Having grown up in Fairfield County, Connecticut, I took at least one school field trip to the New Canaan Nature Center. I think that I was pretty young, so I don’t remember the trip very well, but I do know that I always loved nature related field trips. If you’re not familiar with the idea of a nature center, it’s simply a “visitor center designed to educate people about nature and the environment.” At least that’s what Wikipedia has to say about the topic. New Canaan Nature Center certainly accomplishes that, as they have some pretty awesome facilities. In addition to a Visitor Center, they include a 4000 square-foot Greenhouse, an Education Building and Annex, an Apple Cider House, an Animal Care Building, an Herb Garden and Cottage, Two Observation Towers, Staff Residences, an Arboretum, a Wildflower Garden, and quite a bit more. It’s the perfect place for people to step out of suburban Fairfield County life and get a taste of the nature around them.
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Last week we took a look at Priceline’s Jobs, and since travel is always fun, we’re going to check out Kayak today. They’re a travel search engine that was started by founders of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia who decided to partner up into a “travel dream team” and build a “better online travel experience.” Unlike most travel sites, Kayak doesn’t sell anything to travelers. They’re an aggregator just like Google that scours the web for the best travel deals and returns them to you. What Kayak does sell is advertising. Just like how Google has “Sponsored Results,” Kayak integrates advertising with its search results. You can try to describe the business model with fancy words, but it’s really all about lead generation. Kayak, like Priceline, is based out of Norwalk, CT, which I find pretty intriguing. I wonder if there’s any particular reason that it’s beneficial for an online travel company to located in Norwalk.
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My first introduction to William Shatner was watching Rescue 911. Little did I know that his body of work extended far beyond narrating a show about real life heroes. I imagine today’s children will have an equally narrow view of William Shatner’s career, as they’ll know him as “Priceline Negotiator.” (Can you read those words without hearing the corresponding tune? I can’t.) Anyway, the whole idea behind William Shatner’s newest role – besides his doing the commercials in return for stock – is that Priceline.com will negotiate the best deals on travel-related items like hotels, car rentals, and airline tickets. They also have a “name your own price” model that used to be the core of their business, but now Priceline has widened its focus to discount travel in general.
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This is the first guest post by George Tarakhovski. We’re hoping that he will become a regular contributor here. If you’d like to contribute to One Day, One Job, let me know at Willy@onedayonejob.com.
Odds are that you are, know or have heard of someone who has a knack for collecting stuff. Perhaps, it is your grandfather who keeps a prized archive of 18th century stamps or your friend from middle school who proudly laminated every single Pokémon card he could get his hands on. MBI Inc., a Connecticut-based $400 million-dollar consumer-products company, has successfully transformed society’s affinity for collectibles into a highly profitable business. The company markets its products through four in-house operating divisions – Danbury Mint, PCS Stamps & Coins, Easton Press and MBI UK. Each of these divisions is responsible for churning out collectibles such as licensed sports figurines, die-cast models, jewelry, fine leather-bound books, vintage coins, and stuffed animals. MBI has successfully survived several recessions and seems to remain profitable to this day. Considering the current economic climate and the unorthodox nature of the collectibles industry, this is good news for somebody who seeks an unusual business career, yet suffers from cold shivers when the words “lay” and “off” are mentioned together in the same sentence.
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Do you like intersecting stripes? How about branding? If you like both, then Plaid is the perfect company for you. They’re a small Danbury, CT based agency that specializes in Design & Branding, Emerging Media, and TV. They’re media agnostic, which means that they love it all as long as they can be creative. Seriously. Just look at their portfolio – it gives a great overview of exactly what they do and what their style is. I’m extremely impressed by their work, especially by what they’ve done on their own website. It’s fun and does a great job of expressing their brand’s personality. They look like a lot of fun!
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How’s the relationship between your college or university and the town or city that it’s in? Let me guess. Not so hot. It always seems that students and “townies” don’t get along too well. Beyond that, there can also be situations like at Yale in New Haven, CT where the students are generally much wealthier than the people who live in the surrounding neighborhood. This just exacerbates the fundamental gap between the university and the community. National Student Partnerships is a non-profit organization that was started in New Haven by two Yale students who wanted to close this gap. They “designed a program where college student volunteers work one-on-one with community residents, coordinating access to employment opportunities and social services, including job training, housing, health care, child care, and transportation.” It’s a wonderful idea, and it’s working – look at the success stories.
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You have to love it when a small company grows into something big. It’s hard to believe that some of today’s major corporations were started with a couple of people in a garage. What’s even more extraordinary is when a small company that gets big never loses sight of who they are. That’s the story of Patagonia, a company that started out making tools for climbers. They are now a “worldwide business that makes clothes for climbing – as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running.” You’ve probably heard of Patagonia, and there’s a good chance that you own something made by them, whether it’s a polar fleece, a windbreaker, or long underwear. With a winter like this one, Patagonia gear is especially necessary for avoiding frostbite. Despite advances in technology and amazing business growth, Patagonia continues to take the same approach to their business – their “product design demonstrates a bias for simplicity and utility” and their “values reflect those of a business started by a band of climbers and surfers, and the minimalist style they promoted.” Patagonia makes exceedingly cool products, and they are the definition of a cool place to work.
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This weekend my Dad e-mailed me about a company that had just moved to Connecticut (where I’m originally from). Connecticut has been working hard to attract the movie industry to the state – they even have what is called a “Hollywood East Task Force” in Hartford – so it’s big news when a company like Blue Sky Studios makes a move to Connecticut because they’ve been bribed by tax credits. It certainly brings a lot of jobs to Connecticut (even though New York loses just as many.) As interesting as it is that Connecticut is trying to become “Hollywood East,” it’s not nearly as interesting as what Blue Sky Studios does. They “pioneer creatively superior photo-realistic, high-resolution, computer-generated character animation for the feature film, television and entertainment industries.” Put more simply, they’re behind feature films like Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who, and Robots, and some pretty cool shorts too.
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I’m sure that all of you learned the story of Helen Keller in elementary school, but just to refresh you she was a woman who overcame growing up both blind and deaf in the late 1800s to graduate from Radcliffe College magna cum laude. These days that would still be impressive, but it’s amazing that she did that when she did it. (She had a tutor spell textbooks letter by letter into her hand.) After graduating from college, Helen Keller made it her life’s work to help blind and deaf-blind people. She founded Helen Keller International in 1915, and it has been “devoted to fighting and treating preventable blindness and malnutrition” ever since.
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Now that we’ve finished out end of ’08 recap (See: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 1 of non-profits, Part 2 of non-profits, Part 3 of non-profits, and Part 4 of non-profits), we’re ready to to start off the new year by bringing you profiles of all new companies with exciting entry level jobs. We’re also very close to opening enrollment for our job search training course, but you’ll hear a lot more about that soon enough. Today we’re going to focus on Melissa & Doug, a toy company based in Wilton, CT. From what I can tell by looking at their product offerings, Melissa & Doug’s toys are targeted towards very young children, so they don’t have much stuff for big kids like WowWee does. That’s ok though – if they made toys that you actually wanted to play with, you’d never get anything done at work.
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As we grow up and start looking for our first jobs, we often fail to realize how easy we had it. Although good grades and getting into college are important, almost all seniors and new grads who are looking for an entry level job never had to worry about survival. It was a given. I’m sure that there are some of you reading who had very different experiences, but most of you are now facing the most distressing times of your lives – entering the real world. It’s easy to forget that there are millions of children in the world who live each day trying to survive. Save the Children is an international non-profit organization that focuses almost entirely on making the lives of children across the world better. They do so with a focus on 7 main areas: Economic Opportunities, Education, Emergencies, Protection, Health, Hunger and Malnutrition, and U.S. Literacy and Nutrition. Save the Children has spent the last 70 years fighting poverty’s effects on children through their unique self-help approach, and they’re not stopping any time soon.
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A lot of you probably started college with a strong interest in real estate. It’s understandable if much of that interest has evaporated as a result of the direction that the real estate market has taken over the last two years. New York real estate seemed to be the last bastion of hope, but with the fall of some major investment banks and a lot of fear on Wall Street, even that seemingly unstoppable market is starting to slow down. Still, if anyone can weather this storm, it’s hopefully the firm that did the biggest real estate deal in US history (the purchase of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village for $5.4 billion). The firm behind that deal is Tishman Speyer, and even they seem to be struggling a bit as of late. Still, they make moves with the long-term in mind, and they’re prepared (both mentally and financially) to take a short term hit. Real estate isn’t the hot place for careers right now, but it’s still a field that is loaded with opportunity. There will always be people making money off of real estate deals, and there’s no better place to learn how to do that than Tishman Speyer.
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Back in February, I told you all about ProFlowers and how I use them for all of my flower sending needs. Flowers are great. They’re beautiful, they smell good, and they make people happy. Still, I can’t get over the fact that they’re kind of useless (as Brad Paisley would say, I’m still a guy). You pay a lot of money to send them to someone, then the flowers sit around in a vase for a week until they’re thrown away. I’d much rather be sent something that I can use or, better yet, eat. That’s why I love Edible Arrangements. They allow you to send beautiful “bouquets” of delicious fruit – chocolate covered if you like. Whenever I’ve sent an Edible Arrangement to someone, I’ve been told that it was the best gift basket that the person has ever received. Not only are the arrangements tasty, but they provide healthy snacks for at least a few days (chocolate covered pieces not withstanding). Take a look at their arrangements, and see what I’m talking about.
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This is a sponsored post. We’ve worked directly with Alcoa to bring you the inside scoop on their top entry-level career opportunities.
My introduction to Alcoa came through the Baseball Express catalog. I was a high school baseball player, and I spent hours poring over the pages dreaming about saving up enough to buy a brand new baseball bat made out of cutting edge materials. The catalog’s copy had me convinced that a bat made from Alcoa’s latest alloy was the key to hitting home runs. Had I spent more time in the batting cage, and less time researching my baseball bat purchase, maybe I would have done more than played Club Baseball in college for a year. Then again, the bat that I finally chose did hit the ball a lot farther than the bats that I had used in previous years. Since you probably had better things to do in high school than read baseball catalogs from cover to cover, you may not be familiar with Alcoa, but you should know that producing aluminum for baseball bats is just a tiny sliver of what they do. It is, however, an excellent example of how Alcoa seems to have a hand in almost everything.
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Every day I take it upon myself to tell thousands of new college grads about exciting entry-level jobs. You’d think I’d pay enough attention to notice a company that does a ton of college recruiting, has a great work culture for young people, and is right in my “backyard.” Apparently I don’t. I came across a job listing for Bridgewater Associates and was intrigued because they are located in Westport, CT – the town where I went to high school. I figured I must have heard of them at some point and since forgotten about them. My curiosity continued, and I checked out their location on Google Maps. Then I saw this photo tagged for their location, and it hit me. This company is located on the banks of one of my favorite trout streams! Any good job searcher should know to never ignore the opportunities that are right under your nose. So, right off the bat, we know that Bridgewater’s people get to work in a beautiful location and have a great way to spend their lunch breaks if they’re interested in piscatorial pursuits.
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Steve Mariotti was living a successful corporate life when he decided that he needed a change. He didn’t buy a sports car, get a toupée, or start dating 20 year-olds. Ok, he could have done those things, but we have no reason to believe that he did he did. He chose to leave his job and to start teaching special education in the New York City school system. This presented obvious challenges. Teaching special ed can be hard enough in a community with extensive resources, but it must be near impossible in underserved public schools like those in New York City. Mariotti realized that one of the only ways that he could reach his students was by teaching them how to run a business. They loved the subject matter. As Mariotti developed a entrepreneurship based curriculum for his job as a special ed teacher, he realized that he could extend the reach of his educational successes. He founded the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship with the goal of bringing entrepreneurial education to low-income youth
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The time after graduation is perfect for rest, relaxation, and taking care of the things that you’ve ignored in college, for instance, your bank account or your waistline. In January we offered up Mint as a company that has entry-level jobs and a product that will help you manage your finances. Today we’re going to look at Equinox, a company that operates full-service fitness facilities in New York, Illinois, California, Florida, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and also has quite a few career opportunities at the entry-level.
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Where do you summer? If you’re not familiar with the use of the word summer as a verb, then you probably aren’t familiar with Vineyard Vines either. They’re a company that is all about living the good life – going on vacation to preppy paradises like Martha’s Vineyard.
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Why do you buy one brand of toilet paper instead of another? Some of you might swear that you absolutely need a certain brand or you will suffer great discomfort, but that’s just not true. Unless you’re like Finch from American Pie, you’ve used plenty of public restrooms with out suffering too much. So, why do you pick the double-ply, quilted, 12 pack instead of the single-ply 24 pack? Marketing. You might say that it’s all based on price because you’re a starving college student. It’s still marketing. You might not be willing to admit it, but it is. And who helps companies figure out how to sell you their toilet paper? Cannondale Associates does.
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We’re always looking for less publicized entry-level opportunities in high demand industries, especially now that most campus recruiting is winding down. Consulting is one area where excessive job searcher attention is directed towards the top names, while boutique firms get overlooked. We especially like smaller companies when they have a distinct identity or competitive advantage, and that definitely applies to Mars & Co..
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Usually our goal at One Day, One Job is to tell you about jobs at companies that you might not have considered working at before. We’re all about new ideas, but sometimes you just need help. You may be stuck researching a company that you’re dying to work for. Or you may be having a nightmare trying to navigate a corporate careers site. We’re here to help with today’s case study on ESPN.
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In case you missed it, we just published an article last night called Don’t Get Stuck in the Web: Cold Calling in the Internet Age. It’s a guide to finding jobs that aren’t listed online, so we thought we’d give you a chance to put your newly learned skills to the test by focusing today’s post on a company that doesn’t even have a Careers page.
Bear Naked makes granola. Many other companies have made granola, but Bear Naked found a way to do it better. So much better that in 5 years they were able to become the #2 granola brand in the US and sell their business to Kashi, which is owned by Kellogg’s. Did we mention that Bear Naked founder Kelly Flatley was 23 when she started the company? The, details of the deal were not fully disclosed, but the total value of the acquisition that included Bear Naked and Gardenburger was reported at $122 million. We’re not sure what it is that made Bear Naked so successful, but we do know that their products taste great, are good for you, and have excellent packaging. We think they must have some pretty smart people working for them too.
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Ryan Partnership has challenged its people with their unofficial motto of “See How Far Ideas Can Take You.” (Ryan’s official motto is Free Beer, No Assholes – FBNA for short. Seriously. It says so on their website.) Ideas (or maybe it’s the free beer and lack of assholes) have taken Ryan Partnership to the top of their industry, as they were named one of iMedia Connection’s Top 5 Integrated Marketing Agencies in 2006 and PROMO Magazines “Agency of the Year” in 2007. With $58.5 million in revenue in 2006, Ryan is a mature company that is still growing briskly (34% growth rate last year).
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Today we have our first One Day, One Job exclusive job posting. You won’t find this job anywhere else.
J.P. Franzen Associates Architects is a 10-person architectural design firm in Southport, CT. Jack Franzen, principal of J.P. Franzen Associates Architects, has built a strong local reputation by taking on a mix of residential, commercial, and institutional projects. Franzen is especially well known for his high-end, upscale home designs and his commitment to historic preservation projects. He is also a a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
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