Thomas Hurley
- Data and Research Analyst
- Kansas Department of Commerce
School Information
School: Univeristy of Kansas
College Major: Engineering
Years at College Works: 2014
Career Information
Working For: Kansas Department of Commerce
Title: Data and Research Analyst
Industry: Government
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
College Works Painting taught me what I was capable of personally (a lot) and what I could expect from the rest of the world (not much).
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
The biggest impact College Works Painting has had on me so far is the wealth of connections we have access to. I expect that, between the experience and the contacts, College Works Painting will be a significant contributing factor in my future success.
What do you want to tell your clients about what it meant to work with them and how it has helped you get to where you are today?
To my clients in general, thanks for teaching me about what to expect from clients in the future, both the good and the bad. Regardless of how things went down, it takes a lot to be willing to do business with a college student that affects your property value. The experience was eye-opening for me, and I’ll be much more successful with open eyes instead of stumbling around blindly.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
Under-promise, over-deliver,set and maintain reasonable expectations for everybody (yourself, employees, and clients).
If you had to come up with a one line slogan for CW, what would it be?
Paint your future with College Works Painting.
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
Potential College Works Painting participants: College Works Painting is a total business internship – marketing, sales, employee management, building and maintaining client relationships. Your branch is what you make it. If you’re not willing to do it all on your own (if you have to), you’re better off walking away. And if you’re not willing to train and trust your employees, you’re better off walking away. Current College Works Painting participants: Commit. Never cut corners, always put in that extra hour of marketing or paperwork or training; at the end of the summer when all you have is memories and results, you’ll be glad you did. Train your employees early, and train them well. Take a hit on the first job if you have to to make sure your painters are trained properly, and if they can’t be trained, FIRE THEM IMMEDIATELY. Doing all the work yourself to make up for shoddy work by poorly trained painters makes for a long, hard summer and you won’t even have any money to show for it.
Many college students struggle to choose between an internship specific to their target industry or doing CW. What advice would you give them on this subject if they wanted to enter your career field?
Take the chemical engineering internship if you haven’t had one yet; the raw industry experience will make your job search much easier. If you already have and industry internship under your belt, College Works Painting will give you business experience that opens up special doors like industry management rotational programs and the diversity of experience will serve you well.
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
Intern during summers, network constantly
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
Partying at Schlitterbahn for Payroll Friday
Last words of wisdom?
Transparency is overrated. Your clients don’t need to know about your dirty laundry. It doesn’t matter what the current crisis is, as far as your clients need to know, things are going great. Hungover painters? Things are fine. Other job cancelled/needs their work moved up? Things are fine. Paint equipment was stolen and you can’t work today? Things are fine. Client confidence is key to their satisfaction.