Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to play with your toys! I may be an adult, but toys still make up a significant part of the gifts I get. I’m hoping that never changes. While LEGOs weren’t on my Christmas list, I’m sure that plenty of kids and adults were thrilled to get them yesterday. That’s why we’re going to take a look at The LEGO Group, a Billund, Denmark based family-owned company (with a number of U.S. locations) that has built a billion dollar business on little colored plastic blocks. Much to the dismay of some LEGO enthusiasts, the growth has come through increasingly more complex sets and lots of cross-branding, but the magic of a bucket full of random LEGO pieces and endless opportunities still exists.

It’s a Block Party

LEGOs are the perfect combination of fun and education. There are a lot of educational toys out there that kind of suck, and there are a lot of fun toys out there that can’t teach you anything. LEGOs bridge that gap and open up your imagination and spatial reasoning skills. We even used them in my 8th grade science class to learn about how things like gears work. What I think is most interesting about The LEGO Group is that they’ve been able to build a brand strong enough to allow them to keep centering their business around little pieces of plastic. Not many other toy companies can do that. I thought of The LEGO Group because a reader e-mailed me a few months ago to tell me that she landed a job with them. The LEGO Group Jobs site isn’t all that easy to use–there are a ton of job postings and no easy way to browse them. Your best bet is to use their Search by Location and Search by Category functions. I’ve still got some toys to play with, so I’m not going to list their entry level jobs for you today, but I’m sure you can find them on your own!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• LEGO.com
• JobsAtLEGO.com
• About The LEGO Group
• LEGO Facts and Figures
• LEGO News

What did you get for Christmas?

Take a second and think of your favorite toy growing up. Was it a Barbie? Matchbox Car? American Girl Doll? View-Master? Magic 8 Ball? Rock’em Sock’em Robots? Hot Wheels? Polly Pocket? Even if it wasn’t one of those, there’s a good chance that it was made by Mattel. I’m sure that you’ve heard of the El Segundo, CA headquartered toy company before, but I bet you never realized just how many toys they actually make. Not only do they have some of the biggest toy names in the world, but they’re also behind all of Fisher-Price’s toys. If you always wanted to be like Tom Hanks in Big and work for a toy company, Mattel is your chance to live every child’s dream.

All Work and No Play Makes You a Dull Job Seeker

Usually, the problem with companies that seem really cool (especially in the fashion industry from what I hear) is that they know they’re hot stuff. That means that they treat their employees like commodities because they know that there’s always someone who wants to work for their brand. This isn’t the case with Mattel according to the FORTUNE list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Despite the fact that they did go through some layoffs last year, Mattel appears to be hiring now for quite a few positions. There is a Campus Recruiting section on the Mattel Careers site; however, it doesn’t say anything about entry level jobs.

To get the scoop on what kind of opportunities Mattel has, you’re going to have to dive into their Applicant Tracking System instead. Their are 54 jobs posted right now, and a few look suitable for new grads. They include Mechanical Engineer(New York, NY), Associate Art Director – American Girl (Middleton, WI), Key Account Coordinator – Fisher-Price (East Aurora, NY), Key Account Representative (Brondby, Denmark), and Child Testing Researcher (El Segundo, CA). Mattel’s locations El Segundo, CA; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; East Aurora, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Middleton, WI; Minneapolis, MN; and New York, NY, so keep that in mind if you don’t see something posted that fits what you’re looking for. You can apply for all of the jobs directly from Mattel’s Applicant Tracking System (which isn’t all that bad compared to others that I’ve dealt with).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Mattel.com
• Jobs at Mattel
• Campus Recruiting at Mattel
• About Mattel
• Mattel’s History
• Mattel’s Toys
• Mattel’s Investor Relations Site
• Mattel’s Locations

What was your favorite Mattel toy?