Summer Sales Program
The company recruits between 2,500 and 3,000 college and university students each year to sell educational books, software, and subscription websites during the summer months. Student dealers come from over 300 colleges and universities in North America, South America, Africa and Europe.
The president of Southwestern Advantage admits that selling books door-to-door is "incredibly hard, frustrating work," and not for everyone. Experienced dealers say the program provided them needed funds, boosted their confidence, and taught them to stick with a project despite adversity. Almost a third of the company's first-year dealers quit within 20 days, often with hard feelings. Some of these first-year dealers share stories about losing money, facing upset homeowners, and unfriendly dogs. They call the company everything from a cult to a scam.
Read more about this topic: Southwestern Company
Famous quotes containing the words summer, sales and/or program:
“A worm tells summer better than the clock,
The slug’s a living calendar of days;
What shall it tell me if a timeless insect
Says the world wears away?”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“There are no galley-slaves in the royal vessel of divine love—every man works his oar voluntarily!”
—St. Francis De Sales (1567–1622)
“[T]he asphaltum contains an exactly requisite amount of sulphides for production of rubber tires. This brown material also contains “ichthyol,” a medicinal preparation used externally, in Webster’s clarifying phrase, “as an alterant and discutient.””
—State of Utah, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)