by Willy Franzen on August 22, 2008
Does job searching ever make you feel like a total idiot? You go to a company’s website. You look for their Careers page. You can’t find it. You look all over the place. You search Google. Finally, you find it. It doesn’t do you much good, though, because their job listings are difficult to navigate, the links that you bookmark don’t work when you try to come back, and you can’t figure out how to apply online for the jobs. This is a surprisingly common experience, and it’s representative of the complete ignorance to user experience that many companies and applicant tracking system providers show. Adaptive Path is a company that is all about user experience. They help other companies provide more usable products and services through consulting, training, workshops, and thought leadership. They also have a simple Jobs page that leaves no room for confusion (although it is a bit hard to find because they call it “Work with Us.”
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by Willy Franzen on August 13, 2008
We’re trying to figure out what the :: in thunder::tech is all about. All that we can come up with is that it reminds us of the analogies section of the SATs (some of you are probably too young to have experienced that, since the College Board dumped analogies a few years ago); although, the SAT analogies were in the form of:
One Day, One Job : entry-level jobs :: buffalo sauce : wings
If you have a better analogy for us, we’d love to hear from you in the comments. We’d also love to hear from you if you know what the :: in thunder::tech is about. thunder::tech “is a web design shop, ad agency, PR firm, and design & branding studio all rolled into one.” They are an unbelievably fun company to research (but their website is totally distracting, in a good way), and they seem like an awesome place to start a career.
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by Willy Franzen on July 29, 2008
There are two kinds of people – those who think that lolcats are the funniest things in the world and those who think that they are symbolic of the sheer stupidity of humanity. I guess there’s also a third kind of person – the ones who are asking, “What’s a lolcat?” This is a lolcat. So is this. This is why lolcats speak the way that they do (if you’re really confused, you can read this About page). I Can Has Cheezburger? is a website that has its entire revenue model based on pictures of cats with funny captions – better known as lolcats. If you’ve stayed with us this long (and haven’t left to go look at pictures of kittehs or in disgust at the not-funniness of lolcats), then you’re clearly intrigued at the prospect of making a living off the backs of lolcats.
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by Willy Franzen on July 24, 2008
The idea for today’s post came straight from a reader and friend. She graduated a few months ago and has been looking for entry-level jobs in event planning since. She told us about one company that she was really excited about, but asked us not to post about it until she was either working for them or had landed another job. She recently landed a job doing exactly what she wants to do (big congratulations to her), so we’re free to tell you about hip consulting group, a boutique event management firm. They definitely offer internships, and they seem amenable to hiring new grads, so they’re definitely worth a look for anyone who has an interest in event planning.
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by Willy Franzen on July 21, 2008
Are you an adventurous job seeker? We want to try out a new job search technique, and we need volunteers. Click here if you’re intrigued.
Now that’s out of the way, I’m going to tell you something embarrassing. When I was younger, I used to watch a tv show called Pepper Ann on ABC’s One Saturday Morning. When I hear the name Pepperjam, it reminds me how much of a loser I was for watching that show. Now that I’ve admitted that, I can try to regain your trust in my judgment by telling you that Pepperjam looks like an extremely fun company to work for. Their office has “Free Pizza Fridays, Ping Pong, video games (ie: Nintendo Wii, Guitar Hero), free Red Bull and music all day.” Almost sounds like a frat house without the beer… and I bet the floors aren’t sticky either.
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by Willy Franzen on July 16, 2008
Remember when sharing photos meant getting doubles or triples printed at the photo processor? In just 5 years, that practice has almost completely disappeared as we’ve seen services like Flickr and Facebook Photos eat up the market. Free services are great, but they’re much better for letting people view your pictures than they are for letting people actually download your pictures. There are a lot of people who are really serious about their photos, and these services often don’t cut it for them. SmugMug is a a startup that offers premium photo sharing services.
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by Willy Franzen on July 15, 2008
When you hear how McMurry first started, it’s easy to understand how they have maintained a customer-centric view for almost 20 years. McMurry began as a marketing department within a large company – the same group that they now serve. This is where Preston V. McMurry Jr. created Vim & Vigor, a custom marketing magazine for his health-system employer, in 1984. The magazine didn’t make money for the company, but McMurry decided to buy the magazine. This led to the formation of his own company in 1989. McMurry is now a full service marketing communications firm with multiple locations. They used to be the clients whom they serve, so they’re not full of it when they say “full service.”
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by Willy Franzen on July 10, 2008
Since we’ve hit you with more technical jobs over the past few days, we figure that we owe it to those of you who aren’t programmers to cover some more traditional jobs. And what could be more traditional than working for a major publishing house in New York City? If that sounds like something that intrigues you, then you should take a look at the Penguin Group and their entry-level jobs. They don’t appear to have a distinct college hiring program like Random House’s Associates Program, but they do have plenty of jobs that require little or no previous work experience.
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by Willy Franzen on July 7, 2008
If you haven’t realized it yet, we’re big fans of social media. Twitter, Youtube, Blogs, etc. The better a company’s recruiting social media profile, the more likely we are to take notice of their jobs and write about them. We first found out about ZURB through one of their employees’ tweets on Twitter. We were impressed to see that they’re also blogging, Youtubing, and StandoutJobbing. What’s Standout Jobs? It’s a company that’s bringing Corporate Careers sites into the Web 2.0 world. Here’s ZURB on Standout Jobs. Before you go diving into ZURB’s social media profiles, you’ll probably want to know what they’re all about. ZURB “helps companies design better web sites, services, and products online.” They do so by helping other companies with user interface (UI) design, product strategy, identity design, SEO and SEM, team building, visual design, and grassroots un-marketing.
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by Willy Franzen on July 2, 2008
Waiting tables isn’t what most new college grads want to do with the degree they (or their parents) just spent 5 to 6 figures on. In most cases that makes sense, but with the Chicago based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises even jobs waiting tables can lead towards a career in restaurant management. LEYE is a restaurant empire – they have over 70 restaurants and somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 employees. Restaurant management is tough when you have one location to watch over, but somehow founder and CEO Richard Melman has been able to repeatedly launch and then manage successful restaurants.
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by Willy Franzen on June 27, 2008
I used to be that kid who would come home from college, see someone who was in my 3rd grade class, and want to say hi. “Hey, I’m Willy Franzen, you sat next to me in Mrs. Phoenix’s class while we learning about multiplication. Do you remember me?” Questions like that would typically be returned with a blank stare. At some point I realized that just because I could remember almost anything, I didn’t have to make a fool of myself like that. Now that I’ve started a business and I’m constantly thinking of new ideas to help you all find great entry-level jobs, my brain has turned into swiss cheese. I have an almost constant feeling that I’m forgetting something. I can still remember my 3rd grade classmates, but those new ideas of how to double One Day, One Job’s daily readership with 5 minutes of work seem to escape me quite quickly. I need a 2nd memory, and Evernote is a web based service/application that can provide me with one.
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by Willy Franzen on June 26, 2008
In case you couldn’t tell by our post about Apple’s entry-level jobs, we’re really big Steve Jobs fans. That’s why we’re going to look at another one of the Steve’s projects (one that you probably didn’t even know was his) for exciting career opportunities for new grads. Steve Jobs started Apple, but left in 1985 after some disagreement with the board of directors. That left him with a lot of money and a lot of free time, so he did what any creative genius would do and purchased Lucasfilms’ computer graphics division from George Lucas for $10 million in 1986. It eventually turned into Pixar, which has put out computer generated classics such as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. Pixar was bought by Disney in 2006, which made Steve Jobs Disney’s largest individual shareholder. Now that you know that Steve is even more of a genius than you previously thought he was, let’s look at what kind of entry-level opportunities Pixar offers.
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by Willy Franzen on June 25, 2008
Now that it’s summer, it may be hard to think back to having the sniffles and feeling a cold coming on, but try your hardest. You probably heard from various friends and family members who swear by this remedy or that remedy. Chicken soup. Zinc. Naps. Vitamin C. Ahhh…. Vitamin C. Some people swear by it, and others think that they’re nuts. You can drink OJ, use Airborne, or take Emergen-C – my favorite. You can also swallow cheap Vitamin C pills, but that’s no fun. Airborne got slapped with a false advertising suit for making claims that their product has the “ability to cure or prevent the common cold.” They settled for $23.3 million. Emergen-C doesn’t make such aggressive claims, although they do say that their product will “give your immune system a fighting chance.” In reality, it’s not all that important. Emergen-C is absolutely delicious, especially when mixed with orange juice. If it even makes you think that you’re going to feel better after taking it, then it’s doing its job – at least we know that it’s not less effective than Airborne.
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by Willy Franzen on June 13, 2008
Judging from the attention that our post about IDEO’s jobs received, a lot college students must be fascinated by process of innovation and its reliance on design. We certainly are. Whether it’s the way the office is laid out at your first entry-level job or the comfort of the chair at your first desk, design will have a huge effect on your productivity in life. In fact, good design is often what separates what you like from what you don’t like. Ziba Design is a Portland, OR based company that is obsessed with “understanding people, brands and technology.” That actually sound a lot like yesterday’s company MindShare’s mission statement, but don’t worry, Ziba is looking to do something very different with this understanding.
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by Willy Franzen on June 11, 2008
Yesterday we talked about a company that is using the iPhone to improve the field of medicine, but today we’re going to talk about a company that is using mobile platforms to give you better access to sites like BaboonTunes.com. Hey, it might not be life saving, but everyone (ok, some people) love silly ringtones. I mean, would you rather be able to look up a drug to make sure it doesn’t interact with another drug that your patient is already taking or have a monkey hooting for your ringtone? Yeah, we thought you’d pick the ringtone – you don’t have patients. That’s not all they do though, Fli Digital is a web software development agency on Long Island that looks like a pretty fun place to work.
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by Willy Franzen on June 6, 2008
I spent last summer building One Day, One Job – the site, the idea, and the business. A lot has changed since then, but I remember that the test post that remained on the home page through much of the site’s development was titled “Hello.” Today’s post will be a fitting replacement as it is also titled “Hello,” and it is about web development. Hello is a Culver City, CA based interactive design agency. They have an extremely impressive portfolio, and they also look to be hiring at the entry-level.
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by Willy Franzen on June 4, 2008
There’s nothing better than free wifi. Ok, there are a lot of things better than free wifi, but it’s still pretty great. Opening up your laptop in an airport to see that it costs $9.95 for 30 minutes of Internet use is really irritating. So is trying to connect to a network called “Free Public WiFi” and not being able to get online – here’s the explanation for that. JiWire is a company that helps you get online, wherever you are. They not only help you find available WiFi hotspots, but they also “subsidize access fees with premium, location-driven advertising.”
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by Willy Franzen on June 3, 2008
People don’t typically associate technology and innovation with Detroit and the auto industry. Whether it’s deserved or not, American car manufacturers have a pretty weak reputation these days. It’s unfortunate because the decline of the Big Three has seriously hurt the entire Michigan economy. That’s why you see these commercials with Jeff Daniels that try to sell businesses on a Michigan location. Armstrong White is exactly the type of company that is going to bring jobs back to Michigan. They have built a business in Bloomfield Hills, MI that directly serves the auto industry, but is also high tech and extremely innovative. No, they haven’t developed some sort of alternative energy technology. They specialize “in rendering reality out of automotive 2D and 3D assets and digital landscapes for print, broadcast and interactive mediums.”
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by Willy Franzen on May 29, 2008
Most people like shoes. They protect your feet, offer support, and keep you warm. Some people love shoes – love them to the point that their loved ones (not the shoes) are likely worried about them. Oddly enough, the people who deeply love shoes often seem most interested in shoes that barely protect their feet, offer little support, and provide little or no warmth. We don’t really get that. Zappos.com puts these people to shame. As a company they have a shoe obsession that is far worse than that of the most Sex and the City addicted, Daily Candy reading, New York City fashionista. Why do we say that? Because Zappos.com is obsessed with everything shoes, not just the shoes of some designer whose name you’re supposed to know.
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by Willy Franzen on May 27, 2008
There’s no getting around it – when it comes to the web, how you look matters. The easiest way to separate a spammy site from a quality site is a quick glance at the design. Yes, there are examples like Google and Craigslist that have become wildly successful despite (or because of) their sparse designs, but they are rare exceptions. When a visitor hits a web page, there are just a few seconds to convince the visitor not to press the back button. There is almost no better way to draw in and engage a visitor than a beautiful, usable design. Judging from Viget Labs’ own site as well as those of their clients, we’re pretty sure they understand the importance of great web design. Beyond design, they also help their clients focus on creating “solid web strategies” and developing “functional applications that actually work” while leveraging “the latest online marketing tactics to grow their reach.”
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by Willy Franzen on May 25, 2008
I grew up in suburban Connecticut, but I spent a lot time outdoors, both around my house and in more wild places. During my childhood I rarely saw deer, turkeys, coyotes, or hawks. Only a few times did I ever hear or see a woodpecker. Seeing wildlife was special. As I got older that began to change. I see all of the above relatively often now, and I swear that I hear a woodpecker banging away every day now. I definitely consider this a victory for local conservationists who have worked hard to save and bring back wildlife habitats; however, I also know that many species of flora and fauna are still in danger across the world. Conservation International is an organization whose mission statement should be “saving life on Earth.” Instead they have chosen the slightly less terse:
We believe that the Earth’s natural heritage must be maintained if future generations are to thrive spiritually, culturally, and economically. Our mission is to conserve the Earth’s living heritage – our global biodiversity – and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.
Either way, they’re doing great work towards helping the world balance the needs of society with nature.
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by Willy Franzen on May 9, 2008
Jeremy Schoemaker is ShoeMoney. ShoeMoney is probably best known for his picture of the check. Using AdSense, Google’s advertising platform for web publishers, he made $132,994.97 in one month. Since then, he’s had amazing success with marketing ringtones through affiliate deals and a project called AuctionAds, which allows web publishers to market eBay auctions on their sites. There are a lot of web startups that seem glamorous because of their big ideas, but they often lack profitability and end up in the deadpool. ShoeMoney Media Group ignores the glitz and goes where the money is. They follow 3 core principles: embrace new trends and look for opportunities to exploit them; focus on what you know; and small changes can equal big revenue. There is an absolutely insane amount of information about ShoeMoney on the web, so get researching. Google ShoeMoney, visit ShoeMoney’s blog, and read his hilarious, but honest post about his 10 worst money making ideas. There’s also a short BusinessWeek article about ShoeMoney that you should read. It focuses on how he makes money online teaching other people how to make money online.
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by Willy Franzen on May 2, 2008
Today’s post is coming live (ok, not quite so live) from Cornell University, where it’s Slope Day! For those who aren’t familiar with Slope Day, it’s Cornell’s version of Spring Weekend. In other words, it’s the last day of classes, when college students do all those stupid things (and often take photographs of themselves doing them) that they’ll have to hide from employers on Facebook. It’s a really big, campus-wide party. If today is your Spring Weekend, we urge you to behave yourselves well enough that your actions today don’t ruin any chance of future employment. Still, we want you to enjoy the day and have some fun. You’ve worked hard and earned it. Instead of writing about a company that reinforces bad behavior, we’ve chosen to feature a company that supports one of our favorite Slope Day traditions – funny group t-shirts. CustomInk is an online provider of custom t-shirts.
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by Willy Franzen on April 29, 2008
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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by Willy Franzen on April 1, 2008
We’ve been thinking for months about ways to trick our readers for April Fools’ Day. We considered writing about six figure entry-level jobs or telling you that we are selling out to the evil Monster.com, but nothing really seemed all that funny – or believable. The web is rife with great pranks on April 1st, and we’re just going to stay out of it. Instead we’ve found a company that is not only relevant to today’s holiday, but is also hiring new college grads for entry-level positions. We’re talking about the Motley Fool, a company that aims to “educate, entertain, and enrich” its customers with excellent financial advice. What company could be better to feature on April Fools’ Day than the one that owns Fool.com?
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by Willy Franzen on March 31, 2008
Job searching can be a lot like rock climbing. There’s a goal in mind. The path isn’t always obvious. And sometimes you need to take a step backwards to continue your progress. It definitely helps to have a spotter, or belay, too (whether it be your parents, Career Services office, or us). In the end, both activities are exhausting, exhilarating, and trying. What better way to reward yourself for your hard work than… an energy bar? Sure, why not. And who is better to supply you with your post-climb (or post-interview) snack than Clif Bar & Company?
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by Willy Franzen on March 26, 2008
Looking for a Gilt Groupe invitation? Here’s our Gilt invite link.
If you just looked at the tags on our posts, you would think that today’s company has a lot in common with Moosejaw, whom we talked about yesterday. That couldn’t be much further from the truth. The fact that both sell clothing online by creating a unique brand identity is about the only similarity. While Moosejaw relies on irreverent humor to sell products, the Gilt Groupe uses viral exclusivity to woo customers. It’s interesting to see more and more integration between typical web startup ideas and traditional business models. Gilt Groupe is a perfect example of a company that has secured funding by adding a dash of Web 2.0 flavor to a tried and true brick and mortar business model.
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by Willy Franzen on March 14, 2008
We couldn’t resist ourselves. We’re math nerds (who have a fondness for offbeat holidays), and we love Pi Day. For those of you who don’t get it, March fourteenth or 3/14 represents the first 3 digits of pi. That means that at 1:59:26, the date and time will represent 8 digits of pi. How do we celebrate Pi Day besides coming up with a pi-related job for you? We take recommendations from PiDay.org and eat pies and other circularly shaped delicacies while reciting as many digits of pi as we can from memory. Hey, we never claimed to be cool. We went back and forth about what kind of job to feature, and even asked a math teacher for recommendations. We found a company called Pi Media that we just couldn’t pass up, so there won’t be any jobs in math, private investigation, or baking today. Sorry.
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by Willy Franzen on February 25, 2008
At the beginning of the month, we wrote about entry-level jobs at Netflix, today we’re going to talk about a company that has adopted the same business model, but is radically different in what they rent. Bag Borrow or Steal is a subscription service that enables you to “borrow” designer handbags and jewelry. There’s no need to spend big bucks on an item that you’ll use six times a year, when you can instead borrow (read: rent) six different designer items that will ensure that you’re always looking trendy. Now you can be like those movie stars who wear OPA (other people’s accessories) for big events like the Oscars (which we didn’t watch last night).
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by Willy Franzen on February 24, 2008
Most kids beg their parents to take them to the zoo. Animals are exciting. They move. They eat. They make sounds. They smell bad. Plants have none of those appeal factors. Plants don’t move, they grow. They absorb their nutrients. They’re soundless. And they smell good (most of them anyways). To most kids that spells B-O-R-I-N-G. The zoo is an 86-minute comedy movie, while a botanical garden is 142 minutes of Academy Award winning cinematic genius. It might take a little growing up to appreciate plants for all they’re worth, but when you really start to observe plants, it’s hard not to start to enjoy their “personality.” Maybe that wasn’t the best way to start off today’s post, since there’s a good chance that those of our readers who will actually want these jobs have loved flora since they were old enough to crawl around their parents’ garden.
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