Southwestern – Company Profile

Our Company

Southwestern is one of America’s most successful private companies, built by, led by and owned primarily by graduates of our summer internship programme. From day one of the programme you are effectively building your own Southwestern business with a growing stream of income, residuals and equity ownership. Additionally, with the recommendation of your manager you will have a choice of alternative careers in fields such as sales, management, accounting, finance, marketing or IT in one of our diverse companies, or the opportunity to start a new company altogether using the capital, support and resources of our business incubator.

The Programme

Southwestern offers a unique summer opportunity for university students to jump-start not only their careers but also their lives. Over the past ten years alone, more than 20,000 students from over 300 universities worldwide have participated.

Students who participate during the summer run their own business selling the Southwestern Advantage learning system to families in their homes – complete with educational books, software and an interactive web-based learning aid. Students also have the opportunity to share the advantage because Southwestern matches every learning system sold by donating access to the website for a disadvantaged family.

During the 12-week programme students interact with thousands of families from many different walks of life. Not only does this help them gain confidence and build character, it also enables students to develop attributes transferable to any future career path such as persistence, hard work, problem solving skills, goal setting, time management, communication skills and leadership skills.

Advancement

Following a successful first summer with Southwestern about 35 per cent of students are invited to join the management programme where they have the opportunity to attend various training seminars, team building meetings and workshops to learn how to train and lead their own teams the following year. Many students choose to work with Southwestern for multiple summers and effectively have a mini-career while still at university. By doing this students not only learn new skills, they have the opportunity to teach others.

Our Values

Southwestern’s mission is to be the best company in the world at helping young people to develop the skills and character they need to be successful in life. Southwestern is no easy summer job; it’s one of the most challenging ways a student can spend their summer. For over 150 years the Southwestern summer programme has enabled students to gain valuable skills through training and through their own personal experiences, which allows them the luxury of having multiple career choices upon graduation.

Who We Look For

At Southwestern we look for independent decision-makers with a vision constantly to improve and the discipline to finish what they start. Students who do well in our programme are fun and positive, hardworking and coachable and have a great attitude towards solving problems. Good academic records and previous experience of activities that have been particularly challenging or demanding would also be an advantage.