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

Saving Towards a Career

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• INGDirect.com
• Jobs at ING Direct
• About ING Direct
• ING Direct News
• ING Direct in the Community
• ING Direct Board Members

Do you have an ING Direct account?

Did you want to be a detective growing up? Were you inspired by Inspector Gadget (ok, he was a buffoon, but his niece Penny was a hell of a sleuth)? Did you play with Spy Tech toys? Do you watch CSI Miami and think that you should have followed your childhood dreams? There’s something really cool about solving mysteries. What’s even cooler is solving them before they happen. The police usually can’t do that, because of those pesky civil liberties; however, BasePoint Analytics, located in Carlsbad, CA, is a company that prevents fraud before it happens. Through the scientific method they have developed a number of products and services that allows banks and mortgage lenders to identify fraud before they get burned by falsified applications. BasePoint’s tools enable financial institutions to accept well-qualified applicants more quickly, while giving further scrutiny to applications that are flagged by BasePoint Analytics’ models.

There’s a lot of technology and a lot of great ideas behind BasePoint Analytic’s solutions – certainly more than we can fully grasp. Much of the basis for BasePoint’s leadership in fraud prevention services comes from the experience of their professional staff. This is a company that may not do a lot of entry-level hiring, but is still worth a closer look and more research. Even if you can’t land a job with BasePoint as a Fraud Scientist or Consultant, your research may lead you to other fraud prevention jobs that will satiate your passion for solving mysteries.

BasePoint Analytics doesn’t appear to list job openings on their site, and we’re not even sure that they hire at the entry-level; however, we are really impressed by what they do. It’s possible have a job where you do cool detective-like work without attending the Police Academy. We do know that areas for which BasePoint Analytics hires include Fraud Management, Business Development, Relationship Management, Technical Integration, and Marketing. If you want more information on career opportunities at BasePoint Analytics, you can visit their careers page (which is pretty sparse) or e-mail them at careers@basepointanalytics.com.

Note: On April 23rd we revisited entry-level jobs at BasePoint Analytics.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• The BasePoint Analytics Home Page
• Careers at BasePoint Analytics
• About BasePoint Analytics
• The BasePoint Analytics Management Team
• BasePoint Analytics’ Solutions for Banks
• BasePoint Analytics’ Solutions for Mortgate Lenders

What’s the best mystery you’ve ever solved? Leave a comment and tell us.