Tammy Mattison of Baker College Online interviewed Dr. Ralph Brigham, Global Campus Relations Director about Southwestern Company and the summer sales program for college students for the Southern Association of Colleges and Employers.
Click on this link for full interview: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs007/1102009965462/archive/1105006848126.html#Story7
The Southern Association of Colleges and Employers, Inc. (SoACE) is an organization of human resources, college relations and career service professionals. Our mission is to promote partnerships between career services professionals and employers by providing innovative resources, professional development and networking opportunities to facilitate the career development and employment of students and alumni.
Saturday night in Nashville, Tennessee the Top 25 campuses for the summer of 2010 were announced. I had the privilege of awarding the #1 Trophy Cup to the students from the University of Tartu in Estonia for the fourth consecutive year. Interestingly, the #2 campus is also in Estonia, Tallinn University of Technology. This year four of the top 10 campuses were international universities, with Texas A&M being the top US campus to make the list. The top campuses are calculated by total sales from the students by each campus.
The career centers at each of the Top 10 campuses will receive an engraved plaque and $1,000. Numbers 11-25 will receive a certificate of accomplishment to be presented by the District Sales Manager responsible for that campus.
In 2010, students who worked with Southwestern came from 16 countries and 42 US states and attended 348 campuses worldwide. The list of the top 25 campuses is as follows:
- University of Tartu (4 consecutive years as the #1 campus worldwide)
- Tallinn University of Technology (6 consecutive years in Top 10)
- University of British Columbia (4 consecutive years in Top 10)
- University of Economics Prague-VSE (5 consecutive years in Top 10)
- Texas A&M University (10 consecutive years in Top 10)
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln (12 consecutive years in Top 25)
- University of Missouri-Columbia
- University of Oregon (14 consecutive years in the Top 25)
- Florida State University (18 consecutive years in the Top 25)
- University of California-Los Angeles (4 consecutive years in the Top 25)
- University of Northern Iowa
- Texas State University
- University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- University of Montana (1st time ever in the Top 25!)
- Simon Fraser University (4 consecutive years in Top 25)
- University of Nebraska-Kearney (1st time ever in the Top 25!)
- Arizona State University (7 consecutive years in the Top 25)
- Grand Valley State University
- University of Tennessee-Knoxville
- University oh Maryland
- University of Washington
- Michigan State University (4 consecutive years in the Top 25)
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Iowa (6 consecutive years in the Top 25)
- University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
CollegeGrad.com polls employers annually about the number of interns they look to recruit, typically for the summer months. The Southwestern Company moved into the #1 position for 2010, up from the #2 slot in 2009. Southwestern looks to have around 2,750 interns from some 350 campuses in North America and Europe this summer.
Rounding out the top 10 are:
General Electric (2,400)
PricewaterhouseCoopers (2,041)
KPMG (1,600)
Ernst & Young (1,571)
Lockheed Martin (1,493)
Target Corporation (1,200)
Enterprise Rent-A-Car (1,000)
Northrop Grumman (1,000)
University Directories (750)
It’s easy to see that these top 10 companies cover a number of industries and offers college students quite a variety of learning experiences. The full list can be seen here.
The Southwestern Company recruits students from both large and small campuses, public and private, urban and rural and gives college students the opportunity to make significant money to offset their college expenses and to learn entrepreneurial skills that will benefit them throughout their entire professional career.
Southwestern’s Top 10 campuses for the summer of 2009 were:
(1) University of Tartu in Estonia
(2) Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia
(3) University of British Columbia
(4) Simon Fraser University
(5) University of Oregon
(6) Texas A&M University
(7) Florida State University
(8) University of Nebraska-Lincoln
(9) University of Edinburgh in Scotland
(10) Texas State University
Every once in a while one of the Southwestern Company recruiters will visit a new campus and meet with the career center about recruiting students. Sometimes the career center will be aware of Southwestern Company, though many times they don’t. Usually, they will listen to the recruiter and then explain recruiting procedures on that particular campus and help them to get started. Occasionally, they will turn to their colleagues to learn about the company. This week a career center professional out west of the Mississippi inquired, through a listserv, about Southwestern. I am sharing what one cooperative education and internship professional shared in response. Yes, I received permission from this person to share her thoughts and I urge you to read her comments about Southwestern Company and sales as a profession because she speaks from the experience of being a salesperson and also from the perspective of hiring sales people for 9 years. The following is her quote.
“Southwestern has really taken a bad wrap and I am not sure why. I used to place salespeople in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and what they are asking students to do isn’t much different than what some companies ask their sales people to do when they ask them to work on straight commission. I went to Nashville and attended the sales school that the students attend and got a good overview of the program. Students do get some good solid sales training and then they are asked to work as independent sales reps and by that I mean they are in business for themselves. They buy their own display stock (not unlike what Mary Kay asks their sales reps to do), take orders from that and buy the books at a lower cost and sell them at a higher cost to the customers. So they are essentially managing their own businesses. The hard part is that they sell door to door in residential neighborhoods in areas that they usually aren’t familiar with. That was similar to what I did when I sold calculators door to door to businesses in the Dallas area. I will be the first to say that it isn’t for everybody and certainly not for the weak of heart! I did it and I am glad to have had the experience of doing it! I learned more about myself doing that job than anything else I have ever done.”
“Most all of the Southwestern area representatives that we have allowed on our campuses to recruit do a pretty good job of weeding out those who aren’t up to the task. It does take someone with a drive to succeed, some self-motivation and the ability to persist in order to really make some money doing this type of work. I have had medical students pay their way through medical school doing this. If a student asks me about it directly, I don’t paint any pretty pictures because having done something similar in a different venue, I know it to be one of the most challenging things I have ever done in my life! You don’t get any down days (those cost you money), and you have to manage your attitude to generate sales. It truly drew on more parts of me than anything else I have ever done, and I have done many different types of work. Even if they aren’t successful moneywise, they will learn a great deal about themselves that will contribute to their future success but they must be willing to take that gamble.”
“For those who do complete the summer and can add what they have done to their resume it is almost a guaranteed interview with any company who does business with the general public. I call it the “bootcamp for success” because I truly believe that if you can do that job; you can do any job!”
“I think the real challenge here is giving the students a realistic expectation of what they will be doing and what is involved and somehow in some cases that is evidently not clear. Only some of my departments will grant credit for it since there is no salary involved. However, it can be very lucrative for those who do well and it can also leave others in debt. Not unlike what some insurance sales positions can do.”
Please, feel free to contact me if you have any other questions that I may be able to answer. You may also want to talk with the Director of Campus Relations for the Southwestern Company, Ralph Brigham (a former Career Services Director in Montana).”
Warm regards,
Terry Erickson, Coordinator, Career Services & Co-op Ed., University of North Dakota
Terry has worked with many Southwestern recruiters and students have been very successful and some that were not as successful, but she supports the opportunity for students to try out jobs and careers and I respect that attitude.
Yes, you certainly can call me if you have any questions at 505-688-6246 as this is a great opportunity for students who are willing to work hard, be coachable and have a fair amount of discipline. The sky is the limit, in terms of money, skills and future opportunities, for those students willing to explore something out of the norm for the summer.
Dr. Phil Gardner, Michigan State U. researcher and author of the annual “Recruiting Trends” publication states that the college labor market has hit bottom. Last year Dr. Gardner estimated a recruiting decline of 8% to 10%, but it actually ended up to have declined between 35% to 40%. This year’s report was issued at the annual Midwest ACE Recruiting Trends conference held in Chicago.
This year’s “Trends” report describes our current economic situation and says that we are not simply in a recession (or ending a recession), but that we are at the end of a lifecycle – the manufacturing age has run out of gas and the good old days are gone and are not coming back. What is new is that we are now entering the Age of Networked Intelligence. Also, it is estimated that 2/3 of all new jobs will involve on-the-job training and will require no post secondary degree.
The outlook for 2009-2010 is as follows: Total hiring will be down about 2%, Bachelor hiring will be -1%, MBA hiring will be +11%, MS/MA hiring will be -11%, and PhD hiring will be +20%. The growth will be in fast growth companies (9-100 employees) – increasing by 26% and small companies (101-500 employees) – increasing by 15%. Medium-sized companies (500-3999) will decrease hiring by 11% and large companies (>4000) will decrease total hiring by 3%. We’ll also see changes in BA hiring by region of the country: Northwest +4%, Southwest +2%, South Central +6%, Upper Plains -3%, Great Lakes -4%, Northeast -4%, Mid-Atlantic -8%, and Southeast -7%.
Recruiting on campuses will also see changes this year, corporate examples include: (1) 42% will reduce the number of schools they visit, (2) 46% will reduce the number of career fairs they attend and (3) 36% will hold fewer on-campus interviews. One possible explanation for the drop in on-campus interviewing is that many employers may be making offers to interns before they even return to campus.
The research indicates that employers are saying the following to students on college campuses. Students need to have flexibility, because more employers are seeking candidates from across all majors who can move into a variety of positions as needed. They will search for candidates with a mix of technical aptitude and essential soft skills. Employers indicate that the following majors will be at an advantage this year: e-commerce, entrepreneurialism, environmental sciences, information science, information systems, interactive computer design, statistics, nursing and social work. Students need to understand that they need to expand their breadth of experiences and not to just have more depth in a certain discipline.
Students graduating this year must learn to manage themselves and to create You, Inc. They will need to learn how to create their own job and to make a niche for themselves in this new economy. Dr. Gardner ends this year’s report by stating that, “The best academically trained candidate might not get the job! It will go to the candidate that best demonstrates how they can add value to a company, are professionally connected, and most importantly understand the importance of entrepreneurial thinking.” It looks to me like the college students of today who wants to success tomorrow needs a summer with Southwestern to develop those entrepreneurial and other soft skills.
Dave Ramsey & Ralph Brigham
I recently visited the corporate offices of Dave Ramsey at Financial Peace Plaza in Nashville, Tennessee. For those of you not familiar with Dave Ramsey, he hosts a nationally syndicated 3-hour daily radio talk show that is heard by 4.5 million listeners each week on more than 450 radio stations throughout the United States. Dave is also the author of several best-selling books on finance and getting out of debt, including The Total Money Makeover, Financial Peace, and Financial Peace for the Next Generation (high school curriculum).
You’re probably wondering why I got involved with Dave Ramsey. Each summer we have about 2,500 students who partner with our company selling educational products to families. The average student makes over $2,500 per month during his or her summer break from college. What we know is that most college students are not good managers of their money no matter how much they have and many of them want or actually have to pay for their own college education. As I travel to company training meetings around the country, a consistent theme often taught to students and managers is how to be wise stewards of their money.
Recently, I was at a training meeting for over 100 students and managers and Nick Henderson, Southwestern District
Nick Henderson
Sales Manager, spent time training these folks in the wise use and saving of their summer profits. One of the methods Nick touted is the use of the monthly envelope system. He says that as he drives between campuses in Missouri and Iowa he listens to the Dave Ramsey show and while Dave Ramsey didn’t invent the envelope system, he promotes it as a good practice. Nick practices what he preaches and works with all of his managers and students in being smart with their money.
Unfortunately, not all college students will have a person who cares as much as Nick about them and their personal finances. That’s where Dave Ramsey comes in. His folks in Nashville are developing a new finance curriculum for college students called “Foundations for Life and Money.” I never had a finance class in high school or any finance courses in college and I certainly wish I’d had access to a program like this when I attended college. My job at Safeway paid my way through college, but I know I wasn’t very smart with my money.
Employers like the Southwestern Company and the colleges and universities from where we recruit students want those students to be successful. That means successful in their studies, their extracurricular activities, their vocational opportunities and certainly with their finances.
Southwestern will do its part in providing opportunities for personal growth and financial gain. We will also try and educate students about how to be smart with the money that they earn. Now we have another entity providing assistance to those college students who want to learn about money management before it manages them.
If you want more information about this program or want to comment on the need for such a program, let me hear from you.
So, it’s now (almost) officially summer. Students are not in class and so we can’t really go to campus to recruit next year’s class. Right? Do we just take the summer off? I hardly think so.I just returned from the annual conference of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). It was a great time to catch up with university colleagues and chat about how the recruiting year went and what we, as employers, should be thinking about for this next year.
It was also a fine opportunity to brainstorm about things that we, as employers, could be doing NOW to prepare for the upcoming year. Here are some ideas:
1.Send a list of students recruited (both interns and graduates) back to campus from this past year. For interns, it’s nice to include their major and year in school. Career centers complete annual reports that show their contacts with students, employers, etc. and they value this summary to include in their reports because it’s one way in which the centers are judged by their superiors.
2.Talk with career centers about potential sponsorships. Many career centers are in dire need of funding just to maintain their present level of activity for students. This was certainly evident last week as some universities were not even present at the annual meeting due to budget constraints.
3.Review the career center web site for career fair dates, staff changes, sponsorship categories (career center and student organizations), other opportunities for employers to engage the campus, etc.
4.Update campus presentations to include the most recent data from your company, including any major changes in services, products, staffing, and recruiting processes.
5.Visiting campus and meeting personally with career center staff can build some great relationships. Some career centers have “employer roundtables” or other get-together events during the summer. Again, these can be very useful in building bridges not only with the career center, but with faculty.
6.Volunteer for career center events. The campus values employer perspective and expertise. This includes the career center as well as student organizations. Get connected.
Now is the time to really examine how last year went and ask for feedback from each campus so that next year’s recruiting activities can run more smoothly and get a greater return on your corporate investment.
Last week I spent several days on a prestigious campus in the South. The intent of my visit was to connect with career services to find out how well our recruiting efforts were going from their perspective on this campus. The report was positive and that was a good thing.But, what was learned in the career center was that we are not able to participate in the campus career fairs because we were viewed only as a summer job and not an internship. Companies with summer jobs are not allowed to participate in their career fairs. Well, it’s good to find out this kind of information.
Through connections made through professional associations, I had other contacts on the campus and I used those. I had a very positive meeting with career professionals in the business college, which led me to the internship coordinator for the college. I explained to her all of the training that students go through for this summer position. But, she’d heard that students must buy their “sales kit.” I was able to assure her that while it was true in past years that students had to buy their sales kit, it is now provided to them at no charge. She also heard that students were dropped off in their new community and had to find a place to live. I let her know that students do live with host families and that almost all students already have accommodations lined up before they go to their new community for the summer. These are usually with prior host families, parents of students selling or who have sold, and alumni who’ve sold books in the past.
She was also curious about the training that students receive and she was happy to hear about all of the training students prior to leaving campus, in Nashville at Sales School and then throughout the summer from their managers. I told her that once students are selected for the summer, they typically have weekly group training sessions as well as hour-long individual training meetings with their mentor. They then go through a week-long very intensive sales training school in Nashville. I shared with this internship coordinator the “Selling 101″ manual that students complete during Sales School.
Well, needless to say, Southwestern is now a bona fide, legitimate, credit-bearing internship on this campus. Southwestern will participate in the next career fair and, already about a half dozen students have made appointments to see this internship coordinator to register for 3 internship credits for this summer.
Here we have a win-win-win for the student, for the internship program and the university and for Southwestern as well. Actually visiting the campus, meeting with the right people and asking the most salient questions resulted in a positive outcome on this campus.
Ralph Brigham is presenting Kathy Sims, Director of the UCLA Career Center with a plaque recognizing the UCLA students placing #8 in the world in student profit.
Another example of a partnership came from the Career Center at UCLA. This past year UCLA was the #8 campus in the world in terms of the profit that students made and returned to their campus with at the end of the summer. UCLA was #8 out of over 300 campuses in the world. When we presented the UCLA Career Center with their plaque, there were several UCLA students who talked about what they learned from this experience and how much they had grown. As an outgrowth, we have now been asked back to share more information about Southwestern with all the counselors in the Career Center.
This is the first time that UCLA has been a Top 10 campus and it was through a lot of hard work by our recruiters and also extensive training and mentoring of the students to be successful throughout the summer. It is much easier to recruit students when the professionals in the campus career center understand the work and can suggest ways to leverage the experience. One of the goals of campus recruiting at Southwestern is to work with and through the career center on each campus and it’s a real pleasure to work with so many professionals at the UCLA Career Center.
I’m asked on many occasions what the students need to do in the summer to be successful. Well, there are many answers to that question. The students are told in interviews that they need to study hard (their sales talk), work hard and be coachable. If they work on these three elements, they’ll probably have a great summer. The entire week of Sales School in Nashville is dedicated to teaching them how to be successful on the book field.
As I’ve traveled to various campuses, students ask for tips on how to be more successful, on and off the book field. One word that I like to concentrate on with them is to have them learn to FOCUS. We all can learn to be successful and more productive if we can learn to FOCUS. So, just how do we do that?
On a trip to Canada I met with a young lady, let’s call her Charlotte, and she was interviewing a number of students to find those who might be interested in a summer with the Southwestern Company. She found that she sometimes lost her concentration in these interviews, one after another all day long. I think we can all identify with that situation.
I took an umbrella out of my briefcase and asked her to throw it up in the air and catch it. She did just as I’d told her. I then asked her what she was thinking when the umbrella was at its apex. Her reply was, “I didn’t want to drop it.” I told her that was a very common answer. Then I said to her that I wanted to disagree and I suggested to her that she wasn’t really thinking of anything at that moment, all she was doing was concentrating on catching the umbrella. In other words she was completely focused on an action – catching the umbrella. No thinking was required. (Thanks to Jim Fannin of Zone Coach for the idea.)
Well, Charlotte played this game throughout the rest of her recruiting season, but then took it a step further when she went to the book field that summer. Charlotte tied a tennis ball to the rear view mirror in her car. Every time she parked her car and got out to go knock on another door, she tossed that tennis ball up in the air and caught it. That gave her the focus she needed to meet her next customer with a very positive attitude.
Now, guess what? Would you believe that Charlotte had her best summer yet on the book field that year. Now, I can’t take credit for Charlotte’s success (although I’d like to) because she was the person out there meeting with the moms and dads of school age kids selling the Southwestern Company books and CD’s. Well, Charlotte had a great summer and I just received word last week that she had her best week of her entire Southwestern career. Charlotte learned to FOCUS and has practiced that element in many facets of her life and I’m so happy for her.
How do you focus? How do you continue to concentrate hour after hour in your job? You may not have an umbrella or a tennis ball handy, but I’ve often used the pen I have in my hand and toss it up in the air and catch it to grab my attention and get me focused again. What tips can you share that I could pass along to our (your) students to make them more successful?
Saturday night in Nashville, Tennessee the Top 25 campuses for the summer of 2010 were announced. I had the privilege of awarding the #1 Trophy Cup to the students from the University of Tartu in Estonia for the fourth consecutive year. Interestingly, the #2 campus is also in Estonia, Tallinn University of Technology. This year four of the top 10 campuses were international universities, with Texas A&M being the top US campus to make the list. The top campuses are calculated by total sales from the students by each campus.
