One Day, One Job » account management

Fareportal

Willy Franzen — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:48:35 +0000

It’s supposed to be in the 80s and sunny all weekend here in Chicago. This is the weather that we wait all year for, yet I”m starting to think this may have been a good weekend to get out of town. Why? The NATO Summit is in Chicago this weekend, and so are the protesters. If I was going to get out of town, I might try one of the services offered by Fareportal to book something. They’re a New York, NY based company that has a “technology platform which enables millions of travelers to book a myriad of travel products from almost every corner of the world.” They operate a number of consumer brands including CheapOair (I’ve used them at least once), CheapOstay, HotelPricer, and Clubmiles. Fareportal also has travel trade brands including Fare Buzz, Travelong, Fareportal Media Group, and Dukes Court Travel.

Fare Enough

The easiest way to describe Fareportal is travel + technology. They are the “7th largest online travel group in the US” and the “4th largest online travel agency.” When you add it all up, they get more than 30 million travel searches every month. That’s pretty impressive for a company that is just 10 years old, but what’s next? Fareportal’s home page proclaims that they are “one of the fastest growing travel companies in the world,” so clearly what they’re doing now isn’t enough. That’s why Fareportal is hiring big time–you can see their full Careers page here or you can go straight to the job listings for their New York City headquarters. Here are the current postings that look well suited to a new or recent gard:

If you love travel and technology, then it would be hard to find a better place to work than Fareportal.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried any of Fareportal’s brands?

Sparkpr

Willy Franzen — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:03:52 +0000

I get a ton of PR pitches every day (I just got another one while I was writing this). They typically range from very bad to downright terrible, so I either ignore them or send a nasty reply asking the person to remove me from their list. I checked my e-mail archives, and I’ve never received a pitch from anyone at Sparkpr, but my guess based on their reputation is that they’d actually take the time to send me a decent pitch if it was appropriate. They’re a San Francisco, CA PR firm that was started in the late 90s “at the height of the Internet explosion in Silicon Valley.” They’ve maintained their close ties to the tech scene through the ups and downs, and they’ve won a ton of awards along the way.

Spark Something

You’ll probably recognize the names of some of the companies that Sparkpr has done work for: Bing Travel, Electronic Arts, The Economist, Flickr, Mozilla.org, Nielsen, Nokia, NVIDIA, Sony PSP, Skype and Yahoo! (Etsy, Good, Twilio, and Acquia are just a few Sparkpr clients who have also been featured on One Day One Job at some point.) What I really like about Sparkpr’s approach to PR is that they align their program with business objectives. General good PR is fine, but PR is at its best when its targeted at generating a specific outcome. If you’d like the sound of this, check out Sparkpr’s Careers page. Their job postings show Associate and Account Manager positions in both San Francisco, CA and New York, NY. It seems that most people come in at Account Coordinator before landing one of these positions, so you may want to consider using Sparkpr’s general application to reach out instead. (No links because they use Jobvite, and Jobvite doesn’t make it easy to link to job postings.)

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Sparkpr?

CityGrid Media

Willy Franzen — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:35:13 +0000

Local businesses are about as old school as you can get–many of them have continued to succeed doing the same thing that they’ve done for decades or even centuries. There have certainly been advances that have changed that–refrigeration, digital cash registers, and the Yellow Pages are just a few, but nothing even compares to the Internet–especially the mobile Internet. Local businesses are now able to reach and interact with customers and potential customers in a way that they only could have dreamed of a few years ago. CityGrid Media is a West Hollywood, CA based “leading media company connecting consumers and businesses everywhere local happens.” You’re probably familiar with at least one of their properties which include Citysearch, Insider Pages, and Urbanspoon.

Fit into the Grid

Beyond CityGrid Media’s own sites, they run a local ad network that reaches more than 140 million people across more than 250 sites. By having a few significant content properties (they have listings on 18 million businesses), CityGrid Media put itself in the position to own the advertiser relationships. Those relationships enable CityGrid Media to partner with other publishers and reach a much broader audience. This page will give you a much better sense of what the ads and the content network look like. Beyond looking at that, you definitely need to browse Citysearch, Insider Pages, and Urbanspoon to get a better understanding for how CiyGrid Media operates. If you like what you see, then head over to their Careers page. Right now they have some great opportunities posted including:

Reseller Account Manager
Configuration Management Engineer
Financial Analyst
Ruby on Rails Engineer (Seattle, WA)
Big Thinking Software and QA Engineers
Critical Thinking Software Engineers (New Grad)

There are also a variety of Account Executive and Inside Sales positions in New York, NY; Atlanta, GA; San Francisco, CA; and West Hollywood, CA. They all require prior sales experience, but they may be worth checking out if that’s something you have.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite local business?

Metia

Willy Franzen — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:23:09 +0000

Many of the best businesses are built by targeting a smaller niche and then taking the lessons learned from serving that niche to expand into new markets. It’s also how many great careers are built. Metia is a digital marketing agency that got its start serving technology companies exclusively. This put them ahead of the curve and force them to take on digital while most marketing agencies were dragging their collective feet. Now digital is what it’s all about, and Metia has 20 years of industry experience. Not bad. While they’re based in London, they have U.S. offices in Kirkland, WA and New York, NY. This allows them to serve clients like Microsoft, Microsoft, and Microsoft. But seriously, while Microsoft is all over their portfolio, you’ll also see names like Dell, EA, Rough Guides, and SEAT.

Be a Member of the Metia

That portfolio that I just mentioned. You should check it out. It’s a great way to get a feel for what Metia does and how they serve clients. You’ll also want to visit their Consulting, Services, and Technology pages. They dive into the specifics of what Metia offers clients. It’s the technology part that really appears to set Metia apart from other agencies that play in similar spaces. If you’re interested in joining Metia, take a look at their Careers page. They have a number of positions that might interest a new or recent grad including (some require more experience than others):

E-mail Production Specialist (Seattle, WA)
Outbound Sales Representative (Seattle, WA)
Business Development Professional (Seattle, WA)
Freelance French Bi-lingual Technology Writers (London, UK)
E-mail Production Specialist (London, UK)

I especially like the E-mail Production Specialist job. Most people don’t realize how big of a business e-mail is. Learn how e-mail marketing works, and you will have no problem landing a job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Metia?

Dwell

Willy Franzen — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:02:15 +0000

I hate stock photography–especially the kind that you find on many career related sites. It’s usually a group of moderately attractive, racially diverse people who are smiling while dressed in business suits and holding folios. It’s not real. These photos create an unrealistic view of what a work environment looks like. In the world of home design, the analog is the fruit bowl. Whether you’re looking through real estate listings or a home decor magazine, chances are that you’ll see lots of fruit bowls–and they’ll be in odd places like bathrooms and bedrooms. Dwell is a magazine that defines itself by focusing on real life, something that “has been conspicuous by its absence in most design and architecture magazines.” Fruit bowls are ok, but only if the owners eat fruit. And so are other things you may not see in similar magazines–things that “demonstrate that a home is truly livable” by showing “it as it is lived in.” Dwell is based in New York, NY and San Francisco, CA, and although they consider themselves Modernists, they’re “nice Modernists.”

Dwell on This

You can get a feel for Dwell’s take on Modernism through their Fruit Bowl Manifesto on their About page, but to really understand it you should pick up a copy of their magazine or at least check out their website. While the focus is on homes, they cover everything that can be part of the context of a home–products, places, people, events, ideas, and more. It’s usually pretty hard to get a grasp of the business behind a magazine, so I highly recommend that you take a look at Dwell’s Media Kit–it will give you some serious insight into how the business operates. Once you’ve done that, head over to Dwell’s Jobs page. Right now they have mostly internships posted, but there’s a Brand Specialist (they don’t say where it’s located) position that looks like it could be a good fit for new or recent grads. It’s more about ad sales/account management than branding from what I can tell, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read Dwell?

Millward Brown

Willy Franzen — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:39:07 +0000

If you’ve watched Mad Men from the beginning, you’ve probably noticed that research goes from completely irrelevant to getting marginal respect over just a few years. The progression has continued, and research has become a huge part of marketing and advertising. While Millward Brown hasn’t been around since the Mad Men days, the New York, NY based research agency has been “specializing in advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research” for the last 35 years. All of Millward Brown’s research is focused on building stronger brands, which is why their 82 offices across 52 countries are able to work with 90% of the world’s top 100 brands (not sure whose list they’re using).

Head Millward Brownward

The thing I love about advertising is that it’s truly a combination of art and science. The best research in the world can be more effectively applied with wonderful creative, and the best creative in the world can be made even better with research. To get a better understanding of how that works, you need to check out Millward Brown’s Case Studies. You can learn about things like how neuroscience can be used to improve direct mailings and how a South American country used research to promote wine consumption. It’s fascinating stuff, so if it convinced you to look into a career in research, then take a look at Millward Brown’s Jobs page. Right now they have a few opportunities for new or recent grads including:

Account Manager (San Francisco, CA)
Account Manager (New York, NY)
Associate Client Analyst (Chicago, IL)
Market Research Executive (Lisle, IL)
Part Time Client Service Support (Fairfield, CT)
Part Time Client Service Support (Detroit, MI)
Presentation Specialist (Santa Monica, CA)

They also have a ton of international opportunities, so you may also want to take a look at those.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Millward Brown?

row27 Studios

Willy Franzen — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:14:05 +0000

Reasoning Mind is an education focused non-profit that uses the web to teach kids math, and they’re hiring 30 new grads as Program Coordinators. Learn more about these amazing entry level opportunities.

It looks like yesterday’s post on The Human Fund got a lot of you. April Fools! (If you didn’t get the jokes, you’ll find the explanations here and here.) Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about sports. We have the Men’s NCAA Basketball Championship tonight, the Women’s NCAA Basketball Championship tomorrow, the Frozen Four next weekend, and Opening Day for Major League Baseball happening in between. I love this time of year, and I’m sure the folks at row27 Studios do too. row27 Studios is a Minneapolis, MN based company that “provides digital solutions for sports teams.” By combining state of the art technology with sports marketing acumen, they’ve built a business that works with some of the biggest names in sports.

Get a Seat in row27

row27 Studios got its start in 2007, and since then they’ve worked with more than 90 sports teams ranging including top college programs like Kansas, Baylor, Wisconsin, and UConn and top pro teams like the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders. row27 Studios’ work includes “TV commercials, stadium intro videos, interactive microsites, and Facebook applications.” Take a look at their Video and Web Development work to get a better feel for their capabilities. You should also check out The Row Show, which is the row27 weekly video podcast. If you like what you see, then take a look at row27 Studios’ Jobs page. Right now the only job they have posted is for a PHP Developer, but they’re also looking for paid interns in Account Management and Sports Marketing. They mention that these are 90 day positions with the potential to go full-time, so they’re certainly a reasonable alternative to an entry level job. These look like awesome opportunities to break into sports marketing, so don’t pass them up.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Kansas or Kentucky?

Emanate

Willy Franzen — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:19:18 +0000

Public relations is a funny game. A former intern recently published an interview with me on a pretty major blog. I got the coverage because of who I knew. But then an even bigger blog called Lifehacker blogged about the article. I got the coverage because of where I had been previously covered. A few days later One Day One Job was mentioned in another Lifehacker article on Top 10 Ways to Get a Better Job (this was just a short mention, but it sent by far the most traffic). I got this coverage because the author was familiar with me and my site. It takes a ton of hard work to run into this kind of luck, which is why most major companies hire PR firms that have solid reputations and great relationships with journalists. But it takes more than that–it takes a focus on action and results, which is exactly what Emanate offers. They’re a New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA based PR firm that focuses on consumer marketing, corporate communications, digital & social media, and health & wellness. They’ve only been around five years, but they’ve accomplished a lot and have big plans for the next five years.

Emanataion

While Emanate puts a huge emphasis on being action and results oriented, they also call themselves irreverent. Humor is a part of who they are, and the best way to get a feel for it is probably by meeting their team. The next thing you’ll want to do is take a look at their client list and read through some of their case studies (in the right hand sidebar of their client list). You’ll recognize names like Burger King, Embassy Suites, Sonicare, Bank of America, and Mattel. If you like Emanate’s approach and want to work with those kinds of clients, then head over to Emanate’s Jobs page. Right now they have Associate positions in Los Angeles and New York City. These look like great opportunities for new grads where you’ll be “charged with learning and becoming proficient in core categories of public relations, focused on Account Administration and Tactical Execution,” so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Emanate?

MediaMath

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:51:42 +0000

I’m extremely excited for the season premiere of Mad Men on March 25th. It’s one of the best shows on tv, and you can actually learn some meaningful business lessons from watching it. One of the downsides of the show is that it overglamorizes the idea. Maybe it’s because the show is set in the 60s and things were easier then, but an idea isn’t enough for success today whether you’re talking about a startup or an advertisement. MediaMath is a New York, NY based company that has “built the tools that enable and empower [a] new breed of marketing professional”–the Math Men and Women. Ideas will always be important in advertising, but data and analytics are how you turn ideas into successes. MediaMath’s “TerminalOne platform allows agencies and advertisers to plan, execute, optimize, and analyze marketing programs across the digital landscape.”

Do Your Math

Mad Men wouldn’t be nearly as popular if Don Draper looked like the guy on the Math Men site. Data insights aren’t sexy, but they sure as heck work. Just look at MediaMath’s Case Studies. These case studies are short and sweet. They don’t tell you all about who their client is and try to impress you with big names. They simply state the problem, the solution, and the result with a bar graph–it’s the Math Men way. If you like that approach, then dive into the TerminalOne Platform and learn more about MediaMath’s technology, then head over to their Careers page. Right now they have a few positions you may want to consider including User Experience Designer, Yield Analyst, Software Engineer in Test, UI Developer, and Account Planner. Let me know if you become a Math Man or Math Woman.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you watch Mad Men?

Entercom

Willy Franzen — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:29:17 +0000

The next car I get will definitely have some sort of iPhone integration. Right now I still rely on one of those tape to AUX thingies, which means that I usually just listen to the radio. I couldn’t find any good stats on the topic, but I have to think that listeners in cars are what’s keeping radio going. But according to Entercom, radio is still going strong. You would expect them to say that though, considering that they’re “one of the five largest radio broadcasting companies in the United States.” Entercom is headquartered in Bala Cynwyd, PA, but they operate more than “100 stations in 23 markets, including San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Portland, Sacramento and Kansas City.”

Enter Entercom

While Entercom’s stock performance over the past ten years doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the future of radio, it’s hard to write off a business that reaches so many people. The best way to get a better understanding of Entercom’s business is to read up on their markets and the stations that serve them. To me the most noteworthy point is that Entercom stations are the broadcast partners of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, Oakland A’s, Kansas City Royals, New Orleans Saints, Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, and San Jose Sharks. Sports is huge, and online delivery of radio broadcasts is becoming a big deal (I love listening to baseball games on my iPhone). If you’re thinking about a career in radio, Entercom would be a great place to start. Their Jobs page shows a ton of positions in locations all across the country. Whether you’re interested in working in Sales/Account Management, On-Air, Promotions, Copywriting, Production, Journalism, Marketing, or something else, there’s probably something for you at Entercom or one of their stations.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite radio station?

Dannon

Willy Franzen — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:58:48 +0000

I’ve never been great about eating breakfast, but when I do eat breakfast, I try to get as much protein into the meal as I can. My problem is that I find eggs completely unpalatable. One can only eat so much sausage and bacon, so I’ve had to find some other protein sources. Sometimes it’s a glass of milk and a scoop of peanut butter, and other times it’a bowl of yogurt. Yogurt’s certainly nothing new (it’s essentially been around since bacteria and milk mixed, but humans have been producing it for millennia), but it’s experienced quite a spike in popularity lately. Probiotics and Greek yogurt are probably the two biggest trends in the industry right now, and they’re part of the reason that Dannon is “one of the fastest growing consumer products companies in the U.S.” While based in White Plains, NY, Dannon is a subsidiary of a multi-billion dollar French company called Groupe Danone). That shouldn’t matter all that much to you, though, as Dannon seems to operate mostly independently.

Yo Yo Yo

The name Dannon is indelibly tied to yogurt. They rank #2 on Google for the keyword “yogurt” just behind the Wikipedia entry on the topic. That’s actually an article you should read if you want to consider a job at Dannon. I can’t imagine working for them and not knowing the basics on their product. Dannon has been around since 1942 (only a tiny fraction of yogurt’s history), and in that time they’ve innovated a lot. Just take a look at Dannon’s product lines to get a sense of what’s possible with yogurt. What I find most interesting is that in every product there’s a purpose–a story that helps Dannon expand their market. If these stories appeal to you, then you may want to consider a job at Dannon. Their Careers site is called SomethingSpecialInside.com, and on it you’ll find some great opportunities including:

Assistant or Associate Brand Manager
Associate Marketing Manager – Innovation
Automation Engineer (Minster, OH)
HR Generalist (Minster, OH)
Key Account Associate (Bentonville, AR)
Quality Control Laboratory Technician (Portland, OR)
Revenue Specialist (Cottonwood Heights, UT)
Sales Analyst (Bentonville, AR)

There are some pretty interesting opportunities at Dannon, so browse through them and see if any get you excited.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Dannon.com
SomethingSpecialInside.com (Dannon’s Careers Site)
About Dannon
Dannon’s Products
Working at Dannon

What do you eat for breakfast?

H.BLOOM

Willy Franzen — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:28:03 +0000

I’m in the doghouse. I’m the guy who forgot Valentine’s Day. Luckily, it’s not with my fiancée–I took good care of her yesterday. It’s with you. I didn’t give you a Valentine’s Day post after in past years telling you about jobs at places like eHarmony, Tiffany & Co., OpenTable, ProFlowers, Necco, Vosges, and even the American Heart Association. Flowers are the tried and true way of getting out of the doghouse, but a beautiful bouquet isn’t going to do it when that’s the status quo for Valentine’s Day. How about a flower arrangement every week? That might do it, and that’s exactly what New York, NY based H.BLOOM offers. They are a “flower service.” If you don’t know what that is, you can learn more here. Essentially it’s a subscription to flowers. Subscription based business models are all the rage these days, so it’s no surprise that someone is applying it to the floral industry.

Let Your Career Bloom

H.BLOOM is one of the few companies that I’ve come across without an About page. That’s a little odd, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It just means that you have to work a little harder to understand how their business works. The best way to start is pretend that you’re buying one of their collections. You’ll see that the process is pretty simple and it offers a ton of options–you can even order custom arrangements if you’re willing to spend more than $150 per delivery (flowers are expensive!). Right now H.BLOOM delivers in a few major metro areas: San Francisco; Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; and New York, NY, but I’m sure that their list of zip codes will continue to expand. H.BLOOM also appears to offer jobs in all of these markets. Right now their Jobs page shows these postings:

Account Executive (San Francisco, CA)
Account Executive (Chicago, IL)
Account Executive (New York, NY)
Part-Time Floral Designer (Washington, DC)
Part-Time Floral Designer (New York, NY)

All of the positions are listed as mid-level, but I could see a new grad with the right background being a good fit for any of them. There’s also a ton of potential for H.BLOOM to offer more positions in different areas, so keep your eyes on them. Am I out of the doghouse yet?

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you sign up for a flower delivery subscription?

The Marketing Arm

Willy Franzen — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:23:26 +0000

Although I only took one marketing class in college, I’ve really learned to love the field of marketing as I’ve built this business. There are so many different approaches, but the core of every valid one is having a great product. (I’m right in the thick of developing a new version of the site that you’re going to love.) Once you have a great product, there are a lot of different ways to spread the word. For the The Marketing Arm, a Dallas, TX based agency, the focus is on promotions. As they put it, they “help brands connect with those consumers by providing insight-driven ideas across nine emotional platforms: TV, film, music, gaming, celebrities, causes, multicultural, sports, and motorsports.” It’s all about creating an incentive to experience the brand, and then providing an exceptional experience when that happens.

Arm Yourself

Promotions is an area of marketing that I’m not all that familiar with in terms of execution, but I’ve certainly been lured in by my share of promotions. Here are some of the areas of promotions that The Marketing Arm focuses on:

Sweepstakes, games and contests
Frequency, loyalty, and reward programs
Discount offers
Partner marketing
Consumer, employee and business-to-business
Premiums and gifts-with-purchase
Design, collateral, and POS
Interactive (Web and wireless)

If you want to see what these look like in action, just head over to The Marketing Arm’s Case Studies. They have some in-depth stories on what they’ve done for different brands and what kind of results they’ve garnered. If you’re excited about what you see, then you’ll want to take a look at The Marketing Arm’s Jobs page. Right now they have a few opportunities that look exciting for new or recent grads including:

There are some excellent opportunities here, so promote yourself to The Marketing Arm and see what happens.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What kind of promotions are your favorite?

Urban Airship

Willy Franzen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:41:44 +0000

I really like the idea of push notifications, but I find that they’re often inconsistent in terms of being delivered. I also hate it when apps try to trick me into accepting push notifications that I will find annoying. Still, it seems pretty clear that push notifications are going to become an increasingly important part of our life (as sad as that may sound). As more and more apps start pushing us information, more companies are going to need to solve the technical challenges associated with delivering push notifications. Urban Airship is a Portland, OR and San Francisco, CA based company that provides technology that powers “mobile engagement, monetization and reporting.” Beyond push notifications, they also do subscriptions, in-app purchasing, and reporting.

Push Your Luck

There’s no doubt that Urban Airship has developed a compelling line of products–just look at their list of customers. It’s loaded with big names like ESPN, Fox, Accenture, The White House, The New York Times, and plenty of others. There are also some great case studies on how clients have used Urban Airship’s technology to achieve business objectives. If you really want to dig into the nitty gritty of Urban Airship’s products, then you’ll want to take a look at their Resources page. Eventually you’ll want to head over to the Urban Airship Careers page to check out their opportunities. Right now they’re looking to fill a number of technical positions including Implementation Engineer (Portland, OR), Solutions Engineer (Portland, OR), API Engineer (Portland, OR or San Francisco, CA), JavaScript Engineer (Portland, OR), Messaging Engineer (Portland, OR), Systems Engineer (Portland, OR), and Engineer in Test (Portland, OR). They’re also looking for an Account Development Representative (Portland, OR), which looks like a great non-technical position for a new or recent grad.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you get push notifications?

Weather Underground

Willy Franzen — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:53:43 +0000

It’s supposed to reach the 50s today in Chicago, but Phil says that we’re in for six more weeks of winter. That kind of prognostication makes me hungry of groundhog stew (it’s a great cold weather meal). Despite my anger at Phil, I’m a huge fan of Groundhog Day–even if I always seem to forget about it. I think it’s great that we have a holiday devoted to the weather, even if it puts most of the focus on a rodent. That’s why I thought today would be a good day to take a look at Weather Underground (groundhogs live underground and predict the weather). They’re “committed to delivering the most reliable, accurate weather information possible,” and they do that by “providing free, real-time online weather information to millions of Web users around the world.” They’re headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI, and they have an office in San Francisco, CA (and jobs in Chicago and NYC). Weather Underground got its start as a Telnet weather service provided by University of Michigan in 1991, and has evolved with the Internet since then.

Underground Opportunities

Everybody has his or her favorite source for weather info–and we all get frustrated by their seemingly poor accuracy. I like Wunderground because of it has a really simple interface and navigation is easy to navigate, yet it provides very detailed technical information. A lot of of other weather sites have too many bells and whistles (or advertising) that interferes with my finding the information that I want. Still, Wunderground does have ads–that’s how they make money in addition to providing premium data services. If you love Groundhog Day for the weather and not the furry critters, then check out the jobs at Weather Underground. Right now they have a few openings that look like good fits for new or recent grads including Marketing Assistant (San Francisco, CA), Junior Sales Planner (San Francisco, CA), Ad Ops Assistant (San Francisco, CA), and Associate Account Executive (Chicago, IL). Oddly enough there’s nothing in Ann Arbor right now, but my guess would be that those would be the meteorology type positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think we’ll have 6 more weeks of winter?

Internet Brands

Willy Franzen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:07:03 +0000

In case you missed our e-mail from last week, Kembrel loved the response from our post about them so they’re offering a free VIP card (usually 20 bucks) to all ODOJ readers and $5 in store credit. Sign up here.

On Monday we took a look at Vertive, a company that builds internet properties to help people save money. Today we’re going to look at a company with a similar model of building and buying websites, but a much broader approach. Internet Brands is based in El Segundo, CA and started as CarsDirect.com in 1998. It was a successful brand for them, but in 2005 they realized that the platform they had built could be applied to other verticals. Now Internet Brands operates more than 100 websites that reach over a billion visitors every year. Amazingly, they’ve been able to generate almost all of this traffic organically (without buying advertising). This is all because of the platform that they’ve developed and the ability to share resources across brands. Internet Brands is a case study of how economies of scale can work on the web.

Get Branded

The best way to get a better feel for Internet Brands is to explore their… brands. There are a lot of them, but they typically fit into one of nine verticals: Automotive, Careers, Health, Home, Legal, Licensing, Money, Shopping, and Travel. Chances are that most of the brands will be new to you, but I found a few that I was familiar with. Unlike Vertive, Internet Brands doesn’t shed much light on how they operate. Even the Internet Brands Careers page is filled with mostly generic stuff like “Do you have energy, drive and ambition?” and “Do you have a strong sense of where you are going and how to get there?” Would any job seeker answer no to those rhetorical questions? At least Internet Brands makes up for it with a ton of job postings. Here are the ones that look well suited for an entry level job seeker:

That’s a lot of jobs. Hopefully a few of them will catch your interest.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Internet Brands?

Vertive

Willy Franzen — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:54:07 +0000

Having written profiles on more than 1,500 companies, I start to see the same stories over and over again. Some business models are just better than others, and those are the ones that seem to keep popping up. One of the most effective models these days is based on providing a free online resource to help save people money and using affiliate programs to monetize the traffic. Sites like Slickdeals, Fatwallet, Savings.com, ShopAtHome.com, CouponCabin, and WhaleShark Media have all taken that approach and succeeded. Vertive is another. They’re based in Austin, TX, and they were founded “to provide search engine marketing consulting and affiliate marketing services.” They eventually started building their own web properties, and that turned out to be way more profitable than consulting. Vertive’s biggest property is Offers.com, but other properties include DailyDeals.com, CouponCodes.com, and Subscription.com.

Get an Offer from Vertive

Because their properties are separate brands, the Vertive.com website is solely dedicated to providing information about the company. Luckily, the information is by no means generic. Vertive actually offers a pretty good look at how their business works. The section title How We Do It is especially good at describing Vertives’ approach to performance marketing. They also provide some good information on what it’s like to work at Vertive. If you like what you see, then you’ll want to check out Vertive’s Jobs page. Right now they have a good number of opportunities that are suitable for new or recent grads including:

Even if Vertive isn’t a good fit for you, it’s worth spending the time to learn about their business. The performance marketing model is… performing extremely well lately. It’s time that you understand how it works.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Vertive?

Brafton

Willy Franzen — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:10:35 +0000

There’s a reason that web startups with no semblance of a business plan but heaps of traffic continue to get venture capital funding. Consistently driving high quality traffic to a web property is extremely difficult, and almost all businesses need attention to succeed. Quality content is the cornerstone of driving traffic (that’s why I looked for writers when I was hiring interns), and content generation is not a core competency for most businesses. It is for Brafton. They’re a Boston, MA based “online news and content agency that offers integrated content marketing services.” They don’t brag about who their clients are like some other types of agencies (you can request live client samples), which makes sense since clients typically want people to think the content is coming straight from them.

Be Content at Brafton

I doubt any writers from Brafton will be winning Pulitzer Prizes, but I’m sure that’s ok with them. Their goal is to help their clients reach more customers by developing content that grabs attention and performs well on search engines and in social media. Brafton has a section of their website that is devoted to their business model, so I highly recommend that you read through that–including their case study–so that you can get a better sense of how they operate. They also provide information on their different teams, so you’ll probably want to read up on Account Management, Content Writing, and Social and E-mail. If you’d like to join one of those teams, you’re in luck because Brafton’s Careers page shows a ton of entry level opportunities. These include:

Graphic Resource Coordinator (Boston, MA)
Blog and Content Writer (Boston, MA)
Market Research Executive (Boston, MA)
German News and Content Writer (Remote)
News and Content Writer (Chicago, IL)
Inside Sales Representative (Boston, MA)
News and Content Writer (Boston, MA)
Jr. Web Developer (Boston, MA)
Business Development Executive (Boston, MA)
Business Development Executive (Scottsdale, AZ)
Content Marketing Specialist (San Francisco, CA)

You won’t be writing the next great novel at Brafton, but I’m sure you’ll learn a ton about developing content for the Internet with a focus on ROI. That’s insanely valuable these days.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Brafton?

mcgarrybowen

Willy Franzen — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:11:56 +0000

I really enjoyed watching football last night. I’m not a huge football fan, but those were both great games. I’m also happy to see that advertisers are gearing up for the Super Bowl. They’re breaking out new commercials and actually trying to get viewers’ attention. That means it must be an extremely busy time of the year for an advertising agency like mcgarrybowen. They’re based in New York, NY and Chicago, IL, and they work with big names like Burker King, Chase, Disney, Kraft, Marriott, Reebok, Sears, Verizon, and plenty of others. They also recently landed the Bud Light account, and they’re expected to do some Super Bowl work for them. What a surprise! Bud Light will be advertising during the Super Bowl.

A Better mcJob

Though I don’t typically keep up on the latest happenings in the ad agency world, my research tells me that mcgarrybowen is so hot right now. They’ve been picking up huge accounts left and right, and that led to their being named Agency of the Year on AdvertisingAge‘s Agency A-List. All these new accounts mean lots of new jobs. Just look at mcgarrybowen’s Chicago office that grew from 16 employees when it opened in 2009 to more than 200 now. The folks at mcgarrybowen would probably attribute this success to the fact that they’re “built differently, on the simple premise that clients deserve better.” I’ll take a wager that it also has something to do with their work. If you love the agency’s work and agree with the premise that clients deserve better, then you should visit mcgarrybowen’s Careers page. Right now they have a few openings worth checking out including Digital Account Executive (New York, NY) and Social Media Specialist with PR experience (New York, NY). If mcgarrybowen keeps winning accounts, expect even more jobs to get posted. You can even anticipate this by submitting a general application here

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you like mcgarrybowen’s work?

Accuweather

Willy Franzen — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:06:13 +0000

We’re finally getting our first snow storm of the winter here in Chicago. I’m not traveling anywhere, I don’t have a commute, and I know well enough not to drive on Lakeshore Drive today (this is what happened last year), so I’m excited and watching the weather hoping for a lot of accumulation (even though there are no sledding hills nearby). I don’t have a favorite weather site, so I keep my eyes on a number of them including Accuweather. I guess it’s a bit of an understatement to call Accuweather a site–they’ve been around since 1962 and they call themselves “the World’s Weather Authority.” They’re based in State College, PA (with an office in New York, NY) where they’re stockpiling meteorologists there (the most in any location in the world). They need these weather guys and girls because they provide “products and services to more than 175,000 paying customers in media, business, government and institutions.”

Forecast Your Future

I love weather, so I think I’m thrilled by how much information and data is available the average person over the Internet. But I have to admit it’s a bit disappointing that weather predictions are so inaccurate–sometimes I think I can do a better job predicting weather by just looking at the radar. I’m thinking that Chicago is going to get more than the 4-8 inches that Accuweather is predicting right now, but you’d probably be better off going with their prediction. It is their business, and they are trusted by countless media sources. There’s not much more to say about Accuweather than they devote a ton of resources on the meteorology side–just take a look at the stats on their headquarters on their About page. It really is the ultimate weather tracking center. If you’d like to work there or at Accuweather’s Sales office in NYC, check out Accuweather’s Careers page. It takes too many clicks to get to their actual job listings, but once you’re there you’ll see a number of positions including:

Ad Sales Marketing Associate (New York, NY)
Mobile Applications Developer (State College, PA)
Account Executive – Advertising (New York, NY)
Staff Accountant – Payroll (State College, PA)
Staff Accountant (State College, PA)
Network Operations Center Technician (State College, PA)

Take a look at the jobs, and hope for a snow day!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How much snow are you expecting?

Bluefin Labs

Willy Franzen — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:58:16 +0000

When I first learned about Google Trends, I was shocked to see how much Internet search traffic is driven by television. It’s pretty clear that browsing the web and watching the tube go hand in hand, which is great news for both marketers and tv content producers. Since its inception tv’s biggest problem has been that it is a one way medium with no real feedback loop. That’s changed, and Bluefin Labs “has accomplished a breakthrough in this field by applying cognitive science research combined with large scale computing techniques to successfully and automatically link TV to social media.” If all goes as planned, the Cambridge, MA will make traditional tv ratings obsolete. Who cares how many people are watching when you can know who’s watching and what they’re saying?

Hook a Bluefin

While there’s no doubt about what Bluefin Labs does, they don’t really emphasize their business on the website. You have to scroll down on their home page to learn that their “clients span TV networks, advertising agencies, and brand advertisers” and include AMC Networks, CBS, MTV Networks, Mars, PepsiCo, MediaCom, and lots more. The solution that they sell to these clients is called Bluefin Signals, and you can read about the science behind it here. If you want to get a very basic sense of the kind of data that Bluefin Labs offers, you can check out their sample dashboard. Last night’s hottest show was the Heat vs. Hawks game, which was closely followed up by Jersey Shore (I know which one I would have preferred to watch). I found out about Bluefin Labs from a reader who landed a job there recently. They don’t post specific positions on their Jobs page, but it mentions that they’re looking for people in the following areas:

Machine learning
Natural language processing
Computer vision
Social network analysis
Data analysis
Information visualization
Interaction design
Large scale data storage and analytics
Sales
Account management
Marketing
Product development

That covers a wide range of interests, so don’t be afraid to reach out to careers@bluefinlabs.com and apply for a position in one of those areas.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Bluefin Labs?

Captains of Industry

Willy Franzen — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:01:19 +0000

I went on a guided fishing trip this morning. The weather was pretty terrible, and the catching was nonexistent. As we were driving back to the hotel, the guide told us about a boat that recently sank and how the captain was the first one to abandon ship. That’s certainly not captain-like behavior, and it’s the opposite of what you’d expect from Captains of Industry, a Boston, MA based marketing and advertising agency that was started by an ad guy and a filmmaker. They excel at developing ” strategy-driven creative in all media – from websites to corporate videos to literature systems – that tells [their customers' stories] in unforgettable ways.”

Aye Aye Captain

Captains of Industry got its start as a freelance writing service in 1992, but it evolved into something much bigger when its founder started sharing office space with a filmmaker in 1996. They decided to work together and quickly began producing some pretty cool stuff. You can check out their latest work here. Their clients include Bose, First Wind, Akamai, Re/Max, and a bunch of other big names. If you want to get an even better feel for Captains of Industry, you should read their manifesto. You may also want to take note of some things that Captains are (we already know that they shouldn’t abandon ship):

/ Captains are storytellers

/ Captains take pride in our craft

/ Captains take ownership

/ Captains passionately want the client to succeed

/ Captains are driven to change the world

/ Captains never take themselves too seriously

/ Captains never quit

If you think that you have what it takes to be a Captain, then take a look at Captains of Industry’s Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for full-timers in Account Management and SEO and freelance Graphic Designers, Web Designers, Copywriters, Technical Writers, Illustrators, Producers, Web/Flash Programmers, and Art Directors. Additionally, you can also apply for future openings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Captains of Industry?

OpticsPlanet

Willy Franzen — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:25:36 +0000

When I was a kid, I had eyes like a hawk. At my best I had 20/12 vision. Then in high school things started getting blurry, and I eventually had to get contact lenses. Luckily, humans have spent a ton of time and energy in developing technology that helps us see better. Whether you want to see something really small, far away, or in the dark, there’s optical equipment that can help you out. The thing is that microscopes, binoculars, night vision goggles, and even glasses aren’t something that you buy casually–you want to buy from someone who knows his or her stuff. OpticsPlanet is a Northbrook, IL based company that employs a whole bunch of those people. They are “one of the world’s leading online retailers of a wide selection of sport optics, tactical and military gear, scientific products, hunting gear, professional grade products and eyewear.” I get excited when I get a new contact lens prescription, so I bet getting to play with some of OptcisPlanet’s offerings would make me giddy.

Seeing Is Believing

When you end up on OpticsPlanet.com, it looks like a pretty generic e-commerce site. I would have never guessed that they generated $82.6 million last year, but thats’ what the numbers from the Inc. 5000 say. They’ve also been growing at a 113% rate over the past three-years, so they must be gaining a significant share in the optics market. I found a video on their About page that gives a pretty good intro to the company, so check it out below:

If you like what you see in the video and you also like the fact that OpticsPlanet was named one of “The Chicago Tribune’s Top Workplaces,” then you have to take a look at their Careers page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

User Interface Designer
Communications Designer
Content Project Manager
Junior Web Developer / JavaScript
Accounts Payable Specialist
Call Center Quality Assurance
Risk Management – Order Review Agent
Search Engine Optimization Specialist
Pay Per Click Marketing Specialist
Online Marketing Specialist
Copywriter
Vendor Services Account Coordinator

There are all kinds of opportunities at OpticsPlanet, so take a really close look and see if you like what you see.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What would you get from OpticsPlanet?

Say Media

Willy Franzen — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:05:27 +0000

When people ask me what I do, I tell them that “I run websites that help college students find jobs and internships.” About half the time, I get, “Oh, so you’re like a recruiter?” That’s pretty far off, so I try to provide an explanation that includes the term “online media.” That usually gets the point across. We live in a time where nearly anyone can build their own media property. Technology is so cheap and easy to use that the hardest problems in online media usually come down to content creation, marketing, and monetization. Say Media is a company that brings together the technology with the media savvy. They’re based in San Francisco, CA, and they’ve been built out of two companies that merged: Six Apart and VideoEgg. Six Apart worked mostly on the technology side, and VideoEgg was an advertising network. Together they’ve become a company that “empowers culturally relevant individuals with its publishing platform and media services designed to help them grow audience and earn a living.”

What Do You Say?

Say Media has built a network with massive reach–400 million monthly unique visitors. Not only do they provide services that bring together advertisers and publishers, but they also own Blogs.com and TypePad. It’s all about “passion-based media properties,” whether SayMedia owns them, provides the technology to run them, or helps monetize them. Say Media bases everything that they do on 7 principles:

Attention is scarce

Passion is abundant

Media is fluid

Advertising is content

Storytelling is vital

Influence is earned

Engagement is a science

If you want to learn how Say Media came up with those principles and how they put them to work, then take a look at their Careers page. Right now they have a few jobs that you may want to check out including Financial Analyst, UI Site Designer, Technical Account Manager, and Sales Executive (Toronto, Canada). There are a variety of interesting opportunities at Say Media, so give them a shot.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Say Media?

Travelzoo

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:15:38 +0000

On Saturday I’m heading to Aruba for two weeks! (Don’t worry, you’ll still get your daily e-mails–even on Christmas Day.) I booked well in advance, so I got a decent fare, but it’s still about four times more expensive than traveling at a different time of year. If you want to travel during the holidays, you’re probably going to have to pay through the nose. Still, it’s worth looking for a deal, and there’s no better place to do that than Travelzoo. They’re a New York, NY based company (with 23 other offices all across the world) that has perfected the art of the travel deal. They don’t just go out and find low rates–they actually “research, evaluate, and test thousands of deals to find those with true value.” Although it’s not exactly the same, they kind of do for travel deals what I do for jobs: curate. Though they have 250 experts working on it, which is 249 more than we have.

Take a Trip to the Zoo

Travelzoo’s site is about as basic looking as it gets. It’s simple, clean, and uncluttered. It may not look like the site of a publicly traded company, but it certainly stands out from other travel sites that seem to bombard you with useless offers. I guess that’s why they have 24 million members, though the fact that they require you to be a member to see their deals has to help with that too. Beyond travel, Travelzoo has also moved into entertainment deals and local deals, but travel is definitely their bread and butter. What’s so unique about Travelzoo’s model is that they’re not for sale. Yes, they accept payment from advertisers, but they only publish deals that they are confident will make their members happy. There’s no way to get on Travelzoo except offering a high quality deal. If you’re liking what Travelzoo is all about, then take a look at their Jobs page. They have a ton of openings, and a few look perfect for new or recent grads including: Associate Producer (Chicago, IL), Producer (Chicago, IL) Assistant Producer (Miami, FL), Producer (New York, NY), Assistant Producer – SuperSearch (San Francisco, CA), and Producer (Toronto, ON). Travelzoo’s Producers are “top-notch journalists whose commercial acumen would impress the Donald himself.” In other words they take on a role that includes researching, writing, producing, account managing, sales, and a lot more–they find the deals and get them live on the site. It sounds like an extremely cool role, so check all the positions out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used Travelzoo?

Hotel Tonight

Willy Franzen — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:03:26 +0000

Want to try Hotel Tonight? Use this link to get $25 off your first booking.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I either book hotel rooms way in advance or the day of. When I reserve a room in advance, I’m usually looking for more than just a place to sleep. Price is still important, but it’s not the most important thing. But when I need a room for tonight, I want a place that meets my minimum standards for the lowest price. As long as I can get a good night’s sleep without being bitten by bedbugs or woken up by a domestic dispute, I’m happy. It’s the latter situation that can be frustrating for bargain hunters. You know that the hotel is at 12% capacity, but they still won’t give you anything better than the AAA rate. As long as they can cover the cost of cleaning the room, they should be willing to take you. Hotel Tonight is a San Francisco, CA based company that is making it easy to get rooms for up to 70% off at the last-minute.

Job Today?

At least for now, Hotel Tonight is completely app based. You can’t even search for a hotel on their website. They want you to whip out your phone (Android or iPhone) when you need a room and book from there. Every day they launch new deals at noon local time, so that’s the best time to check the app (some stuff does sell out). I spent a little time playing around with the app, and the deals look good, but they’re not mind blowing. If you stay somewhere expensive you can save a few hundred bucks, but a more basic hotel room might only come with $10-$20 in savings. Still, Hotel Tonight will help you find a good deal with almost no hassle, and it provides a great yield management tool for hotel owners. If you’re interested in the intersection of technology and hospitality management, then take a look at Hotel Tonight’s Jobs page. Right now they have some great opportunities available including:

Take a look at the jobs. Hopefully one of them will be a good fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite hotel?

Time Out

Willy Franzen — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:15:42 +0000

We want to do even more to help you land a job. Take our survey and let us know how we can better serve you as we start our fifth year.

One of my favorite things about living in Chicago is the restaurants. There are so many great places to eat, and there are new ones opening constantly. It’s a lot of fun, but it can be overwhelming if you try to keep up with it. That’s why I rely on Time Out Chicago to keep me up to date with what’s going on in Chi-town, whether it’s restaurant openings, cultural events, or things to do. I guess I’m lucky that Time Out chose to cover Chicago, considering that the London, UK based publishing company typically focuses on major international destinations like Bangkok, Barcelona, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, and Venice for their guides and magazines. As far as I can tell, Boston, MA; Chicago, IL, and New York, NY are the only U.S. cities to get weekly magazines, though a few other like Las Vegas and San Francisco do get their own travel guides. I must say that Time Out’s online presence is quite disjointed, so there’s a chance that there are locations in the U.S. where they might be hiring and I just missed them.

Take a Time Out from Your Job Search

It seems as though the U.S. based Time Outs operate somewhat independently from the parent company. You’ll probably want to bounce around TimeOut.com, NewYork.TimeOut.com, TimeOutChicago.com, and TimeOutBoston.com to get a sense of all of the different sub-brands. You may also want to take a look at Time Out’s Wikipedia entry to get a fuller sense of the business. But really you should focus on digging into Time Out’s content (a lot of which they publish online) and getting a feel for how they cover different locales. Then you’ll want to read up on the specific Time Out that catches your interest and take a look at their jobs (all of the Time Outs seem to hire independently from each other). In the Worldwide office based in London they have a few job openings and also offer what they call work experience. You can use the links below to find the Jobs pages for Boston, Chicago, and New York, and you’ll see that they have a number of interesting opportunities including:

SEO Master (New York, NY)
Copy Editor (New York, NY)
Ad Operations Specialist (New York, NY)
PHP Symfony Web Application Developer (New York, NY)
Account Manager (Chicago, IL)

They’re also big on internships, so if you want to get a position on the editorial side it would probably benefit you to start as an intern. (I have a friend who did exactly that at Time Out Chicago). Here’s a list of all of the internships that they offer:

Photo Intern (Boston, MA)
Editorial Intern Intern (Boston, MA)
Art & Design Intern (Chicago, IL)
Editorial Intern (Chicago, IL)
Online Photography Intern (Chicago, IL)
Online Production Intern (Chicago, IL)
Photography Intern (Chicago, IL)
Web Intern (Chicago, IL)
Admin/Human Resources Intern (New York, NY)
Advertising Intern (New York, NY)
Art – Magazine Design Intern (New York, NY)
Audience Development Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Visual Arts Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Food & Drink Intern (New York, NY)
Public Relations Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Music Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Online Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Shopping & Style Intern (New York, NY)
Marketing & Events Intern (New York, NY)
Online Production Intern (New York, NY)
Photo Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Film Intern (New York, NY)
Special Projects Intern (New York, NY)
TONY Kids Intern (New York, NY)
TONY Kids Photo Intern (New York, NY)

They’re all unpaid, but they could be a good way to get a foot in the door.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any Time Out guides or subscribe to any of their magazines?

Brunner

Willy Franzen — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:42:55 +0000

We want to do even more to help you land a job. Take our survey and let us know how we can better serve you as we start our fifth year.

Every day within a few minutes of when I press send to deliver our daily e-mails, I get at least a few out of office replies. The names start to become familiar, as it’s often the same people–most of them work in career services. Lately, I’ve been noticing out of office replies from someone with a brunnerworks.com e-mail address. I didn’t make much of it until I went through some results from our survey and noticed someone recommended Brunner as a company that we should feature. I took a look at the Pittsburgh, PA and Atlanta, GA advertising agency and quickly agreed. Brunner’s tagline is “Ideas for a Smarter, Faster World,” and they seem to be living up to that with a Top 75 ranking among U.S. based ad agencies.

It’s Funner at Brunner

Brunner does work in a variety of areas including Insight and Startegy, Creative, Digital, Communications Planning, Media Planning and Buying, Mobile, Public Relations, Social Media, Shopper Marketing, One-to-One, and Measurement and Analytics. And they do it for big names like Heinz, Bob Evans, GNC, GlaxoSmithKline, Zippo, and Huffy. You can take a look at their work to get a better sense of their approaches to different kinds of campaigns. I really like the print campaign they did for Case Knives, but I’m sure you’ll have your own favorite. Brunner also has a great People section on their website, so you can get to know more about some of the folks behind the work.

If you’re digging what Brunner is all about, then you’ll want to take a look at their Careers page. They currently have a few opportunities that could be suitable for new or recent grads including Interactive Designer, Interactive Media Planner/Buyer, and User Experience Designer in Pittsburgh. There’s also an Interactive Media Planner/Buyer position in Atlanta. Additionally, Brunner encourages job seekers to apply to future openings or to apply for freelance work. There’s also an internship program and a Career contact on their Contact page, so you have a number of options if you’re trying to get in at Brunner.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Brunner?

Refinery29

Willy Franzen — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:38:05 +0000

Keeping up with fashion isn’t a priority for me, but I still like to dress well. That’s why I trust Bonobos and Gilt Groupe to do the curation for me, and then I just buy what I like from them (it also helps that I’ve accrued a lot of credits from both of them). I know that a lot of people are far more active in keeping up with fashion, which is probably why Refinery29 is growing so quickly. The New York, NY based company is aiming to be “the cornerstone of fashion, beauty, and shopping for a new generation” as they offer “the only 360-degree source for shopping, exclusive deals, trends, beauty news, local hot-spots, and at-home sneak-peeks of fashion’s finest.” That’s ridiculously ambitious, but the results so far indicate that they’re pretty much killing it.

Show Your Refinement

I learned about Refinery29 from a blog post by my friend Charlie O’Donnell. The post touches on something really cool that Refinery29 is doing that I think more companies should do. They started out by focusing on editorial and grabbing attention to sell to advertisers. That’s what most companies in this space do, and it works, but why not take the extra step? Refinery29 has built it’s own e-commerce product called Reserve, and it’s essentially built on the daily deal model. It’s smart because it allows Refinery29 to capture even more value from their users than they do by selling advertising. I think we’ll see more and more companies do this–build media products as channels to promote their own products (I guess it’s nothing new considering the same idea is where Soap Operas got their start). I highly recommend that you dig into Refinery29′s content and get a better feel for who they are. If you like what you see, then you should probably check out their Careers page. They have a bunch of cool opportunities that might appeal to new or recent grads including:

Account Manager
Miami Editor (Miami, FL)
Los Angeles Editor (Los Angeles, CA)
Marketing Data Analyst
UX + Interaction Designer

There are a bunch of other positions, but they generally have more significant experience requirements. Hopefully something at Refinery29 will catch your eye and be a great fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Refinery29?

VaynerMedia

Willy Franzen — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:31:45 +0000

It’s hard to be involved with social media without having heard Gary Vaynerchuk’s name. He made a name for himself with his daily wine video blog called Wine Library TV, and that led to his writing a best-selling book called Crush It!. He has consistently made social media work for him, which is why he started an agency called VaynerMedia to “help brands to best leverage online platforms to build engaged communities that support their online marketing endeavors.” There are a lot of buzzwords in there, but they’re at least put together in a way that makes sense. VaynerMedia is located in New York, NY, and I got the idea to feature them from a reader who landed a job there.

Every Day You’re Hustling

Gary Vaynerchuk is all about “hustling.” That means wanting something, and doing whatever it takes to get it. That must be why VaynerMedia’s clients include huge names like PepsiCo, the New York Jets, Cap’n Crunch, and the New Jersey Nets. Unfortunately, the VaynerMedia site doesn’t seem to include a portfolio, but they do cover what they do on their home page. VaynerMedia focuses on two areas: Community Management and Emerging Technology. Within Community Management, they do work in Customer Service, Communication Principles, Incentivized Advocacy, and Reporting, while in Emerging Technology they work on Identifying Relevant Platforms, First-Mover Advantages, Unique Opportunities, and Earned Media. If those sound like the kind of things that you’d like to work on, take a look at VaynerMedia’s Careers page. Right now they have a couple of opportunities that are suitable for new or recent grads including Account Executive, Associate Community Manager, and Junior Developer. If you do end up applying, you better make sure that you show them that you know how to hustle.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Were you aware of Gary Vaynerchuk before reading this post?