Southwestern Summer Programme

[Jack]

My son has started University.

He's come home tonight extolling the virtues of this organisation in the USA that will make him $x,xxx working over the summer!

Anyone had any experience of them?

Know anything about them?

Any information gratefully received.

Thanks

Jack
On behalf of his wee laddie

[overdrive]

My son has started University.

He's come home tonight extolling the virtues of this organisation in the USA that will make him $x,xxx working over the summer!

Anyone had any experience of them?

Know anything about them?

Any information gratefully received.

Thanks

Jack
On behalf of his wee laddie

I looked into doing this when I was at uni, although I decided not to do it. It is (or was at least) essentially going from door to door trying to sell educational / children's books to American families.

IIRC you have to pay for all your own costs. Not just your flight over and accommodation, but the books you sell. It is essentially you running your own business. I think most people tend to stay with a "host" family.

Now, I didn't do it partly because the money they claimed you could earn seemed to be too good to be true and also my parents weren't that keen. Therefore, I don't have first hand knowledge of what it is actually like when you are there.

However, a friend of a friend did it. He hated it. According to him, to make decent-ish money you need to work a lot of hours, i.e. 12-13 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. He said the training sessions held were a bit "cultish" where they would try to brainwash everyone into thinking this was a great way to earn some money and get some good work experience. According to this guy as well, huge amounts of pressure were put on people to sell more and more.

Do a quick google, there are plenty of complaints from people who have done it and their families.

I know this paints a negative picture of it, but I suppose for every person who hated the experience, there are those who took positives out of it (i.e. probably the sort of person who makes a good salesperson in any case). It probably also depends on the person's attitude to risk. As I said you are essentially running your own business and you need to accept the risks that come with that.

I can see how it would be even more appealing now than when I was at Uni. It was hard enough to get good quality summer work experience that also paid decent enough money. I would imagine it is even harder now with the current financial situation.

Hope this helps.

[khib70]

My son has started University.

He's come home tonight extolling the virtues of this organisation in the USA that will make him $x,xxx working over the summer!

Anyone had any experience of them?

Know anything about them?

Any information gratefully received.

Thanks

Jack
On behalf of his wee laddie
I've no direct experience of them, but have heard them mentioned by friends in the States in a not very positive way.

The entry about them in Wikipedia suggests you should tread carefully here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwestern_Company

Or you could try asking the NUS for advice?

http://www.nus.org.uk/About-NUS/Who-We-Are/Nations/About-NUS-Scotland/

There are a lot of similar organisations in America, and they don't have a great reputation

[overdrive]

I should have also mentioned that from my experience of the recruitment meetings with them, they tend to be a bit vague and I thought a tad aggressive when you ask questions about such things as personal safety, etc.

As an aside, if your son enjoys a bit of alcoholic refreshment, he would need to keep in mind that America wouldn't be party central if he is under 21... not that I get the impressive you get much time for that sort of thing with this company.

Edit - here is a website with specific complaints about them.

http://southwesterncompanytruth.com/

[libernian]

i went to an interview with them.

the guy who was recruiting all the students was a student also. he said he made 5k and the other guy said he made 20k - all from a summer! i totally believe them like and heard others talking about it, it was true i believe. EDIT: also, just to add there obviously not gonna bring someone along to do the presentation who made hardly anything so dont know what the chances are of making that sort of money.

however, i done a bit of research and realised it was walking around some american city after being brainwashed into how to sell. they apparently take you to some academy for a week - brainwash you - then put you onto the street where you try n sell people books or something. (i read this off the internet) i imagine you would come away with a lot of money and become a good seller, but at what cost? a thoroughly miserable summer?

anyway, i put my details down when the guy done a presentation at uni. he phoned me saying "what course are you doing?".. i replied finance and he said all this stuff about big investment banks taking on people who had done this course and started naming all these companies. it sounded great.

however, i was going to meet him in the food place and then bumped into a friend who is doing mechanical engineering and also had an interview with him. i was thinking to myself, why my friend doing this as he is doing that course. anyway, i turned out that the guy from southwest had told him "ohhh all the big engineering and oil companies take out our alumni"!!

we both kind of cottoned on that the guy was just a salesman and he was obviously taking some sort of cut for getting people to do the thing. were also sat beside someone who seemed to know a fair bit about it from one of his friend and he said it was slave labour...

we then kinda went off the idea and we werent gonna bother going to the interview but thought it might be a good laugh and you never know it might turn out good so went togethor. anyway, we went along and it was just pure salesmans drivel (i.e. this is the best thing ever, your lifes going to be great if you do this etc) and when he said the stuff about mech eng and finance we both burst out laughing at the extent of the bullcrap. needless to say the interview never went much further.

like i say, it might be good but just seemed like a big con etc. was thinking it sounded a bit too good to be true at first but to be honest, when i first heard about it i thought what a great oppurtunity etc but i guess i'll never know.

what uni is your son at by the way? heriot-watt?

[Jack]

When my son was telling me about it alarm bells were ringing but I didn’t want to appear too negative and dampen his enthusiasm ‘to do for himself’ – something I am very keen to encourage.

My first port of call was somewhere I know students frequent and where I could be assured of the credibility of any reply, i.e. :hnet: – rather than unknown random Goggled websites.

Thank you for all your replies, and the members who PMd me. The time taken to type some of these (certainly if you're like me) is appreciated. :agree:

Yes, he does go to Herriot Watt and from all reports, I have a spy in the campus, is exceeding expectations with his studies, so I’m very happy. :greengrin

Not that I would tell him like that, he still has to work hard, the Uni is just lulling him in to a false sense of security! Dads eh! :rolleyes: