One Day, One Job » California

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?

Grubwithus

Willy Franzen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:58 +0000

Nearly 500,000 teaching jobs will be added in the next decade. If you’re considering a career in education, take a look at our guide to entry level teaching jobs.

Sharing a meal is a great way to get to know people. Eating provides enough of a distraction to cover up awkward pauses that might come up in other settings without completely killing the ability to have a conversation. Yet very rarely do people use eating as a way to meet new people. You either eat alone or you eat with people you already know. Grubwithus is a company that throws a little uncertainty into your dining experiences by pairing you with strangers who have common interests for a tasting menu at a local restaurant. Grubwithus is based out of Venice, CA, and they’ve built a ton of buzz. I know a bunch of people who have already tried it and had good experiences, and I’d totally host a One Day One Job/Internship focused Grubwithus meal in Chicago if there was enough interest (e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com).

Jobwithus

The idea of meeting strangers for dinner can be a little intimidating, but stepping out of your comfort zone is kind of the point. To get a better sense of how Grubwithus works, you should probably read through their FAQ and etiquette guidelines , and then watch this video (you may need to click through to view):

It’s a pretty simple idea, but I think it has the potential to be pretty powerful. I especially think it’s a good idea for job seekers to give Grubwithus a try. While it may not lead to a job–just getting out and interacting with new people is great practice for interviewing and networking. And if you want a job with Grubwithus, you should definitely give one of their meals a shot first. Then you can apply for one of the positions that looks well suited for new grads. These include:

There appear to be some great opportunities for techies and non-techies alike, so take a look at the jobs and give Grubwithus a try.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you try Grubwithus?

Common Sense Media

Willy Franzen — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:18:47 +0000

On Tuesday I mentioned that I saw Mrs. Doubtfire for the first time in many years. One of the fun things about watching movies and tv shows from your childhood is picking up on all of the things that went over your head when you were a kid. I love it when writers are able to please both the young and the old at the same time. However, it feels like entertainment is getting less and less subtle, which means that it keeps getting harder for parents to monitor what kids are watching. That’s why Common Sense Media, which is based in San Francisco, CA, exists. They’re a non-profit organization that “is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.”

Show Some Common Sense

I generally think that kids’ enhanced access to media is a good thing. Exploring the Internet as a pre-teen gave me the education that I needed to be a web entrepreneur later in life. But the Internet is a much scarier place than it was back then. Keeping your kids away from media sources isn’t the answer, but how can parents know what’s ok to show to what age children? Common Sense Media’s ratings and reviews are a good start. They are based on 10 Beliefs that start with a focus on “media sanity, not censorship.” These aren’t the essentially useless ratings that you see on tv now–these are in depth ratings that really dig into all of the issues covered by a given show, movie, game, website, or other media source. Common Sense Media is all about providing information that helps parents do their jobs better. If you’d like to be a part of that, check out Common Sense Media’s Jobs page. Right now the best fit for a new grad is probably the Office Assistant position, but you may also want to take a look at the Business Development Associate position.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’d you watch as a kid that you probably shouldn’t have?

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?

Solazyme

Willy Franzen — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:34:11 +0000

“Yo I’m a Raptor doin’ what I can gonna eat everything till the appearance of man. Yo yo yo, see me, I’m living below the soil, I’ll be back but I’m comin’ as oil!” That has to be one of my favorite lines from Mrs. Doubtfire, a movie that I saw dozens of time as a kid. I thought it was funny even though I had no idea what it meant (probably because Robin Williams saying anything is funny). Mrs. Doubtfire was on tv recently, and I saw the scene for the first time in a long time and finally got it. Disappointingly, petroleum doesn’t actually come from dinosaurs, but from decomposed single-celled organisms that existed 10s or 100s of millions of years ago. That means that oil is a non-renewable resource… or at least it used to be. Solazyme is a San Francisco, CA based company that has “pioneered an industrial biotechnology platform that harnesses the prolific oil-producing ability of micro algae.” Yes, they are actually synthesizing real oil that can be refined and used to power things.

Squeaky Wheel Gets the Oil

What Solazyme is doing may sound like a futuristic fantasy, but United Airlines has already flown flights with Solazyme’s algae based fuel. They’re also planning to buy 20 million gallons of the fuel in 2014. Solazyme’s business isn’t just about energy. They also develop products for the Chemical, Nutrition, and Health Sciences industries. You can learn more about each of these market areas here. You’ll also probably want to read up on Solazyme’s technology. If reading that gets you fired up about a future powered by Solazyme, then you’ll want to check out the company’s Careers page. They’re obviously a very science-focused company, but most of their non-science jobs require pretty significant experience (and so do most of their science focused jobs). The one position that stood out to me as possibly being a good fit for a new grad is Fermentation Research Associate. They also allow you to apply for unlisted positions, so you may want to do that if you think you’d fit in for a role that isn’t posted (they do offer internships, so those might be a good guideline for what kind of entry level opportunities could be possible).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Solazyme?

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?

Specialized

Willy Franzen — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:02:24 +0000

They say that you can’t forget how to ride a bike, but I’m giving it my best try. In elementary and early middle school I was constantly riding around town. I picked up inline skating for a year or two after that, and never got back on the bike. Now I tell people that I hate bike riding. I don’t actually hate it, but as I mentioned in my post on Niner Bikes, I love seeing people’s reactions to that statement. My twelve year old self would be disappointed that I don’t even own a bike, let alone a cool brand like a Cannondale or Specialized. Luckily for Specialized, they’ve been able to grow an impressive business without me as a customer. They’re based in Morgan Hill, CA, and from what I can gather their annual revenue is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars (but I can’t find a reliable source on that). That’s impressive considering that it all started in 1974 when founder Mike Sinyard sold his “old VW Microbus for $1,500 and used the money to fund a cycling trip through Europe.” That led to importing Italian bicycle parts into the United States, and a business was born.

Are Your Skills Specialized?

Specialized positioned itself at the high end from the start, and they’re still all about quality whether you’re talking about their Mountain, Road, Multi Use, or Kids bikes. Their vision is to be “the best cycling brand in the world,” and it seems that in many people’s eyes they’ve achieved that. It’s hard for me to really dig into Specialized since I’m no longer into bicycles, but I’m sure that those of you who are will find all of the information you need on their site. One thing I found frustrating about Specialized’s website is that you don’t find any background information on the company until you hit their Careers page. Luckily, there’s a ton of information there. There are videos, an About tab, a History tab, and obviously job postings. In fact, there are a lot of jobs posted, and some look great for new or recent grads including:

City & Globe Product Engineer
Credit Representative
Field Visual Merchandiser (Philadelphia, PA)
Field Visual Merchandiser
Jr International Trade Specialist (Salt Lake City, UT)
MTB Product Engineer
Social Media / Customer Service Specialist
Store Designer/BIM
The European Fitness / Mobility Graphic Designer (Switzerland)
Video Editor and Asset Manager

There are even more jobs that I didn’t cover, and there’s also a general job posting called Bike Shop Experience Wanted!. It mentions positions in sales, marketing, customer service, product, engineering, design, operations, and finance, so I’d apply to that position if you don’t see anything that matches up with your skills.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What kind of bike do you own?

Underground Elephant

Willy Franzen — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:42:53 +0000

Nearly 500,000 teaching jobs will be added in the next decade. If you’re considering a career in education, take a look at our guide to entry level teaching jobs.

Company names usually take one of two directions. They either explain exactly what the company does (i.e. Accuweather), or they tell you absolutely nothing about what the company does (i.e. Benzinga). There’s a third type that sounds totally random but actually has a significant meaning, and those tend to be my favorite. Underground Elephant is one of those names. The company is based in San Diego, CA, and they offer “a complete turnkey solution” for customer acquisition in “a wide range of vertical markets.” How is this relevant to their name? Underground Elephant plays a huge role in their clients’ businesses, yet their participation is essentially invisible to everyone but insiders.

The Elephant in the Room

If you’re not familiar with the performance marketing industry, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. How can a company that delivers tons of customers to their clients do so without being noticed? Watch this video on Underground Elephant to get a better idea of how their business works.

While what Underground Elephant does a good job of keeping a low profile when working for clients, they haven’t been able to do the same in the San Diego media. Their CEO was named a Most Admired CEO Finalist for the third consecutive year by San Diego Business Journal, and they’re also one of San Diego’s fastest growing private companies. I guess an elephant can only hide underground so long. Now that you’ve found them, you need to take a look at their Careers page. Right now they have some great openings for new or recent grads including:

There are a ton of great entry level or near entry level job opportunities at Underground Elephant, so don’t look past them. Not only does Underground Elephant look like a really cool company to work for, but they’re based in San Diego.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard bout Underground Elephant?

Outward Bound

Willy Franzen — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:52:46 +0000

I went to small, private middle and high school. They were really big on outdoor education, so almost every year we took some kind of class trip to promote bonding and a kind of learning that can’t be done in the classroom. The trips were wonderful–even when 20 of us got lost in the woods with one teacher overnight. I was lucky to get these kind of experiences through my school, but if I hadn’t, there’s a good chance I would have done something like Outward Bound. They are “a non-profit educational organization and expedition school that serves people of all ages and backgrounds through active learning expeditions that inspire character development, self-discovery and service both in and out of the classroom.” Outward Bound is headquartered in Golden, CO (but operating across the country), and “was founded in 1941 in the tumultuous waters of the North Sea during World War II, to provide young sailors with the experiences and skills necessary to survive at sea.” They got their start in their current state in 1961.

Job Bound?

While Outward Bound may no longer be about teaching survival skills to people who are actually likely to use them, they still do some really important educational work. Outward Bound’s programs serve all kinds of people ranging from “at-risk youth” to corporate employees, and they stretch across all kind of activities including Canoeing, Rock Climbing, Dogsleeding, Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, and more. I know that Outward Bound has an extremely strong connection with alumni, and that speaks to how truly great their programming is. If you want to be part of the Outward Bound family, take a look at their Careers page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new and recent grads including:

Backpack/Canoe Instructor (Baltimore, MD)
Backpack/Canoe Instructor (Philadelphia, PA)
Canoe/At Risk Instructor (Ely, MN)
Backpack/Canoe/At Risk (Newry, ME)
Course Director (Omaha, NE)
Field Instructor (St. Paul, MN)
Insight Facilitator (Baltimore, MD)
Insight Instructor (St. Paul, MN)
Logistics Coordinator (Midpines, CA)
Logistics Coordinator (Newry, ME)
Logistics Coordinator (Wheeler’s Bay, ME)
Logistics Coordinator (Redmond, OR)
Logistics Coordinator (Moab, UT)
Mountain Instructor (Leadville, CO)
Mountain/Raft Instructor (Redmond, OR)
Program Manager (Omaha, NE)
River Instructor (Moab, UT)
Sailing Instructor (Wheeler’s Bay, ME)
Urban Center/Field Instructor (Omaha, NE)

If you love the outdoors and want to work in the non-profit world, it’d be hard to beat a job with Outward Bound.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you do Outward Bound?

360i

Willy Franzen — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:11:38 +0000

I can’t tell you how many bad careers sites I’ve seen over the past 4+ years. Companies with beautiful, easy to use websites often have jobs pages that make you want to poke your eyes out. Even the simple ones that just have a few paragraphs about the company and a listing of jobs are disappointing. Why can’t companies actually put some effort into convincing you to work for them? 360i certainly puts in the effort. I recently landed on their newly relaunched careers page via a link from Twitter, and I was thoroughly impressed. 360i is a digital marketing agency, and it’s pretty clear that they’ve actually put some of their in-house talent to work on the 360i Careers page. It tells a story; it provides a great user experience; it introduces you to the company before throwing job postings at you; and it actually makes you want to work at 360i (they have offices in New York, NY; Atlanta, GA; Detroit, MI; San Francisco, CA; and Chicago, IL).. This should be expected, but instead it’s the exception.

Do a 360

I usually say that the most important thing that you can look at in terms of a digital marketing agency is their client list and portfolio, but there’s actually one thing that’s more important. It’s the company’s website. If they’re not doing what they do for clients for themselves, then there’s something wrong. 360i does great work for themselves, and they also serve Bravo, Coca-Cola, J. Crew, Mattel, Oreo, Ugg and a bunch of other huge brands. 360i has done some really great work for themselves and for their clients, which is probably why they’ve been named one of Advertising Age’s “Best Places to Work and one of Fast Company’s “World’s Most Innovative Companies.” If 360i sounds like the kind of place that you’d like to work, check out their Careers page first, and then dive into their job postings. Current openings include:

Ad Operations Digital Coordinator (New York, NY)
Community Manager (New York, NY)
Digital Media Planner Coordinator – SEM (Chicago, IL)
Marketing Designer (New York, NY)
Software Developer – UI and Back End (New York, NY)

If none of those positions seem like a good fit, take note that 360i categorizes their talent into: Insiders, Thinkers, Sharpshooters, Socializers, Makers, and Advisors. If you think you fit in one of those roles, don’t be afraid to submit a résumé for an unlisted position.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard bout 360i?

The Nature Conservancy

Willy Franzen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:50:09 +0000

Last night I started watching Planet Earth and ended up staying awake later than I intended. This morning the same channel was on, and I ended up watching documentaries on Yellowstone. There aren’t many things that I find more fascinating than nature, so it’s easy for me to get caught up in these kinds of shows. It’s also why I think the work of The Nature Conservancy is so important. They’re an international non-profit organization based in Arlington, VA that is “the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.” The Nature Conservancy was founded in 1951, and since then they have grown their membership to more than 1 million people. The organization’s huge size gives it a ton of power and has enabled it to do some really amazing work.

Nature Over Nurture

Everything that The Nature Conservancy does is rooted in science. They gather facts first, and then they take action on a local and a global scale. That’s why they’ve been able to protect “more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide.” What strikes me most about The Nature Conservancy is that they take a “non-confrontational, pragmatic” approach that sets them apart from some other conservation organizations. This may occasionally limit their short-term effectiveness, but it ensures that in the long run The Nature Conservancy will have the respect and legitimacy to continue protecting ecologically important lands and waters. If you want to dig deeper into this topic, you should really check out The Nature Conservancy’s Why We’re An Effective Nonprofit page. There’s a ton more to check out on The Nature Conservancy’s website (like How They Work and Where They Work), but I’ll leave the rest of the research to you. If you like what the organization is all about, check out their Careers page. They have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including (sorry I can’t link to the postings, but it’s a bad applicant tracking system):

Burn Crew Technician (Glyndon, MN or Karlstad, MN or Center, ND or Clear Lake, SD)
Philanthropy Coordinator (San Francisco, CA)
Preserve Management Assistant – Prairie Forest Border Ecoregion (Cushing, MN)
Seasonal Field Representative (Keene Valley, NY)
Human Resources Coordinator (Austin, TX)
Stewardship Field Assistant (Brunswick, ME)
Prairie Recovery Specialist (Watson, MN)
Conservation Coordinator (Anchorage, AK)
Preserve Management / Bison Research Technician (Leola, SD)
Grassland Bird Technician (Minor, ND)
Digital Marketing Programmer Analyst (Arlington, VA)
Stewardship Assistant (Choteau, MT)
Communications Coordinator (Oklahoma City, OK)
Assistant Land Steward (Letts, IA)

If you love nature and want to work at a non-profit, it would be hard to beat a gig with The Nature Conservancy. So take a look at these positions, and see if any are a good fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about The Nature Conservancy?

Lumosity

Willy Franzen — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:25:20 +0000

I don’t know about you, but some days I feel sharper than others. Whether I’m trying to spike a volleyball or write a piece of code for this site, I have my good days and my bad days. There are a ton of factors that can affect how you perform on a given task from day to day, and many of them are hard to control. But the best way to overcome these fluctuations is to improve your overall skill through practice. This is pretty straightforward when you’re talking about specific tasks, but what if you are just aiming to improve your mental sharpness? As I’ve learned from reading Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything memory is a skill that can be trained just like any other skill. That’s why I was intrigued when I saw a commercial for Lumosity. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that has used cutting edge science to develop “the most effective online tool for cognitive enhancement.” I’m skeptical of a lot of the claims in favor of brain teaser games, but Lumosity has actually built their products based on research from top neuroscientists at places like Stanford, UCSF, Harvard, and Columbia. It’s hard to argue with that.

Lumos!

People who compete in memory competitions often train in basements with ear plugs and blinders on. That’s what you have to do if you want to memorize the order of a deck of cards in under a minute. But what if you just want to use your downtime to have fun and improve mental performance a little bit? That’s what Lumosity offers. You can play their brain games on your computer or any mobile device. The exercises will help you sharpen memory, focus attention, reach peak performance, and enhance creativity. Lumosity tracks your progress and tailors your training to suit your cognitive goals. They have a ton of success stories, so it seems that a lot of people are finding the games useful. I’m not sure Lumosity accomplishments would be very helpful on your résumé, but maybe their games could help you remember names and more effectively answer questions in interviews. That would be cool–especially if you were interviewing with Lumosity. If that sounds like something that you’d want to do, then take a look at Lumosity’s Jobs page. Right now they have a number of positions posted that might interest you including Customer Care Representative, UI/UX Designer, Interactive Designer, Front-End Engineer, iOS Engineer, Software Engineer, and Technical Support Engineer. If none of those opportunities catch your eye, don’t be afraid to reach to jobs@lumoslabs.com about opportunities on the Marketing or Research side.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Lumosity?

PUMA

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:25:19 +0000

I’ve always wanted to see a mountain lion in the wild–as long as it’s not stalking and about to eat me. They’re amazingly strong, athletic animals, and they have a serious mythology surrounding them. That’s why they’re called by so many names including panther, catamount, ghost cat, painter, and PUMA. It’s an appropriate name for a “sportlifestyle” company that “designs and develops footwear, apparel and accessories.” By bringing together sports and fashion, they’ve built an iconic brand that is known all over the world. What I find odd about PUMA is that they were founded in Germany in 1948 and are based in Herzogenaurach, Germany (with their USA headquarters is in Westford, MA). I find that strange because pumas are very much American cats, but I guess plenty of American companies use foreign animals in their branding.

Get Ready to Pounce

In addition to their eponymous brand, PUMA also owns Cobra Golf and Tretorn (a Swedish rubber tire company that used to make a lot of products for tennis and now is more boot focused). I actually don’t own anything from PUMA and I don’t play golf, but my Tretorn flip flops and boots are awesome. The best way for you to get familiar with PUMA is go to PUMA.com and start browsing their products. They go in a variety of directions with their “sport lifestyle” focus, but their two main product areas remain apparel and footwear. If you love the PUMA brand, then you need to check out PUMA’s Jobs page. It’s a bit difficult to browse through their listings (and their Entry Level Positions page is a dead end), but if you do you’ll see some great opportunities for new or recent grads including: Running Tech Rep (Atlanta, GA), Facilities Coordinator (Westford, MA), Accounts Receivable Representative – Cobra Puma Golf (Carlsbad, CA), Credit Analyst (Westford, MA), Credit Analyst (Carlsbad, CA), Assistant Developer Footwear – Lifestyle (Westford, MA), Junior Designer – Brand Marketing (Westford, MA), Junior Brand Strategist – Brand Communications (Westford, MA), and a number of other positions. So start stalking PUMA and see where it leads you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own anything from PUMA?

Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Willy Franzen — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:24:10 +0000

New Year’s Eve is a wonderful holiday for celebrating a great year past and the prospects of a great future. It’s a time that we spend with family and friends and think about how we can better ourselves. Yet for many alcohol plays a prominent role in the celebration, and the new year begins with a hangover. That’s not my style, but you’re free to have a great night however you want. Just make sure that your alcohol use doesn’t negatively affect anyone else. Most importantly, that means don’t drink and drive. That’s the message that Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been spreading since it was founded in 1980 by Candy Lightner “after her daughter, Cari, was killed by a repeat drunk driving offender.” Three decades later MADD, which has national offices in Irving, TX and Washington, DC and chapters all across the country, has made a lot of progress fighting drunk driving, but there’s a long way to go considering that there is an injury from an alcohol-related crash every minute.

Get MADD

MADD is best known for it’s work to stop drunk driving, but they also do a lot of work to prevent underage drinking and to provide victim services. The organization played an extremely prominent role in pushing for the .08 BAC limit in the U.S., and now they’re setting their sights on legislation that requires convicted drunk drivers to “blow before they go” by installing in car breathalyzers. Some criticize MADD for fudging their statistics and being part of the “alcohol prohibition lobby,” but they’re really just about saving lives. For 2012 their goal is to get U.S. drunk driving fatalities under 10,000. It’s hard to argue with that. If you like what MADD is doing, take a look at their Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for:

Court Monitoring Project Specialist (Chicago, IL)
Court Monitoring Project Specialist (St. Louis, MO)
Program Coordinator (San Diego, CA)
Program Coordinator (Los Angeles, CA)

All of these jobs require some prior experience, but they’re still worth checking out. Have a happy and safe new year!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Drive safely!

Allegiant

Willy Franzen — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:52:56 +0000

I don’t mind flying; in fact, I kind of enjoy it–especially on smaller planes. Unfortunately, it’s not often that you can hop in a 6 seater and get a sweet view for the entire flight. Usually you are crammed into a 150-seater and spend most of the time looking at clouds. I guess most people are more comfortable with that, but not me. When I’m flying I’m not particularly brand conscious, so I mostly choose my airline by who has the cheapest fare. That means that I end up on flying all different airlines, but I’ve never flown Allegiant. They’re a low-cost carrier and travel company based in Enterprise, NV. They travel to 75 destinations with a fleet of 75 MD-83s and MD-87s. All of Allegiant’s routes begin or end in one of 9 hubs: Bellingham, WA; Los Angeles, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; Myrtle Beach, SC; Orlando, FL; Tampa Bay, FL; Fort Myers, FL; and Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Show Your Allegiance

Allegiant doesn’t cover a ton of destinations, but if you want to fly to one of the 9 places mentioned above, there’s a good chance that they’ll be offering a good fare. Allegiant is extremely focused on profitably (unlike some other airlines), so they’re constantly tweaking their routes and leaving airports that don’t perform well for them. They’re also constantly finding new ways to generate ancillary revenue. The average Allegiant passenger will spend nearly an extra $35 over the price of his or her ticket. Some of this is for baggage fees and in-flight food, but Allegiant also makes money by selling other travel products and services through their website. They seem willing to try anything, and they even are toying with the idea of variable pricing based on fuel costs at the time of the flight. All of this makes Allegiant sound like an airline that might be a little annoying to fly, but would be really cool to work for. That’s why you should check out their Careers page. Right now they’re hiring a Component Repairs Analyst, an A/C Structures Engineer, a number of Customer Service/Ground Operations Agents (Medford, OR; South Bend, IN; Peoria, IL; Des Moines, IA; Fort Collins, CO; and Laredo, TX), a Financial Analyst, a Materials Coordinator, a Revenue Management Analyst, and a few other positions. Give all the jobs a look and see what looks best for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you flown Allegiant?

Flavorpill

Willy Franzen — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:30:54 +0000

It often seems that I don’t hear about cool events until after they’ve happened. I’ll spend a Friday night reorganizing my fishing closet, and on Saturday I’ll realize that there’s something really fun that I missed out on. I’m sure you’ve faced the same problem. But how do you keep up with what’s going on in your city? Flavorpill is one answer. They provide an online culture guide, and they will send you personalized e-mails that cover both events and news. I first heard about Flavorpill because one of their writers was interviewing me (the story ended up being published elsewhere), but I think they were a bit more news focused then. They say that they cover “cultural events, art, books, music, and world news,” though it seems that Flavorpill, which is headquartered in New York, NY, now leans very strongly towards the events side.

Flavorpill in Your Ear

Flavorpill currently has editions in New York, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Miami, Las Vegas, Dallas, and Seattle. I don’t know if there are any new locations on the horizon, but you’d think that they’d continue to grow the brand by adding new editions. There isn’t much info on the business behind Flavorpill, but it’s pretty obviously ad-supported. The Flavorpill Media Kit is probably the best way to get an inside look at how the company makes money. If you consider yourself culturally literate and want to to help others be like you, then a job at Flavorpill might be worth considering. Right now they have two Jobs pages. One is linked to from their site and the other is the first Google result for “Flavorpill internships.” My guess is that the former is the one to go by, but it’s hard to say for sure. Flavorpill’s current postings on that page include Designer, Front-end Developer, Product Manager, and Web Developer, and on the other page they include Editorial Partner (Las Vegas) and Advertising Sales Manager. Take a look at the job postings and see which ones best suit you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read Flavorpill?

QuinStreet

Willy Franzen — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:03:36 +0000

In March of 2009 I got an e-mail that looked a lot like the spam you typically see when you’re a webmaster with a publicly listed e-mail address. When someone refers to my site as onedayonejob.com, it gives me the hint that the e-mail was probably automated and that I should send it to my Junk folder. But I was still intrigued by the following sentence: “I am reaching out to see if you will be interested in selling your site and would like to discuss potential acquisition opportunities with us,” so I followed up. Over the next few months I traded e-mails with a guy who works at QuinStreet about potentially selling the site, but we never even made it to the offer stage. The reason that the Foster City, CA based company was interested in One Day One Job is that they’re one of the leaders in vertical marketing and online media. They have tons of online properties, and they use them to market and generate leads for other businesses. They’ve been at it since 1999, so they’ve been around the block a time or two.

Take a Ride Down QuinStreet

QuinStreet’s main areas of focus are in Education and Financial Services (two extremely lucrative markets for lead generation), but they also work in Home Services, B2B, Medicine/Health, and Premium Brand Advertising. You won’t see QuinStreet promote their properties on their home page like some other online media companies do, and you won’t get too many details about what they actually do. Online lead generation is extremely competitive, so secrecy is really important. They do have a What We Do, but it’s extremely limited in its explanation of QuinStreet’s business (you’ll find a little more on their How We Do It page). If you really want to learn more about QuinStreet’s business, their Investor Relations site is probably the place to go. What might even give you a better sense of what they’re working is their Jobs page. By investigating the positions they’re hiring for, I’ll bet you’ll get even more insight into the business. You’ll also see some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

Employee Benefits and Compliance Assistant
Client Strategy & Development Associate
Data Services Associate (Reno, NV)
Inside Sales Rep
Inside Sales Rep – Home Services (Portland, OR)
Jr. Java Developer
Jr. Vertical Manager (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Jr. Web Producer (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Marketing Analyst
PPC Media Associate
SEM/PPC Media Associate (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Media Associate
Media Associate – Home Services
PHP Developer
Vertical Manager – Online Marketing
Web Designer

If you’re interested in online marketing, QuinStreet would be a great place to learn, so give these positions a look and see what appeals to you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about QuinStreet?

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?

WildAid

Willy Franzen — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:03:46 +0000

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

I’ve always been fascinated by wildlife. Every time I see a species that I’ve never seen before in the wild, I get excited. So I find it upsetting that so many amazing animal species are in danger of extinction. I realize that some extinction is natural, some is caused indirectly by man, and some is caused directly by man. It’s that last group that is most worrying. There is currently a $5-10 billion worldwide trade in illegal wildlife, yet many wildlife conservation efforts ignore this fact–they invest millions in try to protect the species, but they ignore the demand side. WildAid is a San Francisco, CA based non-profit organization that aims to “end the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes by reducing demand through public awareness campaigns and providing comprehensive marine protection.”

Get Wild

WildAid’s programs focus on six specific areas: Sharks, Tigers, Elephants, Rhinos, Marine Protection, and Climate. Much of their work is focused on awareness and advocacy. WildAid teams up with celebrities to deliver their messages. So far they’ve worked with names like Yao Ming, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Jackie Chan, Kate Hudson, Carmelo Anthony, and a lot of people I’ve never heard of. It’s many of those names that I’m unfamiliar with that are most important. Why? Because they’re stars in their countries–countries that are huge participants in the illegal wildlife trade. So far WildAid has received “well over $100 million (USD) in pro-bono media support,” and I expect that they’ll continue to push their message until “the killing stops.” If you’re moved by WildAid’s message, check out their Jobs page. Their current postings aren’t quite entry level, but you should still take a look at their opportunities to see where you might fit in.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite endangered species?

Switch

Willy Franzen — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:13:40 +0000

The University of Chicago has a number of entry level positions open right now. Check them out here.

Call me whatever you want, but I still buy incandescent light bulbs. I tried a few CFL bulbs in the past, but they were an utter disappointment–not very bright and a disgusting color of light. I paid more for them because they’re supposed to pay off in the long run, but they can’t save me money if I don’t use them. It’s going to take a more compelling energy efficient light bulb design to get me to switch. And that’s exactly what Switch has come up with. They’re a San Jose, CA based startup that is using LED technology to replicate the beautiful light of an incandescent bulb without wasting so much energy. They’re close to achieving the holy grail of light bulbs (and a big pay day), especially considering that there will essentially be a ban on incandescent bulbs by 2014. Now they just need to convince people to switch.

How Many College Grads Does It Take to Screw in a Light Bulb?

Right now Switch is testing their light bulbs at “several distinctive hospitality properties,” but it sounds like they’re close to making them available to the general public. This article does a fantastic job of telling the Switch story and mentions that they were planning on shipping in October, but that date seems to have slipped. The story that really makes Switch’s bulbs compelling is all numbers. This spreadsheet from the aforementioned article will show you how the bulbs compare with incandescent bulbs. You break even in year 4 of owning a Switch bulb, and you come out almost $100 ahead over 20 years (yes, a Switch bulb is supposed to last 20 years). Multiply that out by an average of 45 lightbulbs per household (source: the internets), and you are looking some really meaningful savings. And that’s exactly what it will take to get people to switch. If you want to be part of the future of light bulbs, then consider a Career with Switch. They don’t list specific openings, but they do appear to be interested in hearing from candidates who want to work with them. They’re a small, young, growing company, so it’s worth a shot to reach out to them.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Will you Switch?

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?

Museum of Latin American Art

Willy Franzen — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:25:16 +0000

Despite the fact that I come from an extremely artistic family (Dad – architect, Mom – graphic designer, Sister – painter), I know almost nothing about art. So it shouldn’t surprise you that I know even less about Latin American art. But if I did want to start learning about it, I’d probably head to the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA. It’s a non-profit organization that “educates the public through the collection, preservation, presentation and interpretation of modern and contemporary Latin American art in order to promote cross-cultural dialogue.” It was founded in 1996, and since then it has doubled in size.

Makes Some Moolah at MOLAA

It’s kind of art to tell you about a museum that I’ver been to that covers a topic that I know nothing about. That’s why you should head over to the MOLAA website and start browsing around. They have a lot of info on their exhibitions online, so you can check out things like The Good, The Bad, The Ugly? and MEX/L.A.: “Mexican” Modernism(s) in Los Angeles, 1930-1985. What I think is cool about the Museum of Latin American Art is that it’s as much about the culture as it is about the art. There’s a more cohesive story behind their collections than you may find at other more generalized museums. So if you’re a big fan of Latin American art, you’ll probably want to take a look at MOLAA’s Jobs page. Right now they have a couple interesting positions including Assistant to Museum Registrar and Membership Manager (a little more experience required). Check them out and see if either interests you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite piece of Latin American art?

O’Reilly Media

Willy Franzen — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:26:08 +0000

Is it just me or are Black Friday and Cyber Monday pretty much the same these days? Online retailers have big Black Friday sales and brick and mortar brands are offering tons of Cyber Monday deals online. Still, I figured it was worth browsing Cyber Monday deals to see if I could find some cool job opportunities. I lucked out as a deal for 60% off e-books from O’Reilly Media popped up in my Twitter feed almost immediately. This deal is doubly relevant for job seekers because in addition to having some cool jobs, O’Reilly Media is a Sebastopol, CA based company that “spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, research, and conferences.” In other words, they provide educational tools that can make you far more employable.

Oh, Really?

While I’ve never owned an O’Reilly book or attended one of their conferences, I know that they have an amazing reputation in the innovation community. O’Reilly Media was started by Tim O’Reilly in 1978 as “a technical writing and consulting company,” but in 1984 they started “retaining rights to manuals” they created and began offering them to the public. The business continued to grow, and now they’re at the point where they’re covering nearly everything important that relates to the web and technology in one way or another. You could spend hours just trying to figure out all of the topics the they cover, and I strongly recommend that you do that if you’re considering a job with O’Reilly Media. Right now they have a couple of positions that look like they might interest new or recent grads including Publishing Technology Engineer, Web Producer, and Sales & Marketing Coordinator. They also take on people for freelance work, so that may be another way to get your foot in the door.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any books published by O’Reilly Media?

BookRenter.com

Willy Franzen — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:38:14 +0000

We’ll be wrapping up our survey soon, so speak now and help shape the future of ODOJ.

I’m convinced that textbook publishers are just really expensive money launderers. You spend an outrageous amount of money on some book that you probably won’t even open, and at the end of the semester you sell it back for 15% of what you paid for it. Your money is clean and you’re slightly more educated, yet there’s this sinking feeling that you’ve been had. Academic publishers have built monopolies title by title, and they’ve reaped the rewards for decades. It’s finally coming to an end. There are now open-source publishers like Flat World Knowledge and textbook rental services like Chegg and BookRenter.com that are digging into the publishers’ profits. Today we’re going to focus on San Mateo, CA based BookRenter.com which was founded in 2006 “to make education more affordable for everyone.” From what I can tell, they were the first textbook rental service, and they’ve been growing big time since they launched.

The End of Rent Seeking

You could make a pretty strong argument that textbook publishers are just rent seekers. They use their connections to professors to charge above market prices. Oddly enough, it’s the rental business that might just put an end to their monopoly power; though, I do wonder whether a move to digital publishing will tip the scales back towards the publishers. Anyway, BookRenter.com has built a remarkable business by making a capital investment in tons of textbooks and building out the logistics to get the books quickly to and from students. Now BookRenter.com just needs to get more and more students to try renting. That should be easy considering that they can easily save an average student more than $500 a year. If you’re liking what BookRenter.com is all about, then take a look at their Jobs page. They have a ton of open positions including:

There are all kinds of great options at BookRenter.com, so join their team and help put textbook publishers in their place.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your worst college textbook horror story?

Career Transition for Dancers

Willy Franzen — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:04:02 +0000

So far our survey says that you find the job search frustrating. Tell us more so that we can help.

You often hear about professional athletes who go broke within a few years of retirement by frivolously spending away the millions that they earned. But what about the athletes that never even earn millions? They have it way harder. They spend most of their lives developing a career that is tied to their physical capabilities, and when they have to retire 20-30 years before most people, they’re left with a pretty tough outlook. This is true for players of nearly all sports that you can play professionally, but it’s also true for dancers. That’s why the non-profit Career Transition for Dancers exists. They’re based in New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and Los Angeles, CA; and they “are committed to providing the experience, insight and resources dancers need to define their career possibilities and develop rewarding post-performance careers.” Dancers, much like other athletes, still have a ton of value to offer after their bodies stop being able to keep up–Career Transition for Dancers helps them put their skills to work.

A Career Transition for You

Believe it or not, Career Transition for Dancers has been around since 1985. You can read up on the organization’s history here. Since then they’ve working in a number of program areas including career counseling, national and local outreach projects, scholarships and grants, maintaining a gallery, and providing online resources. They “have provided over 51,650 hours of individual and group career counseling, with a dollar value of over $4 million, and awarded over $3 million in educational and entrepreneurial support,” so they’re having a serious impact. If you love dance and want to help dancers take the next step in their careers, then you should check out Jobs at Career Transition for Dancers on Idealist. Right now they only have one position posted, but it’s a perfect fit for a new or recent grad: Gala and Client Outreach Coordinator (New York, NY). Check it out and see if it moves you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Career Transition for Dancers?

BeachMint

Willy Franzen — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:37:43 +0000

So far our survey says that you find the job search frustrating. Tell us more so that we can help.

Back in June we told you about Birchbox, a company that offers a subscription to customized beauty product samples for $10 a month. It’s an interesting model, and it seems to be working out extremely well for them. BeachMint is a “social commerce” startup with a similar subscription model, but a very different approach. They’re a Santa Monica, CA based company with four brands: JewelMint.com, BeautyMint.com, StyleMint.com, and ShoeMint.com. I think you can guess what each offers a subscription to. When you sign up they give you a quiz to get a sense of what you like and what you don’t like, and then they start making new recommendations for you every month. It’s a little weird in that it’s structured like a subscription, but you don’t have to buy every month (but it sounds like it’s more of a monthly opt-out than opt-in). I kind of wish they stayed true to their name and would send me to a different beach every month.

Making a Mint

BeachMint is still a very young company, but they’ve raised a ton of money (nearly $40 million) and had some great early successes (apparently BeautyMint got 500,000 visitors in its first day). A big part of BeachMint’s strategy and a likely reason for their rapid growth is that they’ve aligned with some big name celebrities like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Jessica Simpson, Rachel Bilson, and Kate Bosworth. I’m sure they had to spend a lot of their funding on getting those names to sign, but it seems to be paying off with huge growth now. I’ll admit that I find BeachMint’s model a little confusing, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping people from signing up.

If you’re intrigued by what BeachMint is doing, then you should take a look at their Jobs page. There are a ton of jobs posted though most of them are either tech (Web/Software/Mobile Development) or Mint Brand Ambassador Manager / Independent Sales and Promotions Coordinator positions. The latter are available all across the country, and seem to be heavily commission based. The job best suited for our readership is probably the Merchandising / Design Assistant, which unfortunately is only part-time right now. Additionally, there’s the option to apply for future opportunities, and I also found a Customer Care Associate position and an Executive Assistant/Office Manager position on Startuply. I also found a Content Department Coordinator posting from a couple of months ago. It seems that BeachMint might be a bit disjointed in posting jobs, so don’t be afraid to apply for future opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried any of BeachMint’s offerings?

Josephson Institute for Ethics

Willy Franzen — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:51:54 +0000

The job search is a vulnerable time for most people, and that results in a lot of people trying to take advantage of those who are looking for work. This makes me very angry, which is why I always do my best to stick my neck out for job seekers. I won’t hesitate to turn down sponsors who seem even a little sketchy, and I’ve put a lot of effort into exposing job scams and pushing for employers to pay their interns. I guess you could call these the ethical duties of my job, and I take them extremely seriously. Josephson Institute for Ethics is a Los Angeles, CA based non-profit organization that also takes ethics extremely seriously (in case you couldn’t tell by their name). Their mission is to “improve the ethical quality of society by changing personal and organizational decision making and behavior.”

An Ethical Choice

Josephson Institute for Ethics focuses on five core areas: Youth, Sports, Business, Public Service, and Policing. The Institute was founded by a lawyer named Michael Josephson in 1987 in honor of his parents, and it does its work by developing and delivering “services and materials to increase ethical commitment, competence, and practice in all segments of society.” Josephson Institute is a bit unique as a non-profit in that they raise money by actually selling stuff (the aforementioned services and materials). Of course they also take donations and grants to allow them to work much more broadly than for their clients (it’s kind of weird to see a non-profit’s client list, right?). One of the projects from Josephson Institute that I find most interesting is the Ethics of American Youth Survey, which shows widespread problems with “lying, cheating, bullying, and other high-risk behavior in high school students.” If you find project like this one interesting, then you should definitely take a look at Josephson Institute for Ethics’ Jobs page on Idealist (it’s way more up to date than their actual Jobs page). Right now they’re looking for a Research Assistant, an Associate Web Producer/Writer, a Program Assistant – Character Counts, and a Marketing Project Manager. These look like really interesting jobs, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you had any ethical dilemmas in your job search?