One Day, One Job » accounting

Nasty Gal

Willy Franzen — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:30:24 +0000

One of the coolest things about the time that we live in is that the barrier to starting a business is essentially nonexistent. You can test your ideas on someone else’s platform, and if it works, then you build your own. Nasty Gal is a perfect example of this. The Los Angeles, CA based company began in 2006 when Sophia Amoruso “started an eBay store selling a highly curated selection of vintage pieces.” After finding success on eBay and validating the business, she started her own site where she could control the entire customer experience (and not pay eBay’s crazy fees). A lot of Nasty Gal’s stuff is pretty far out there–their home page has a huge picture of studded platforms that look like a medieval torture device–but it’s hard to argue with a brand that has nearly a quarter million Facebook likes.

Are You Nasty?

The key to Nasty Gal’s success is curation. Even though they’re in the business of selling and not editorial, they’re seen by many customers as a guide to what to buy. If it’s on Nasty Gal, it has to be cool–and that begs the question: What is a Nasty Gal? She’s “the coolest girl in the room‚ pulling off whatever wildly unique piece that suits the mood.” I’m certainly not a Nasty Gal, but maybe you are. And if you are, you’d be a great fit for a job at Nasty Gal. Right now they have a few opportunities that seem like they could be perfect for a new or recent grad. These include Accounting Clerk, Production Coordinator, Software Engineer, PR Coordinator, and Planning Analyst. Hope you’re nasty enough.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Nasty Gal?

HealthCorps

Willy Franzen — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:33:44 +0000

If you’ve been job searching for a while, there’s a good chance that you’ve picked up a daytime tv habit. That’s not the most productive thing to do with your time, but at least you know who Dr. Oz is. If you don’t know, he’s a heart surgeon who was made famous by his appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. He now has his own show, but he also started a non-profit with his wife called HealthCorps. It’s based in New York, NY, and it’s aimed at “fighting the obesity and mental resilience crisis by getting American students and communities across the country to take charge of their health.” The organization was founded in 2003 and already has its peer mentoring programs in 54 high schools across 13 states. By the end of the year they expect to impact more than 100,000 students, and by 2015 they want to be in 100 high schools across all 50 states.

Join the Corps

The way HealthCorps structures their programs makes so much sense that I’m surprised more non-profits don’t have a similar structure. The base of their programs is focused on in-school programs targeted directly at changing student behavior. The next level is community outreach programs focused on getting more people involved beyond just the students. Finally, they do advocacy work at the national, state, and city levels. To get a deeper feeling for how HealthCorps does its work, watch this video (e-mail readers may need to click through):

If you like what you see, then you should probably check out HealthCorps’ jobs on Idealist. There are a ton of internships posted, but the only full-time job is for a Junior Accounting Analyst. Oddly enough, one of HealthCorps’ main ways of doing work is through their Coordinator position. It’s essentially a mentor for healthy living. You have to know to look for it, but there’s also a place to apply to be a HealthCorps Coordinator. I almost missed it, so they should probably do a better job of promoting it.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of HealthCorps?

Wolverine Trading

Willy Franzen — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:32:44 +0000

When I was a kid, I had a huge baseball card collection (actually, I still have it). I never seriously collected any other sports cards, but I did have a phase where I collected a Marvel cards. I haven’t thought about those cards for years, but when I came across the name Wolverine Trading, they instantly jumped back in mind. Unfortunately, Wolverine Trading, which is based in Chicago, IL, doesn’t have anything to do with superheroes–though they may consider themselves financial superheroes. They are a “diversified financial institution specializing in proprietary trading, asset management, order execution services, and technology solutions.” Those are all just big words for making money by combining technology with knowledge of the financial markets.

Be a Glutton

Beyond being the name of a superhero, a wolverine is also a carnivorous mammal known for a gluttonous appetite and strength beyond its size (and the mascot of the University of Michigan). What a perfect name for a trading firm! Most trading firms keep what they actually do pretty close to the chest. If details about their internal operations leak out, then they lose their edge and ability to make money. Still, you can get a pretty good intro to Wolverine Trading from their Careers page. Beyond having their job postings, you can learn about their Culture, Benefits, Top 10 Reasons to Join Them, and FAQs on Trading and Technology. Once you read through all of those, you’ll either want to look at the College Recruiting page where they list a Rotational Trading Program and a Software Engineering Program. You can also check out their normal job postings for positions like Applications Developer, Trading Technical Support, Trading Associate (London), Software Engineer, Database Administrator, Junior Accountant, and Trading Assistant. There appears to be a lot of entry level opportunity at Wolverine Trading, so give them a really close look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Wolverine Trading?

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?

Oriental Trading

Willy Franzen — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:25:58 +0000

It’s probably a little late to be planning a New Year’s Eve party, but I guess for a lot of people all it takes is a trip to the liquor store to prepare. But if you really want to do New Year’s Eve right, you need party hats, noisemakers, those popper thingies, and all kinds of other novelties. One of the best places to get those is Oriental Trading, an Omaha, NE based “direct merchant of value–priced party supplies, arts and crafts, toys and novelties, and a leading provider of school supplies and affordable home décor and giftware.” I remember getting their catalogs as a kid and thinking how awesome it would be to have not one stupid plastic toy, but a 1000-count tub of them. Oriental Trading has been around since 1932, and they’ve been able to stay competitive by quickly adapting to the changing ways people buy stuff.

A Favorable Trade

Oriental Trading may not sell high-end products like a lot of other long-lived mail order companies, but they’ve still “been recognized as one of the Top 50 Internet Retailers and one of the Top 50 Catalog Companies.” What I think is cooler is that The Omaha Chamber of Commerce named Oriental Trading as “one of Omaha’s Fastest Growing Companies three consecutive years.” I’m not sure how recently that was, but any time you can grow an already large, 80-year old company at an above average rate is impressive. If you’d like to help keep that growth going and you find that flipping through the Oriental Trading catalog is a good way to spend a few hours, then take a look at Oriental Trading’s Careers page. Right now they have some cool job opportunities for new or recent grads including Assistant Brand Merchant, Cost Analyst, Inventory Specialist, Payroll Specialist, Studio Sample Coordinator, and Senior Sales Assistant. Check out the job postings, and please forgive the HR people at Oriental Trading for using Comic Sans in their job postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever looked through the Oriental Trading catalog?

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?

Seeds of Peace

Willy Franzen — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:21:22 +0000

The University of Chicago has five job openings that are perfect for recent grads. Check them out here.

I love hearing from readers when they land jobs, even if they didn’t find theirs through One Day One Job. I sometimes even hear from moms or dads who have been helping their kids with the job search and are thrilled to share a success story. That’s how I found out about Seeds of Peace. It’s a New York, NY based non-profit (with offices in Ramallah and Tel Aviv) that empowers “young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence.” It was founded in 1993 by journalist John Wallach, and since then they’ve brought together more than 4,300 young leaders through a summer camp, “dialogue meetings, conferences, workshops, educational and professional opportunities, and an adult educators program.”

Plant a Seed

Seeds of Peace got its start with Egyptian, Israeli, and Palestinian teenagers, but they’ve expanded to include young people from South Asia, Cyprus, and the Balkans. The best way to get a sense for how Seeds of Peace is changing the world for the better is took at the profiles of their graduates. It’s pretty clear that Seeds of Peace’s programs helps develop young people into impressive adults, but the programs also build a perspective of cooperation before biases have time to become ingrained. It sounds like Seeds of Peace is doing amazing work, and it’s really cool that they have been around long enough to see meaningful positive results. If you want to be a part of future results, check out Seeds of Peace’s Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for a Grants Compliance Coordinator, and it looks like an appropriate position for a new or recent grad. You may also want to take a look at their Camp Positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Seeds of Peace?

SendGrid

Willy Franzen — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:56:10 +0000

E-mail is supposed to be simple: you send a message and the recipient gets it nearly instantly. That’s the way it usually works for most people, but there are those rare instances where a message gets caught in a spam folder or bounces back to the sender. Those problems get much bigger when you start to send a lot of e-mail; in fact, I recently had to deal with an issue that resulted in some of our daily e-mails that were sent on a Friday being received the following Wednesday. Because I send nearly 400,000 e-mails a month, I use one of the top providers in the business, and this still happened. E-mail is a complicated beast, which is why companies that send multiple orders of magnitude more e-mail than I do need help to overcome the fact that “20% of emails sent by web applications either go missing or they get caught by spam filters.” SendGrid is a Boulder, CO based company that specializes in e-mail delivery. They’ve delivered more than 20 billion e-mails for clients that include Foursquare, SlideShare, and GetSatisfaction, so I think they must do a lot better than 80%.

Get in the Grid

While many e-mail providers focus almost entirely on newsletters and marketing-type e-mails, SendGrid can deliver pretty much any kind of e-mail it needs to. Businesses plug their web applications into SendGrid using APIs, and they can send to both individuals (think receipts, notifications, etc) or to a larger group. SendGrid runs the mail servers so that their clients don’t need an individual or team devoted to e-mail delivery. It’s a big win for businesses who need near flawless e-mail delivery but want to stay focused on doing the things that are core to their business. I know all of the e-mail technical talk can be a little overwhelming, but there’s a good mix of technical and non-technical jobs at SendGrid. Their Jobs page shows that they’re looking for an Account Receivables Specialist, a Technical Support Representative, a Quality Assurance Engineer (Anaheim, CA), Content Writer (Anaheim, CA) and a Web Engineer.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about SendGrid?

Medallion Financial Group

Willy Franzen — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:54:15 +0000

Last night I read an article from The New York Times about how two New York City taxi cab medallions recently sold for $1 million each. These aren’t some weird collectors’ items–they are actual pieces of metal that are attached to the hood of a taxi cab and are required for the cab to be able to operate in a given city. It’s a relatively common system (you can read about it here), and it limits the number and ensures the quality of cabs in the city. In some cities, the medallions can be bought and sold, and the secondary market for them is getting extremely expensive. Because of this, most cabbies can’t own their own medallions–they usually have to lease them or work for a fleet that owns it own medallions. That’s where Medallion Financial Group comes in. They’re a New York, NY based financing company that specializes in Taxi Medallion and Commercial Lending.

Hail a Job

Medallion Financials’ slogan is “In Niches There Are Riches.” It’s quite fitting considering the story of their Founder, Leon Murstein. In 1937 he was an immigrant who was driving cabs. He eventually saved up to buy his first medallion for $10. He got hooked and ended up buying 500 more. Now Medallion Financial is a publicly-traded company (their ticker symbol is TAXI) with a market cap just under $200 million (and they have over $1 billion in assets under management). If you really want to dig into the numbers, you can check out Medallion Financial’s Annual Reports. I think this business is absolutely fascinating, which is why I decided to do a writeup on Medallion Financial even though I can’t find any info on current job opportunities. My recommendation is that if you really like what they’re doing, check them out on LinkedIn, and then use their Contact page. It’s a long shot, but that’s what you have to do if you want to work at unique companies like Medallion Financial (note that Medallion Financial is not uniquely named, so there are some other companies with the same name). I do know that they’ve offered internships in the past, so entry level jobs really aren’t out of the question.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Had you noticed taxi medallions before?

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Willy Franzen — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:01:25 +0000

Columbus Day isn’t much of a holiday anymore–it’s become yet another regular work and school day for many. It makes sense considering Christopher Columbus wasn’t really the guy that my 1st grade teacher taught me that he was. Still, I’m amazed by the feats of guys like Columbus (which is why I’ve written about Garmin and Facet Technology on past Columbus Days). Getting in a boat with an uncertain route to a far away destination still seems crazy to me, and these guys did it in a time when navigation equipment was quite basic. Their minds would be blown if they knew what kind of information the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (formerly the National Imagery and Mapping Agency) has. The agency is headquartered in Springfield, VA and has major facilities in St. Louis, MO (I learned about them from one of my awesome interns whose boyfriend works for the NGA). They are part of the Department of Defense, and they are tasked with providing “timely, relevant, and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security.”

Do You Have Geospatial Intelligence?

If you want an example of what the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency does, you’re not going to get a full answer because a lot of what they do is classified. However, they have been identified as playing a “critical role” in Operation Neptune’s Spear, which was the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. The agency’s employees operate in a number of areas including aeronautical analysis, cartography, geospatial analysis, imagery analysis, marine analysis, the physical sciences, geodesy, computer and telecommunication engineering, photogrammetry, and more. The NGA website is ok, but I highly recommend that you check out Wikipedia’s entry on the agency for a really good overview of the organization’s history and what it does.

If you like what you read, then you’ll want to take a look at the NGA’s Careers page. (Remember that we’re dealing with the federal government, so this isn’t going to be simple.) First, you’ll probably want to visit the Occupations page, where you’ll see that the NGA offers the following positions:

Accountants
Aeronautical Analyst
Bathymetrist
Contract Specialist
Counterintelligence Officers
Enterprise Account Managers
Geodetic Surveyors
Geospatial Data Stewards
Geospatial Intelligence Analysts
HD Consultants
Imagery Scientists
Imagery Intelligence Analysts
Information Assurance Officers
Maritime Analysts
Open Source Analysts
Police Officers
Political Geographers
Program Management Execution Officers
Project Scientists
Recruiters
Regional Geographers
Regional Source Analysts
Scientific and Technial Program Managers
Source Strategies Analysts
Systems Engineers

You won’t see most of these positions in the NGA’s Current Opportunities, so you may be better off meeting them at one of their On-Campus Recruiting Events or by reaching out to them at recruitment@nga.mil. You may also want to read through the NGA’s Recruitment FAQs and looking at their Application Process. It’s all complicated, but that’s to be expected with one of our country’s intelligence agencies.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you amazed by what the NGA does?

Whitney Museum of American Art

Willy Franzen — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:40:24 +0000

I’m no art expert, which is probably why most of the artists whose work I am familiar with are both European and dead. My knowledge of contemporary American art is pretty limited. Maybe that would change if I visited the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY, as it’s the “preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States.” My awesome sister (who is a painter now pursuing a career in medicine) gave me the heads up on the fact that they’re hiring. The Whitney Museum of American Art was founded in 1930 after sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s offer to the The Metropolitan Museum of Art of a collection of more than 500 works was rejected. Much like taking her ball and going home, she took her art and started a new museum.

The Whitney

In its 80 years since opening, the Whitney Museum of American Art has become “the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States” as it “presents the full range of twentieth-century and contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living artists.” You can find the full history here. If you’d like to get a feel for what kind of art they have at The Whitney, you have to look no further than their current exhibitions–or better yet, you can actually visit the museum if you’re in NYC. If contemporary American art speaks to you, then you have to check out jobs at the Whitney Museum of American Art. They have a few positions open right now, and the best fits for new or recent grads are Development Records Assistant, Accounts Payable Clerk, and Part-Time Member Services Assistant.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever visited the Whitney?

Yeti Coolers

Willy Franzen — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:33:33 +0000

I spend a ton of time outdoors between fly fishing and playing beach volleyball. You’d think I’d have a cooler to take along with me, but I don’t. If I did, it’d have to be one of the models made by Yeti Coolers. They’re an Austin, TX based company that builds coolers that are more durable and keep things colder than any other coolers on the market. Yeti Coolers are built for tough conditions, which is why some of the biggest names in outdoors sports endorse them and the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee has deemed them Grizzly Proof. You may think it’s cooler overkill, but the market for high quality coolers seems to be extremely strong. That’s why Yeti Coolers made the Inc. 5000 with 613% three-year growth to $13 million in revenue.

These Jobs Do Exist

Yeti Coolers’ business seems pretty simple. They build a superior product and market it to a demographic that appreciates the kind of quality that Yeti Coolers offers. It’s obviously been a bit more complicated than that considering how quickly Yeti has been able to grow. I’m sure their engineering and manufacturing is pretty high tech, and I’m sure that going up against entrenched cooler manufacturers is a big challenge for a relative upstart. Still, you have to love that there’s still a ton of room for Yeti to grow in the market. If you want to be a part of that growth, then you should check out Yeti Coolers’s Careers page. While they don’t have any openings posted there, they do have an Application Page where you can apply for positions in Account Management, Accounting/Finance, Administrative, Cusomter Service, Human Resources, IT, Marketing, Operations, Order Processing, R&D / Product Development, Sales, and Warehouse. Hopefully your search for these jobs will be more fruitful than the search for the Abominable Snowman.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own a Yeti Cooler?

Grameen America

Willy Franzen — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:42:54 +0000

As my actions show, I’m a strong believer that entrepreneurship can solve most of societies problems. It’s amazing what you can create with your own labor and a little bit of investment. That’s why I find the microfinance movement so interesting. What I don’t understand is why there isn’t more focus on this kind of lending in the United States. Grameen America is a five-year old non-profit that is changing this. They’re based in New York, NY, and they’re aiming for “a market where any individual with a dream can receive affordable financial products regardless of income, previous credit history, education, or business experience.” Grameen America is attacking poverty head on, and it seems like they’re having some great success.

Take a Micro Approach

What’s really cool about Grameen America is that they took something that worked well in addressing poverty in Bangladesh and brought it to America. I feel like it usually goes the other way. To better understand what Grameen America does, you should take a look at their model. There’s a big social aspect to how Grameen America lends, and I think that has to play a big part in why they have success stories like these. If you like what Grameen America is doing, take a look at their Jobs page. Right now they’re hiring Center Manager Trainees. It looks like the perfect opportunity for a new or recent grad who wants to get into microfinance.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Grameen America?

SurveyGizmo

Willy Franzen — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:25:45 +0000

It’s been a while since I did a survey of One Day, One Job readers. There’s really no excuse for that considering how useful survey data can be and how easy it is to run a survey online. (So watch out for a survey sometime in the next month or two.) When I see online surveys, they’re usually run on SurveyMonkey or Google Docs, but I’ve also seen a few surveys driven by SurveyGizmo. They’re based in Boulder, CO, and they offer “a web-based software company giving researchers, and small and enterprise companies powerful tools to create online surveys, questionnaires and forms – allowing capture and analysis of virtually any type of data essential for business.” It’s working for them. SurveyGizmo came in at #144 on the Inc. 5000 with 1,940% three-year growth to $3.3 million in revenue.

Survey Says…

If you look at all of the online survey platforms out there, you’ll see a huge range of features. There’s a ton of overlap, but some companies offer a killer feature that enables them to serve a certain group of needs really well. SurveyGizmo definitely puts a big emphasis on product development and delivering new and useful features for their customers, but it seems that they put a bigger emphasis on customer service. There can be a lot of complexities when it comes to running surveys online, and SurveyGizmo has invested in making sure that they deliver the ultimate customer experience. That’s why they can name companies like Adobe, Apple, Gulfstream, General Mills,Hershey’s, and Disney as clients. If you like SurveyGizmo’s approach, head over to their Jobs page. They have a bunch of opportunities available including Technical Programming Genius, Sales Representative, Technical Writer/Product Writer, Web Designer, Accounting/Billing Clerk, and Customer Software Support Hero.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you respond to surveys?

Intergi

Willy Franzen — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:12:16 +0000

A few years ago during the beginning of the recession, I featured a bunch of jobs in the video games industry. All those people who lost their jobs were buying video games, and business was booming. Things have slowed since. I’m not sure if it has to do with the economy, but I do know that gaming on phones and tablets is really biting into video game industry sales. One video game related company that is continuing to grow is Intergi. They’re a Deerfield Beach, FL based company that “partners with the foremost gaming web publishers to provide advertisers with targeted ad placements.” They’re another Inc. 5000 company, and they’ve seen 2,383% three-year growth from $253,818 in revenue to $6.3 million in revenue.

Game On

Intergi is in the business of “site representation,” but a better explanation might be that they monetize gaming related traffic. They’ve built out a significant network of publishers and advertisers that enables them to offer a ton of value to both sides. You can read about their offerings for publishers here and their offering for advertisers here. Integri not only works with publishers, but they also are a publisher. GameZone.com is their major property, but I suspect that there might be a few more sites. I couldn’t find a list of Intergi’s publishers, but they do have a Client List. If you’re interested in the video game media business, then Intergi would be a great place to work. They’ve bee growing their headcount, and they have a bunch of entry level jobs posted on their Careers page. These include Online Editor, Web Designer, Book Keeper, Junior Account Executive, and Account Coordinator. The weird thing is that I can’t figure out how you’re supposed to apply for these positions. There’s no link, button, or e-mail address. WHOOPS! I guess you should use their Contact page to apply.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you a gamer?

New Profit

Willy Franzen — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:57:53 +0000

Although getting money to fund a startup company isn’t what I called easy, there’s a pretty standard process for seeking investment. When it comes to starting up a non-profit, the process isn’t often so clear. This can make finding funding seem impossible. However, there are some smart people who have taken the venture capital model and adjusted it for the non-profit world. One of these organizations is New Profit, which is based in Cambridge, MA. They were founded in 1998 and they focus “on supporting innovative social entrepreneurs who have brought a pathbreaking, big idea to life in an innovative organization.” They do this through their philanthropy fund, which has funded a ton of non-profit organizations. (I’m having trouble determining whether New Profit is actually a non-profit, but philanthropy funds usually are.)

Make a New Profit

While New Profit does a lot of work behind the scenes, they’re really all about their portfolio organizations. You can take a look at both their current investments and their past investments. We’ve covered quite a few of the organizations that they’ve funded including Freelancers Union, Kickstart, Right To Play, and a few others. You’ll also want to read up on New Profit’s Model and Plan For Impact. If you like what you see, then you’ll want to take a look at New Profit’s Jobs page. Their offerings are a bit limited right now–there are two postings you might want to look at: Communications Fellow (which is really an internship) and a Staff Accountant (which requires a few years of experience). The other option is to check out jobs at New Profit’s portfolio organizations. You should be able to find some pretty interesting options.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of New Profit?

Quickparts

Willy Franzen — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:14:53 +0000

I’m headed to Atlanta for a wedding this weekend, so I decided to do a little searching for interesting companies in ATL. Pretty quickly (no pun intended) I came across Quickparts, and they stood out because I’ve never covered a business that does what they do before. The Atlanta, GA headquartered company that is “dedicated to providing [their] customers with an online e-commerce system to procure low-volume and high-volume custom manufactured parts.” What does that mean? You can upload CAD drawings for some sort of part or product to their site, and they will instantly offer a quote based on “the part geometry, the required materials, lead time, and quantity.” If the quote meets your specs, then you give them the go ahead to start manufacturing. Yes, this company actually make stuff!

Be Quick

It’s kind of mind blowing how easy it is to have a product made these days. Quickparts makes it even easier. They’ve worked with huge names like Boeing, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, General Electric, NASA, Nike, and plenty of others, so you know that they must do great work. I wish I knew more about Rapid Prototyping and Injection Molding, so that I could explain them better, but I only have experience in building web products. If you really want to dig into the ins and outs of Quickparts’ business, you should check out their Learning Center. If you like what you see, you’ll want to look at jobs at Quickparts. Right now they have a few positions that you may want to check out including Receptionist, Territory Accountant, Graphic Designer, Project Manager, Business Analyst, and Inside Sales Manager. All of the positions have some experience requirements, but they’re generally pretty light.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Quickparts?

Redbox

Willy Franzen — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:40:58 +0000

Want to land a job and save the world at the same time? This week’s sponsor is Samaritan’s Purse, a non-profit organization with some amazing entry level career opportunities.

There aren’t many companies that have as many loyal fans as Netflix. I swear that everybody loves them (check out jobs at Netflix). At least they did until yesterday when Netflix announced a change to their plans. They touted it as a good thing with their “lowest prices ever for unlimited DVDs,” but it really was a price increase for streaming subscribers. I guess yesterday was a good day for Redbox, which is based in Oakbrook Terrace, IL (with a major presence in Bellevue, WA). They operate more than 27,000 DVD and Blu-ray rental kiosks, or redboxes. Believe it or not, rentals aren’t dead, and Redbox has found a sweetspot between Blockbuster and Netflix. There’s definitely something I miss about the old school video rental shops–especially the pre-Blockbuster independent ones. But it’s mind blowing that Redbox is able to fit an entire video rental store in 12 square feet.

Think Inside the Redbox

Redbox has rented out more than 1 billion movies. Back in 2007 the kiosks were averaging nearly 50 rentals a day and almost $40,000 in annual revenue each. That’s pretty amazing considering Redbox kiosksi are typically just filling in empty space in high traffic buildings. Obviously a 12 square foot kiosk can’t offer much variety in terms of movies, but by stocking mostly new releases Redbox is able to stay relevant and serve a significant portion of the demand for in-home movie viewing. Now, we all know that streaming is the future, but there’s still a huge portion of the population that relies on hard media like DVDs and Blu-rays. It’ll be interesting to see how Redbox adapts moving forward, but for now I think they can still find opportunities for growth. If you like what Redbox is doing, you’ll want to take a look at their Jobs page. Unfortunately, it’s just a list of jobs, and there are a lot of them to browse through. Most are Field positions all across the country, but there are a few that seem better suited for recent grads. These include Service Representative – New Ventures (Hayward, CA), Sales & Use Tax Accountant (Oakbrook Terrace, IL), Machine Support Coordinator (Oakbrook Terrace, IL), Web Analyst/ eCommerce Analyst (Oakbrook Terrace, IL), Software Engineer (Oakbrook Terrace, IL), Service Representative – New Ventures (Fairfax, VA), Quality Engineer I (Kent, WA), and Business Analyst (Oakbrook Terrace, IL). There are a lot more mid-level options, so if you have some prior experience, be sure to check those out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Redbox?

Samaritan’s Purse

Willy Franzen — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:13:00 +0000

This is a sponsored post for Samaritan’s Purse.

We all have a Good Samaritan story–a time where we helped someone in need or were helped by someone when we were in need. These are the moments when people are at their best, yet they don’t seem to happen often enough. Samaritan’s Purse has spent the last 40 years working to ensure that the story of the Good Samaritan lives on and continues to inspire people to “go and do likewise.” Samaritan’s Purse is a non-profit “nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world.” They’re based out of Boone, NC, but they’re constantly repositioning their resources to react to world events. Samaritan’s Purse’s work can typically be separated into two categories: Emergency Relief Programs and Community Development and Vocational Programs. While these two Program groups serve very different situations, they share the goal of helping people in need wherever they may be.

Be a Good Samaritan

There’s no better way to get a feel for Samaritan’s Purse’s work (besides actually joining them and doing it) than taking a look at the In Pictures section of their website. It will give you a feel for what they do, how they do it, and whom they help. One of their major relief projects is focused on helping Japan and the Japanese people recover from the earthquake and tsunami that struck in March of 2011. Samaritan’s Purse was on the ground almost immediately (as you can see here, here, and here). The need for immediate relief supplies has obviously subsided, but now Samaritan’s Purse is leading a rebuilding effort. They are working in a number of communities to get the Japanese people back to a normal way of life before winter comes. This is a tall task when you consider that one community they’re working in “lost 70% of its physical structure” and another was hit by a wave as tall as a 12-story building, but Samaritan’s Purse has a history of excelling with this kind of work.

Right now Samaritan’s Purse is recruiting heavily for their Japan reconstruction effort. Right now their biggest need is for Japanese Interpreters and they think that recent college grads could be perfect fits (they’d also love to hear from people with more experience). This position is vital to the reconstruction effort, and it offers an amazing opportunity to get life-changing experience while doing amazing work. Christian values are an essential part of what Samaritan’s Purse does, so be sure to read their Statement of Faith and learn about their leader Franklin Graham before applying. And if you don’t speak Japanese, there are plenty of other job opportunities posted on Samaritan’s Purse’ Jobs page, and many are perfectly suited for new and recent grads. They include:

Japanese Interpreter (Japan)
Digital Video Producer (Boone, NC)
Marketing/Metrics Analyst (Boone, NC)
Network Administrator (Boone, NC)
Curriculum & Training Specialist (Boone, NC)
Bio-Med Technician (Boone, NC)
Field Accountant (Juba, South Sudan)
Social Media/Marketing Specialist / Communications (Boone, NC)

These look like amazing jobs that truly offer the opportunity to make the world a better place. Give them a look and see which positions fit you the best.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Samaritan’s Purse?

Hill Holliday

Willy Franzen — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:52:54 +0000

I have to admit that I’m a little bummed that the holiday weekend is over. Since it’ll be a solid 2 months until we get another one, we’re going to have to make do with Hill Holliday. They’re a full-service advertising, marketing, and communications agency with presences in Boston, MA; New York, NY; and Greenville, SC. It all started in Boston in 1968 as Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc., and now it’s a firm of more than 800 employees with some really big name clients including Dunkin’ Donuts, Major League Baseball, Anheuser Busch, CVS, Liberty Mutual, Bank of America, and more. Unless you are a total hermit, there’s almost no way that you wouldn’t recognize at least some of their work.

Another Holliday!

Whenever I look at advertising or marketing agencies, the first thing that I do is look at their work. Hill Holliday’s work is super impressive, and there’s a ton of it to look at. At first I though there were only a few pieces, but then I noticed the slider at the top of the page that lets you browse everything that they’ve done by client. One of my favorites has to be Brian Wilson’s Beard. If you’re digging Hill Holliday’s portfolio, then you’re in luck, because they also appear to be an awesome place to work. In 2010 they were named #1 in the “Boston Globe 100 Top Places to Work.” That’s why you should check out Hill Holliday’s Careers page, and then dive into their job postings. They have a bunch of opportunities for new or recent grads including Junior Studio Designer (Boston, MA), Administrative Assistant (Boston, MA), Front End Developer (Boston, MA), Jr. Flash Animator/Developer (Boston, MA), and Junior Media Buyer (New York, NY). There are a bunch more positions that require a little more experience, so you may want to check those out too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Hill Holliday?

Chegg

Willy Franzen — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:31:16 +0000

During my Freshman year at Cornell, I took Econ 101. Since I was planning on being a good student, I bought the textbook and went to class diligently. Then I realized that the professor only gave multiple choice exams which were based on the slides from the class lecture. Those slides were posted online after every class, which made attending class and taking the textbook out of its plastic wrap completely unnecessary. I still went to class because I liked the professor and it helped me learn, but I’m pretty sure that I still have the $100+ textbook with CD-ROM sitting on a shelf at my parents’ house in its plastic wrap because the campus store wasn’t buying that book back. What a waste. If I were going to college now, there’s no way I’d buy textbooks. I’d rent them. That’s exactly what Chegg offers. They’re a Santa Clara, CA based company that is saving students a ton of money. When you buy books and then sell them back, you might as well be renting them, so why not actually rent them? According to Chegg, the average college student spends $1,000 a year on textbooks–using Chegg will save them half of that.

Rent Yourself to Chegg

Chegg is a really interesting business to me. They’ve raised a ton of capital because it’s extremely expensive to build the kind of business that they’ve built. They not only have to invest in buying all the books, but they also have had to build a distribution system that can get students books at a cheap enough price. My only question is what will Chegg do when college textbooks move to Kindles, iPads, and other similar devices? They do have a new E-Textbook service, so maybe that’s the answer. If you like what Chegg is doing for college students, check out their Jobs page. Right now they have a number of opportunities including Customer Program Specialist (Portland, OR), Product Designer (Santa Clara, CA), Front End Engineer (Santa Clara, CA), Software Engineer – Cramster (Pasadena, CA), Marketing Business Analyst (Santa Clara, CA), and Accounts Payable/Payroll Specialist (Santa Clara, CA). Not only can you land a job with them, but you can exact revenge on those campus bookstores that robbed you blind.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you rented textbooks from Chegg?

Mimeo.com

Willy Franzen — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:41:39 +0000

My mom is a graphic designer, so many of my childhood memories consist of me sitting in the car fighting with my sister while my mom went into the print shop to drop something off or pick something up. Today’s version of me probably has it a lot easier because leaving your kids in the car is generally frowned upon, and brick and mortar print shops are a dying breed. Today, if you have a serious print job, you’re probably going to use an online printer who can do your job and ship it to you more quickly and more cheaply than the local print shop can. We’ve already looked at one company like this, VistaPrint, and today we’re going to look at Mimeo.com. They’re located in New York, NY; Newark, NJ; Memphis, TN; and Hayward, CA, and they call themselves “the innovator of online, on-demand document printing and distribution.” They were founded in 1998, and since then they’ve been focused on developing web-based technology to make online printing even easier than walking into a print shop.

Put the Me in Mimeo.com

You can get pretty much anything printed by Mimeo.com: presentations, manuals, brochures, booklets, flyers & sell sheets, posters, newsletters, postcards, and whatever else you may want to print. They must do a good job, because they’ve received a number of accolades ranging from being named to the Inc. 5000 to having their front end applications “judged to be ‘best’ in the industry 2 years in a row by the PIA, the largest print and graphics trade organization in the world.” Mimeo.com has also enlisted some major partners to share technology and make the company’s offerings even better. Mimeo.com seems to keep growing, and that’s why they have a ton of job openings posted right now. If you check out their Jobs page, you’ll see a bunch of positions suitable for new or recent grads including Account Administration Analyst (Memphis, TN), Account Executive (New York, NY), Front End Developer (New York, NY), Industrial Engineer (Mephis, TN), Lead Acquisition Specialist (New York, NY), Operations Leadership Program Associate (Memphis, TN), Quality Auditor Associate (Newark, NJ), Shipping Associate (Newark, NJ), and Solutions Advisor (Memphis, TN). Most of these positions have multiple openings, so there are a ton of jobs available.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever ordered anything from Mimeo.com?

Weight Watchers

Willy Franzen — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:53:50 +0000

A little known fact about me is that I earned “The Speed Limit” as a nickname during my Senior year of high school. It wasn’t because I drove slowly; it was because I somehow managed to lose 55 pounds between the end of Junior year and the beginning of Senior year. I still don’t know how it happened–I wasn’t even trying to lose weight–but it did (I’ve since gained much of it back, but part of that is because I don’t have the body of a scrawny 17-year old anymore). Apparently, there’s some mysterious weight loss secret out there that I used, but don’t know about. Unfortunately, weight loss isn’t usually that easy, and for most people it’s a huge struggle. I’m a big proponent of “the slow-carb diet” and other methods from Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Body, but it’s all about finding what works for you. For many it’s Weight Watchers. The New York, NY based company was started in Queens during the early 1960s by Jean Nidetch who “began inviting friends into her Queens home once a week to discuss how best to lose weight.” Now more than a million people across the world go to Weight Watchers meetings every week.

Jobs to Watch Out For

The Weight Watchers business is based on providing “information, knowledge, tools and motivation to help you make the decisions that are right for you about nutrition and exercise.” Everybody knows that the science of weight loss is easy. If you’re burning more calories that you take in (or at least absorb), you will lose weight. Putting that scientific fact to work is what’s so difficult. Weight Watchers is really about overcoming the psychological obstacles that prevent people from losing weight. The meetings are one way that they help people achieve this, and their Points systems is another. By simplifying healthy eating into an almost game-like system, Weight Watchers makes it easier for people to make the right decisions. In a way, weight loss is a lot like the job search in that you almost have to trick people into doing the right things because they’ll rarely do what you tell them to do. Anyway, the weight loss industry is about as competitive as it gets, but Weight Watchers seems to continue to do well. They’re expanding their online presence, and they also seem to be hiring some new people. You can learn more on their Jobs page, where you’ll see positions like Administrative Assistant (Jericho, NY), CHAMP Reconciliation Specialist (Jericho, NY), Part-Time Collections Clerk, Corporate Sales Operations Coordinator, Field Coordinator, Program Innovation Developer, and Tally Clerk.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever tried Weight Watchers?

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Willy Franzen — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:41:43 +0000

Ever consider a career in teaching? Here’s some info on how to get started.

There’s a long history of poking fun at Martha Stewart, and it started well before she went to prison. There’s just something funny about someone who takes perfection in domesticity as seriously as she does. My family even played an integral role in the satire of Martha with my little sister’s appearance in the parody magazine Martha Stuart’s Better Than You at Entertaining, which was a follow up to Is Martha Stuart Living? (here’s a picture my sister as young Martha Stewart in the parody). We can keep laughing at Martha Stewart, but she’ll always get the last laugh. She has an amazing track record of reaching the top in nearly everything that she has done–from babysitting for Mickey Mantle’s kids to starting a successful catering company in her basement to building a New York, NY based media empire in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Martha Stewart is apparently now worth well over half a billion dollars, and has used her personal brand to build amazing print, television, online, and merchandise properties.

Are You Living?

Whether or not you’re a Martha Stewart fan, you have to be impressed by what she’s done throughout her career. She’s had an amazing ability to stay relevant, and a lot of that has to do with her media strategy. She easily could have settled with a successful catering business, or a popular magazine, or having her own television show, but she didn’t. It seems that she is obsessed with using every channel possible to reach people with her “unique lifestyle content.” That’s what Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is all about. If you enjoy the Martha Stewart brand and want to work on the media or merchandise side, then you definitely need to take a look at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Careers page. There are some great opportunities posted in their job listings, and a few seem suitable for new or recent grads including: Assistant Food Editor, PHP Application Developer – Internet Content Management Systems, Front-End Web Developer, Decorative Pillow and Bedding Accessory Designer, Executive Assistant, Freelance Recipe Taster, Retail Merchandising Assistant, Apparel Designer – Martha Stewart Pets and Quilt Designer. You can also apply for an unlisted position if you don’t see something that suits you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you a Martha Stewart fan?

Central Intelligence Agency

Willy Franzen — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:52:33 +0000

I was a senior in high school on September 11, 2001. We were told what had happened during our morning announcements period, and a few of who had free periods after went to the beach across the street from our school’s campus. We knew that on a clear day you could usually see the Twin Towers from there, but all we could see was a plume of smoke. We listened on the radio and heard reports of the towers falling and rumors of other attacks in the works. I was deeply affected by what happened that day, and since then I have been waiting for our country to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. Yesterday, a group of NAVY SEALs did just that under the command of the Central Intelligence Agency, which is based in Washington, DC but operates all over the world. I am extremely grateful to all of those who were involved–especially for those who risked their lives to make us safer. It’s a reminder of how important it is for our government agencies to have top talent working for them. WIthout great people working at the CIA and in our armed forces, bin Laden would still be at large.

Share Your Intelligence

The Central Intelligence Agency “was created in 1947 with the signing of the National Security Act by President Harry S. Truman.” We often think of it as some super secret spy agency, and in some ways that what it is; however, there’s a lot more to the CIA. As the CIA’s About page mentions, the CIA is under the direction of the Director of Central Intelligence, and he or she is tasked with:

Collecting intelligence through human sources and by other appropriate means, except that he shall have no police, subpoena, or law enforcement powers or internal security functions;
Correlating and evaluating intelligence related to the national security and providing appropriate dissemination of such intelligence;
Providing overall direction for and coordination of the collection of national intelligence outside the United States through human sources by elements of the Intelligence Community authorized to undertake such collection and, in coordination with other departments, agencies, or elements of the United States Government which are authorized to undertake such collection, ensuring that the most effective use is made of resources and that appropriate account is taken of the risks to the United States and those involved in such collection; and
Performing such other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security as the President or the Director of National Intelligence may direct.

The operation that occurred yesterday is an example of the CIA at its best (well maybe at their true best we never even hear about it). Obviously, we can’t know most of the details of the operation, but it appears that the processes that the CIA developed over the past 10 years finally led to this accomplishment of one of the major goals of the War on Terror. If you’re inspired by this success, then maybe you should consider a Career with the CIA. They are a major entry level employer, and the Agency offers a very wide range of employment opportunities. Jobs are offered in the following areas:

Accounting, Budget & Finance
Analysis
Clandestine Service
Contracts & Acquisitions
Cyber Security
Engineering
Facilities Services
Geography & Cartography
Graphics, Multimedia, Publications & Photography
Information Management
Information Technology
Investigations
Legal Services
Library Services
Logistics Services
Medical Services
Science, Technology & Weapons
Security
Support Services
Trades and Labor

The CIA is one of the few government agencies that makes it extremely easy to browse through their job opportunities, and you can do that here. Today is a good day to be an American and a good day to think about career opportunities that will allow you to serve your country.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What secrets do you know about the CIA?

Threadless

Willy Franzen — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:22:57 +0000

If you’re like me and wear t-shirts sometimes, then you know the value of a good one. Despite the fact that I have dozens of t-shirts in my dresser drawers, I wear the same few over and over again. My favorite is a Cornell Athletics t-shirt that has seen better days, but for many of you it might be a shirt from Threadless. They’re a brand/company of skinnyCorp that uses community-inspired designs to make awesome t-shirts. It’s hard to explain exactly what skinnyCorp is, but they’re all about using technology to facilitate collaboration within creative communities. Threadless is by far skinnyCorp’s most successful project (others include Threadless Kids, Naked & Angry, I Park Like An Idiot, and ExtraTasty). The company was founded in 2000 in Chicago, IL, and they also have an office in Boulder, CO. They’ve done a lot in that time, including being named “the most innovative small company in America” by Inc. Magazine.

New Job, New Threads

Have you seen the Seinfeld episode where both Jerry and Elaine are waiting out the relationship of a couple they’re friends with? I feel that way about Threadless. I’ve been watching their Jobs page forever, and I’ve never seen anything even remotely relevant to new grads (I’m not sure if I’ve even seen anything posted before today). I found this extremely frustrating since they make a point of bragging about their being named #8 on a list of the “50 most Gen-Y friendly companies in the Chicagoland area.” It’s hard to be “Gen-Y friendly” if you don’t have jobs for them. Threadless still doesn’t have anything entry level post , but there is an internship in Operations along with a Senior Developer position. Since I’m sick of waiting, I decided to look at skinnyCorp’s LinkedIn profile, which shows their new hires. I see titles like Accounting Coordinator, Junior Copywriter, and Consultant. I never saw these jobs posted, so I either overlooked them–or they never got posted. A lot of jobs get filled before they’re posted, so maybe you should consider applying before the jobs get posted. And if that doesn’t work out, you can also try to make a living submitting designs. They do pay selected designers “handsomely.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any Threadless shirts?

One Economy Corporation

Willy Franzen — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:13:21 +0000

We’re extremely lucky to be coming of age in a time when the Internet is opening up so many economic opportunities. When I graduated from college, I had no idea what was possible. As I became more and more frustrated with my job search, I started to look at online business models. Five years later I’ve built a profitable business that has helped people land awesome jobs and internships. Without today’s technology, I never could have built what I did so cheaply, which is why I’m convinced that making new technologies available to the masses at affordable prices is the key to economic growth. That’s why I’m so interested by the Washington, DC based One Economy Corporation. They’re “a global non-profit organization that leverages the power of technology and connects underserved communities around the world to vital information that will improve their lives.”

Where Do You Fit in One Economy?

One Economy works in a number of areas, but their big focus is on making the Internet and all of the information it provides access to available to all people. One Economy separates what they do into a few categories: Public-Purpose Media, Access Services, Digital Connectors, Broadband Mapping, Global Initiatives, and Sustainable Broadband Adoption. It’s amazing how many societal problems Internet access can help with–health care, education, and unemployment are just a few of them. I just hope that the broadband access that One Economy provides blocks the single greatest threat to economic prosperity: Farmville. But seriously, One Economy has been working in this space for a long time, and they’re having a serious impact. To learn more about their results, you should really read their most recent annual report. If you’d like to be a part of One Economy, then head over to their Jobs page. Current postings include Accounts Payable Clerk (Washington, DC), Guam Regional Staff Person (Guam), and Network Design Engineer (Winston Salem, NC). They also have some positions posted on Idealist including Web UI Developer (Portland, OR) and Community Technology Associate (San Jose, CA). There’s lots of variety here, so give the positions a closer look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about One Economy?

Reader’s Digest Association

Willy Franzen — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:48:21 +0000

I must admit that I’ve never known anyone under the age of 60 to subscribe to Reader’s Digest, but I’m sure that there’s at least one college student out there with a subscription. I mean it was the top circulating consumer magazine for a long time up until 2009. They also can claim “more readers with household incomes of $100,000+ than Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Inc. combined. That means that they have some serious advertising power. Now Reader’s Digest is just one of the publications owned and operated by New York, NY based Reader’s Digest Association, which is “a global multi-brand media and marketing company that educates, entertains and connects audiences around the world.” They also have AllRecipes, Every Day with Rachel Ray, The Family Handyman, and quite a few other brands.

Make Your Grandma Proud

We typically like to look at growing companies because they tend to offer the most exciting job opportunities. But sometimes larger companies that are struggling with environmental changes that affect how they do business can offer similarly interesting opportunities. Reader’s Digest Association is in a tough spot. Their big brand, Reader’s Digest, has a dying (sorry to be morbid) subscriber base and increasing competition from web based publishers. That’s why it’s no big surprise that Reader’s Digest Association went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 after five straight years of reporting losses. Still, Reader’s Digest Association has vast resources and significant brand equity. There are certainly some bright spots in Reader’s Digest Association’s numbers. They have 90 magazine titles, worldwide readership over 100 million, 83 branded websites, and annual book, music, and video sales of more than 30 million units. Another bright spot is Reader’s Digest Association’s Jobs page–they have a lot of opportunities posted including quite a few that seem suitable for new or recent grads:

Advertising Sales Assistant – Home & Garden Group (New York, NY)
Marketing Coordinator, Reader’s Digest Ad Sales & Sponsorship Marketing (New York, NY)
Digital Coordinator / Project Management Team (Greendale, WI)
Online Food Editor – Australia Site (Seattle, WA)
Finance Leadership Development Associate (White Plains, NY)
Marketing Coordinator (Greendale, WI)
Account Manager – Home & Garden (New York, NY)

It’s hard to say what the future holds for Reader’s Digest Association, but I think that there’s a big opportunity for entry level talent to help them ensure that their brands are just as popular (or even more popular) when we become grandparents.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you know anyone under the age of 60 who subscribes to Reader’s Digest.

The Giving Back Fund

Willy Franzen — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 12:57:39 +0000

There’s no doubt that our country and world are better off because of the work of philanthropists. It’s especially impressive to watch what Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are doing with their billions of dollars through the Gates Foundation. Unfortunately, philanthropists, like money, don’t grow on trees. Since waiting for generous people to get rich could take a while, it’s a lot easier to try convincing people who are already rich to be more generous. That’s exactly what The Giving Back Fund, which is based in Los Angeles, CA, does. They are a non-profit organization that envisions “a society in which becoming a successful philanthropist is as valued and desirable a goal as success in athletics, business, entertainment, or any other field.”

What Are You Giving Back?

It shouldn’t be a surprise that philanthropy is hard for a lot of people. Giving away money is a completely unnatural act. The Giving Back Fund has a tough challenge in fighting human nature, but they’ve developed a great approach. They’ve focused on cultivating “a new group of philanthropists within the entertainment and sports industries, with a particular emphasis on groups often underrepresented in traditional philanthropy such as people of color, women, and youth.” These people have the money to give, they just need to see the value in giving it. Because new stars are often image conscious, The Giving Back Fund plays up the publicity benefits of being a philanthropist. That’s why they launched The Giving Back 30, a list of the top 30 celebrities in terms of dollars donated to charity. Oprah consistently tops the list, and I’d say she’s a pretty good role model for aspiring superstars. The Giving Back Fund also offers Philanthropic Consulting to help new philanthropists work through the hard decisions like how much to give and whom to give to. I like the idea behind The Giving Back Fund, because it’s focused on big wins. By getting big names to give big money, they’re creating a culture of philanthropy that will hopefully become self-perpetuating. If you’d like to be a part of what The Giving Back Fund, then you should check out the “Bookkeeper Plus” position posted on their Jobs page. It’s not a perfect fit for a new grad, but if you have some accounting know how and want to dig in deep with the every day operations of a non-profit organization, this could be the perfect opportunity.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you give to charity?

Wolverine World Wide

Willy Franzen — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:04:01 +0000

Today’s a big day–not only is it St. Patrick’s Day (in past years we’ve taken a look at General Mills, Luck Stone, and Shamrock Boats) but it’s also the start of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. And what ties those two things together (besides being excuses for drinking during the day)? Shoes! It’s a little-known fact that all leprechauns are shoemakers, and we know that all basketball players are obsessed with shoes. That’s why we’re going to take a look at Wolverine World Wide, a multi-brand shoe company based in Rockford, MI. Their brands include Bates, Cat Footwear, Chaco, Cushe, Harley-Davidson Footwear, Hush Puppies, HyTest, Merrell, Patagonia Footwear, Sebago, Track ‘n Trail, and Wolverine, almost all of which are targeted towards rugged, outdoorsy customer bases. Most of the brands don’t offer great footwear for playing basketball, but they have plenty of shoes for leprechauns that wants to cause mischief and trek to and from the end of the rainbow.

Wolverines and Leprechauns

Wolverine World Wide was founded in 1883, and since then they’ve been making high quality leather products. At first it was pigskin work gloves, then horsehide shoes. Now their products have high-tech materials like those that come from Vibram. Wolverine World Wide has come a long way over the past 125 years, and I’m not just talking about their footwear. As they’ve added brands, they’ve been able to expand their reach to the point that they now have sold products in 190 countries. That’s no surprise considering the respect that Wolverine World Wide’s brands command in the world of footwear (Sebago is my favorite). If you love shoes, but more from a functional standpoint than a fashion standpoint, then check out careers at Wolverine World Wide. They don’t have a ton of positions that seem suitable for recent grads (they do offer a bunch of internships), but the following positions are worth taking a look at: Designer, Corporate Accounting Analyst, Global Web Content Producer, and Customer Service Representative. There are also a bunch of retail positions posted.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own shoes from any of Wolverine World Wide’s brands?