One Day, One Job » Delaware

Sleepy’s

Willy Franzen — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:35:04 +0000

I will never understand why Presidents’ Day is such a big retail holiday. I tried doing some research, and all I could find was that the Federal holiday is still known as Washington’s Birthday, but it’s commonly known as Presidents’ Day because so many retailers use the name. There’s no explanation for why the sales started happening in mid-February, and it’s even more puzzling that the sales are focused on durable goods like cars and mattresses. But that’s the way it is, and since we’re talking about mattresses, I think we should take a look at Sleepy’s. They are based in Hicksville, NY with 700+ showrooms across Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. It all adds up to make them the “largest mattress retailer in the world.” Sleepy’s tv advertisements are ubiquitous, so it’s nearly impossible for me to think about mattresses with out thinking Sleepy’s (and hearing their jingle in my head).

Don’t Sleep on Sleepy’s

An average day for Sleepy’s means delivering more than 3,000 mattresses. Add that up over a year, and you get over a million mattresses. I wonder how many of them are sold during Presidents’ Day week. Sleepy’s doesn’t stray too far from the mattress business. They do sell some bedding and furniture, but those selections seem to be pretty limited. Sleepy’s appears to sell all of the major brands of mattresses, and they’re willing to stand behind the products they sell (even if they don’t make them) with their Comfort Exchange Policy and their 8 Year Comfort Guarantee. If all this talk about mattresses gets you excited instead of sleepy, then you should check out Sleepy’s Careers page. I’ll warn you that even though the Careers page looks ok despite all the stock photography, their job search function is barely usable. There’s no simple listing of all of their jobs, and when you run a search with all categories selected, you get results that aren’t that helpful. Despite all this, I’ve found a few positions that you might want to take a look at including:

Those are the jobs that seem most appropriate for new grads; however, there are also a ton of sales positions available at Sleepy’s retail locations. I’ve heard they have a pretty extensive training program, so you may want to check those out too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What kind of mattress do you sleep on?

Benzinga

Willy Franzen — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:20:45 +0000

I have a simple investment strategy: Buy AAPL. I’ve had a few other winners, but Apple is the reason that my portfolio is up over the past 5 years. I’m not much of a trader, so I typically buy a stock and hold it indefinitely. If I took a different approach to investing, I might want to spend time on Benzinga. It’s “an innovative news and analysis service that focuses on global markets” and is intended for developing “actionable trading ideas.” Benzinga has offices in Chicago, IL and Dover, DE, but it’s very clear from their Careers page that everything important happens in the Southfield, MI office… very clear. There’s something about Benzinga’s site that reminds me of a social gaming site, which I guess is appropriate since stock trading is the ultimate social game.

Zing!

Benzinga has its own editorial and research team, so they’re not just aggregating financial news and spitting it back to you. They actually focus on three key areas: real-time news, actionable trading ideas and insightful commentary.” It’s hard for me to judge how good the content is considering that I’m not a trader, but Benzinga seems to have generated a good amount of buzz in the finance community. I’m pretty sure that I had heard of Benzinga before, but yesterday someone from their team reached out to me to tell me about some of their positions for new grads. I took a look at their Careers page (which is all about Michigan), and saw some great entry level positions. Their current openings include:

Developer/Programmer Ninja
User Interface / User Experience Expert
News Desk
Talented Writers
Business Developer
Public Relations Guru

There are some great opportunities here to dive in deep early in your career. Take a look at the positions and see if Benzinga’s offer of Faygo (why not Vernors?), Bigby Coffee, Moosejaw tees, and U of M or MSU football tickets is enough to woo you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you checked out Benzinga?

Volunteers of America

Willy Franzen — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:22:13 +0000

When you’re job searching, volunteering is a great way to both put your skills to use and develop new skills. There are countless non-profit organization that put volunteers to work in situations where they can really make a difference. One of our country’s largest volunteer organizations is Volunteers of America, which is a faith-based non-profit headquartered in Alexandria, VA. With their staff of 16,000 paid employees and 70,000 volunteers, they’re able to help “more than 2 million people in over 400 communities in 48 states.” Since the organization was founded in 1896, they “have supported and empowered America’s most vulnerable groups, including at-risk youth, the frail elderly, men and women returning from prison, homeless individuals and families, people with disabilities, and those recovering from addictions.” An organization that has been around as long as Volunteers of America has must adapt to changes over the years. While they continue to remain focused on providing neighborly aid to all people, it looks like Volunteers of America is putting more emphasis on helping the growing population of aging Americans.

Volunteer for a Job

Volunteers of America has a nice video on their About page that goes more in-depth in describing how they work and what they do. I’ve embedded it below (e-mail readers need to click through).

Volunteers of America also has this Overview sheet that provides some really specific information about the organization’s work. If you’re moved by their mission, then you’ll want to check out Volunteers of America’s job opportunities. They separate these into three groups: National Office, Nationwide, and Health Services. The Nationwide section actually has over 200 positions posted, along with 25 entry level opportunities, so it probably makes the most sense to check out. They have a wide range of opportunities, and they’re in a variety of locations, so you should be able to find something that piques your interest.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Volunteers of America?

ING Direct

Willy Franzen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:42:55 +0000

I’m a big proponent of making personal finance part of the job search. By managing your money wisely (even if you barely have any left), you’re creating a project for yourself that you can use to demonstrate to employers how you’ll be an effective employee. When I need information on personal finance, I always look to Ramit Sethi, the founder of a website called I Will Teach You To Be Rich and the author of a book by the same name (he also just launched a course on how to make money freelancing and he’s doing a free webinar tonight at 7 PM PST – affiliate links). One thing that he strongly recommends is using online banks that offer high interest rates and great easy to use features. One of these banks is ING Direct, which is headquartered in Wilmington, DE. While you may have noticed that most banks are on a real estate binge as they try to gain customers, ING Direct is doing the opposite. They operate almost entirely “in the cloud.” Since they “believe saving money should be as simple as having a cup of coffee,” they do have cafés in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Wilmington, Chicago, St. Cloud, and Honolulu where you can ” sip a latte, surf the Internet for free and talk to [them] about how [they] can help you Save Your Money.” And by keeping a low overhead, ING Direct is able to offer better interest rates and fewer fees, which gives them a huge advantage in winning over customers.

Saving Towards a Career

It may be hard to imagine not needing a brick and mortar bank, but ING Direct makes it work. They have a huge ATM network, they’ll write and mail your checks for you, and they make transferring money between accounts simple. It’s the way that you’ll expect to bank in the future, but ING Direct is doing it now. ING Direct is owned by ING, the Dutch financial institution, but it seems that they act quite independently—they’re not like other banks. This is where banking is headed, so ING Direct should be the place to be if you want to work in “retail” banking. To get started, you need to check out ING Direct’s Jobs page. You’ll see that in addition to their Wilmington, DE location, they also have offices in St. Cloud, MN; Los Angeles, CA; and Seattle, WA. There are dozens of positions posted, and quite a few of them appear suitable for new grads. Most of these positions fall into one of three categories: Sales, Analyst, or IT/Software Development; however, there are a few exceptions like Interactive Advertising Designer and Card Dispute Associate. Unfortunately, ING Direct’s applicant tracking system is kind of terrible, so it makes it impossible for me to link to specific positions. You’ll have to browse through the listings yourself, and apply through their submission form.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you have an ING Direct account?

Public Allies

Willy Franzen — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:30:23 +0000

I happen to work with someone who knows a thing or two about leadership development. We’ve already developed one product to help future leaders land a job, and we have more in the pipeline. That’s why Public Allies caught my interest when a friend recently told me that they are hiring. They’re a Milwaukee, WI based non-profit that aims to “advance new leadership to strengthen communities, nonprofits and civic participation.” They do this in three ways: putting diverse young adults through a paid full-time nonprofit apprenticeships, engaging and growing an alumni network of diverse leaders, and helping leaders and organizations better harness the assets of diverse teams and communities through training and consulting programs.

Join the Allies

By holding “the conviction that everyone leads,” Public Allies is creating a permanent network of leaders who are committed to a concerted effort to initiate positive change. They’re doing this where they’re headquarted in Milwaukee as well as in Phoenix, AZ; Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH; Bridgeport, CT; Wilmington, DE; Estes Park, CO; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Albuquerque, NM; New York, NY; Durham, NC; Pittsburgh, PA; San Antonio, TX; and Milpitas, CA. Their Ally Program is the first thing that may interest you. It’s a 10-month full-time Americorps apprenticeship that puts you to work at a non-profit in your community. You can check out the application and eligibility requirements here. Beyond this program, Public Allies also has a number of job openings. They’re not necessarily entry level, but the following positions (all located in Chicago, IL) might be worth looking at: Program Support Coordinator, Program Director, and Program Manager / Leadership Series Coordinator. You can find specific application information on the individual job postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever heard of Public Allies?

W.L. Gore & Associates

Willy Franzen — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:59:17 +0000

This week One Day, One Job is coming to you from the Northern woods of Michigan, which means that I have fly fishing on my mind. At least half my days up here are spent in waders—boots that go all the way up to your chest so that you can walk around in the river without getting wet—which gave me a great idea for a company to feature today. Newark, DE based W.L. Gore & Associates “is a leading manufacturer of thousands of advanced technology products for the electronics, industrial, fabrics and medical markets,” but they are most relevant to me (and probably to you too) as the company behind GORE-TEX®. If you’re not familiar with it, GORE-TEX® is a waterproof fabric that is breathable. That means that waders and rain jackets that are made out of GORE-TEX® not only keep you dry from the water on the outside, but they also keep you from drenching yourself with sweat on the inside.

Stay Dry with Gore

Most of Gore’s products are probably things that you won’t notice in your every day life, but they really hit the consumer products jackpot with GORE-TEX®. When you realize how important the other products that they manufacture are to everything that you do, I guarantee that you’ll be impressed. The good news on Gore is that beyond making amazing products, they’re also an amazing place to work. They’ve been named to FORTUNE magazines list of “100 Best Companies to Work for in America” every year since the list has been published, and it all can be attributed to Gore’s fabulous their culture. They have an excellent Careers site and even have a special section with Opportunities for New Graduates that lists the following positions: Process Engineer, Product Development Associate, Manufacturing Engineering/Operations Associate, Application Engineer, Process Control Engineer, Operations Management Associate, and Technical Sales Associate. Unfortunately that page doesn’t tell you were to go to apply for these jobs. Your best bet for applying is to use Gore’s job search function to search for jobs that match these titles (or you can just check the box “Early-Career Professional”). They also offer the option to apply for an unlisted position, so that might be a good thing to try too. They certainly could make things a little more clear for new grads though.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite GORE-TEX® application?

Great Place to Work Institute

Willy Franzen — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:09:27 +0000

We’ve said before that using magazine lists to find a job can be extremely helpful in terms of idea generation. Today we’re going to talk about the company that is behind two of the most helpful magazine lists for job searchers. The Great Place to Work Institute is responsible for compiling Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and HR Magazine’s Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America. After more than 20 years of research, the Institute has found that “trust between managers and employees is the primary defining characteristic of the best workplaces.” If you’re looking for a job where you can trust your manager, why not consider the company that is known for identifying great places to work?

It’s a… Great Place to Work

We don’t know for sure that the Great Place to Work Institute is in fact a great place to work, but it would be a sad state of affairs if it wasn’t. The Institute identifies 5 dimensions of a great place to work: credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. They also have an entire section of their website devoted to identifying what makes a great place to work. Additional emphasis is put on the fact that companies that are identified as great places to work see better business and financial outcomes. That’s probably why the Institute includes a graph that shows the 100 Best Places to Work have doubled the S&P 500′s performance between 1998 and 2007.

We can’t guarantee that the Institute practices what they preach, but it would be hard to believe if they didn’t. That’s why an entry-level job at the Great Place to Work Institute would be an awesome opportunity. There are 3 positions that look like they have the potential to be good fits for new college grads, although there are some mild experience requirements. In Wilmington, DE they’re looking for a Business Development Associate, and in San Francisco they’re looking for a Best Companies Project Coordinator and a Software Engineer. If you’re interested, the Institute asks that you please forward resume and cover letter (stating salary expectations and where
job posting was found) to jobs@greatplacetowork.com. The job postings are a quite long winded, but they get the point across. There’s also some interesting footer information on the postings. For instance, you can see who last edited it and how long they spent editing it. Not sure how useful this information will be to your job search, but make of it what you will.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

The banks of the Au Sable River in Michigan sure are a great place to work, but can someone please tell the rain to stop. It’s hard to fish with the water at record flows.