Students start business through internships
Well-paid internships are hard to come by so when Matt Toone, College Works Painting USU district manager, came by a sociology 1010 class to discuss internship opportunities in his company, freshman business major Vu Tran couldn’t pass up the offer.
The potential to make up to $12,500 in one summer while running a business as a 19-year-old college student first sounded like an offer too good to be true; however, Tran said he wanted to take the chance and go with the challenge.
“I had ambivalent feelings about going through the internship but I decided it was worth a try because I thought it was a great opportunity,” he said.
Tran, who describes himself as an independent self-initiator who likes to do things on his own, looked at this program as a way to improve himself and work his way up.
“This internship will teach me to learn the grassroots of a business and have the chance to start my own company,” he said. Experience and money are the main things Tran said that drove him to commit.
“I’ll never get an opportunity like this again where people are teaching me step by step how to run a business and teaching me to persevere when I need to,” he said. “Everyone else is having a minimum wage job while I get to start my own business and be a step ahead the game.”
Tran had to go through seven intensive interviews to be picked from hundreds of applicants to be chosen as an intern.
Gavin Lanstzy, Utah and Idaho division vice president of College Works Painting, said the College Works Painting national internship program runs from May to August and offers students an opportunity to start and run their own business in a hands-on leadership setting.
“It’s so competitive in college and students need something to supplement their education,” he said. “Companies want college grads with experience and they are not wanting to take kids without experience.”
The main mission of the internship program is to bridge the gap between education and success after graduation, Lanstzy said.
“This internship gives value of the full experience that students are looking for,” he said.
Lanstzy said since there are many different areas of business students can pursue, the way the internship is organized gives students a well-rounded, enriched, experienced internship that increases and builds students’ leadership and management skills. He said the students are given many responsibilities early on in the training program that prepares them to excel as leaders and given leadership positions before they go out and find clients.
Lanstzy said student interns learn the applications of human resources, sales, process of choosing applicants, screening employees and customer service where interns work directly with paint suppliers and clients.
Initially, Lanstzy said interns are signed onto a two-day training seminar where they are taught about direct marketing skills. After the completion of the seminar, they are signed on with a one-on-one mentor who meets their needs and coaches them on their progress.
“The district manager is like their wingman who sets weekly goals for the interns,” Lanstzy said.
This spring semester, interns have learned marketing strategies and how to build client bases. Lanstzy said the internship looks for goal-setting, self-motivated individuals with a entrepreneurial mind set who are willing to challenge themselves to get ahead of everybody else in college. Interns are paid based on performance and profit. Interns are guaranteed a minimum of $2,500 and can earn up to $40,000 to $45,000 annually, he said.
Good money and a chance to learn the trade of business were the two key reasons Kyle Norman, freshman, undeclared business, decided to commit to the summer internship program.
“I want to prove to myself that I can do it and see if this is for me,” he said.
Norman said because the program hires mentors to work with new hires step-by-step, the program was appealing to him.
“I really like how they will teach me on the job, step-by-step,” he said.
Norman said he was excited for this first internship experience because of the opportunity to become his own boss and apply what he learns in school to his job.
Norman said entrepreneurship attracted his full attention because of the capability to earn more than a standard summer minimum-waged job.
“I knew my experience would be another addition to my degree, so I wanted to go for it,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, but I wanted to make some money.”
Lanstzy started out as a student intern in 2003 and has been with the company ever since. He said he knew he wanted to go into the business field of some sort, and decided College Works Painting was for him.
“I wanted to get some hands-on experience, a chance to run my own business and wanted to see what I was made of,” he said.
–candice.sandness@aggiemail.usu.edu