Glassdoor is your free inside look at University Directories reviews and ratings - including employee satisfaction and approval ratings for University Directories CEO John O. All 105 reviews are posted anonymously by University Directories employees.
100% of the CEO
John O
Former Employee – worked at University Directories as an intern for less than a year
Pros – Sales Managers and upper level mgmt are very invested in sales interns
Fun, passionate collegiate environment
Fantastic networking opportunities
Extra perks for top-performing interns
Cons – Aggressive Sales Culture
Products not innovative enough to be competitive
Advice to Senior Management – Steer clear of print advertising if you want favorable margins
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company
2013-03-31 17:26 PDT
Current Employee – been working at University Directories as an intern for less than a year
Pros – Fun training week in NC and you get to work in a team of interns throughout the summer. If you like sales, this will help you for future jobs
Cons – Be prepared to be outside all day on sales calls
No office
Getting customers to buy from you is almost impossible, depending on your territory
Unrealistic sales goal, problems with previous clients making renewals a pain
You get a stipend which comes down to less than 4 dollars an hour
No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company
2013-05-02 10:22 PDT
Current Employee – been working at University Directories as an intern for less than a year
Pros – learned everything I need to know about sales
built great relationships with clients
Training program prepared you
Cons – pay
lack of communicatino between sales reps and Regional Manager
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend
2013-04-29 07:37 PDT
Former Employee – worked at University Directories full-time for less than a year
Pros – Opportunity torun own little business
Great career partners
Able to meet individual goals
Great training
Cons – Management out for themselves
Team not good
Advice to Senior Management – Help people under you more, and stop trying to be our friend
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend
2013-04-10 18:58 PDT
Former Employee – worked at University Directories
Pros – This company is great for college students that are still doing their undergrad. They offer a summer sales internship that is great to get some sales experience before you graduate. There is also a great training week in Chapel Hill with all expenses paid
Cons – In the sales internship, you have to sale print ads in your universities directory. This is super challenging, considering print is a thing of the past. Depending on which territory or city you are in can affect your performance. Your best bet is to try to love the product.
Advice to Senior Management – My management was good, but one of the guy's was too pushy.
2013-03-21 19:59 PDT
Former Employee – worked at University Directories part-time
Pros – Great relationship between coworkers, managers help you through every step of the process, week training paid in North Carolina, great company.
Cons – not enough weekly pay for amount of travel, long hours.
Advice to Senior Management – assist sales intern with every step of the sales process in the beginning.
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend
2013-03-18 10:00 PDT
Former Employee – worked at University Directories as an intern for less than a year
Pros – - A paid internship (though not much) when most of what is out there is unpaid
- very supportive management team, even if they're not always with you in person. company culture is energetic and fun
- great training program - useful and fun...even more so if you "drink the kool aid" (or as they put it...lose your "cool card")
- if you want to go into sales or marketing, this is one of the hardest and therefore the most impressive thing you can do
- i had this internship the summer before my senior year of college, and when applying for post-grad jobs this was easily what I talked about most in interviews. I could draw an experience from my time with UD to answer practically any tough interview question. Companies would specifically ask me about this experience.
- while I was miserable for a lot of the time, I learned a ton about myself, my teammates, and sales in general.
- after, you will have concrete numbers to put on your resume with how much you sold and how much your team sold (even better if you hit goal and/or were one of the top in your region)
Cons – - lots and lots of rejection. you are trying to sell an outdated product (print ads), and trying to get businesses to reach out to a target demographic with limited spending power (college students). At training you are obviously told there will be many NOs and to treat those answers as "not yet" but I really didn't understand what that meant until I was out there doing it. you definitely need to have a thick skin, lots of motivation and energy.
- success depends a lot on your territory and who your teammates/managers are.
- you are alone the majority of the day, aside from team meetings AM and PM and meeting with business owners throughout the day. I found it to be very lonely and wanting to share the experience with my teammates, but we all had to be off doing our own things.
- the days are long and physically/mentally tiring, and when you do the math you will likely be making far less than minimum wage
- you likely won't see your additional commission until the fall.
- depending on your market you may face stiff competition from other college marketing companies, and other students doing/selling pretty much the same thing as you
overall, I would recommend this internship if sales/marketing is what you want to get into (or if you just want to try it, like i did). Even though I probably will not go into sales after this experience, the skills I built (time management, people skills, reaching a goal, teamwork, overcoming challenges, etc) are applicable in any sort of interview. You need to be extroverted, energetic, determined, and organized to do well. So, bottom line, there were many days where I hated what I was doing, but to this day I still call and thank my managers for the unmatched experience on my resume.
Advice to Senior Management – More prep for overcoming objections in training, more on-site management support. Company culture is great and what kept me going through many of the tough days...always encouraging and high-energy. Loved the little contests and promotions throughout the summer.
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend
2013-03-11 11:25 PDT
Former Employee – worked at University Directories as an intern for less than a year
Pros – The company was great at motivating you during the week long training trip and the daily webinars from the President of the company where supportive and very helpful.
Cons – Guidance from regional managers was hard to come by, but you did get it every once in a while.
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend
2013-03-06 18:42 PST
Current Employee – been working at University Directories
Pros – If you put in the effort, you will get hooked up with post grad jobs, plain and simple.
You learn about yourself and foster great new skills/
Cons – You have to really work your ass off, sometimes things can be confusing and not all that transparent with regards to how you conduct yourself.
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company
2013-02-23 20:14 PST
Former Employee – worked at University Directories
Pros – - Looks GREAT on a resume making the long summer well worth it
- Training is down in Chapel Hill, NC and is some of the most fun that you'll ever have in any sort of training and get to meet some of the most fun and energetic college kids like you
-Young working environment
-Great sales experience
- Its paid
Cons – - Complete COLD CALLING so if your not comfortable with this than this isn't the job for you
- All day cold calling
- Going to hear a lot of no's at first
- Can get discouraging
2013-03-15 10:56 PDT
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