One Day, One Job » customer service

Wayfair

Willy Franzen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:03:50 +0000

I’ve made a point of being more active in Cornell’s entrepreneurship community, so I like to think that I do a good job of keeping tabs on which other companies have been started by fellow alums. That’s why I was shocked to learn that the #2 online retailer of home furnishings and housewares was not only a company that I’d never heard of before, but a company founded by two Cornell grads. It’s called Wayfair–they’re based in Boston, MA and did $500 million in sales last year. The reason I hadn’t heard of them is that they were known as CSN Stores until last year (they were founded in 2002). CSN Stores was focused on building out 200+ product specific properties with generic domain names like Bedroomfurniture.com, Cookware.com, AirHockeyTables.com, and AllBarstools.com. Last year they decided to get serious about branding and started pulling all of their sites into the Wayfair brand.

Find Your Way

If you’d like to read a more in-depth version of the Wayfair story, check out this write up from GigaOm. It provides a lot of interesting details, but I actually think the Wayfair site is even better. Their About page is beautifully designed and packed with information, and the same can be said for the company’s Careers page. It’s also nice that they have a Campus Recruiting section that includes this video (you may need to click through to view it):

The campus recruiting page also includes four positions targeted towards 2012 grads: Business Analyst, Business Intelligence Analyst, Category Management Associate, and Software Engineer. Additionally, they have a ton of job postings for immediate hire:

Category Analyst / Entry Level Buyer (Sydney, Australia)
Jr. Designer/Web Production Artist
Customer Service Consultant (Sydney, Australia)
Bilingual Sales & Service Consultant (Galway, Ireland)
Customer Service Consultant (Ogden, UT)
Email Sales and Service Consultant (Ogden, UT)
Inbound Sales Consultant (Ogden, UT)
Sales Consultant (Ogden, UT)
Junior Web Operations Engineer
Software Engineer
Analyst, Email Marketing – Private Sale

There are a ton of great opportunities at Wayfair, which was named one of Glassdoor’s 2012 Best Places to Work, so browse through the postings and see if any of them are appropriate for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you purchased anything from Wayfair?

HDIS

Willy Franzen — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:40:52 +0000

I last wet my pants in 2nd grade. I knew I had to go, and I was waiting outside the bathroom with my legs squeezed together. I didn’t want to break the rules and use the bathroom down the hall, so I waited… and waited… and waited. Eventually I couldn’t hold it any longer, and I went. I told my teacher, and she did a great job of keeping it discrete so none of the kids in my class found out. But it was still terribly humiliating. Looking back I can laugh about it–and I often do (I love bathroom humor!), but I know there are plenty of people for whom things like this aren’t funny anymore. Incontinence is an extremely common problem, yet it’s not one that many people talk about openly. That’s why HDIS has been able to build such a successful business. The Olivette, MO based company’s full name is Home Delivery Incontinence Supplices, and they’ve “specialized
in providing quality care to those who experience loss of bladder control” since 1986. You’ve probably seen their commercials on tv–especially if you watch shows geared towards an older audience.

At Your Discretion

At first it seemed odd to me that a company like HDIS would exist when you can buy the products that they sell from a retail store or even Amazon.com, but then I realized just how specialized they are. They put a huge emphasis on personalized care, while also ensuring that they are always discreet. When you combine this level of service with exceptional branding and targeted advertising, they’ve become the nation’s largest direct supplier of incontinent supplies. It also helps that their pricing seems to be quite competitive (I checked it against Amazon on a few products, which I though was going to haunt my Recently Viewed Items, but Amazon seems to know better). HDIS may not be a trendy startup or a huge brand name, but they’ve built a business on serving a group of people who have a very specific need. If you’d like to be a part of what HDIS is doing, check out their Careers page. Right now they have a few jobs that you may want to consider including Marketing Specialist, Telesales Representative, Medicare Billing Supervisor, Customer Care Representative, and Outreach Representative.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about HDIS?

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?

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?

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?

AppSumo

Willy Franzen — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:05:26 +0000

Want to give AppSumo a try? Be sure to use this link to sign up.

I know that a lot of people are getting sick of daily deal sites, but I’m a huge Groupon fan (maybe because my fiancée works there); however, I must admit that the daily deal e-mail that I’m most excited for every day comes from AppSumo. They’re an Austin, TX based company that offers amazing bargains on software, online courses, and other tools that are extremely useful for entrepreneurs, web professionals, job seekers, and anyone who wants to use technology to a fuller extent. I’ve used AppSumo to buy things from Udemy (a PHP course), Tout (an e-mail management tool), StickerMule (awesome custom One Day One Job stickers), and a bunch of other cool companies. Each purchase has been valuable for building my business, and they’ve all come at unbelievably low prices.

Be a Sumo

AppSumo was founded by Noah Kagan just oner a year and a half ago. He’s a guy that I’ve had a chance to hang out with, and he’s super smart and extremely interesting. That’s why it’s no surprise that he’s built the company to more than half a million customers in that time. Unfortunately, you can’t get the AppSumo story for free on their website. Noah is a smart businessman, so he charges $79 for the behind the scenes story and charges $500 for an hour of one-on-one time (those are discounted prices). If I were you, I’d buy both of them and use them to try to land a job with AppSumo. They have a “For any reason anytime before you die” 100% money-back guarantee, so if you don’t get hired, you can totally get your money back. You can see all of AppSumo’s current and past openings on their Jobs page, so check that out. Right now they’re looking for a Python Developer and two Business Development Sumos, but they’ve had past jobs in Marketing, Design, Customer Support, Quality Assurance, Copywriting, and Taco Eating.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever bought something from AppSumo?

Blue Nile

Willy Franzen — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:51:24 +0000

If you’ve been reading for very long, you’ve probably seen me mention my girlfriend Amy. She’s awesome. She was the setter on Cornell’s volleyball team, she spent nearly 3 years as a consultant at McKinsey, and now she runs Competitive Intelligence at Groupon. I’m constantly impressed by her, and I’m extremely thankful for how supportive she has been as I’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs to build this business. Considering that she’s stuck with me long enough to see One Day One Job achieve meaningful profitability, I figured it was time to put some of those profits towards a ring. I was referred to an amazing custom jeweler who walked me through the entire process and helped me design something that she’d be happy wearing forever. On Wednesday afternoon I got the ring, and on Wednesday night I popped the question. Thankfully, she said yes! While I didn’t use Blue Nile for the ring, I thought it was a fitting company to take a look at today because I was constantly on their site doing research during the process. They’re based in Seattle, WA, and they’ve become “the largest online retailer of certified diamonds and fine jewelry.”

I Didn’t Go to Jared

Buying a ring has to be one of the most intimidating processes that a young guy can go through. It’s really tempting to do the whole thing online, and Blue Nile’s focus on customer service makes that a reasonable choice (though I’m glad I didn’t do it online). I think the best thing that they offer is a 30-day guaranteed return period, but it’s in tight competition with their user interface. It’s ridiculously easy to find what you’re looking for–and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s ridiculously easy to educate yourself using Blue Nile’s resources. Even though I didn’t buy from them, I’m still a huge fan, which is why I think that you should take a look at Blue Nile’s Jobs page. They have a few opportunities that look well suited for a new grad including: Bilingual Customer Service Representative, Assistant Buyer, and Website Development Engineer. The jewelry business is fascinating, so working at Blue Nile would probably be pretty exciting.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Two engagement tips:

1. Use browser privacy when you’re looking for jewelry online. If you don’t, you will get bombarded by ads.

2. Don’t change your relationship status on Facebook until your fiancée has told everyone she needs to tell. Even though it says that it will wait for her confirmation, it will still tell everyone that you’re engaged (but not whom you’re engaged to until you’ve confirmed). I learned this one the hard way.

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?

MakerBot Industries

Willy Franzen — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:04:19 +0000

In case you didn’t get the drift from out post on Best Made Company, artisan craftsmanship is in and mass manufacturing is out (unless it’s done by Apple). But what if you could combine the two? You’d have the technology of mass manufacturing, but the closeness to the process of something that is handmade. That’s what MakerBot Industries is making possible. They’re a New York, NY (Brooklyn) based company that has been “producing an open source 3D printer to democratize manufacturing.” All you need is a CAD drawing and one of their Thing-O-Matic 3D printers, and you can print pretty much whatever object you want in plastic. I think they might have finally figured out Santa’s trick.

You Might Need a 3D Resume

To get a better sense of what MakerBot is doing with the Thing-O-Matic, you need to check out some of the things that people have already made with it. There’s the Turtle Shell Racer, a squirrel, a log cabin, and a whole lot more. What’s really cool about MakerBot is that they offer different sorts of gadgets that you can combine with what you print out to add functionality. That means you can even build something as cool as a remote control car–the opportunities are limited only by your imagination and your ability to do the CAD drawings. What I think is most remarkable, though, is the price. You can get a fully assembled Thing-O-Matic for $2,400. That’s a lot of money if you just want to print out a few toys, but it’s an absolute steal for someone who might be building prototypes or needs very specific one-off plastic items. Presumably the price will keep coming down, and it will be more and more likely that you’ll have your own Thing-O-Matic one day. If the idea of 3D printing has you amped up, then take a look at MakerBot Industries’ Jobs. They have a number of interesting opportunities right now, including:

There’s a ton of variety here, so take a look at all of the positions and see which one makes the most sense for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What would you make if you had a 3D printer?

Proper Cloth

Willy Franzen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:18:54 +0000

Want to try Proper Cloth? Use this link to get $25 off your first shirt. It’d probably help to have a shirt that fits when you’re interviewing.

I’m a big guy at 6’3. I typically enjoy the benefits of being tall, but there are disadvantages like having to knee myself in the face on airplanes and not being able to hear a single word that anyone under 5’8 says in a loud room. I’m not so tall that I need to shop at specialty stores for clothes, but I’m just at the point where clothes off the rack don’t fit all that well. I fixed my pants problem with Bonobos, but I have a ton of shirts (button downs, t-shirts, sweaters, and more) that fit beautifully until I start actually moving around–then they somehow bare my midriff like I’m a teenage girl. Nobody needs to see that, which is why I should probably start buying custom shirts from a place like Proper Cloth. They’re a New York, NY based company that makes it “super easy to buy stylish, quality dress shirts that fit.” I haven’t tried them yet, but it’s probably about time that I go custom.

Get a Proper Job

Proper Cloth has been around since 2008, but it seems that they’ve recently become more serious about growth. Maybe it’s because GQ named them “our new favorite online shirt maker.” Or maybe it’s because of their Perfect Fit Guarantee. They work with you to get the exact fit you want on your first shirt. After that they save your measurements so that all other shirts fit just as well. You really should read up on the guarantee, because it’s core to the business. Then you should take a look at Proper Cloth’s shirt designs to get a better sense of what they offer. But don’t be dismayed if you don’t like anything that they have to offer, as Proper Cloth allows you to design your own shirt. I wonder if they’ll let you design your own job? I don’t have any answers on that right now, but I did find their job postings on Startuply. Right now they’re looking for a User Interface Designer/Graphic Artist, a Customer Service and Operations Lead, and an Analytical Marketing Engineer. All of the positions look well suited to a new college grad, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you bought any shirts from Proper Cloth?

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?

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?

W3i

Willy Franzen — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:19:57 +0000

Sponsored Job: PEAK6 is a Chicago, IL based proprietary trading firm that specializes in inventory and risk management, and they’re hiring a Junior Project Manager.

I recently discovered an awesome iPhone/iPad flight simulator/shooter game called MetalStorm: Wingman. It’s free, and it’s a lot of fun, but the publisher is constantly trying to eke revenue out of the game. There are ads, upsells to buy new planes and weapons, and suggestions of other apps to download. It’s that last one that caught my attention, and it led me to a company called W3i. They’re based in Sartell, MN, and they are in the business of “intelligently connecting people to apps.” They do this with both mobile and desktop apps, and they provide an opportunity for app developers to both expand the reach of their software and make money by promoting other apps.

Put the App in Apply

Believe it or not, W3i isn’t some startup. They’ve been in the business of promoting apps for over 10 years (and they’ve been profitable for most of the time!). That means that they’ve had to constantly adapt as the landscape of software downloading has changed. Some companies would get crushed by all of the changes in technology and app store rules (depending on Apple’s whims must be tough), but it sounds like W3i has responded by doubling sales since last year. If you want to really dig into what W3i does, you can read up on their offering for both desktop apps and mobile apps. You may also want to check out what they’ve done for some of their clients. If you like what you see, you’ll want to head over to W3i’s Careers page, which is beautifully done. You can learn about Life at W3i, browse careers by department, or head straight to a list of all of their current openings. The best positions for new grads include:

There are a ton of awesome opportunities at W3i, so hopefully one of them will be just what you’re looking for. If not, you can also apply for Future Opportunities. (I’m assuming that all of these positions are in the Sartell office because nothing states otherwise, but W3i also has offices in San Francisco, Berlin and Minneapolis.)

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What are your favorite apps?

ClearVision Optical

Willy Franzen — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:16:02 +0000

Apparently wearing glasses is cool again, especially if they’re what used to be considered dorky. I don’t get it. I’m a contact lens kind of guy. I wear my glasses right after I wake up and before I go to bed, but other than that I relish in the fact that we’ve developed tiny pieces of plastic that can make us see perfectly. You’d think technological breakthroughs like contact lenses and Lasik would be bad news for a businesses that was founded in 1949 to distribute fashionable eyewear, but you’d be wrong. ClearVision Optical was started by a Navy veteran to “serve the independent optometrist community” in Long Island, and it has grown into a “global enterprise, serving optical professionals throughout the U.S. and in 40 countries around the globe.” The Hauppauge, New York based company has been able to grow like this because of its devotion to strong customer service that is centered around helping clients build stronger practices.

Do You See What I See?

While ClearVision Optical mainly calls itself a distributor, they’re also in the business of designing and producing “premium eyewear and sunwear products.” One of ClearVision Optical’s main selling points is the brands they work with, which include BCBGMAXAZRIA, Izod, Cole Haan, Marc Ecko, Fisher-Price, and a bunch more. I’m not exactly sure what the relationships with these brands look like, but I do know that ClearVision Optical benefits significantly from being able to sell them all through a single rep. I found out about ClearVision Optical because one of their former interns and current employees e-mailed me to tell me how much she loved working for them (I will note that she now works in recruiting). After taking a look, I was really impressed with how the company has continued to balance growth with remaining family-run. It does look like a cool place to work, and it’s very clear that they put a lot of emphasis on developing talent. They are big on internships, and their Jobs page shows two positions that could be well suited to new grads: Customer Care Associate and Outside Sales Consultant – Designer Eyewear. Take a look, and see if ClearVision Optical might be just what you want to see.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you wear glasses?

Snagajob

Willy Franzen — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:13:22 +0000

Some of you have been receiving our e-mails hours or even days after they were originally sent. It’s a problem with our e-mail provider, and I think it’s finally fixed. I hope it hasn’t been too annoying.

I couldn’t find a job after I graduated, so I created my own job helping other grads find jobs. It’s kind of a ridiculous story, but it seems to have worked out. It feels a little weird for me to cover companies that are also in the job search space, but how can I not tell you about a company that was just named the #1 Small Business to Work For? Snagajob is based in Glen Allen, VA, and they were founded in 1999 by Shawn Boyer when he realized that there were no good websites for finding hourly jobs while trying to help a friend find an internship. Shawn started out by building a simple job board, but the business has continued to grow as they have found new ways to serve both employers and job seekers.

Snag a Job at Snagajob

Snagajob’s business still appears to be largely driven by job postings. Employers pay to post their jobs and reach Snagajob’s huge audience of millions of job seekers. However, it does appear that Snagajob branches out with other types of advertising, co-registration offers, coupons, and all kinds of other stuff. These types of revenue streams make more and more sense as Snagajob develops more content that isn’t just job postings. It seems to be working as Snagajob is growing rapidly (I hear they plan to hire 100 more people over the next year). And it’s great to see that throughout that growth, Snagajob is staying committed to having an awesome corporate culture. If you want to become a “snagged,” then head over to Snagajob’s Careers page. Right now they have a number of opportunities that seem suitable for new or recent grads including Product Specialist and Account Executive. And if those positions don’t look like a good fit for you, I’m sure more will be posted in the near future.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever looked for a job on Snagajob?

Fab.com

Willy Franzen — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:42:03 +0000

Want to check out Fab.com and get daily design deals up to 70% off? Get your free invite here, and hurry. If you sign up before 11:45 AM EDT on 10/18/2011, you’ll get $10 in your account as soon as you sign up.

If my parents had to pinpoint the time when they hated me the most, it was probably one of the times they took my sister and me furniture shopping. It was always an unmitigated disaster. When I’m in a furniture store, it’s like I’m wearing a Horcrux (Harry Potter reference for those who have no idea what I’m talking about) around my neck. My irritability and immaturity increase at an exponential rate over time. My girlfriend, having had heard the stories, came up with a smart solution when we were buying stuff for our new place. Instead of dragging me along from store to store, she did some pre-shopping and then only showed me the stuff she absolutely loved. It worked perfectly, as I was in and out of the stores before I even had the chance to start acting like a hungry, tired three-year old. Now we’ve come up with an even better solution–she just sends me links to Fab.com. It’s a New York, NY based site and company that offers “daily design for everyone.” They’re relatively new on the scene, but they’ve been getting a ton of positive attention by offering amazing deals of up to 70% on all kinds of cool stuff for your home.

Are You Fab?

Much like Gilt Groupe and ideeli, Fab.com requires you to be invited to get access to their daily deals. Luckily, I’ve got the hookup and you can get an invite here (and if you sign up before 11:45 AM Eastern on 10/18/2011, you get $10 in your account for free). If you really want to get a feel for the site, you should sign up, but the other option is to read the Fab.com Buzz to get some (presumably favorable) third-party opinions. Beyond paying insanely close attention to design in both the products they sell and their user experience, Fab.com also has designed their customer service function to be exceptional. If you like what you’re hearing about Fab.com, then you’ll want to check out their job postings. They don’t have their own Jobs page, so they link straight to their postings on LinkedIn. There are a few postings, but the only one that is presumably entry level is Copywriter (their CEO actually posts the positions on LinkedIn). I did a little digging and found some more postings on our job search engine including positions like Customer Support Representative and Supplier Relations Coordinator. And if none of those positions look like a good fit, you can also check out Fab.com’s Team page to see what other types of careers are possible with Fab.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you signed up for Fab.com? Here’s an invite.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Willy Franzen — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 17:59:17 +0000

We’ve been having e-mail deliverability issues over the past couple of days. I’m working with our provider to figure out what’s going on. Hopefully this message will come through without a hitch and make this note irrelevant.

Yesterday we looked at a non-profit that is devoted to a unique sector of performing arts. Today we’re going to look at one that is more traditional. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is based in New York, NY, and they’re the organization that runs “the world’s leading performing arts center.” Lincoln Center is located on 16.3 acres, and it has 11 resident organizations that use their space but are run independently. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts “serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, an international leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus.” They seem to be doing a good job considering that Lincoln Center hosts more than 5 million visitors every year.

Put on a Good Performance

To really get a feel for what the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts does, you need to read up on the other 10 Resident Organizations. Here are the links to each of their websites (each of these organizations has its own job and internship opportunities):

In addition to these organizations, Lincoln Center also is home to quite a few programs. These include American Songbook, White Light Festival, Fashion Lincoln Center, and lots more. There’s a ton of other relevant information about the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on their website, so you should really dive in if you like what they’re all about. Eventually you’ll land on their Jobs page, where you’ll see that they’re hiring a Receptionist, a Grants Writer, a Special Event Sales and Client Services Associate, a Lead Telephone Agent, a Part-time Telephone Agent, and a Part-Time Visitor Services Representative. There are a number of options, so hopefully one of them will be a good fit for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever been to Lincoln Center?

ZeroCater

Willy Franzen — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:27:19 +0000

Want to get ahead in your job search? Don’t just rely on the advice of your friends, family, and alumni. Step up your job search with personalized guidance from executives at Blue Chip Career. Get paired with an expert and receive the inside scoop on how to land the job.

I’m terrible about eating lunch during the work day. It’s a hassle and a distraction. I wish delicious, healthy food would just appear in front of me (preferably for free, but I’d be willing to pay a reasonable price). That’s exactly what ZeroCater does, except they typically do it for companies bigger than a single person. They’ve already made a name for themselves by helping companies that don’t have the resources for a Google-like cafeteria feed their employees. ZeroCater is based in San Francisco, CA, and they’ve already started expanding into New York, NY (companies like Square, WePay, Tagged, and Justin.tv are already using ZeroCater). As they keep growing, they’ll just bring more and more food from awesome restaurants into the workplace without all the hassle.

Cater to Your Career Needs

ZeroCater is different from other delivery services because they streamline the whole food ordering process. Here’s how it works:

Tell us how many people eat, what days, and any dietary needs.
ZeroCater orders meals for you from a rotation of dozens of great local restaurants.
Rate the meals that arrive so ZeroCater learns your tastes and adjusts.

ZeroCater offers a ton of flexibility, so even the pickiest eaters at a company will be happy (that’d probably be me). ZeroCater makes their money by charging a 7% fee on top of the cost of the meal. The average all-in cost for a company to use ZeroCater is typically about $12.50 per employee fed, but I imagine there are certain things that can sway it either way. Another hidden benefit is that ZeroCater is able to get restaurants that don’t normally deliver to do delivery because of the size and consistency of orders that they bring in. If you’re excited (and hungry) after hearing about what ZeroCater is doing, then check out their Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for people in Customer Service (San Francisco, CA) and Restaurant Outreach (San Francisco, CA and New York, NY). These look like perfect jobs for new grads, so give them a shot.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you be more likely to work for an employer that uses ZeroCater?

Care.com

Willy Franzen — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:58:13 +0000

When you’re young your biggest responsibility is taking care of yourself. But eventually you get a dog, buy a house, have kids, and even have to start caring for your aging parents. As the responsibilities pile up, many people have to seek professional help to handle it all. I’m not talking about mental health professionals–I’m talking about babysitters, nannies, dog walkers, senior caregivers, and other people who can take on some of your daily responsibilities. Care.com is a Waltham, MA based company that makes “it easier for families to find reliable, trustworthy care for their loved ones.” Care.com does this by providing a closed community for matching up caregivers with people who are looking to hire them. By keeping the community closed, Care.com is able to ensure quality with features like background checks, reviews, and reference.

Show That You Care

The biggest impediment to finding a caregiver is trust. Whether you’re looking for someone to bring in your mail or babysit your first born, you don’t want to have any doubts about the person that you hire. Usually people use their real world social networks to find people for these jobs, but where do you go if you can’t find anyone you already know? Care.com wants to be that place. By combining an easy to use online experience with a team of experts, Care.com has positioned itself as the place to go to find caregivers or caregiving jobs. From what I can tell, Care.com is growing at a really good rate and they’re extremely well funded by venture capitalists. That must be why Care.com’s Jobs page has so many opportunities posted. The jobs that look like they might be good fits for new or recent grads include Data Analyst, E-mail Producer, Inside Sales Representative, Marketing Associate, Member Care Call Center Representative, Online Marketing Analyst, Operations Analyst, and Software Engineer. These look like really cool opportunities, so don’t pass them up.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you care for anyone?

SalesCrunch

Willy Franzen — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:42:55 +0000

Yesterday we talked about building stuff. I didn’t really dig into it, but I’m convinced that career success is often about being able to build a defined work product. It can be a real, tangible object that you make, but it can just as easily be a weekly analytics report, great writing, a superb customer experience, or something completely different. If you want to land a job and keep it, you need to be able to reliably deliver a quality product. And if you can’t (or would rather do something else), you better be able to sell the products that other people in your company are making. That’s what SalesCrunch is all about. They’re a New York, NY based company that “that takes sales from fuzzy art to repeatable process by capturing, measuring, tracking & training the sales process across the organization.” Most people (especially college students and recent grads) have no idea how important and valuable that really is.

Get Crunched

As far as I know, you can’t major in Sales in college, so it makes sense that I almost never get e-mails from new grads who want to work in sales. Oddly enough, it’s new and recent grads working in sales who are driving much of the amazing growth at companies like Groupon and Yext. There’s a huge disparity between interest in sales and a need for salespeople. That means that most companies end up with a few really good salespeople, and a whole bunch of mediocre or bad ones. SalesCrunch offers three products that can improve a company’s entire Sales function: CrunchConnect (a sales delivery and analytics platform), CrunchTrainer (an online training platform), and SalesSchool (a knowledge base and learning tool). SalesCrunch is attacking a huge market with these tools, so it looks like they might be a pretty cool place to be moving forward. Right now SalesCrunch’s Jobs page shows that they’re looking for Customer Success Specialists (this is a Sales position, I hope that’s not too meta for you), a Front-end Designer, and a Rails Engineer. Give these positions a look, and see if SalesCrunch might be a good fit for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about SalesCrunch?

Octopart

Willy Franzen — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:06:23 +0000

Ever since I was a kid I’ve liked building stuff. That’s why there’s a part of me that wishes that I had majored in Engineering. I’m ok with building non-physical things like a community, a website, and a business, but I still have an urge to actually use my hands to make something. There are a lot of people with that same urge, and luckily many of them are actually building stuff in their jobs or on their own. Octopart is a New York, NY based company that helps these people find the parts that they need to build what they’re building. In other words, Octopart has developed “search technology to help engineers and scientists build the next generation of electronic devices.”

Are You the Part Octopart Needs?

Most of us have become accustomed to finding what we want, whether it’s information or a product, by searching online. Surprisingly, many of the parts that are used in the devices that power our ability to search the Internet are extremely hard to track down. And if you want to compare prices and availability, it’s even harder. That’s why two Physics grad students started Octopart to help “you compare the prices and availability of electronic parts across different distributors.” Whether you need a solid state relay or a red LED, they’ll help you comparison shop as if you were buying something a little more common like a television or a flight. Octopart is still a very small company, but their Jobs page shows that they have three positions open. They’re hiring a Frontend Software Engineer, an Analytics Software Engineer, and their first person in Business Operations (Business Development, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and more). These look like awesome jobs, and according to the posting, every new hire gets a pony.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you build stuff?

Lynda.com

Willy Franzen — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:01:35 +0000

When I came across Lynda.com and their awesome job opportunities, I realized that their courses in things like Excel, Photoshop, Web Development and more could be a huge help to most job seekers. That’s why I signed up for their affiliate program to get you a 7-day free trial.

The biggest mistake that job seekers make is that they focus too much on trying to land a job and too little on improving their skills. If all you do is apply to jobs every day for 6 months, there’s a good chance that you’ll end up still unemployed and you’ll be even less attractive to employers than when you started. I know it’s counterintuitive, but most of you need to spend less time looking for jobs and more time making yourself a better candidate. There are lots of ways to do that, and one is by taking skill-specific courses. Lynda.com is a company that offers exactly that–”online software training videos that really work.” They’re based in Carpinteria, CA, and they’re yet an Inc. 500 company with 250% three-year growth to $49.9 million in annual revenue. And I’d bet that the amount that they’ve increased their users’ salaries is a lot bigger than that.

Who’s Lynda?

Lynda is a real person. Her last name is Weinman, and she’s “a Web graphics and design veteran” who co-founded Lynda.com with her husband, Bruce Heavin. Together (along with a lot of team members that had joined along the way) they’ve built Lynda.com with the goal “to make everything we know available to you to help reach your creative and career goals.” What I find interesting about the company’s business model is that they don’t charge by the course. If you sign up for a subscription to access one course, you can access all of the others for as long as you stay signed up. And these courses are good. I’ve never taken any, so I’m going on the fact that Lynda.com is used by huge names like Amazon, Google, Yale University, Apple, and Microsoft. If you like what Lynda.com is doing, then the next logical step is to check out their Careers page. They offer a number of opportunities that you might find interesting including:

Project Coordinator, Creative and Marketing
Account Services Representative
Training Production Coordinator
Video Compressionist
Video Editor
Software Engineer
UI Engineer

There are a ton of other positions posted, but Lynda.com has some pretty hefty experience requirements. You’d think that a company that is all about online learning might be more open to people who may not have 5-10 years of experience. They do allow you to submit a general application, so that may be worth a shot if none of the posted positions seem like a good fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Lynda.com? If you want to, here’s a link for a 7-day free trial.

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?

Mango Languages

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:54:59 +0000

I’ve come to accept that I’ll probably never learn a foreign language (maybe I’ll try a new computer programming language one day). I think my crazy high school French teacher ruined me, but I must admit that technology is making the idea of learning another language more and more attractive. The problem with most language learning software is that it can be really expensive? Mango Languages is a Farmington Hills, MI based company that has solved this problem for a lot of consumers. They provide online language learning services mostly to libraries, schools, government agencies, and corporations. That means that they get the guys with deep pockets to foot the bill for the people who are actually learning the new languages. It’s a smart approach that works considering that Mango Languages made the Inc. 5000 with 629% three-year revenue growth to $3.8 million in revenue.

Do You Like Mangoes?

Now anybody can go sign up for one of Mango Languages online courses (and the prices actually don’t look bad at all), but they’ve made a conscious decision to target multi-use accounts. That means their sales approach is likely different from other companies that offer similar products. Speaking of the product, you’ll probably want to check out what Mango Languages offers. You can read up on their methodology, check out some of their videos, and even do a free trial. That should answer all your questions, but if it doesn’t, you can take a look at the Mango Languages FAQs. If you’re digging the product, then you may want to consider working at Mango Languages. The video below is a quick intro to life at Mango Languages:

If that looks good to you, continue on to the Mango Languages Careers page. They have a bunch of job openings including Bilingual Project Coordinator, Help Desk Support, Human Resources Generalist, Integration Manager, Interactive Designer, Operations Coordinator, Sales Representative, Software Developer, and Web Developer. As you can see there are lots of options, so it’s pretty likely that one of them will be suitable if you’re a language lover.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What languages do you speak?

Curse

Willy Franzen — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:27:54 +0000

A lot of people think of gamers as anti-social, but that’s pretty far from the truth. Some of the most vibrant online communities are focused on video games. The great thing about these communities is that they’re much easier to monetize than other communities since gamers are a great group to advertise to. Curse is one of these communities. They’re a company based on San Francisco, CA and Huntsville, AL that “offers editorial features, video, databases, wikis, forums, add-ons, and a desktop applications that helps gamers find and install gaming plug-ins.” They’re yet another Inc. 5000 company, and they’ve seen 839% three-year growth to $5.4 million in revenue. Guess they’ve figured out how to monetize their 14 million monthly unique visitors across the 31 video game related websites that they own.

Curse Your Job Search

Curse focuses on all kinds of games. Some of the big names that they cover are World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops. If you want to get a feel for the kind of content that Curse offers, just head over to Curse.com and start browsing around. You won’t find much info on Curse itself, but if you’re a gamer, you should be able to read between the lines and start to understand more about the company. If you dig their content, then you should head over to their Jobs page. There a bunch of Web Development positions in the Huntsville office, and there are Design, Web Development, Customer Service, and Editorial positions open in the San Francisco office. Check them out and see if anything is a good fit. Being a gamer who is active in online communities will be a huge help (tell that to your parents!).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you visit any of Curse’s properties?

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?

Petplan

Willy Franzen — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:25:34 +0000

You can get insurance for just about anything. In the past we’ve featured companies that insure vocal chords, good (or bad) weather, and cars, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg (the Titanic owners should have bought insurance for that one). Petplan is a Philadelphia, PA based company that offers pet insurance to cover unexpected veterinary care. Considering that animals are getting more and more advanced medical care, the costs of owning a pet are going up. Petplan offers pet owners protection from the double whammy of a sick pet and a big bill. Yet another Inc. 500 company, Petplan has seen 2,207% three-year growth to $18.7 million in revenue.

What’s Your Plan?

There’s no doubt that some people are crazy about their pets. I’m sure there’s some Tumblr blog out there that pokes fun at the ridiculous things people do to pamper their pets. In the grand scheme of things, insurance for your pet actually seems to make a lot of sense. And that’s why it shouldn’t be a surprise that Petplan is growing so quickly. Here’s how their insurance works, and here are some of their case studies. 90% of Petplan’s policy holders renew every year, so that’s a good sign that they’re keeping people and pets happy. If you love animals and can get excited about insurance, then Petplan may be a great place to start your career. If you look at their Jobs page, you’ll see that they have a number of positions posted including Happiness Manager, Claims Adjuster, Claims Administrator, and Claims Service Representative. Petplan looks like a really cool business, and their Meet the Team page shows how pet friendly they truly are.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you ever buy pet insurance?

Lulu

Willy Franzen — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:56:17 +0000

I realize that a lot of you are looking for something specific. You’re want a certain type of job at a certain type of company in a certain type of industry in a certain geographic location. I know that on most days the company that I write about won’t check all of your boxes. Instead of closing out the e-mail when you see something that doesn’t fit your criteria, use our daily write ups as a jumping off point–something to get you thinking in new directions in your job search. For instance, last week I wrote about Author Solutions. In doing research on them, I came across a few of their competitors. One that stood out was Lulu (not to be confused with lululemon). They’re a Raleigh, NC based company that has built an open publishing platform “that empowers more creators to sell more content to more readers more profitably than ever before.” It’s different from AuthorHouse in that Lulu doesn’t charge any upfront fees–they only get a cut when you make sales.

Are You a Lulu?

What’s a lulu? According to Lulu’s About page the “dictionary defines a lulu as a remarkable person, object or idea.” Lulu chose the name because they aim “to help remarkable people create and share their remarkable ideas with the world.” They’ve been doing it since 2002, and it’s working. Just look at their Success Stories. They best way to get to know Lulu is to play around with their platform. Browse the books that they sell while also walking through their demo. It’ll show you just how easy it is to use Lulu to publish your works–you can even have them put your book on Amazon or create an ebook version. If you like what Lulu is doing, take a look at their Jobs page. Right now they have a few options for new or recent grads including Customer Voice Associate, Product Manager – eCommerce, and UI Designer/Developer. Be a lulu!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever bought a book published by Lulu?

Author Solutions

Willy Franzen — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:55:10 +0000

It amazes me how many people dream of writing a book. I never had that dream, yet when a publisher came to me and pitched a book idea on career development, I jumped at the opportunity. I had no idea how hard it would be, and I ended up backing out because it was sucking up time that I should have been spending on my business. Most people aren’t anywhere near as lucky as I was. Getting a publisher to work with you on a first project is nearly impossible–though I watched a good friend of mine totally hack the process and get a deal for his book. Luckily, you don’t need a book deal to publish a book these days. If you’re willing to take all of the risk, self-publishing can be a great alternative. Author Solutions is the parent to a number of companies that serve this market. They’re located in Bloomington, IN, and they own both the largest and second-largets print on demand companies in the U.S.

A Solution for Your Job Search

When I started doing research on Author Solutions, I came across a lot of negative blog posts and comments. It seems that the self-publishing industry can be extremely controversial, and Author Solutions is a big target because of their size. The term vanity press gets thrown around a lot, as it seems that some people don’t think it’s fair to charge an author to publish his or her book. Others are more direct with their criticism of Author Solutions’ services. It’s hard to say how much of this is accurate and how much is sour grapes from authors who paid a lot of money to publish a book that would never sell no matter who published it. I still think that Author Solutions has built a business that is worth at least taking a look at.

Author Solutions has published more than 140,000 titles, and I’m sure that number will continue to grow. They operate a bunch of businesses, and those include AuthorHouse, AuthorHouse UK, iUniverse, Trafford, Xlibris, AuthorHive, WordClay, lnkubook, Palibrio, and Author Learning Center. Through these different businesses Author Solutions is able to offer a wide range of author services including Editorial Services, Illustrations, Book & Cover Design, Publicity, Promotion, Distribution, Online Sales, and Bookstore Sales. If working in any of these areas sounds interesting to you, then you should take a look at Jobs at Author Solutions. Right now they have a ton of openings that might interest new or recent grads including:

Lots of options here, so give them all a good look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you ever self-publish a book?

charity: water

Willy Franzen — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:36:13 +0000

For me water is all about recreation. It’s a place to fish, swim, kayak, and hopefully one day learn how to surf. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy drinking water–I’ve had servers at restaurant tell me that I drink more water than any other customer they’ve served–but it’s mostly an afterthought. Unfortunately, for nearly a billion people across the globe water is neither fun nor an afterthought. “Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.” charity: water is a non-profit organization that is “bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.” They’re based in New York, NY, but they’re doing work all over the world. One of the most interesting things about charity: water is that they’re able to put 100% of the public donations that they receive towards clean water projects. This is possible because a small group of private donors has committed to covering the organization’s operating expenses.

charity: job

I’d had my eye on charity: water for a while. I knew that they were getting a lot of attention, and I figured that they’d have to have jobs and internships available at some point. A reader alerted me that they were hiring right now, so I was excited to finally give them a closer look. According to the charity: water home page, they have funded 3,962 projects in 19 countries with 25 local partners. These projects have brought clean water to 1,794,983 people so far. That’s an unbelievable number, but it’s kind of scary to think that they’ve only served 2% of the population in need. They still have a long way to go, which is why they seem to be growing quickly. If you’re moved by the the charity: water mission then you’ll want to check out their Jobs page. Right now they have a few opportunities for new or recent grads including Digital Assistant, Software Developer, Front-End Developer, Water Programs Officer – East Africa, and Curator of the Well. There are some really exciting positions here, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about charity: water?