One Day, One Job » engineering

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.

Crowdtap

Willy Franzen — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:48:15 +0000

In the good old days companies would print a 1-800 number on their products soliciting “Questions, Comments, and Concerns.” My guess is that they got a lot of calls from 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds, and not many from people in between. This was ok for a long time, but brands are slowly coming around to the idea that interacting with their customers is probably a good thing. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are helping, but most brands still use them to push information instead of engaging with consumers. Crowdtap is a New York, NY based company that has developed its own network that “allows marketers to easily collaborate with and mobilize their targeted brand crowd of influential consumers for real-time research, collaboration or powerful word-of-mouth marketing.”

Tap into Crowdtap

Market research is often time consuming and expensive, but Crowdtap is changing that. They’re able to deliver high quality interactions from influential consumers in an instant. How? They reward people who participate on Crowdtap.com (their corporate site is Crowdtap.it). I signed up and got asked all kinds of random questions. It was interesting to see what kind of research brands were doing, and I’ve already earned $2 in Amazon gift cards. If you want to sign up and try it out, here’s a link. If you do use Crowdtap, you’ll instantly notice that they’re working with all kinds of big names including American Express, General Electric, Old Navy, Pinkberry, and Pepperidge Farm. Brands like those wouldn’t be signed up unless Crowdtap delivers some really valuable insights. If you think that Crowdtap is on to something, then take a look at their Careers page. Right now the only entry level opportunity posted is Junior Software Engineer, but there are also a few internships and a mid-level Strategic Relationships Manager position posted.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Crowdtap?

DoubleVerify

Willy Franzen — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:01:08 +0000

Advertising is all about targeting. The demographics of who sees an ad determine whether it costs $.50 or $50 to get it in front of 1,000 people (the cost to have an ad viewed by 1,000 people is called a CPM). But how do advertisers know that they’re actually getting what they paid for? They often have a hard enough time tracking whether or not a given campaign is successful, and tracking who the campaign reaches is even harder. That’s where DoubleVerify comes in. They’re a New York, NY based company that has built a system to ensure that “every ad impression is a quality impression, every impression is compliant, and every ad was served and displayed exactly as intended.” They can’t guarantee that an advertisers ads will have the desired effect, but they can verify that it’s reaching the people that it’s meant to reach.

They’ll DoubleVerify Your References

DoubleVerify’s verification is based on looking for six signals: Innapropriate Content, Geo-Targeting, Competitive Separation, Ad Placement, Fraud Detection, and Online Behavioral Advertising Compliance. They have technology that allows them to assess these areas so closely that they can identify problems with a single impression (ad view). It’s all part of their mission to “work tirelessly to keep brands safe, advertisers confident, and online advertising more accountable and trusted.” They must be doing a good job, as they’ve already worked with more than 200 Fortune 500 companies. If you want to learn more about how DoubleVerify is doing what they do, you should definitely read up on their Solutions and their Technology. If that piques your interest, then you should head over to DoubleVerify’s Careers page. Right now they have a number of openings including Product Support Engineer, UI Designer, and Technical Writer. They also have locations in Israel and the United Kingdom, so you may also want to check those out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about DoubleVerify?

Cvent

Willy Franzen — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:30:27 +0000

Yesterday we told you about Blue Chip Career, so here’s another reminder to check them out. They offer personalized guidance from seasoned executives to help you overcome your biggest job search challenges. Get paired with one of their experts and receive the inside scoop on how to land the job of your dreams.

My girlfriend and I are having a housewarming/birthday party this weekend. We invited people by e-mail, and we’re keeping of track of who is coming through a Google doc. That’s about as simple as it gets in terms of using software for event management. I don’t think our solution would cut it for companies like Verizon, Yahoo!, Walmart, and Oracle. They need something a little more… industrial strength. That’s what Cvent offers. They’re a McLean, VA based company that offers comprehensive event, survey, and eMarketing software solutions–exactly what large companies need to make sure that every little detail is taken care of when they put on an event.

Have a Cventful Job Search

The best way to get a feel for the scale that Cvent operates on, you need to look at some of their key statistics. They were founded in 1999, and since then their software has managed more than 275,000 events, sent 850 million e-mail invitations, and managed 30 million event registrations and survey responses. You can learn more about what those solutions look like here. You may also want to dig into some of the Resources that they provide–it’ll give you a better sense of the kinds of problems that they solve for their clients. If you like what you see, then you’ll want to check out Cvent’s Careers page. You’ll see some great openings that seem suitable for new or recent grads including Blogger/Social Media Associate, Business Development Associate, Information Security Analyst, Mobile Application Developer, Product Consultant, Quality Engineer, Sales Associate, Software Engineer, Systems Analyst, Systems Programmer, Systems Support Engineer, and Technical Support Engineer. There are lots of options, so hopefully at least one will intrigue you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Cvent?

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Willy Franzen — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:01:25 +0000

Columbus Day isn’t much of a holiday anymore–it’s become yet another regular work and school day for many. It makes sense considering Christopher Columbus wasn’t really the guy that my 1st grade teacher taught me that he was. Still, I’m amazed by the feats of guys like Columbus (which is why I’ve written about Garmin and Facet Technology on past Columbus Days). Getting in a boat with an uncertain route to a far away destination still seems crazy to me, and these guys did it in a time when navigation equipment was quite basic. Their minds would be blown if they knew what kind of information the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (formerly the National Imagery and Mapping Agency) has. The agency is headquartered in Springfield, VA and has major facilities in St. Louis, MO (I learned about them from one of my awesome interns whose boyfriend works for the NGA). They are part of the Department of Defense, and they are tasked with providing “timely, relevant, and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security.”

Do You Have Geospatial Intelligence?

If you want an example of what the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency does, you’re not going to get a full answer because a lot of what they do is classified. However, they have been identified as playing a “critical role” in Operation Neptune’s Spear, which was the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. The agency’s employees operate in a number of areas including aeronautical analysis, cartography, geospatial analysis, imagery analysis, marine analysis, the physical sciences, geodesy, computer and telecommunication engineering, photogrammetry, and more. The NGA website is ok, but I highly recommend that you check out Wikipedia’s entry on the agency for a really good overview of the organization’s history and what it does.

If you like what you read, then you’ll want to take a look at the NGA’s Careers page. (Remember that we’re dealing with the federal government, so this isn’t going to be simple.) First, you’ll probably want to visit the Occupations page, where you’ll see that the NGA offers the following positions:

Accountants
Aeronautical Analyst
Bathymetrist
Contract Specialist
Counterintelligence Officers
Enterprise Account Managers
Geodetic Surveyors
Geospatial Data Stewards
Geospatial Intelligence Analysts
HD Consultants
Imagery Scientists
Imagery Intelligence Analysts
Information Assurance Officers
Maritime Analysts
Open Source Analysts
Police Officers
Political Geographers
Program Management Execution Officers
Project Scientists
Recruiters
Regional Geographers
Regional Source Analysts
Scientific and Technial Program Managers
Source Strategies Analysts
Systems Engineers

You won’t see most of these positions in the NGA’s Current Opportunities, so you may be better off meeting them at one of their On-Campus Recruiting Events or by reaching out to them at recruitment@nga.mil. You may also want to read through the NGA’s Recruitment FAQs and looking at their Application Process. It’s all complicated, but that’s to be expected with one of our country’s intelligence agencies.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you amazed by what the NGA does?

SalesCrunch

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

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

Get Crunched

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about SalesCrunch?

Octopart

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

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

Are You the Part Octopart Needs?

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you build stuff?

Internet Archive

Willy Franzen — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:11:35 +0000

Humans are really good at destroying history. It’s not usually intentional, but it’s hard to know what will be historically significant before it’s historically significant. Since most of us are constantly running out of space for “stuff,” it’s nearly impossible not to replace the old with the new. It’s happened with architecture, cars, toys, books, nature, and pretty much everything else we’ve touched, but nowhere is it happening more quickly than on the Internet. Old information is constantly being replaced with new information. It seems like a good thing–and it generally is–but we need to start coming to terms with the fact that more and more of our history is happening online. Luckily, we have the Internet Archive. They are a San Francisco, CA based non-profit that has been “building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form” since 1996. They’ve built an amazing resource, that you can access through the Wayback Machine. You can type in any URL and see what it looked like in the past. It’s amazingly cool, but a bit embarrassing for those of us who had websites back in the day.

Are You in the Archive?

The Internet Archive is full of useless information. Most of it will never be looked at again. However, we don’t know which archived sites might be interesting 30 years down the road. Maybe it will be a presidential candidate’s old blog or an entrepreneur’s first project. Since it’s impossible to know what will be important, the Internet Archive just keeps crawling and archiving the web as thoroughly as they can. I’m a huge fan of what they do, but I never thought to look to see what kind of jobs they offer until recently. If you look at the Internet Archive’s Jobs page, you’ll see that they offer a wide range of Engineering and Software Development positions. All of the current job postings are quite technical, but if you want to get a feel for what other types of positions they might offer in the future, take a look at the Internet Archive’s Staff page.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you ever use the Wayback Machine?

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Willy Franzen — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:09:04 +0000

I lived in the Northeast for most of my life, and now that I’m in the Midwest I miss out on the fun of repeated blizzards, an earthquake, and a hurricane. Ok, natural disasters usually aren’t fun, but I can’t help but be amazed by how powerful nature can be. I’m sure a lot of you will never read this (or read it late) since there are 4 million people without power because of Hurricane Irene, but that’s not going to stop us from taking a look at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. They are “a non-profit consortium of more than 75 universities offering Ph.D.s in the atmospheric and related sciences.” UCAR is based in Boulder, CO and they also work with the National Science Foundation to run the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

A Workplace with Atmosphere

The ability to predict and track Hurricane Irene is just one of the many reasons that atmospheric research is important. Now might be a good time to dig into UCAR’s online resources and read up on things like the background on the science, people, and issues involved in hurricane research. UCAR’s mission is three-fold, it is to:

support, enhance, and extend the capabilities of the university community, nationally and internationally
understand the behavior of the atmosphere and related systems and the global environment
foster the transfer of knowledge and technology for the betterment of life on Earth

You might get a better sense for what UCAR does by watching this video that they’ve put together:

If you’re all about atmosphere, then you should take a look at UCAR’s Jobs page. You can find all of their posted jobs here, which include Web Developer, Communication and Web Assistant (Washington, DC), Communications and Web Content Coordinator (Washington, DC), and a number of other positions and fellowships that require a PhD.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How are you weathering the hurricane?

Heyzap

Willy Franzen — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:46:07 +0000

There’s one reason that I’m not a “social gamer.” If my friends found out how much time I spent playing games like Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds, I’d be totally embarrassed. If only we all could admit to each other that we’re compulsive gamers and start talking openly about it. That’s what Heyzap is all about. They’re a San Francisco, CA based “social discovery platform for mobile and online games and the largest social network for mobile gamers.” Through “check-in” functionality much like that of Foursquare they let you tell your friends what games you’re playing and show off to them about how skilled you are. Don’t you wish you had a similar social network for your job search? “Hey everyone! Look! I applied for this job and I got rejected in a record time! 2 minutes flat.”

Zap Your Way to the Top

Believe it or not, mobile and social gaming are serious business. There are millions of dollars being made, and Heyzap has positioned itself extremely well in the market. By being the place that gamers go to learn about new games, they are able to offer exceptional advertising opportunities to game developers. From what I’ve read, it looks like Heyzap works mostly on a CPI or “cost per install” model. That means that they only get compensated when people actually download the games that are being advertised. It puts everybody’s incentives in the right place. If you’re intrigued by what Heyzap is doing, you have to check out their Jobs page. They have a number of opportunities that are perfect for new grads including Community Manager, Mobile Games Sales/Business Development, Web Designer, Graphic Designer, Mobile Designer, Mobile (iOS/Android) Engineer, and Rails Software Engineer. Just make sure you do tell them how much time you spend playing games.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Heyzap?

MyBuys

Willy Franzen — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:15:26 +0000

Baseball is considered a tough sport because even the greatest players fail about 60% of the time (taking a walk is never a failure!). I think that means if e-commerce were a sport, nobody would play it. Failing 97% of the time on average doesn’t sound like much fun, does it? (I guess that’s why a lot of people hate the job search.) If most e-commerce companies could get to even a 96% failure rate, they’d be thrilled. MyBuys is a company that aims to help online businesses sell to the 97% of people who don’t buy (they call them “Group97″). They’re headquartered in Redwood City, CA, and they also have a large presence in Ann Arbor, MI. MyBuys’ focus is on personalization. They believe that by learning more about customers every time that they don’t buy something, you can craft a personalized message or offer that is more likely to convince them to become buyers. What’s really cool is that MyBuys has developed technology to automate this.

Get out of Group97 for Job Seekers

The difference between a 96% and 97% failure rate doesn’t seem all that big, but it would actually represent a 33% increase in sales. Can MyBuys deliver those kind of results? I’m sure it depends on the client, but here’s the MyBuys pitch:

MyBuys offers a better way to engage with Group97, consistently and over the entire customer lifecycle. We get to know shoppers; match their interests to the products in your catalog; learn more about them every time they interact with your business; and present them with the most compelling offers coordinated across all touch points.

I know we’ve talked about retargeting recently, MyBuys offers a different approach for convincing non-buyers the error of their ways. If you want to see what this looks like in action, you can read up on some of MyBuys’ Case Studies along with their Solutions Overview. If you’re intrigued by what MyBuys is doing, then I recommend that you take a look at their Careers page. They have a number of opportunities that seem suitable for new or recent grads including Business Development Associate (Ann Arbor, MI), Client Success Associate (Ann Arbor, MI), Client Success Analyst (Ann Arbor, MI), Media Analyst (Ann Arbor, MI), Financial Analyst (Ann Arbor, MI), and Software Engineer Associate – Engineering Development Program (Ann Arbor, MI). Oddly enough, all of the positions in Redwood City, CA require more experience.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you part of Group97?

ngmoco

Willy Franzen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:31:56 +0000

While I’m not a serious gamer, I definitely enjoy playing casual games on my iPhone and iPad. Although the App Store does offer recommendations, I find that it’s still hard to find good games. Instead I rely on getting recommendations from people I know–namely my girlfriend’s 10 year old sister. I watch what she’s playing, and if it looks fun, I buy the app. Then I can try to top her score and talk smack even though I can’t come close. Games are inherently social (even though gaming can become super anti-social), so it’s no surprise that gaming companies are bringing mobile and social gaming together. One of the big players in the industry is ngmoco. They’re based in San Francisco, CA, and their name is pronounced “en-gee mo-ko” (apparently it’s an acronym for Next Generation Mobile Company). ngmoco is all about building a social entertainment company in a time when “there will be more iOS/Android devices shipped than PCs/notebooks.” It makes sense.

Be a Mofo!

I’ve heard of companies calling their employees ninjas, rockstars, geniuses, and a bunch of other endearing terms. Until I came across ngmoco, I’d never heard the term “mofo” used for an employee (at least one that was still employed by the company). But that’s exactly what ngmoco will call you if you work for them. There’s an explanation here, and I think you’ll like what they have to say. Now, ngmoco has an amazing Careers site, but before you jump into that, you should probably get familiar with their games and read through their blog. Then you can visit their Careers page and see how awesome they make working for them look. You can browse through all of the positions here, and you should not that there are plenty of jobs for both techies and non-techies. Here’s what seems most appropriate for new grads:

There appear to be some amazing opportunities at ngmoco, so you better act on them now. Otherwise, you’ll never be a mofo.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What games do you play?

MailChimp

Willy Franzen — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:19:40 +0000

A few weeks ago in my post on SailThru, I urged you to consider e-mail marketing as a career option. It’s a field that provides an immense amount of value to businesses, yet it gets far too little attention–especially from college students and grads. One of the keys to doing well with e-mail marketing is finding great tools to use. I use Aweber to deliver our daily e-mails, but I’m constantly tempted to switch over to MailChimp. They’re an Atlanta, GA company that is growing at an insane rate. They offer a platform for e-mail marketing that just keeps on getting better for a user base that is climbing towards 1 million. MailChimp’s attention to design and detail has made them a standout in a space that is getting more and more crowded. Every day I seem to notice that another e-mail newsletter that I’m subscribed to has moved over to MailChimp.

Start Chimping Around

One of the best ways to understand how MailChimp serves their clients is to read through some of their Customer Stories. You’ll learn all about what MailChimp offers and how companies are using these services to build better businesses. You can even set up a free MailChimp account and use it to start learning a little bit about e-mail marketing. MailChimp is so product-focused that learning about their product is the best way to learn about their company–though they do seem to have a pretty sweet culture too (you can just feel it on their website). Additionally, MailChimp has one of, if not the best Jobs page that I’ve ever seen. It’s simple, clear, and beautiful. It also has a bunch of jobs that seem perfect for new or recent grads including Compliance Geek, Tech-support Geek, Multilingual Tech-support Geeks (Spanish, French, Portuguese, German or Dutch), Infrastructure Engineer, PHP Developer, IT Human, Zookeeper (Office Manager), and Web Analyst. These look like awesome jobs, so check them out–even if it’s just so that you can experience a Jobs page that isn’t completely frustrating to use.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you love MailChimp’s logo?

Quickparts

Willy Franzen — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:14:53 +0000

I’m headed to Atlanta for a wedding this weekend, so I decided to do a little searching for interesting companies in ATL. Pretty quickly (no pun intended) I came across Quickparts, and they stood out because I’ve never covered a business that does what they do before. The Atlanta, GA headquartered company that is “dedicated to providing [their] customers with an online e-commerce system to procure low-volume and high-volume custom manufactured parts.” What does that mean? You can upload CAD drawings for some sort of part or product to their site, and they will instantly offer a quote based on “the part geometry, the required materials, lead time, and quantity.” If the quote meets your specs, then you give them the go ahead to start manufacturing. Yes, this company actually make stuff!

Be Quick

It’s kind of mind blowing how easy it is to have a product made these days. Quickparts makes it even easier. They’ve worked with huge names like Boeing, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, General Electric, NASA, Nike, and plenty of others, so you know that they must do great work. I wish I knew more about Rapid Prototyping and Injection Molding, so that I could explain them better, but I only have experience in building web products. If you really want to dig into the ins and outs of Quickparts’ business, you should check out their Learning Center. If you like what you see, you’ll want to look at jobs at Quickparts. Right now they have a few positions that you may want to check out including Receptionist, Territory Accountant, Graphic Designer, Project Manager, Business Analyst, and Inside Sales Manager. All of the positions have some experience requirements, but they’re generally pretty light.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Quickparts?

Yammer

Willy Franzen — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:40:57 +0000

Communication in the workplace can be a major hassle, especially considering the fact that a lot of people who work together are doing so from different locations these days. E-mail was an amazing step forward, but it still has a ton of flaws. (I’m dying for an e-mail client that is built for how I think and work–nothing comes close.) Now that I’m starting to consider hiring interns or part-timers (more on that soon!), I need to come up with a way to communicate with them and manage projects. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are on to something with their interfaces, but they are most certainly not for communicating about work. I’ve played around with the the WordPress P2 Theme, which turns blogging software into something Twitter-like, but I’m not completely sold on it. I’ve also heard some good things about San Francisco, CA based Yammer, which seems to be a pretty sweet solution. Yammer enables “people to create private enterprise social networks.” It’s more collaborative than e-mail, and it allows you to open up conversations to a wider audience without annoying them.

Communicate Your Skills

Most major companies have Intranets. They’re moderately useful, but they are often completely lifeless. Yammer brings life to internal networks. They’re already working with major clients like Deloitte, Groupon, PayPal, and lots of other big names. The product looks like it’s super simple to use, and it has a ton of useful features. What may be the coolest thing about Yammer is that you only need an e-mail address to set up your own network. I put in my e-mail, and in a matter of a few seconds I had my own Yammer network set up (but nobody to Yammer with). There’s still a lot of progress to be made in the area of communication in the workplace, but Yammer has taken some major leaps. If you like what they’re doing, take a look at their Jobs page. They have great some great opportunities for new grads including:

Implementation Engineer (San Francisco, CA)
Implementation Engineer (United Kingdom)
Android Developer (San Francisco, CA)
Data/Analytics Engineer (San Francisco, CA)
iPhone Developer (San Francisco, CA)
Tools Engineer (San Francisco, CA)
Web Software Engineer (San Francisco, CA)
Technical Recruiter (San Francisco, CA)
IT and Corporate Applications Support Engineer (San Francisco, CA)
Associate Product Manager (San Francisco, CA)
Associate Product Marketing Manager (San Francisco, CA)
Quantitative Product Analyst (San Francisco, CA)
UX/Information Architect (San Francisco, CA)
Enterprise Business Representative (San Francisco, CA)
International Enterprise Business Representative – Spanish or Korean Language (San Francisco, CA)
Technical Support Representative (San Francisco, CA)

While most of the options are tech oriented, there are a few at Yammer for the not-so-technical. They’re doing some really cool stuff, so give them a nice long look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used Yammer?

BankSimple

Willy Franzen — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:11:29 +0000

Samaritan’s Purse is this week’s sponsor. They’re an international aid and development organization that has a bunch of jobs for new and recent grads.

When I was job searching after graduating from college, one of my big projects was getting my finances in order. I opened accounts, closed accounts, cashed out savings bonds, started investing, and made sure that I knew where all my money was. I also started using Mint to track everything. It worked well until my bank updated their online banking software and killed Mint integration. It eventually got fixed, but there was no way to merge my old Mint data with my new Mint data (I essentially had to set up another bank account in Mint). This was pretty minor in terms of banking nightmares, but it was still a huge pain. Otherwise, I’m happy enough with my current bank, but I’d love to have a bank that is focused on delivering a superb online experience. BankSimple (also known as the Simple Finance Technology Corp.) wants to be that bank. They’re based in New York, NY and they’re all about customer service and user experience.

WorkSimple

Some people may be skeptical about a startup bank, but the 50,000+ people on BankSimple’s wait list likely realize that it can’t get much worse than all of the hassles, fees, and rudeness that you get from today’s big banks. It’s unbelievable that we actually trust some of these companies with our money. BankSimple is starting from scratch, so they fully intend to earn their customer’s trust by first launching an amazing product and then living up to their promises of simple banking and stellar service. You can learn more about what they’re promising on BankSimple’s Home page–they pretty much put all of their information on there. BankSimple may not have launched yet, but they have rolled out bank cards to some of their employees. Hopefully this is the start of some big changes in the banking industry.

I’ve been watching BankSimple’s Jobs page for a while, and it seems that they’re starting to pick up steam in terms of hiring. They have a few new positions posted: Analytics Engineer (Brooklyn, NY), Backend Engineer (Portland, OR), and Support Systems Engineer (Brooklyn, NY). None of these are really entry level, but there is a paid Writing position that they call an internship, but that could be a good way to get your foot in the door. Additionally, they introduced a class of interns, despite the fact that I never saw the internships posted. That means that you should definitely reach out to them about potential jobs, even if nothing listed matches up with your qualifications.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Will you try BankSimple?

DNAnexus

Willy Franzen — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:29:43 +0000

The idea of having my genome sequenced kind of freaks me out. I’m certainly warming to it, but I don’t like the idea of finding out about a deep, dark family secret or the fact that I’m predisposed to some kind of cancer from a DNA test. I know it’s irrational, and I know that I’ll overcome it eventually. I fully expect that within 20 years every child born in the U.S. will have his or her genome sequenced at birth. So maybe I should just the bite the bullet and get my genome sequenced. But if I’m going to do that, I need your help. The other day I came across a post about Palo Alto, CA based DNAnexus on Hacker News (an awesome site for programmers and people interested in startups). The post was focused on the company’s referral program that offers $20,000 and a full genome sequencing to anyone who refers a software engineer that they hire. That clearly caught my attention (I am trying to run a business here), but, more importantly, it introduced me to what DNAnexus is doing. A single genome contains over 100 gigabytes of data. Storing and analyzing this data requires some serious hardware, especially if you want to do it on a large scale. DNAnexus is an “early-stage software technology company that aims to become the data platform of the genome era.”

You Are the Data

It’s mind blowing when you think about how much data is contained in every single cell of your body. When you multiply that out by the number of people in the world, you realize that computing is going to have to come a long way to be able to be able to crunch all of that data. DNAnexus wants to be the leader by “building the DNA operating system – a platform that will handle the data deluge coming from exponentially increasing whole human genome sequencing.” It’s hard to say what kind of things will be made possible as whole human genome sequencing becomes more common, but you can bet that it will lead to some amazing medical breakthroughs (see their testimonials here). For DNAnexus though, it’s really all about hardware and software breakthroughs. They have built their “infrastructure from the ground up to run on Amazon Web Services, the world’s leading cloud computing provider,” so that they can deliver “computing and storage infrastructure” with 100,000s of CPUs and 100s of petabytes of storage available.

If you’re interested in the intersection of computing technology and genetics, you have to take a look at jobs at DNAnexus. I’m not only saying that because they offer an amazing referral bonus; I really think that they’re doing something that has amazing potential for impact on the human race. DNAnexus is looking to hire Systems Engineers, Security Engineers, Web Services Engineers, Data Visualization and Interaction Engineers, UI/UX Engineers, and Computational Genomics, Algorithms, and Machine Learning Engineer. You can apply for any of these positions on your own if you’d like, but if you want to help support One Day, One Job (and help me overcome my fear of having my genome sequenced) then send me an e-mail to willy@onedayonejob.com with your résumé or LinkedIn profile and I’ll submit it according to the rules of the referral promotion.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you get your genome sequenced?

Chegg

Willy Franzen — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:31:16 +0000

During my Freshman year at Cornell, I took Econ 101. Since I was planning on being a good student, I bought the textbook and went to class diligently. Then I realized that the professor only gave multiple choice exams which were based on the slides from the class lecture. Those slides were posted online after every class, which made attending class and taking the textbook out of its plastic wrap completely unnecessary. I still went to class because I liked the professor and it helped me learn, but I’m pretty sure that I still have the $100+ textbook with CD-ROM sitting on a shelf at my parents’ house in its plastic wrap because the campus store wasn’t buying that book back. What a waste. If I were going to college now, there’s no way I’d buy textbooks. I’d rent them. That’s exactly what Chegg offers. They’re a Santa Clara, CA based company that is saving students a ton of money. When you buy books and then sell them back, you might as well be renting them, so why not actually rent them? According to Chegg, the average college student spends $1,000 a year on textbooks–using Chegg will save them half of that.

Rent Yourself to Chegg

Chegg is a really interesting business to me. They’ve raised a ton of capital because it’s extremely expensive to build the kind of business that they’ve built. They not only have to invest in buying all the books, but they also have had to build a distribution system that can get students books at a cheap enough price. My only question is what will Chegg do when college textbooks move to Kindles, iPads, and other similar devices? They do have a new E-Textbook service, so maybe that’s the answer. If you like what Chegg is doing for college students, check out their Jobs page. Right now they have a number of opportunities including Customer Program Specialist (Portland, OR), Product Designer (Santa Clara, CA), Front End Engineer (Santa Clara, CA), Software Engineer – Cramster (Pasadena, CA), Marketing Business Analyst (Santa Clara, CA), and Accounts Payable/Payroll Specialist (Santa Clara, CA). Not only can you land a job with them, but you can exact revenge on those campus bookstores that robbed you blind.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you rented textbooks from Chegg?

PowerReviews

Willy Franzen — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:14:28 +0000

Yesterday we looked at a company that helps online publishers make more money from their content. Today we’re going to look at a company that helps businesses capture user-generated content and use it to drive sales of their products. It may not seem obvious, but quality content is the key to driving online product sales. Not only do you need to convince people to buy your product, but you need to show search engines that your page is the place to go for information on a given product. That’s why PowerReviews exists. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that has “built innovative social solutions at every stage of the social commerce journey to help you connect with your customers, learn from them, and sell more.” In other words, they provide software that powers customer review sections on e-commerce websites.

You Got the Power!

There are customer reviews all over the web. Some are great, and some are pretty worthless. A lot of that has to do with how they’re collected and how they’re presented. PowerReviews must do a pretty good job considering that their clients include Staples, REI, Toys ‘R Us, Orbitz, MLB, NBA, NFL, UGG, Tumi, Filson, and tons of other huge names. When you hear some of PowerReviews’ client testimonials, you realize that “social commerce” isn’t just some made up term. PowerReviews also has a site called Buzzillions, where they aggregate the reviews of all of their clients and allow you to search for product reviews of more than 15 million products. If you like the idea of a career in social commerce, take a look at PowerReviews’ Jobs page. Right now they have a bunch of interesting opportunities for new or recent grads including Technical Support Engineer, UX/ UI Engineer, Jobvite Guru, Office Manager, and Market Development Representative. There are a bunch of options here, so head over to the PowerReviews Jobs page to check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you ever write online product reviews?