Tuition increases and rising textbook costs could mean that more Sacramento State students will need jobs to offset the growth of school costs.

There are several ways a Sacramento State student can find a job, both on and off campus. The financial aid office, CSUS Foundation and University Union post openings for on campus positions while the career center specializes in finding off campus jobs for students.

One company that will not be found in The Employer Connection is Excel Telecommunications.

Excel posts fliers on bulletin boards on college campuses offering thousands of dollars for what appears to be minimal work.

One flier posted outside The Pub asked, “Does the thought of making $8,000 a month appeal to you?” The flier advertises flexible hours, job training and the option to work from home.

What it fails to advertise is that students must give Excel $400 up front to cover the cost of their training.

“Training consists of learning how to deal with customers, how to give business presentations and how to promote the company,” said Brandy Crosby, a regional director for Excel.

Crosby was vague in answering questions about how employees are paid.”Pay is residual,” she said. “It’s not necessarily an hourly wage or salary or based on commission.”

Sometimes an employee’s pay will depend on how much money Excel customers spend.

In some cases an employee is hired to gain new customers for Excel and will then receive 2 percent of the customers’ phone bill each month. Another flier posted on a similar board between Sequoia and Riverside halls advertises positions for top managers making $4,000 per month plus commission and daily bonuses.

These fliers, often posted side by side in many cases, appear to be from different companies. Names and contact numbers differ on each flier. However, calls to any of the numbers listed lead to an Excel representative.

Excel also recruits new student employees by sending representatives to college campuses. Recruiters stop students and talk briefly about the company and will usually schedule an interview at a local coffee house. It is at the interview that recruiters will then propose that a student pay $400 to be trained to work for the company.

If someone is hired, they are assigned a sponsor who will train them. Excel sponsor Leigha Dalton receives $40 for every person she trains, she said.

“The amount of money I make depends on how many people I train, so naturally I’m going to want to train a lot of people,” Dalton said.

In addition to Sac State, Excel recruits at American River College, Sacramento City College, Sierra College and Delta Community College. The Career Center, which received the College and Community Career Center Award for Excellence at the International Career Conference last semester, also works as a watchdog for students.

“If a company has taken advantage of a student and we become aware of it, we will call its president or someone in charge to find out if they know about these unfair practices,” said Marilyn Albert, career center director.

“We’ve been tracking (Excel) for years but it’s hard because they come in under different names,” Albert said.

Students have turned to the Career Center for help finding a job to recover financially from bad experiences with companies like Excel.Although the Career Center has been on campus since the university opened in 1947, many students are not aware of the services it offers to help them find a job or internship and set career goals.

At any given time there are 800 companies interested in posting job opportunities on campus, Albert said. Currently, there are 129 companies actively recruiting employees through the Career Center.

Students can get job descriptions and contact information for most of these companies in The Employer Connection, an employer guide produced by The Career Center. The guide is new to the center this semester and has been well received by students and employers, Albert said. She added that a company must be in excellent standing to advertise in the guide.

“I have had students come in here in tears because they have lost money and now they need a real job,” Albert said.

The Career Center has taken steps to prevent further schemes of deception against students. It is part of a listserv that connects Sac State to career centers at the other CSUs as well as UC Davis, Albert said.

“This way we can notify each other about certain companies and be sure to pull their fliers and ads from their campus,” Albert said.

Albert, who has held her director position for four years, said she would also like to make a formal proposal to university administration that all job fliers posted on campus bulletin boards must have an official career center stamp.

“I want students to know that the Career Center is their biggest cheerleader in finding a job,” Albert said.