University Directories Reviews

I have been working at University Directories full-time for less than a year

Pros – Sales training is worth everything, it is one of the best things you will ever do.
Hires within, and promotes from within
Very good resume experience
Mainly independent work hours

Cons – Not financially rewarding
Success can very much depend on where you live, best if in college town
Long hours
Many unpaid for outside expenses (lunches and gas)

Advice to Senior Management – Have a base salary

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at University Directories as an intern

Pros – Get business-to-business sales experience and practice pitches

Cons – Not upfront about what they are selling and only focus on bottom line sales.

Advice to Senior Management – Decrease your turnover rate in management positions, invest in MIS

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at University Directories as an intern for less than a year

Pros – This internship does provide good experiences concerning sales and time and territory management. The outside sales associate will improve presentation skills and networking.

Cons – The compensation for the hours put into the job is ridiculously low. My biggest issue was that the support from management was severely lacking. After the internship is over, the company will not return calls or emails in order to address questions, concerns or requests. Several times I had sales prospects email me after my internship was over with questions. I tried to refer them to my sales manager or ask the company directly for a response to a question. I never received a response.

Advice to Senior Management – The management needs to be more open to communication with the interns.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at University Directories as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Fun week in NC
Majority of Sales Managers are good
John O is the coolest guy you'll ever meet-it's unfortunate you don't see him often (excluding morning meetings on skype)
you learn everything about sales-and can talk about it in future interviews

Cons – cold calling- completely unrealistic/dangerous in large city settings
no office - walk around in 90+ degree weather all day alone
Sales managers are unreliable- mine actually told me he would go to a meeting with me and 20 minutes before never answered his phone
make under 4 dollars an hour if you calculate it-pretty much lose money for the summer
commission is almost impossible to make

Advice to Senior Management – John needs to check in on sales managers more, or ask for reviews from the interns during the internship-ours was completely unreliable and not encouraging

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have 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

I have 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

I 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

I 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.

I 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

I 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