Some people spend years figuring out what they want to do. Jake Sirek started figuring it out the summer he interned with us. In 2023, Jake joined College Works as a Student Professional Program intern in Minneapolis and walked away with something most college students don’t get until years into their career: real management experience. Today he’s a UW-Eau Claire graduate stepping into a management training program at Sherwin-Williams. Here’s how it started.
A Real Internship, Not a Shadowing Experience
Jake joined College Works in 2023 as a Student Professional Program intern in Minneapolis, where he was responsible for managing his own crew of college student painters. That means scheduling, client communication, quality control, and keeping a team accountable, real management work, not shadowing someone else doing it.
“That was my first taste of actually managing people, which is what I really want to do with my career,” Jake said in a recent UW-Eau Claire feature that spotlighted him as one of the university’s standout May 2026 graduates.
From College Works to UW-Eau Claire Standout
That experience clearly stuck. Jake went on to pursue a business management degree at UW-Eau Claire, where he co-founded a student leadership organization, competed in a global business simulation, and landed a second internship with Sherwin-Williams. His supervisor there praised him for going above and beyond with customers, expanding his product knowledge, and taking initiative to mentor newer employees.
He graduates this month and steps directly into Sherwin-Williams’ internal management training program, with a placement as an assistant manager in the Twin Cities metro area to follow.
What the College Works Internship Is Built For
That kind of trajectory doesn’t happen by accident. It starts with someone who is driven, and an environment that gives them something real to be responsible for. The College Works internship is built around exactly that: putting motivated college students in charge of an actual operation and letting them rise to it.
Jake rose to it.
Ready to Get to Work This Summer?
Apply today and get hands-on experience as a College Works painter: collegeworks.com/painters/apply/