work Saturday on a house 50 miles from where I live for minimum wage because my “manager” underbid it by probably almost $1,500 and for two days of work, which should of been almost 4 days and we’re going to do it in 3. Thanks College Works for raping me</p>
<p>college works might seem like a good opportunity to some people, but even the way they get you to interview for the jobs are shady. a rep came to one of my classes and clearly gave the impression they worked for a company that placed students into various summer internships, so i signed up to be contacted about an engineering internship. a couple days later i get a random call at like 8 at night to answer a bunch of questions about my academic history and why I would be a good candidate to be placed in one of their internships, all related to engineering. after about 15 minutes i get invited to interview super early the next day, only to find out its this bs “management” internship that couldn’t have less to do with my major, let alone even engineering. only one person that showed up that morning had even a vague idea of what the internship was really about; everyone else had the same impression as me, that this was some sort of placing agency for internships or something like that. one guy at the interview was obviously ****ed off that he’d been so mislead over the phone and he literally stopped the interview at one point and said something along the lines of “why the heck would i want to do an internship like this”</p>
<p>my parents are getting ready to sell our house…how is the painting quality/reliability of collegeworks painters?</p>
<p>The program is more than a scam. This program is a prision sentence for anyone unlucky enough to be in search of the american dream at the wrong place at the wrong time, because by the time you realize that you are not going to make any money it will be to late to do anything about it. College works went broke few years ago and had to be reworked so that they would never go broke again. I am finishing up college works painting right now. I had worked 90 hours a week, for more than half a year. I have met a lot of smart people in the program. I have met a lot of dumb people too. I went along with it and tried not to con anyone while doing so. </p>
<p>They started me off as a guy with flyers. I worked the street. snow and rain were the best cause home owners feel sorry for you. they tell me work hard enough and you can make 20% commission. so I sold 45 thousand dollars worth of business. wow I’m going to make 12k right?!! </p>
<p>Now producton starts. CWP takes 40% off the top. Then the paint store gets paid. Then the painters get paid. then I get paid. I had a 6k job that paid me 200 dollars. I had a 900 dollar deck make me negative 700 dollars. So **** happens. I have a truck. I have a powerwasher. I still had to pay a startup cost and random co-pays for things cwp never explains really. they just charge you kind of like the 2big to fail banks do. for me it was more than 3k. painters that require 15 dollars an hour minimum (for them) but for you it really costs close to 30 cause of what cwp calls a burden tax. on every dollar that you pay painters, you times that by .91 and that also goes to cwp along with the 40% of every check that some homeowner writes to you. But they dont tell you that when you are booking paint jobs.</p>
<p>Homeowners!!!: if you got cwp to paint your home you paid to much. cause a professional paint job could cost you 20% less and you will get professional painters.</p>
<p>Students: by the time you understand the con. it will be 2 late. This is a company made by a guy that started up a company called the entrepreneur organization and lives in cali. He is a sweet talking guy that prays on males that are young, dumb, and full of cum, like me. </p>
<p>P.S. : out of the 400 people that were siting beside me at the beginning, 30 are still here and 5 will come back next year to con freashmen and sophmores just like them next year cause they were the lucky ones that made money.</p>
<p>I’m a homeowner and my advice to anybody getting into this program would be to get an experienced painter, maybe a friend of the family, to coach you a little. This would include visiting one of your early jobs to teach you how to check quality, technique, and speed. Don’t rely on the company’s training (or even their recommendations for what tools to use) because it is obviously not adequate. Our crew could have made out well on our house if they knew more and were more systematic and checked quality daily; instead they probably will lose money because the final state of the work was so bad that I think they’re going to have to do all the trim again. My husband put himself through college painting houses and is going to try to coach our CW intern a bit, and the painters too if they want. Everybody was nice but CollegeWorks didn’t seem to be helping them all that much. This doesn’t mean it’s not a good opportunity for the right people. Just don’t think it’s going to be smooth or even remotely easy.</p>
<p>I just had an information session for this program and the whole time I could not stop thinking about how off the whole thing seemed. So, I just gave some answers that made me look like a bad candidate so they never contacted me again. Worked like a charm. Now time to go find a REAL internship, one where the company isn’t trying to cut their costs down by having interns do all the work.</p>
<p>I totally agree with worried_mom and axiom18. Dont buy the positive reviews and I bet they probably made an account here just to defend themselves with different names. The reason y I was here is because I was interviewed at my university for CWP. I have to agree that it seems like an unusual internship. Its not exactly an internship internship. They just named it that way to attract sudents to get into it. After lots of research, I can conclude that I wouldnt do it myself nor recommend anyone to get into it if youd like to take my advise. </p>
<p>For those of you who disagree, think about it this way. You’re doing business or related majors in schools are eager to get into an internship. You dont understand that when they give you an introduction about the program, they’re just talking about the skills you will learn through CWP. The real deal is you actually search for potential customers who would like to get their houses painted. You also have to advertise a lot for it btw. Then you hire painters and get the job done. It is possible that painters can quit and you will be responsible to finish the task. You will end up paiting at some point - Believe it or not! When the customer pays you, CWP takes a major portion of it and then asks you to manage with the rest, where you have to cope with all your expenses including paying the painters. You actually are not guaranteed with a profitable pay check here.</p>
<p>Therefore my fellow students, if you actually want a legit internship and a corporate type experience, youre looking at the wrong choice here (CWP). Get into this only if you have no other option in life. Luckily, through lots of research reading reviews and taking a few of my friends’ opinions, I backed out of this before I fell into its trap.</p>
<p>DON’T DO </p>
<p>COLLEGE PRO!!!</p>
<p>DON’T DO IT!
this one is a scam, they take our a loan for you and if you don’t make enough YOU have to pay it back!!!</p>
<p>Glad I decided to check this out. I had a phone interview and an in-person interview over the past two days with these guys, they asked me to call them back if I was interested.
From what it sounds they’re taking advantage of eager (mostly freshmen) college students eager to find an internship.
They didn’t exactly have a clear answer as to where the business was, they answered with “near your hometown” which could pretty much mean anywhere in the state… Do they even have any offices? My interview was in our noisiest campus center (terrible choice).</p>
<p>Grainger by any chance?</p>
<p>I have been through 3 rounds of interviews at this point. Yes, they were in Grainger. I am very glad I found this thread and did more research before investing any more time in this company.</p>
<p>This is about as prestigious as selling knives door-to-door for Vector/CutCo.</p>
<p>Its the type of job you remove off your resume so that you have space for more important things, like the fact that you play the yukulele in your spare time or are conversationally fluent in Esperanto.</p>
<p>I’m at UCLA and before one of my econ classes they passed out a tiny piece of paper. This guy said “fill it out if you want a summer internship”. Basically it asked for my year in school, my phone number, and my major, etc. I filled it out & gave it back to the guy right then just as about 150 other students in the class did. </p>
<p>Three weeks later (yesterday) got a call form some lady telling me she was responding to my internship information request. She asked if I had time to answer a few quesitons, I said yes. She asked me my year, my major, what kind of field I wanted to go into after graduation, and what kind of leadership experience I had. </p>
<p>Then, after my answers, (and knowing nothing else about me) she told me I qualified for an “information session”. She set me up for one the next day. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to hear more about any internship opportunity. She told me I would meet “Jeremy” at the Bruin Bear statue and about 5 other potential interns would be there. I would hear about people’s experiences from doing the internship in the past. At that point, I knew it couldn’t be legit. All the internship information sessions I had been to had been put on by the UCLA Career Center and took place at their building. They were legitimate presentations and not just “meeting at the statue”.</p>
<p>Before the conversation ended, she tried to make me promise not to bail, so I wouldn’t be wasting their time, blah, blah, blah. Then just as she was about to hang up, I said, “Wait, is this through some company? Who is the internship for?” </p>
<p>She quickly said, “It’s College Works, but you will hear about it more tomorrow.” </p>
<p>What a scam! I had heard about that bull**** before. They tried to get one of my friends last quarter! I can’t believe the school allowed them to actually go into a classroom and get our information from us!!! </p>
<p>The funniest part is that throughout the whole process of them getting our contact information and setting up the “meeting at the statue” they never once were willing to give out their name. If they were proud of who they were, and knew they had something decent to offer students, they would say “College Works” loud and clear to entice people to come and take interest. But no. College Works has a bad reputation, and will definitely NOT help me in any way after I graduate. Painting houses all summer does not even compare to an auditing internship with a big accounting firm. HAHAHAHA! Who do they think they are? How dumb do they think we are??</p>
<p>Needless to say, I did NOT go to their ghetto “meeting by the bear statue”. And I didn’t call to cancel first either.</p>
<p>Sad thing is I know a friend who accepted and is really excited about it. I don’t have the heart to tell him that he is being taken advantage of. If he wants to make some money, he might as well just start the business on his own. That way, he doesn’t have profits taken away by someone who has done nothing.</p>
<p>I am currently involved as an intern for this internship. I am aware of the many negative things that are being said of CWP, and yet I am still giving them a try. Right now is just the start of the internship, so I can’t tell you right now if any of those statements are true or not.</p>
<p>At the end of this internship, possibly around August/October, I can post a detailed story of what my experience was like.</p>
<p>Posting this to help prove that I’m not some CWP employee or w/e</p>
<p>This is hands down one of the biggest scams you could get yourself into. Collegeworks essentially brainwashes the minds of young freshmen and sophmores into thinking they have a “legit” internship. The District Managers and VP’s are usually kids who are in their 20’s who smooth talk these young naive Freshmen and sophomores into thinking their “internship” is actually competitive. They throw around titles like its no big deal too…I am VP of this and you are branch manager that…Psshhhh…Titles in the real business world come after years of experience.</p>
<p>Here is my advice…</p>
<p>Sign up for collegeworks if you do NOT have:
-Morals (they straight up lie to customers and their own people)
-Ethics
-Self-respect
-Respect for others</p>
<p>Sign up for collegeworks if:
-You are a sucker for smooth talkers (if you buy stuff from infomercials, then you are a sucker)
-You want to make pennies over the summer (working 60+ hours with a crap paycheck)
-You have low self-esteem and want to feel important by telling people you have a “painting company”.</p>
<p>Collegeworks also promotes and allows underage drinking. The District managers and EVP’s knows this occurs yet they don’t care in the least. They want to keep their 18 and 19 year olds around so they let them drink underage. It’s quite pathetic to see these 20 something year old loser managers hang out and feed booze to kids who are nothing more than children. It’s akin to the whore houses you see in the movies that get young girls addicted to cocaine and whore their bodies out. In this case, the whores are the college kids and the their bodies are the waste of time and money they will be spending… </p>
<p>In saying all this, and you still want to join this pathetic company, just think about going into a life of crime instead. Prostitution, drug trafficking, fraud, etc…at least you are being honest with yourself in the life of crime you are partaking in instead of being too gullible to realize whats going on within Collegeworks.</p>
<p>I had 3 friends do this internship. One loved it because he happened to be in a “good” district where he booked a lot of sales. The other two were miserable, walking through neighborhoods handing out fliers, spending their own money on supplies and workers, and ultimately stressed because they spent every afternoon and weekend on their projects, and they did not even make much money from the experience as they were promised. If you want to get into this line of work, managing construction projects or painting, this might be the righ experience for you. Otherwise, it will be a waste of time. There are much better ways to improve your communicaiton and management skills than through this program.</p>
<p>The account that Experiment8 gave was eerily similar to what I experienced not two hours ago. Some rep called me at about nine at night, bludgeoned through her company’s name, saying I had expressed interest in an internship through one of my communications courses. She also asked me a bunch of questions related to my major, my work experience, and my resume, and basically told me after my passionate speech on my desire to advocate for human rights that I would be doing “team-building” for a house painting company. And yes, she smooth talked me into believing that “team-building” would be compatible with my personal goals. I’m happy I found this thread, and happy I asked her to repeat the name of the company. I was also told to meet a rep in one of the most random, unsupervised parts of campus. Shame on these people for taking advantage.</p>
<p>Ok, so I understand that, yes, I have “one post”. I just registered, and the plan is basically to give some legitimate feedback about my current experience with College Works (I think someone before me is doing a similar thing). Keep in mind that I’m still in the beginning/middle of the internship.</p>
<p>I signed up for College Works in the fall, and the whole thing is in motion now.</p>
<p>I agree that the interview process was kind of shady. I didn’t “meet by some statue”, but I met the managers in buildings on campus and at local Starbucks’ and things. They are very smooth talkers with lots of charisma that say all the right things. I consider myself to be a really good talker too, and I guess that is why this appealed to me. That, and the prospect of money.
During the interviewing process, they gave me a list of individuals who had all done the program before. I expected a bunch of amazing stories of success. It turned out to individuals who had done the program and had various experiences. Some made some decent amount of money, some made a little, nobody said they lost money. None of them made tons of money either. They all told me that this is a ton of work and that it sucks like hell at the beginning, but that things start getting better when the ball is rolling. The guys seemed honest, weren’t expecting my call, and they all said that, regardless of the amount of money or work, they recommended the experience. This, coupled with the fact that it doesn’t require a financial investment from my pocket is what made me take the offer.</p>
<p>Training was intense, had lots of information, and was over 3 days. Then we were out in the field. I had a pretty good first weekend find “leads” (people expressing interest in getting a free estimate) and a terrible second weekend. I came across people who had their homes painted by college kids before, and received a 50/50 ratio as to whether they liked it or not. I came across slammed doors, nice people, people who cared, people who wanted to be nice about it but didnt want it, etc.
I’m going to hire some high school kids to market for me, let’s see how that goes.</p>
<p>I have booked about 6 estimates so far, they went ok. I booked two jobs so far. I have 2 people getting back to me, and one guy who was clearly uninterested and just wanted a free estimate.</p>
<p>I know that the District Managers assigned to guide you are variable in their help. I’m glad my manager is awesome. He keeps in contact daily, always willing to give advice, meets me halfway on everything (doesn’t make me just make long drives out), came out and marketed with me for a day, did help me with initial phone calls, helped me out with 3 estimates, and basically is looking out for me all the way. I know that some district managers aren’t so gracious, motivated, or helpful. </p>
<p>I’ve booked two jobs, learned how to talk to people. I’m now confident making phone calls, doing estimates, and dealing with clients. The only financial investment I’ve made is basically paying for gas driving around everywhere (they say that I’ll be able to write it off on my taxes, we’ll see). I’ve received no money from them yet (just booked my jobs 3-4 days ago). I don’t expect to receive anything until I hit $25,000 in sales. I’m at $4,000 right now. I’ve got more estimates scheduled for this weekend, we’ll see how they go.</p>
<p>I’m attending a production training this weekend. This is for learning how to hire painters, make them do work, etc. I haven’t done anything regarding actual painting or hiring painters yet.</p>
<p>Overall, my thoughts: </p>
<ul>
<li>I don’t see a scam here. I see a lot of goddamn work and time investment that, at this pace, will have an average payout of probably between $3,000 and $7,000. The equivalent of a part time summer job. </li>
<li>There was no 40 page contract to sign. A contract about 5-10 pages (I think) and books and pamphlets loaded with training information.</li>
<li>I’m happy with the contact and guidance I’ve received from them.</li>
<li>I’m surprised this system actually works. If you knocked on my door, I’d politely decline. but people do need their houses painted I guess, so that’s why they agree to it.</li>
<li>The overall method and training is ok. It works, so no complaints.</li>
<li>I’ve made no investment yet (aside from time/gas), so nothing to hate on yet.</li>
<li>You definitely need to be a good talker, dedicated, and motivated as hell.</li>
<li>My goal actually is to give out good paint jobs in addition to making money.</li>
<li>I’m still in the starting phase, let’s see where this goes.</li>
<li>Everyone has been honest and square with me so far.</li>
</ul>
<p>At this point, I feel that people think it’s a scam because it is a ton of work and ugly work (marketing door to door) and requires a ton of commitment. I’ve had no experiences painting with them yet or dealing with financials/payouts, but I’ll keep the world updated, if anybody wants to know.
I figured some prospective candidate will look at this someday and figure this into their decision. Again, this is College Works, not College Pro (which I’ve heard some nastier things about). </p>
<p>I’ll keep posting with updates every few weeks.</p>
<p>acpcr6
Chicago</p>
<p>ACPCR6</p>
<p>First off, a scam does not have to include the loss of your own funds to be considered a scam. If you are not making money or not getting paid then you are being scammed. What legitimate company would make you use your own car and not pay you at least gas? I can think of only a few crap jobs like delivering papers that make you front the gas, but those jobs are for crackpots anyways. On top of that you have the wear and tear on your car that is not being considered. While your odometer racks up the miles the value of your car and the likelihood of your car breaking down increases. Another thing you mentioned is that only one of the other things that you have invested was your “time”. Last time I checked, in business 101 “Time = Money” so I don’t see the logic in your statement that you have nothing to hate on.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to BELIEVE you are getting scammed then you are not, but “we” who live in the real business world know that you are getting scammed. Don’t be a sucker and wake up. Get a real internship with a reputable company. Don’t worry about saving face right now. Worry about the time you and money you will never get back…</p>