One Day, One Job » engineering

FindTheBest

Willy Franzen — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:38:30 +0000

I know some people who research their purchases to death. They end up never buying anything because new versions of the products come out before they can make a decision. It’s a never-ending process. I’m all for doing my due diligence before buying something expensive, but I try to make it as quick as possible. FindTheBest is a site that makes comparing anything super easy. They’re a Santa Barbara, CA company that offers “a powerful tool for making quick and informed decisions.” Whether you’re looking for the best breed of dog for your lifestyle or the best financial advisor in your area, FindTheBest offers you just the facts “stripped of any marketing influence.”

AreYouTheBest?

FindTheBest calls itself “an unbiased, data-driven comparison engine.” They rely on three sources for all of their data: public databases, primary sources (manufacturer websites) and expert sources. They pull it all together and put into an easily digestible format that is sortable and allows head to head comparisons. FindTheBest also offers what are called “SmartRatings”–one overall score compiled from a multitude of ratings. They give you all of the information you need to make a decision, no matter how deep you want to dive into the details. While FindTheBest does offer advertising (there’s the business model), they are very clear that they will not make it “difficult and time consuming to distinguish objective information from paid placements.” If you think FindTheBest might want to list you as one of their best, take a look at their Careers page. Right now they’re looking for a Software Developer/Engineer and a Front End Web Developer/Engineer. They also have paid internships in Business Development and Product Management, so those could be decent alternatives for non-techies.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried FindTheBest?

Instructure

Willy Franzen — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:20:32 +0000

When you’re a kid, you think that teachers have an easy job. They have good hours, lots of vacation with summers off, and they get to stand in front of a room and tell you what to do. As you get older, you start to realize that teaching also includes grading papers, planning lessons, communicating with parents, writing comments for report cards, and a whole lot more. A grade book just isn’t a good hub for managing all of this. Teachers need something industrial-strength, and that’s what Instructure provides with their Canvas Learning Management System. The Sandy, UT based company offers a suite of tools that enable teachers to spend way less time on administrative stuff, and more time teaching and working directly with students. They serve educators at all levels–from Kindergarten to some of the world’s top universities, which shows you just how flexible the Canvas platform is.

Follow Instructure

What do teachers want from a Learning Management System? Something that just works. Here’s Instructure’s video explanation of why the technology behind Canvas offers exactly that experience:

Go take a look at the product. You can sign up for an instant demo and get a feel for exactly how it works. There’s no better way to get to know a company than by using their product. If you like the feel of Canvas, then take a look at Instructure’s Careers page. Right now they have some great jobs for new or recent grads including:

UI/Web Designer
Database Admininstrator
Professional Services Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Marketing Web Developer
Marketing Writer
Search/Marketing Analyst

If you get excited about the nexus of education and technology, then a career with Instructure might be just what you’re looking for.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you have any experiences with Learning Management Systems?

Work Market

Willy Franzen — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:56:08 +0000

In college I studied Industrial and Labor Relations, which means that I spent four years focusing on the world of work. The curriculum covered everything from slavery and indentured servitude to unions and the movement of capital to find lower cost labor. The common theme was that the way that we define and think about work is constantly changing. Today’s trend is all about having a flexible workforce–people who can join on for a project form wherever they live and then move on to a new project with someone else. Work Market is a company that “give businesses access to an on-demand scalable work force along with tools to manage three categories of labor: employees, contractors and third parties.” Many businesses in this space focus on actually building the market where labor can find work, but Work Market takes it one step further and offers the software for businesses to build their own market.

Are You in the Market?

Work Market’s business is built on taking a cut of every assignment that they make happen. Their fees start at 9%, which sounds high, but is actually extremely competitive. The beauty of Work Market’s platform is that it covers everything that needs to be covered–things like background screening, tax compliance and filing, payment, competency validation, and lots more. We’re going to see more and more of this going forward–not only as a way to get work done but also as a hiring tool. Why use an interviewing process when you can have someone truly audition? If you like the approach that Work Market is taking, you can take a look at their Jobs page. Right now they have some great opportunities that could be a fit for a new or recent grad including: Client Service Professional, Visual / UX / UI Designer, Community Manager, and Operations Engineer. Check them out, or apply through the General Application.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you join Work Market?

CityGrid Media

Willy Franzen — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:35:13 +0000

Local businesses are about as old school as you can get–many of them have continued to succeed doing the same thing that they’ve done for decades or even centuries. There have certainly been advances that have changed that–refrigeration, digital cash registers, and the Yellow Pages are just a few, but nothing even compares to the Internet–especially the mobile Internet. Local businesses are now able to reach and interact with customers and potential customers in a way that they only could have dreamed of a few years ago. CityGrid Media is a West Hollywood, CA based “leading media company connecting consumers and businesses everywhere local happens.” You’re probably familiar with at least one of their properties which include Citysearch, Insider Pages, and Urbanspoon.

Fit into the Grid

Beyond CityGrid Media’s own sites, they run a local ad network that reaches more than 140 million people across more than 250 sites. By having a few significant content properties (they have listings on 18 million businesses), CityGrid Media put itself in the position to own the advertiser relationships. Those relationships enable CityGrid Media to partner with other publishers and reach a much broader audience. This page will give you a much better sense of what the ads and the content network look like. Beyond looking at that, you definitely need to browse Citysearch, Insider Pages, and Urbanspoon to get a better understanding for how CiyGrid Media operates. If you like what you see, then head over to their Careers page. Right now they have some great opportunities posted including:

Reseller Account Manager
Configuration Management Engineer
Financial Analyst
Ruby on Rails Engineer (Seattle, WA)
Big Thinking Software and QA Engineers
Critical Thinking Software Engineers (New Grad)

There are also a variety of Account Executive and Inside Sales positions in New York, NY; Atlanta, GA; San Francisco, CA; and West Hollywood, CA. They all require prior sales experience, but they may be worth checking out if that’s something you have.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite local business?

Coursera

Willy Franzen — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:11:48 +0000

Do you love local businesses? Help them get discovered with an Inside Sales job at SinglePlatform.

You’re not going to like this. You’ve paid a lot of money for a fancy education, and now some of the best universities in the world are giving it away for free. You still have to pay to get the piece of paper, but if you’re just looking for the knowledge, then you need to check out Coursera. They’re a Mountain View, CA based startup that is “partnering with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.” So far they’re working with Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan, and UPenn. It doesn’t get much better than that. What makes Coursera unique from things like MIT’s OpenCourseWare is that these classes are specifically created to be consumed online.

Stay the Coursera

On Coursera class size is only limited by demand. Coursera is designed to scale education to the point where hundreds of thousands of people can take the same course at the same time. Although there is some self-direction, the courses on Coursera are just like college course. They’re only given during a specific timeframe, and you get video lectures, course materials, homework, graded exercises, and even exams. It’s not intended to be casual learning. The one big question about Coursera is: What’s their business model? Despite their .org domain name, they are a for-profit company that just closed a $16 million round of venture capital funding. I’m not too worried as Coursera already has the platform and partnerships for success, but I’m certainly curious. If you want to be part of growing the business, take a look at Coursera’s Careers page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

Coursera has the potential really big, so grab this opportunity to get in while it’s still in its early stages.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which course on Coursera do you want to take?

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Willy Franzen — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:47:01 +0000

100 years ago today the Titanic sank. It wasn’t the world’s first transportation disaster, nor was it the last, but it’s the one that continues to captivate people. As a kid I was absolutely fascinated by the story of the Titanic–the unsinkable ship that sank. I had a few books on the topic that I read over and over again. I learned about Alvin, the deep sea submersible, and Jason Jr., the underwater robot, and how they were used to explore the Titanic once it was discovered in 1985 (by essentially dragging video cameras just above the ocean floor). The discovery and expeditions were partially done by teams from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which is a Woods Hole, MA based “non-profit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of all aspects of marine science and engineering and to the education of marine researchers.” If it has to do with ocean science and exploration, there’s an extremely good chance that the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is on top of it.

Under the Sea!

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution focuses its research on a number of areas including Climate & Ocean, Coastal Science, Hazards, Ocean Chemistry, Ocean Circulation, Ocean Life, Ocean Resources & Policy, Polar Research, Pollution, Seafloor & Below, Tools & Technology, and Underwater Archaeology. They employ all kinds of scientists to work on a vast array of programs and projects. If you have any interest at all in oceanography, you need to take some to browse the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution website. It’s well designed and packed with information. After that, the next step is to check out their Jobs page. While they don’t have anything that is tailor made for a new grad, the Engineering Assistant positions are worth checking out. There’s also a Information Systems Associate II/III position that could be a fit. Finally, they have Scientist and Postdoc positions that might interest you if you’ve gone well beyond undergrad in terms of education.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you fascinated by the Titanic?

Inkling

Willy Franzen — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:22:38 +0000

Today’s kids better be smarter and taller than our generation. Why? iPads. They’re amazing educational tools, and now they’re replacing textbooks. That means that today’s students not only should learn more quickly, but they can carry around a single device that weighs less than a pound and a half instead of a 40+ pound backpack filled with textbooks (and finally get back to standing upright). Inkling is a company that is making this beautiful future happen more quickly. They’re based in San Francisco, CA, and they’re building “a better textbook: one that [is] interactive and engaging, one that [takes] advantage of the opportunities afforded by new media like iPad.” They’re tearing away the assumptions that people make about books and moving in many different directions–literally. Even though Inkling calls what they do “interactive textbooks” to take advantage of familiar language, they really are building something completely new.

Do You Have an Inkling?

An earth shattering moment for me during high school was when I found online versions of some of the books I was reading in English class. I realized that I could now search these books for text, which made it infinitely easier to go back to specific passages I wanted to focus on while studying for a test. Inkling’s textbooks have search, and a whole lot more. You really need to check out their Features page and the videos on it to see how different the Inkling experience is from a dead tree book. If you want to dig deeper, you can go to the Inkling Store and download a free chapter from any of their books. I think you’ll be amazed. And if you are, then continue on to Inkling’s Jobs page. Right now they have some great positions for new or recent grads including Customer Support Analyst, Editorial Assistant, iOS Engineer, Javascript Engineer, and Platform Engineer – Cloud. These look like great opportunities, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used any iPad based textbooks?

Everyday Health

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:39:06 +0000

Guys. If you’re going to land a job, you need pants. And shoes. And shirts. And maybe even a jacket and tie. Looking good is important, which is why you should outfit yourself in Bonobos like I do. Here’s $25 off your first order. My gift to you.

I have no idea where people went to ask embarrassing health questions before the Internet. I guess you could have gone to a doctor, but it’s really nice to pre-educate yourself before you ask a professional. That’s why there’s ridiculous demand for health-related information online. Everyday Health is a company that has been reacting to this demand since they started in 2002. They are a New York, NY based company that provides “consumers, healthcare professionals, and brands with content and advertising-based services across a broad portfolio of over 25 websites that span the health spectrum.” If you ask Google and embarrassing health question, there’s a really good chance that you’ll end up on one of their sites. In 2010 they were averaging 26.5 million monthly unique visitor, which is just a massive amount of traffic–especially in a niche as valuable as health related information.

Everyday Jobs

While Everyday Health calls their sites “partners,” I think it would be more accurate to call them properties. Some are generic like Prostate.net and TopDentists.com, while others are based on partnerships with recognizable brands like MayoClinic.com, DeniseAustin.com, and JoyBauer.com. Each site is obviously targeted at a very specific niche and monetized accordingly through advertising. If you’re interested in online publishing and health/medicine, then you need to take a look at Everyday Health’s Jobs page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

These look like great opportunities, so don’t pass them up.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use the Internet to ask embarrassing health related questions?

MathWorks

Willy Franzen — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:48:59 +0000

Reasoning Mind is an education focused non-profit that uses the web to teach kids math, and they’re hiring 30 new grads as Program Coordinators. Learn more about these amazing entry level opportunities.

Just a few days ago I mentioned that computers are better than humans at math. That’s true for many math operations, but the ultimate combination is a smart human working with a fast computer and great software. MathWorks is a Natick, MA based company that makes this possible, as they are “is the leading developer of mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists.” They’ve been around for nearly 30 years, which is a seriously long time in the software business. MathWorks is probably best known for MATLAB, which is “a programming environment for algorithm development, data analysis, visualization, and numeric computation.” It’s used everywhere from research in top universities to designing industrial machines. If advanced math is involved, there’s a good chance that MATLAB will be used.

Work at MathWorks

It’s easy to forget how important math is to our everyday life, even if our teachers reminded us time after time when we were in grade school. I’m not talking about calculating a tip or even understanding a newspaper article about poll numbers. I’m talking about the fact that nearly everything we interact with on a daily basis has been inspired by math, which means there’s a very significant chance that MathWorks’ software tangentially affects your life almost every day. That’s why they’ve been able to build a business $600 million in annual revenue and more than 2,000 employees. If you’re inspired by math and would like to join the ranks, then check out MathWorks’ Careers page. They have a special section for new grads and students, and you can use this search to identify only entry level jobs and internships. How luxurious! You can even sort the postings by Title, Job Function, Location, and Type. I’m going to leave it to you to browse through the postings, which are mostly math/engineering/software development focused, though there are a couple of accounting positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used MATLAB?

PulsePoint

Willy Franzen — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:22:50 +0000

There are some things that computers are far better at than humans, like math. There are some things that humans are far better at than computers, like understanding nuance. Then there are a lot of things that fall somewhere in between, but we can be pretty certain that computers will do them better soon enough. One of these things is determining context. This is especially important in the world of advertising. Right now a human can do a much better job than a computer of determine which ads would fit best within the context of a website, but he or she will be much slower than a computer. PulsePoint is a New York, NY based company that is working to give the computer another win over humans with a technology platform that helps “marketers and publishers gain greater audience transparency and deeper engagement across digital channels at an unprecedented scale.”

Check Your Pulse

PulsePoint is a new company that is the product of a merger between two older companies. ContextWeb acquired/merged with Datran Media (a company we featured in the past) to form PulsePoint, which now offers “a spectrum of services, including data management and media mix optimization, content distribution, contextual ad exchange capabilities, RTB and crowd sourcing.” It’s hard to get a grasp of what all that means if you haven’t worked in the industry before, but the gist is that they are combining smart people with smart technology to make advertising more effective. You can see the technology side in their Contextualizer Demo. Put in any web address, and it will tell you what the page is about. I’m sure you’re not impressed–you can do that too. But can you do it 10,000 times in a minute? Didn’t think so. If you’re interested by what PulsePoint is doing, check out their Jobs page (I’ll warn you that they have one of the crappiest applicant tracking systems ever). Right now PulsePoint has a few jobs that may intrigue new or recent grads including Business Operations Analyst, Sales Planner, and Software Engineer. Check the jobs out and have fun slogging through their slow, hard to use ATS.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of PulsePoint?

Drchrono

Willy Franzen — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:26:37 +0000

The health care situation in the United States is a mess. It’s hard to disagree with that, but it’s easy to disagree about how we can fix it. I think that technology is a big part of the answer. I don’t mean medical technology (though that will certainly help)–I’m talking about administrative technology. I know it’s not nearly as exciting, but if doctors can run their practices more efficiently, they’ll be able to deliver better care at a lower costs. That’s a big deal. Drchrono is a Mountain View, CA based company that is using the power of the iPad to change how medical practices are run. They’ve developed a software-based patient care platform that does everything from patient check-in to managing electronic health records to billing. It may not sound like it’s going to turn around the health care situation, but it’s a start.

What’s App Doc?

While I have to guess that most people use their iPads for Angry Birds and not much else, it’s really cool to see how this device is enabling industry changing software to be built. The problem used to be finding a way to deliver the software. Apple solved it. Now it’s just about making the software work in the context of how most medical practices operate. That’s exactly what Drchrono is doing. You can read about the platform here, and you read about its benefits here. Another key to Drchrono’s success is that it helps physicians qualify for the HITECH Act, which offers “$44,000 or more in economic stimulus incentives for adopting a Certified EHR.” That’s a big incentive. If you’re excited about what Drchrono is doing, then take a look at their Jobs page. Right now they have quite a few opportunities posted including:

There are lots of cool jobs available, so take a look at the job descriptions and consider applying.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Drchrono?

GTECH

Willy Franzen — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:15:20 +0000

Job searching these days feels a lot like playing the lottery. There’s all this hope of being that one in a million winner, but in the end you slowly get demoralized as the odds play out. But there’s one surefire way to win the lottery. Be the lottery. (So I guess it follows that one surefire way to get a job is to be the employer. That’s what I did. Entrepreneurship FTW!) Or you can be contracted by the lottery. That’s what GTECH is. They’re a Providence, RI based “gaming technology and services company, providing innovative technology, creative content, and superior service delivery.” They call themselves “architects of gaming,” which seems pretty accurate considering that they’re involved in pretty much every part of designing and developing gaming products.

Scratch Off to See If You Have a Job

From my attitude about lottery tickets, you’d probably guess that I’ve played and lost, but I’m actually permanently up for my lifetime. I won a $2,000 bingo scratch off when I was in college, and I decided to quit while I was ahead (though it’s not like I played that much anyway). That’s a hard decision to make considering lottery tickets are engineered… or architected to get you to keep playing. That simple scratch off has been designed through a ton of research and technology. Isn’t it funny how you always “almost” win? Or how winning a free ticket is a common outcome? GTECH may be committed to responsible gaming, but they still have to find new ways to make money. You won’t get too much inside info online, but you should browse through GTECH’s Products and Sevices. You’ll see that they’re not just focused on lotteries, but it does appear to be a huge part of what they do. If you want to get into the gaming industry, check out GTECH’s Jobs page. Here are some opportunities that might make sense for a new or recent grad:

Human Resources Coordinator (Providence, RI)
Finance Analyst (Providence, RI)
Clarity Software Engineer (West Greenwich, RI)
Marketing Representative (Washington State)
Administrative Assistant I (Madison, WI)

That’s just a small sampling of what’s available at GTECH. I picked the positions that look most interesting for new grads, but there’s a lot more to browse through–and many of the jobs are spread across the country.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you play the lottery?

Voxy

Willy Franzen — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:20:33 +0000

My last foreign language learning experience came in tenth grade French class. I found it mind numbingly boring even though we used French in Action, which was supposed to be a wonderful method for learning the language. If you can’t keep a student engaged, he or she will never learn the language. That’s why Voxy might be worth checking out for those of you who have had trouble learning languages through other methods. They’re based in New York, NY, and they offer “an exciting, award-winning way to learn a language from life.” How do they do this? They use web and mobile technologies to teach you a language while you’re doing things that you’d normally do–reading articles, playing games, or walking around your city. Not only does this make learning more fun, but it also makes it more useful. What you learn is based on the context of your life, so you’ll actually know why what you’re learning is useful.

Learn from Life

My one beef with Voxy is that their home page has a Get Started section with buttons that say “I Speak English,” “Hablo Español,” and “Eu Falo Português.” When I click the one that applies to me, the section just turns blank, so I can’t give Voxy try. Still, what I can see in their What Is Voxy? and How & Why It Works sections is impressive. When I see technology like what Voxy is offering, I can’t help but think that kids growing up today should be about 10x smarter than the generation before them (but then I remember all of the fun distractions that come with the same technology). If you’re loving what Voxy is doing, take a look at their Jobs page. They have a ton of opportunities posted, though they call most of them internships. I usually wouldn’t post these, but Voxy interns are “full-time, paid employees with mission critical responsibilities and roles.” These are perfect opportunities for new grads, and they include:

There’s a ton of entry level opportunity at Voxy, so take a look at these positions and figure out which of them make the most sense for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Will you try Voxy?

HealthTap

Willy Franzen — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:23:46 +0000

Admit it! You’ve used the Internet to self-diagnose a medical problem, and you probably used WebMD. For some of you it was to convince yourself that you’re not going to die tomorrow, and for some of you it was probably the opposite. It’s great having access to so much information, but it’s kind of dangerous when you a) can’t verify its accuracy and b) have no idea how to use it properly. Running to the doctor for every little issue is ridiculous, so there needs to be a better way to get medical information online. Luckily my little sister (who is awesome because she went to art school and then decided she wanted to go to med school, so she’s doing a postbac now) let me know about HealthTap. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that provides “free online and mobile answers from thousands of the best physicians in the U.S.” It’s kind of like Yahoo! Answers for medicine, but the people responding to your questions aren’t complete morons.

Get Tapped

There’s no doubt that there’s a demand for free medical advice online. But would doctors actually be willing to answer questions for free? HealthTap has proven that the answer is a resounding yes. Humans want to share their knowledge–just look at the endless reviews on sites like Yelp and Amazon–but professionals are usually more hesitant to give away their expertise for free. That’s why HealthTap sweetens the deal for docs. Their software helps “physicians better serve existing patients, find new ones, and build their reputation by demonstrating their expertise online.” If you were looking for a dermatologist, wouldn’t you consider the one who gave you great answers to your questions about a rash on HealthTap? I would (if I had a rash). Beyond helping doctors reach new people, HealthTap also provides a platform for doctors to provide something like a FAQ. That means that they spend less time answering the same simple questions over and over.

If you’re interested in the intersection of health care and technology, then a job at HealthTap would be an awesome fit. Here’s their video on why you should work for them:

The available positions most suitable for new or recent grads at HealthTap are pretty technical right now as they include Frontend Software Engineer, Backend Software Engineer, Mobile App Developer, and IT and Operations Engineer. The Interactive Writer / Copy Writer / Editor position looks pretty cool, but it seems like they want pretty significant experience. If you’re not a techie, you may want to try reaching out to jobs@healthtap.com to see if there’s any way you could fit in.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you use HealthTap?

CoverHound

Willy Franzen — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:00:42 +0000

I have to admit that I’m feeling a little left out these days. There’s something that I’ve never done that it seems like other Americans are doing a lot of. I’m constantly seeing advertisements for it–on tv, on the web, on billboards, and even on banners pulled behind planes during the summer. I know it’s embarrassing, but I’ve never purchased car insurance. These poor companies have spent so much money trying to reach me, and I haven’t even looked into buying what they’re hawking. But if I was, I might try using CoverHound (if their service was available in Illinois). They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that is building the “technology and brand behind the future of insurance comparison shopping.” Why let commercials about cavemen, a guy with a deep voice, or “doing the right thing” sway you when you can base your decision on real data?

Got It Covered?

Considering that CoverHound’s comparison platform isn’t available in their home zip code, I’m going to guess that it’s not available anywhere yet. That means you can’t get hands-on experience with their software yet, but you can learn more about their services here. You can also read their info for agents if you want to get a sense for how they’ll be making their money. Since that’s pretty much all the information that’s available on their website, you should probably cheek out their press coverage too. I usually don’t profile companies that haven’t launched their product yet, but a guy from CoverHound has been hounding me to do a write up, so I figured I’d throw him a bone. Right now their Jobs page shows that they’re looking for a Software Engineer. They’re also looking for interns in social media, business development, analytics, engineering, community/customer management, and content creation, so if you’re looking for a job in one of those areas, it’s definitely worth reaching out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What insurance commercials do you find most annoying?

Dannon

Willy Franzen — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:58:48 +0000

I’ve never been great about eating breakfast, but when I do eat breakfast, I try to get as much protein into the meal as I can. My problem is that I find eggs completely unpalatable. One can only eat so much sausage and bacon, so I’ve had to find some other protein sources. Sometimes it’s a glass of milk and a scoop of peanut butter, and other times it’a bowl of yogurt. Yogurt’s certainly nothing new (it’s essentially been around since bacteria and milk mixed, but humans have been producing it for millennia), but it’s experienced quite a spike in popularity lately. Probiotics and Greek yogurt are probably the two biggest trends in the industry right now, and they’re part of the reason that Dannon is “one of the fastest growing consumer products companies in the U.S.” While based in White Plains, NY, Dannon is a subsidiary of a multi-billion dollar French company called Groupe Danone). That shouldn’t matter all that much to you, though, as Dannon seems to operate mostly independently.

Yo Yo Yo

The name Dannon is indelibly tied to yogurt. They rank #2 on Google for the keyword “yogurt” just behind the Wikipedia entry on the topic. That’s actually an article you should read if you want to consider a job at Dannon. I can’t imagine working for them and not knowing the basics on their product. Dannon has been around since 1942 (only a tiny fraction of yogurt’s history), and in that time they’ve innovated a lot. Just take a look at Dannon’s product lines to get a sense of what’s possible with yogurt. What I find most interesting is that in every product there’s a purpose–a story that helps Dannon expand their market. If these stories appeal to you, then you may want to consider a job at Dannon. Their Careers site is called SomethingSpecialInside.com, and on it you’ll find some great opportunities including:

Assistant or Associate Brand Manager
Associate Marketing Manager – Innovation
Automation Engineer (Minster, OH)
HR Generalist (Minster, OH)
Key Account Associate (Bentonville, AR)
Quality Control Laboratory Technician (Portland, OR)
Revenue Specialist (Cottonwood Heights, UT)
Sales Analyst (Bentonville, AR)

There are some pretty interesting opportunities at Dannon, so browse through them and see if any get you excited.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Dannon.com
SomethingSpecialInside.com (Dannon’s Careers Site)
About Dannon
Dannon’s Products
Working at Dannon

What do you eat for breakfast?

Ancestry.com

Willy Franzen — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:01:11 +0000

Since we celebrated National Pancake Day yesterday, we’re not going to make a big deal about Leap Day, but if you’re looking for a leapy post, you may want to read our profiles on LeapFrog and TicketLeap. Instead of the calendar, we’re going to talk about family history. I’m lucky in that my family has done a great job of documenting our history. One of the best stories from my family’s past is about William Ker Muir (my Great Great Great Grandfather), who at 24 left his homeland of Scotland to take a job in Canada’s burgeoning railroad industry. Four years later in 1859, he was riding in the last seat of the last car on a train from Toronto to Hamilton. He heard a crash at the front of the train and jumped out the back door. He landed safely on the track as the Desjardins Bridge collapsed and the train fell into an icy gorge killing or injuring most of the passengers and crew. Without those quick reflexes, I wouldn’t be here. It’s stories like those that make investigating genealogy worthwhile, and if you’re going to do that, online tools like those provided by Provo, UT based Ancestry.com can be a huge help. It’s “the world’s largest online resource for family history, with more than 1.7 million paying subscribers around the world.”

Know Your History

Because of its name, you may think of Ancestry.com as some tech startup. While they have certainly taken their business in that direction (Software as a Service), they were actually founded in 1983 as Ancestry Publishing with a “focus on publishing genealogical book and magazine titles.” They’ve obviously used what they’ve learned by studying genealogy to help them adapt their business to changing times. Having been around for nearly three decades is a huge advantage for Ancestry.com in that they have compiled a ton of information (over 8 billion historical records), but what’s even more important is the network effect that they’ve created. As more and more users submit information to the site, it becomes more useful for everyone. This encourages more people to join, and the network effect keeps growing in a virtuous cycle. That’s why Ancestry.com has more than “31 million family trees and [has] added over 4 billion profiles.” They’re working on adding DNA tests, and I have to imagine that will be a huge step forward for the product. If you’re loving what Ancestry.com is all about, then head over to their Jobs page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new grads including:

Assistant Genealogist (Salt Lake City, UT)
Associate Software Engineer (Provo, UT or San Francisco, CA)
Document Preservation – Contractor (Swarthmore, PA)
Document Preservation – Contractor (Worcester, MA)
iOS Developer
Marketing Coordinator (Provo, UT or San Francisco, CA)
Inside Sales & Account Specialist (Salt Lake City, UT)
AppOps Engineer (Provo, UT)

If history is important to you, then a job with Ancestry.com might be just what you’re looking for.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Ancestry.com?

comScore

Willy Franzen — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:41:26 +0000

Because I’m a tech savvy kind of guy, I often get asked a lot of computer and Internet related questions. One of the most common questions that I get is: “How do I see how much traffic a website gets?” This is useful information whether you want to check to see if a startup is really as popular as they claim or if you want to size a market, but it’s not easy information to come by. The best answer is get the login and password to the site’s Google Analytics account. Considering that’s difficult and likely illegal, your next best bet is to you use some of the competitive research tools that are available. The free ones include Alexa, Compete, Quantcast, and Google Trends for Websites. Unfortunately, none of these are particularly reliable or accurate, and they’re especially bad for sites that get less than hundreds of thousands of visitors a month. The gold standard for this kind of information is offered comScore, but it comes with a hefty subscription fee. The Reston, VA calls itself “a global leader in measuring the digital world and the preferred source of digital marketing intelligence,” so paying those fees will get you a lot more than just traffic estimates for websites.

Score One for comScore

Some of comScore’s offerings include “online audience measurement, e-commerce, advertising, search, video and mobile and offers dedicated analysts with digital marketing and vertical-specific industry expertise.” If you’d like to look at more detailed descriptions, you’ll probably want to take a look at comScore’s Products & Services page. These are clearly out of most individuals’ price ranges, but advertising and marketing agencies, financial analysts, researchers, and all kinds of other people put huge value on the data provided by comScore, so they’re willing to pay big bucks to ensure that they’re getting accurate numbers. comScore’s high level of data quality comes from their methodology, which you can read more about here. If you’re fascinated by the world of data analytics, then you should head over to comScore’s Careers page. They have a special section for Campus Recruiting, so you can read up on their Training Program, watch video testimonials, and look at job postings tailored to new grads. Their ATS is kind of goofy, so I won’t link directly to the jobs, but here’s what they have available:

Client Service Analyst (Reston, VA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA)
Data Analyst (Reston, VA)
Database Developer (Chicago, IL)
Marketing Coordinator – Online Marketing (Reston, VA)
Product Management Analyst (Reston, VA)
Software Engineer (Reston, VA)

comScore has a lot more opportunities posted on their job pages for North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, so check those out by finding the links on comScore’s Careers page if you’re looking for something a little more advanced.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What site’s traffic do you want to look up?

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?

Urban Airship

Willy Franzen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:41:44 +0000

I really like the idea of push notifications, but I find that they’re often inconsistent in terms of being delivered. I also hate it when apps try to trick me into accepting push notifications that I will find annoying. Still, it seems pretty clear that push notifications are going to become an increasingly important part of our life (as sad as that may sound). As more and more apps start pushing us information, more companies are going to need to solve the technical challenges associated with delivering push notifications. Urban Airship is a Portland, OR and San Francisco, CA based company that provides technology that powers “mobile engagement, monetization and reporting.” Beyond push notifications, they also do subscriptions, in-app purchasing, and reporting.

Push Your Luck

There’s no doubt that Urban Airship has developed a compelling line of products–just look at their list of customers. It’s loaded with big names like ESPN, Fox, Accenture, The White House, The New York Times, and plenty of others. There are also some great case studies on how clients have used Urban Airship’s technology to achieve business objectives. If you really want to dig into the nitty gritty of Urban Airship’s products, then you’ll want to take a look at their Resources page. Eventually you’ll want to head over to the Urban Airship Careers page to check out their opportunities. Right now they’re looking to fill a number of technical positions including Implementation Engineer (Portland, OR), Solutions Engineer (Portland, OR), API Engineer (Portland, OR or San Francisco, CA), JavaScript Engineer (Portland, OR), Messaging Engineer (Portland, OR), Systems Engineer (Portland, OR), and Engineer in Test (Portland, OR). They’re also looking for an Account Development Representative (Portland, OR), which looks like a great non-technical position for a new or recent grad.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you get push notifications?

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?

RaceTrac

Willy Franzen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:58:16 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I love the smell of gasoline–at least in limited doses. Oddly enough, I absolutely hate the smell of coffee, so I’m not sure how I’d do if I had to work at a RaceTrac. They’re an Atlanta, GA based chain of more than 525 gas stations and convenience stores that stretch across twelve southeastern states. The odd thing about them is that their home page puts more emphasis on their coffee than on the gas. I guess gas is pretty much the same at every gas station, but good coffee will actually bring people through the doors. Besides the coffee RaceTrac differentiates itself with its size–their stores are typically over 5,000 square feet with more than 4,000 items and 20-24 pumps. If I owned a chain of gas stations, I’d probably use clean bathrooms as a point of differentiation. I think it would be a goldmine, but RaceTrac’s $8 billion in annual revenue makes them the third largest private company in Atlanta, so maybe coffee is the right choice.

Start Your Engine

As I mentioned before, RaceTrac’s home page doesn’t make it very clear that they’re a gas station, but there is a huge emphasis on different forms of transportation. They’re obviously trying to sell themselves as a part of an on the go lifestyle. This makes a lot of sense considering that it’s often the convenience items that drive the profits for retail gas stations. I’m sure there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on behind the scenes at RaceTrac, which is why you should check out their Careers page. They have page for Associate and Manager positions, but my guess is that you’ll be most interested in the positions at their Store Support Centers (Corporate). Right now they have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

Real Estate Analyst (Atlanta, GA)
Fuel Pricing Coordinator (Atlanta, GA)
Engineering Coordinator (Atlanta, GA)
Recruitment and Engagement Specialist (Atlanta, GA)
Recruitment and Engagement Specialist (Baton Rouge, LA)
HR Business Analyst (Atlanta, GA)
Software Developer (Atlanta, GA)

There are some really interesting look positions at RaceTrac, so check them out and see if any of them make sense for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever stopped at a RaceTrac?

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?

Switch

Willy Franzen — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:13:40 +0000

The University of Chicago has a number of entry level positions open right now. Check them out here.

Call me whatever you want, but I still buy incandescent light bulbs. I tried a few CFL bulbs in the past, but they were an utter disappointment–not very bright and a disgusting color of light. I paid more for them because they’re supposed to pay off in the long run, but they can’t save me money if I don’t use them. It’s going to take a more compelling energy efficient light bulb design to get me to switch. And that’s exactly what Switch has come up with. They’re a San Jose, CA based startup that is using LED technology to replicate the beautiful light of an incandescent bulb without wasting so much energy. They’re close to achieving the holy grail of light bulbs (and a big pay day), especially considering that there will essentially be a ban on incandescent bulbs by 2014. Now they just need to convince people to switch.

How Many College Grads Does It Take to Screw in a Light Bulb?

Right now Switch is testing their light bulbs at “several distinctive hospitality properties,” but it sounds like they’re close to making them available to the general public. This article does a fantastic job of telling the Switch story and mentions that they were planning on shipping in October, but that date seems to have slipped. The story that really makes Switch’s bulbs compelling is all numbers. This spreadsheet from the aforementioned article will show you how the bulbs compare with incandescent bulbs. You break even in year 4 of owning a Switch bulb, and you come out almost $100 ahead over 20 years (yes, a Switch bulb is supposed to last 20 years). Multiply that out by an average of 45 lightbulbs per household (source: the internets), and you are looking some really meaningful savings. And that’s exactly what it will take to get people to switch. If you want to be part of the future of light bulbs, then consider a Career with Switch. They don’t list specific openings, but they do appear to be interested in hearing from candidates who want to work with them. They’re a small, young, growing company, so it’s worth a shot to reach out to them.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Will you Switch?

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?

FlightAware

Willy Franzen — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:06:27 +0000

Whether you need something to wear for a job interview or a tropical vacation, Gilt is the place to get it at a good price. Here’s a link that will get you an additional 20% off.

In my previous life as the boyfriend of a management consultant, I would often spend my Thursday evenings using a flight tracking website to figure out when I’d be eating dinner. Those days are mostly over now that Amy is working at Groupon, but I had a bit of a flashback since she is traveling for work this week. My preferred flight tracking website is FlightAware, which tells me that she’s somewhere just south of the Great Salt Lake right now. I also know that she’s moving at 459 knots at an altitude of 35,000 feet. I can even see that the fares for her flight ranged from $50.03 to $3,365.92 with an average of $238.13. FlightAware is based in Houston, TX, and they provide “live flight data, airport information, weather maps, flight planning, and navigation charts, as well as aviation news and photos to over two million users a month.” I have no idea how they get all of their data, but it’s extremely useful and very easy to access.

Show Your Awareness

FlightAware’s free offerings are pretty robust. They offer everything that a typical frequent flyer might want access to; however, they also offer commercial level services to aviation businesses like “corporate flight departments, airlines, charter operators, aircraft and engine manufacturers, airport operators, government,” and more. These expanded services include: “data analysis, trending, outsourcing of data processing, and finding the answer to tomorrow’s aviation optimization and reliability problems.” Their customers include Cessna, NetJets, and Lufthansa, so they’re dealing with the biggest names in the industry. FlightAware is a company entirely made up of aviation geeks–they won’t hire you if you don’t have a passion for flight and flying, and more than half of their “employees hold an FAA pilots certificate (ranging from student to ATP).” If you think you’d fit in, then take a look at FlightAware’s Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for a Customer Service Specialist, a Web/Front-End Software Developer, and a Systems Engineer. FlightAware looks like a pretty cool place to work, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use FlightAware?

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?

littleBits

Willy Franzen — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:05:13 +0000

So far our survey says that you find the job search frustrating. Tell us more so that we can help.

When I was a kid I had this really cool electronics set that allowed me to build all kinds of devices just by connecting different wires to each other. It looked kind of like this. A friend and I even built our own radio transmitter and were able to transmit music about 20 feet to my mom’s car. It totally blew our 10-year old minds. Unfortunately, neither of us had any idea how it worked. littleBits is a New York, NY based company that has more than one-upped the electronic playground. They have developed “a growing library of pre-assembled circuits that snap together with tiny magnets.” Not only do littleBits look super cool, but they should be pretty intuitive considering that each piece has a unique electronic function. I think it would be hard to play with them and not understand how they’re working.

littleJobs

When I see littleBits, I instantly see them as the perfect Christmas gift for a kid with a budding interest in science. However, littleBits aren’t necessarily even targeted towards kids. littleBits’ goal is to move “electronics from late stages of the design process to its earliest ones, and from the hands of experts, to those of artists, makers, students and designers.” They want more people to look at life through the frame of electronic hardware, and that’s definitely something that I can get behind. littleBits is still a little company, though they have a lot of people pushing for them succeed. If you love what they’re doing as much as I do, you should take a look at littleBits’ Jobs page. The only non-internship position they have posted right now is for an experienced Industrial/ Product Designer; however, they do say: “Other openings may also be available, if you have what it takes, and are excited to embark on this exciting adventure, get in touch (jobs@littlebits.cc), we’d love to meet you!” I say go for it.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you play with littleBits?

SendGrid

Willy Franzen — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:56:10 +0000

E-mail is supposed to be simple: you send a message and the recipient gets it nearly instantly. That’s the way it usually works for most people, but there are those rare instances where a message gets caught in a spam folder or bounces back to the sender. Those problems get much bigger when you start to send a lot of e-mail; in fact, I recently had to deal with an issue that resulted in some of our daily e-mails that were sent on a Friday being received the following Wednesday. Because I send nearly 400,000 e-mails a month, I use one of the top providers in the business, and this still happened. E-mail is a complicated beast, which is why companies that send multiple orders of magnitude more e-mail than I do need help to overcome the fact that “20% of emails sent by web applications either go missing or they get caught by spam filters.” SendGrid is a Boulder, CO based company that specializes in e-mail delivery. They’ve delivered more than 20 billion e-mails for clients that include Foursquare, SlideShare, and GetSatisfaction, so I think they must do a lot better than 80%.

Get in the Grid

While many e-mail providers focus almost entirely on newsletters and marketing-type e-mails, SendGrid can deliver pretty much any kind of e-mail it needs to. Businesses plug their web applications into SendGrid using APIs, and they can send to both individuals (think receipts, notifications, etc) or to a larger group. SendGrid runs the mail servers so that their clients don’t need an individual or team devoted to e-mail delivery. It’s a big win for businesses who need near flawless e-mail delivery but want to stay focused on doing the things that are core to their business. I know all of the e-mail technical talk can be a little overwhelming, but there’s a good mix of technical and non-technical jobs at SendGrid. Their Jobs page shows that they’re looking for an Account Receivables Specialist, a Technical Support Representative, a Quality Assurance Engineer (Anaheim, CA), Content Writer (Anaheim, CA) and a Web Engineer.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about SendGrid?

TaskRabbit

Willy Franzen — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:33:30 +0000

Want to try TaskRabbit? Here’s $10 to get started. (The link only works if you’re setting up a task, but you can sign up and then use it.)

We all have stuff that we don’t want to do, don’t know how to do, or don’t have time to do. We’d love to pay someone to do it for us, but finding someone to hire to do it is on that list of stuff that we don’t want, know how, or have time to do. TaskRabbit is a company that wants to help people overcome this predicament. They’re based in San Francisco, CA, and they’ll get you “in touch with friendly, reliable people who can help you get just about anything you need done, and put some free time back into your life.” Through the power of the Internet, they’ve been able to build a network of “TaskRabbits” and connect them with people who need stuff done. It’s the same basic marketplace with a fee model that has made companies like eBay, Craigslist, and Airbnb huge successes. Here are the details on how TaskRabbit works.

TaskRabbit Get Me a Job

My biggest questions about TaskRabbit surround quality and safety. If I invite someone into my house to mount my tv on the wall, I want to be sure that they’re a) not a serial killer, and b) going to do a good job (a tv falling through the floor would be a bummer). TaskRabbit covers both of these bases by background checking their TaskRabbits and having a feedback and rating system on the website. Here’s a video on how TaskRabbit “puts some free time back in your day” (e-mail readers may need to click through to see it):

TaskRabbit is already operating in Boston, San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Orange County, and they’re expanding to Portland and Seattle soon. They’ve also set up some partnerships that allow people to join together to get Whole Foods shopping, IKEA delivery, donation pickup done. I’m definitely going to try it out, though it doesn’t look like anyone has had a tv mounted in Chicago yet.

So what can TaskRabbit do for your job search? I’m sure there are tasks like printing resumes that you could offload, or you could even become a TaskRabbit to start earning money on the side. However, the most interesting option is probably a career with TaskRabbit. Right now they’re looking for a couple higher level Engineers and Founding City Managers in Portland and Seattle. None of these positions are explicitly entry level, but the right amount of experience from internships and college could make you a good fit. And one last option is to browse through TaskRabbit’s team page to see what other kinds of positions they might offer in the future.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried TaskRabbit? Use this link to get a $10 credit.