Capitol Lighting offers paid internships

The Boca Raton-based company is taking applications for Bright Start, a four-week training program. Up to eight interns will be paid $10 an hour during training. The top interns have the potential for a full-time job at the company with eight stores in Florida and New Jersey.

Sales experience would be helpful. "If you were successful selling cell phones or draperies or cars, you would be a terrific candidate for this program," he said. "A good sales person understands that it's asking the right questions and understanding the needs of the customers.

"That said, I am in a fashion industry, so what is traditional vs. contemporary and the colors popular now are also part of the education," he said.

People from the home furnishing and design fields are welcome to apply, "but that's something that can be taught," Lebersfeld said. "We're looking for the work ethic, the positive attitude and a sense of humor in an individual. The product knowledge and sales techniques, that's what we're going to try and do in the four weeks of training."

The right candidates will also be motivated "by the desire to make a lot of money," if they're eventually hired, he said. "It is a commission sales position, with benefits after 90 days of employment.''

The training will also include certifications in the Lighting Associate program of the American Lighting Association, the industry trade association, and other industry programs.

Capitol Lighting will pay for the course. "It gets them a base of knowledge as a starting point," Lebersfeld said. "If they do a site visit to a customer's home, and if they don't know what's new in LED lighting or the nuances of under-cabinet lighting, they're short-changing their customers."

Lebersfeld's brother, Ken Lebersfeld, the company's CEO, is designing the training program. He described it as "basic retail-type training, some industry specific training from design and technical concepts, and salesmanship appropriate for any type of customer service and retail organization. "It's a way for us to get some very robust people into our organization," he said.

Eric Lebersfeld said they're hoping for a pool of about 25 candidates for the internships. The idea came to him from the executive business group Vistage, and is based on the 2006 Will Smith movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness."

"The point of view is a person in a job they're not happy with, or who has been on the sidelines because they haven't found a job in their own profession," he said.