One Day, One Job » human resources

Internet Brands

Willy Franzen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:07:03 +0000

In case you missed our e-mail from last week, Kembrel loved the response from our post about them so they’re offering a free VIP card (usually 20 bucks) to all ODOJ readers and $5 in store credit. Sign up here.

On Monday we took a look at Vertive, a company that builds internet properties to help people save money. Today we’re going to look at a company with a similar model of building and buying websites, but a much broader approach. Internet Brands is based in El Segundo, CA and started as CarsDirect.com in 1998. It was a successful brand for them, but in 2005 they realized that the platform they had built could be applied to other verticals. Now Internet Brands operates more than 100 websites that reach over a billion visitors every year. Amazingly, they’ve been able to generate almost all of this traffic organically (without buying advertising). This is all because of the platform that they’ve developed and the ability to share resources across brands. Internet Brands is a case study of how economies of scale can work on the web.

Get Branded

The best way to get a better feel for Internet Brands is to explore their… brands. There are a lot of them, but they typically fit into one of nine verticals: Automotive, Careers, Health, Home, Legal, Licensing, Money, Shopping, and Travel. Chances are that most of the brands will be new to you, but I found a few that I was familiar with. Unlike Vertive, Internet Brands doesn’t shed much light on how they operate. Even the Internet Brands Careers page is filled with mostly generic stuff like “Do you have energy, drive and ambition?” and “Do you have a strong sense of where you are going and how to get there?” Would any job seeker answer no to those rhetorical questions? At least Internet Brands makes up for it with a ton of job postings. Here are the ones that look well suited for an entry level job seeker:

That’s a lot of jobs. Hopefully a few of them will catch your interest.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Internet Brands?

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?

The Nature Conservancy

Willy Franzen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:50:09 +0000

Last night I started watching Planet Earth and ended up staying awake later than I intended. This morning the same channel was on, and I ended up watching documentaries on Yellowstone. There aren’t many things that I find more fascinating than nature, so it’s easy for me to get caught up in these kinds of shows. It’s also why I think the work of The Nature Conservancy is so important. They’re an international non-profit organization based in Arlington, VA that is “the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.” The Nature Conservancy was founded in 1951, and since then they have grown their membership to more than 1 million people. The organization’s huge size gives it a ton of power and has enabled it to do some really amazing work.

Nature Over Nurture

Everything that The Nature Conservancy does is rooted in science. They gather facts first, and then they take action on a local and a global scale. That’s why they’ve been able to protect “more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide.” What strikes me most about The Nature Conservancy is that they take a “non-confrontational, pragmatic” approach that sets them apart from some other conservation organizations. This may occasionally limit their short-term effectiveness, but it ensures that in the long run The Nature Conservancy will have the respect and legitimacy to continue protecting ecologically important lands and waters. If you want to dig deeper into this topic, you should really check out The Nature Conservancy’s Why We’re An Effective Nonprofit page. There’s a ton more to check out on The Nature Conservancy’s website (like How They Work and Where They Work), but I’ll leave the rest of the research to you. If you like what the organization is all about, check out their Careers page. They have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including (sorry I can’t link to the postings, but it’s a bad applicant tracking system):

Burn Crew Technician (Glyndon, MN or Karlstad, MN or Center, ND or Clear Lake, SD)
Philanthropy Coordinator (San Francisco, CA)
Preserve Management Assistant – Prairie Forest Border Ecoregion (Cushing, MN)
Seasonal Field Representative (Keene Valley, NY)
Human Resources Coordinator (Austin, TX)
Stewardship Field Assistant (Brunswick, ME)
Prairie Recovery Specialist (Watson, MN)
Conservation Coordinator (Anchorage, AK)
Preserve Management / Bison Research Technician (Leola, SD)
Grassland Bird Technician (Minor, ND)
Digital Marketing Programmer Analyst (Arlington, VA)
Stewardship Assistant (Choteau, MT)
Communications Coordinator (Oklahoma City, OK)
Assistant Land Steward (Letts, IA)

If you love nature and want to work at a non-profit, it would be hard to beat a gig with The Nature Conservancy. So take a look at these positions, and see if any are a good fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about The Nature Conservancy?

Oriental Trading

Willy Franzen — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:25:58 +0000

It’s probably a little late to be planning a New Year’s Eve party, but I guess for a lot of people all it takes is a trip to the liquor store to prepare. But if you really want to do New Year’s Eve right, you need party hats, noisemakers, those popper thingies, and all kinds of other novelties. One of the best places to get those is Oriental Trading, an Omaha, NE based “direct merchant of value–priced party supplies, arts and crafts, toys and novelties, and a leading provider of school supplies and affordable home décor and giftware.” I remember getting their catalogs as a kid and thinking how awesome it would be to have not one stupid plastic toy, but a 1000-count tub of them. Oriental Trading has been around since 1932, and they’ve been able to stay competitive by quickly adapting to the changing ways people buy stuff.

A Favorable Trade

Oriental Trading may not sell high-end products like a lot of other long-lived mail order companies, but they’ve still “been recognized as one of the Top 50 Internet Retailers and one of the Top 50 Catalog Companies.” What I think is cooler is that The Omaha Chamber of Commerce named Oriental Trading as “one of Omaha’s Fastest Growing Companies three consecutive years.” I’m not sure how recently that was, but any time you can grow an already large, 80-year old company at an above average rate is impressive. If you’d like to help keep that growth going and you find that flipping through the Oriental Trading catalog is a good way to spend a few hours, then take a look at Oriental Trading’s Careers page. Right now they have some cool job opportunities for new or recent grads including Assistant Brand Merchant, Cost Analyst, Inventory Specialist, Payroll Specialist, Studio Sample Coordinator, and Senior Sales Assistant. Check out the job postings, and please forgive the HR people at Oriental Trading for using Comic Sans in their job postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever looked through the Oriental Trading catalog?

QuinStreet

Willy Franzen — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:03:36 +0000

In March of 2009 I got an e-mail that looked a lot like the spam you typically see when you’re a webmaster with a publicly listed e-mail address. When someone refers to my site as onedayonejob.com, it gives me the hint that the e-mail was probably automated and that I should send it to my Junk folder. But I was still intrigued by the following sentence: “I am reaching out to see if you will be interested in selling your site and would like to discuss potential acquisition opportunities with us,” so I followed up. Over the next few months I traded e-mails with a guy who works at QuinStreet about potentially selling the site, but we never even made it to the offer stage. The reason that the Foster City, CA based company was interested in One Day One Job is that they’re one of the leaders in vertical marketing and online media. They have tons of online properties, and they use them to market and generate leads for other businesses. They’ve been at it since 1999, so they’ve been around the block a time or two.

Take a Ride Down QuinStreet

QuinStreet’s main areas of focus are in Education and Financial Services (two extremely lucrative markets for lead generation), but they also work in Home Services, B2B, Medicine/Health, and Premium Brand Advertising. You won’t see QuinStreet promote their properties on their home page like some other online media companies do, and you won’t get too many details about what they actually do. Online lead generation is extremely competitive, so secrecy is really important. They do have a What We Do, but it’s extremely limited in its explanation of QuinStreet’s business (you’ll find a little more on their How We Do It page). If you really want to learn more about QuinStreet’s business, their Investor Relations site is probably the place to go. What might even give you a better sense of what they’re working is their Jobs page. By investigating the positions they’re hiring for, I’ll bet you’ll get even more insight into the business. You’ll also see some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

Employee Benefits and Compliance Assistant
Client Strategy & Development Associate
Data Services Associate (Reno, NV)
Inside Sales Rep
Inside Sales Rep – Home Services (Portland, OR)
Jr. Java Developer
Jr. Vertical Manager (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Jr. Web Producer (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Marketing Analyst
PPC Media Associate
SEM/PPC Media Associate (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Media Associate
Media Associate – Home Services
PHP Developer
Vertical Manager – Online Marketing
Web Designer

If you’re interested in online marketing, QuinStreet would be a great place to learn, so give these positions a look and see what appeals to you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about QuinStreet?

Urban Outfitters

Willy Franzen — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:28:02 +0000

I’m a strong believer in the theory of hipster relativity. If someone has more interesting facial hair than you, wears more plaid than you, or has thicker rimmed glasses than you, then he’s probably a hipster… at least to you. I’m pretty far up the chain (though I do have an affinity for plaid), which means that a whole lot of 20-somethings look like hipsters to me. The only thing I don’t get is where they get all of their cool hipster gear. I often walk by Urban Outfitters, and occasionally step inside. The store is packed with people and filled with what I consider to be hipster merchandise. This confuses me, because I know that no true hipster would shop somewhere so mainstream. I mean, Urban Outfitters, which is based in Philadelphia, PA, is publicly traded, has nearly 200 locations, and also owns Anthropologie, Free People, BHLDN, and Terrain. I guess the only loophole for a hipster shopping at Urban Outfitters is if you liked corporations before they were cool.

Get Urban Outfitted

Despite my sarcasm, I actually think that Urban Outfitters is an amazing company. They started as a single store in Philly in 1970, and they have grown the brand and the business to an amazing level. Urban Outfitters may be a corporation with a $4 billion market cap, but they offer a distinctly different feel from many other retailers in the fashion industry. I think the paragraph on Urban Outfitter’s About page really says its all:

Our established ability to understand our customers and connect with them on an emotional level. The reason for this success is that our brands — Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain and BHLDN — are both compelling and distinct. Each brand chooses a particular customer segment, and once chosen, sets out to create sustainable points of distinction with that segment. In the retail brands we design innovative stores that resonate with the target audience; offer an eclectic mix of merchandise in which hard and soft goods are cross merchandised; and construct unique product displays that incorporate found objects into creative selling vignettes. The emphasis is on creativity. Our goal is to offer a product assortment and an environment so compelling and distinctive that the customer feels an empathetic connection to the brand and is persuaded to buy.

If that sounds like a company that you want to be a part of, then check out Urban Outfitters Careers page. You’ll probably get overwhelmed if you look at all of their posted jobs (there are 100s of positions), so I recommend using some of the search criteria they offer to narrow down your search. For instance you can look at positions at their Home Office or in their Anthropologie Retail Stores. I’m not going to list all of the positions that make sense for new or recent grads, bot here are some that caught my eye:

This is just a small sampling of the jobs available at Urban Outfitters, so dig in and see what positions might be out there for you. Judging from that last posting, they must do some campus recruiting too–so that’s something to look into. Finally, Urban Outfiters has a Twitter account for job postings, so you may want to follow that.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you a hipster?

Time Out

Willy Franzen — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:15:42 +0000

We want to do even more to help you land a job. Take our survey and let us know how we can better serve you as we start our fifth year.

One of my favorite things about living in Chicago is the restaurants. There are so many great places to eat, and there are new ones opening constantly. It’s a lot of fun, but it can be overwhelming if you try to keep up with it. That’s why I rely on Time Out Chicago to keep me up to date with what’s going on in Chi-town, whether it’s restaurant openings, cultural events, or things to do. I guess I’m lucky that Time Out chose to cover Chicago, considering that the London, UK based publishing company typically focuses on major international destinations like Bangkok, Barcelona, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, and Venice for their guides and magazines. As far as I can tell, Boston, MA; Chicago, IL, and New York, NY are the only U.S. cities to get weekly magazines, though a few other like Las Vegas and San Francisco do get their own travel guides. I must say that Time Out’s online presence is quite disjointed, so there’s a chance that there are locations in the U.S. where they might be hiring and I just missed them.

Take a Time Out from Your Job Search

It seems as though the U.S. based Time Outs operate somewhat independently from the parent company. You’ll probably want to bounce around TimeOut.com, NewYork.TimeOut.com, TimeOutChicago.com, and TimeOutBoston.com to get a sense of all of the different sub-brands. You may also want to take a look at Time Out’s Wikipedia entry to get a fuller sense of the business. But really you should focus on digging into Time Out’s content (a lot of which they publish online) and getting a feel for how they cover different locales. Then you’ll want to read up on the specific Time Out that catches your interest and take a look at their jobs (all of the Time Outs seem to hire independently from each other). In the Worldwide office based in London they have a few job openings and also offer what they call work experience. You can use the links below to find the Jobs pages for Boston, Chicago, and New York, and you’ll see that they have a number of interesting opportunities including:

SEO Master (New York, NY)
Copy Editor (New York, NY)
Ad Operations Specialist (New York, NY)
PHP Symfony Web Application Developer (New York, NY)
Account Manager (Chicago, IL)

They’re also big on internships, so if you want to get a position on the editorial side it would probably benefit you to start as an intern. (I have a friend who did exactly that at Time Out Chicago). Here’s a list of all of the internships that they offer:

Photo Intern (Boston, MA)
Editorial Intern Intern (Boston, MA)
Art & Design Intern (Chicago, IL)
Editorial Intern (Chicago, IL)
Online Photography Intern (Chicago, IL)
Online Production Intern (Chicago, IL)
Photography Intern (Chicago, IL)
Web Intern (Chicago, IL)
Admin/Human Resources Intern (New York, NY)
Advertising Intern (New York, NY)
Art – Magazine Design Intern (New York, NY)
Audience Development Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Visual Arts Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Food & Drink Intern (New York, NY)
Public Relations Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Music Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Online Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Shopping & Style Intern (New York, NY)
Marketing & Events Intern (New York, NY)
Online Production Intern (New York, NY)
Photo Intern (New York, NY)
Editorial – Film Intern (New York, NY)
Special Projects Intern (New York, NY)
TONY Kids Intern (New York, NY)
TONY Kids Photo Intern (New York, NY)

They’re all unpaid, but they could be a good way to get a foot in the door.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any Time Out guides or subscribe to any of their magazines?

PerkSpot

Willy Franzen — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:23:02 +0000

Happy Veterans Day. Thank you to those of you who served or are serving our country. If you’d like to use today for job search inspiration, you may want to check out jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Every job has its perks. Sometimes you have to look hard to find them, and sometimes they’re made apparent to you on your first day. A big part of the reason that I decided to intern at Orvis was that I knew I’d get a 50% discount off of everything they sold. It was awesome for someone as addicted to fly fishing as I am. As I proved, perks can be a huge recruiting tool for employers. Yet a lot of employers do a terrible job organizing, managing, and letting their employees know about perks. What’s the point in offering something if employees don’t even know it’s available to them? PerkSpot is a Chicago, IL based company that helps employers solve this problem. They have built a “proprietary technology platform” that provides “employees with a single point of access for specialty benefits, personal insurance products, and discounts on consumer goods and services.” It’s all online and in one place.

Perk Up!

I learned about PerkSpot when I met Chris Hill, the Founder & CEO, at a Chicago entrepreneurship event. We had a lot to talk about since we’re both working in the HR industry. What I liked about PerkSpot right off the bat is that they not only help employers organize the perks that they already offer, but they also help them find new perks to offer by linking them up with merchants. Although I haven’t seen PerkSpot’s software in action, it must be pretty good considering that Starbucks, DirecTV, AirTran, Williams-Sonoma, and CDW are all PerkSpot clients. If your ears perked up when you heard about what PerkSpot is doing, then you’ll probably want to check out their Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for a C# Web Developer and a Web Designer/UX Ninja. I know that they also have non-technical positions (just none that are open right now) because one of my other friends is a Marketing Coordinator there. So if you’re serious about getting in on the perks of working at PerkSpot’s perks, feel free to e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com and I can make an intro to Chris. He’s a busy guy (and so am I), so please make sure your intro e-mail is something that I’ll feel is worth passing along.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s the best perk that you’ve ever heard of?

Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

Willy Franzen — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:59:36 +0000

Yesterday I picked my parents up from the airport. Because of traffic, I ended up spending more time in the car to do a roundtrip of about 35 miles then than they spent on the plane flying from New York City to Chicago. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in terms of transportation over the course of human history, but we still have a long way to go. Society still has a ton to gain economically and environmentally through innovation in transportation. That’s why the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy exists. They’re a New York, NY based non-profit organization that “works with cities worldwide to bring about sustainable transport solutions that cut greenhouse gas emissions, reduce poverty, and improve the quality of urban life.” They have offices in Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, so it’s clear that their mission is as much about international development as it is about transportation.

Transport Yourself

It’s easy to forget how much transportation affects nearly everything that we do. But when you see that ITDP’s six key issues are Climate Change, Urbanization, Poverty Alleviation, Road Safety, Health, and Air Pollution, you instantly realize just how many things are affected by transportation. ITDP’s biggest role is providing technical advice to cities on how they can improve themselves through transportation. To really get a sense of how ITDP is making the world a better place, you should read up on their work–they have some really interesting projects. If you’re excited about what you see, you should check out jobs at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. While they don’t have any positions that are perfectly suites for a new grad, it’s worth taking a look at the Administrative Assistant, Human Resources Associate, and Communications Officer (Guangzhou, China) positions. You could also try reaching out about an unlisted position.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite mode of transportation?

Attack!

Willy Franzen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:23:54 +0000

If you’re going to plan an effective attack, you often need boots on the ground. This is obviously true in military endeavors, but it can also be true in marketing. Believe it or not, having actual people doing face to face marketing can still be remarkably effective–I’m sure you’ve even seen it on your college’s campus. When companies need temporary staff for event based or experiential marketing, they often go to San Francisco, CA based Attack! (which also has offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York). They’re yet another Inc. 5000 company, and they’ve seen 180% three-year growth to $7.9 million in annual revenue. If you’re wondering how it all works, you’ll see that it’s mostly based on skydiving sumos.

Attack!

The best way to get a better feel for what Attack! does for their clients is to look through their laundry list of Services. The biggest focus is on Nationwide Event Staffing, but they also offer Experiential Services and Field Support. If you want to see what these services actually look like in practice, then you’ll want to check out the Attack! Case Studies. You can see the work that they’ve done for brands like Nickelodeon, VISA, Jamba Juice, and Canadian Club. If you like how different Attack!’s approach to marketing is from other firms, then you’ll want to take a look at their Careers page. You’ll see that they have a few job openings right now including Producer/Project Manager (Los Angeles, CA) and Account Manager (Los Angeles, CA and San Francisco, CA). Give them a look, you might like the experience.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Attack!?

Yeti Coolers

Willy Franzen — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:33:33 +0000

I spend a ton of time outdoors between fly fishing and playing beach volleyball. You’d think I’d have a cooler to take along with me, but I don’t. If I did, it’d have to be one of the models made by Yeti Coolers. They’re an Austin, TX based company that builds coolers that are more durable and keep things colder than any other coolers on the market. Yeti Coolers are built for tough conditions, which is why some of the biggest names in outdoors sports endorse them and the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee has deemed them Grizzly Proof. You may think it’s cooler overkill, but the market for high quality coolers seems to be extremely strong. That’s why Yeti Coolers made the Inc. 5000 with 613% three-year growth to $13 million in revenue.

These Jobs Do Exist

Yeti Coolers’ business seems pretty simple. They build a superior product and market it to a demographic that appreciates the kind of quality that Yeti Coolers offers. It’s obviously been a bit more complicated than that considering how quickly Yeti has been able to grow. I’m sure their engineering and manufacturing is pretty high tech, and I’m sure that going up against entrenched cooler manufacturers is a big challenge for a relative upstart. Still, you have to love that there’s still a ton of room for Yeti to grow in the market. If you want to be a part of that growth, then you should check out Yeti Coolers’s Careers page. While they don’t have any openings posted there, they do have an Application Page where you can apply for positions in Account Management, Accounting/Finance, Administrative, Cusomter Service, Human Resources, IT, Marketing, Operations, Order Processing, R&D / Product Development, Sales, and Warehouse. Hopefully your search for these jobs will be more fruitful than the search for the Abominable Snowman.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own a Yeti Cooler?

Mango Languages

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:54:59 +0000

I’ve come to accept that I’ll probably never learn a foreign language (maybe I’ll try a new computer programming language one day). I think my crazy high school French teacher ruined me, but I must admit that technology is making the idea of learning another language more and more attractive. The problem with most language learning software is that it can be really expensive? Mango Languages is a Farmington Hills, MI based company that has solved this problem for a lot of consumers. They provide online language learning services mostly to libraries, schools, government agencies, and corporations. That means that they get the guys with deep pockets to foot the bill for the people who are actually learning the new languages. It’s a smart approach that works considering that Mango Languages made the Inc. 5000 with 629% three-year revenue growth to $3.8 million in revenue.

Do You Like Mangoes?

Now anybody can go sign up for one of Mango Languages online courses (and the prices actually don’t look bad at all), but they’ve made a conscious decision to target multi-use accounts. That means their sales approach is likely different from other companies that offer similar products. Speaking of the product, you’ll probably want to check out what Mango Languages offers. You can read up on their methodology, check out some of their videos, and even do a free trial. That should answer all your questions, but if it doesn’t, you can take a look at the Mango Languages FAQs. If you’re digging the product, then you may want to consider working at Mango Languages. The video below is a quick intro to life at Mango Languages:

If that looks good to you, continue on to the Mango Languages Careers page. They have a bunch of job openings including Bilingual Project Coordinator, Help Desk Support, Human Resources Generalist, Integration Manager, Interactive Designer, Operations Coordinator, Sales Representative, Software Developer, and Web Developer. As you can see there are lots of options, so it’s pretty likely that one of them will be suitable if you’re a language lover.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What languages do you speak?

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?

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?

Hill Holliday

Willy Franzen — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:52:54 +0000

I have to admit that I’m a little bummed that the holiday weekend is over. Since it’ll be a solid 2 months until we get another one, we’re going to have to make do with Hill Holliday. They’re a full-service advertising, marketing, and communications agency with presences in Boston, MA; New York, NY; and Greenville, SC. It all started in Boston in 1968 as Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc., and now it’s a firm of more than 800 employees with some really big name clients including Dunkin’ Donuts, Major League Baseball, Anheuser Busch, CVS, Liberty Mutual, Bank of America, and more. Unless you are a total hermit, there’s almost no way that you wouldn’t recognize at least some of their work.

Another Holliday!

Whenever I look at advertising or marketing agencies, the first thing that I do is look at their work. Hill Holliday’s work is super impressive, and there’s a ton of it to look at. At first I though there were only a few pieces, but then I noticed the slider at the top of the page that lets you browse everything that they’ve done by client. One of my favorites has to be Brian Wilson’s Beard. If you’re digging Hill Holliday’s portfolio, then you’re in luck, because they also appear to be an awesome place to work. In 2010 they were named #1 in the “Boston Globe 100 Top Places to Work.” That’s why you should check out Hill Holliday’s Careers page, and then dive into their job postings. They have a bunch of opportunities for new or recent grads including Junior Studio Designer (Boston, MA), Administrative Assistant (Boston, MA), Front End Developer (Boston, MA), Jr. Flash Animator/Developer (Boston, MA), and Junior Media Buyer (New York, NY). There are a bunch more positions that require a little more experience, so you may want to check those out too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Hill Holliday?

Catalyst

Willy Franzen — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:41:35 +0000

Gender in the workplace is a complicated issue. Over the past 50 years, a lot has changed, and a lot has stayed the same. Over that time one of the organizations that has played a significant role in “expanding opportunities for women and business” has been Catalyst. They’re a non-profit headquartered in New York, NY and with offices in Sunnyvale, CA; Toronto, Canada; and Zug, Switzerland. Since they were founded in 1962 they have studied “women and men across levels, functions, and geographies to learn about women’s experiences in business, barriers to their career advancement, and individual and organizational strategies leading to success.” They provide this research to their members (they’re a member organization) with the goal of “building the inclusion that will expand opportunities for women in the workplace.”

Catalyze Your Career

Considering that my college education at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations was all about studying the world of work, I’m pretty interested in what Catalyst is all about (even if they’re not working to expand opportunities for me). If you’re also interested in what they’re doing, you have to check out their Research & Knowledge, the Catalyst Timeline, the Catalyst Awards, and the Services they offer. Each of these will give you a broader view of what Catalyst does and how they’re working to change workplaces and to change lives. If you like what you see, you’ll want to head over to the Catalyst Jobs page. I have to imagine that they have opportunities for both men and women, though their entire Executive Staff is female. Right now they’re looking for a Research Associate and Writer (does require some experience) and an Emerging Markets Librarian (requires an M.L.S. or equivalent degree). Take a look at both New York City based positions and see if they intrigue you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about Catalyst?

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?

iParadigms

Willy Franzen — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:11:08 +0000

We’re right in the thick of finals season. A few of you lucky ones are already done with them and may even be back at home already, while most of you are probably studying up a storm. It’s certainly a stressful time, and it often leads to bad decisions of the cheating/plagiarism variety. It definitely seems that plagiarism is a bigger problem now than it was in the past, but I think that it has more to do with advances in technology than an overall decline in student morals. When you had to hand write a paper or type it on a typewriter, copying someone was almost as annoying as writing your own paper. Now copy and paste makes it way too easy. Luckily, technology is catching up. iParadigms is an Oakland, CA (I swear I’m not trying to make this Oakland only, it’s just what I’ve been finding lately) based company that has been developing software to fight plagiarism since 1996. It started with some UC Berkeley researchers who had built internal tools “to monitor the recycling of research papers in their large, undergraduate classes.” From there a company was born.

Cheaters Never Prosper

iParadigms launched with Plagiarism.org and has building products around plagiarism detection ever since. The cool thing about their approach is that they’ve developed different products for different user groups. There’s Turnitin for teachers and instructors, Ithenticate for publishers and researchers, Turnitin for Admissions for Admissions professionals, and WriteCheck for students. The first three are pretty obvious products, but you may be wondering why students would need plagiarism checking software. Well, a lot of plagiarism is actually accidental plagiarism. WriteCheck helps students identify these mistakes while also helping them improve their writing. Plagiarism poses a variety of threats to education, and iParadigms has built a really interesting business in preventing plagiarism. If you like what they’re doing, you should check out their Jobs page. Right now they’re only looking for a Front-end Engineer, but they invite anyone who is interested in working for them to reach out and apply–just make sure your cover letter is completely original.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you had any experience with iParadigms Software?

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Willy Franzen — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:41:43 +0000

Ever consider a career in teaching? Here’s some info on how to get started.

There’s a long history of poking fun at Martha Stewart, and it started well before she went to prison. There’s just something funny about someone who takes perfection in domesticity as seriously as she does. My family even played an integral role in the satire of Martha with my little sister’s appearance in the parody magazine Martha Stuart’s Better Than You at Entertaining, which was a follow up to Is Martha Stuart Living? (here’s a picture my sister as young Martha Stewart in the parody). We can keep laughing at Martha Stewart, but she’ll always get the last laugh. She has an amazing track record of reaching the top in nearly everything that she has done–from babysitting for Mickey Mantle’s kids to starting a successful catering company in her basement to building a New York, NY based media empire in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Martha Stewart is apparently now worth well over half a billion dollars, and has used her personal brand to build amazing print, television, online, and merchandise properties.

Are You Living?

Whether or not you’re a Martha Stewart fan, you have to be impressed by what she’s done throughout her career. She’s had an amazing ability to stay relevant, and a lot of that has to do with her media strategy. She easily could have settled with a successful catering business, or a popular magazine, or having her own television show, but she didn’t. It seems that she is obsessed with using every channel possible to reach people with her “unique lifestyle content.” That’s what Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is all about. If you enjoy the Martha Stewart brand and want to work on the media or merchandise side, then you definitely need to take a look at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Careers page. There are some great opportunities posted in their job listings, and a few seem suitable for new or recent grads including: Assistant Food Editor, PHP Application Developer – Internet Content Management Systems, Front-End Web Developer, Decorative Pillow and Bedding Accessory Designer, Executive Assistant, Freelance Recipe Taster, Retail Merchandising Assistant, Apparel Designer – Martha Stewart Pets and Quilt Designer. You can also apply for an unlisted position if you don’t see something that suits you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you a Martha Stewart fan?

Education First

Willy Franzen — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:24:47 +0000

Though I wouldn’t call it a regret, there’s a part of me that wishes that I had taken the opportunity to study abroad during college. It would be nice to have learned a new language, experienced different cultures, and seen new geographies. Luckily, I have done a bit of traveling after college to help with the last two, but I’m not sure that I’ll ever pick up a new language. But if I do decided to pursue a more formal travel/study abroad experience, I could go through Education First. They’re an international company that offers “a range of educational programs from language training, educational travel, and academic degrees to cultural exchanges.” The company was founded in 1965 by Bertil Hult in Lund, Sweden, but they’re now headquartered in Luzern, Switzerland. They have locations all across the world (including the US), which makes sense since their business is all about breaking “down barriers in language, culture and geography” and helping “people of all ages and nationalities become citizens of the world.”

First Things First

I learned about Education First from a One Day, One Internship reader who unsubscribed because she landed an internship with them. That piqued my curiosity, so I started looking at Education First more closely. Apparently, they operate in more than 50 countries with 400 offices/schools–and that number is growing at a rate of about one new school/office every week. It looks like international education is a thriving business, and Education First is serving the market in a variety of ways. Their range of program offerings includes Language Schools, High School and University Education, Corporate Language Training, Cultural Exchange, Online Language Training, and Educational Tours. I can only graze the surface of what they do, so I strongly recommend that you take some time to read up on their history and browse their website to learn more. After that, you’ll want to check out their Careers site which has a ton of information about what it’s like to work for Education First. And if you want “to work in a dynamic, fast-paced and highly international environment,” then you can check out their current opportunities. There are a ton of positions posted across the world, but I’m just going to link to a sampling of the U.S. based entry level opportunities like Marketing Coordinator (Cambridge, MA), Tour Consultant (Cambridge, MA), Recruitment Coordinator (Los Angeles, CA), and Account Services Coordinator – Cultural Care Au Pair (Cambridge, MA). There are dozens of jobs available in a variety of locations–most in Sales, so give them all a good look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you done any Education First programs?

Elance

Willy Franzen — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:12:57 +0000

You know all about looking for work–that’s why you’re reading this. You’re looking for a full-time, permanent job because that’s what you’re supposed to do after you graduate. But what if that’s not for you? Or what if you’re just trying to earn some money until you find the right gig? You can freelance. But where do you find those kinds of opportunities? Here’s a hint: it rhymes with freelance. Elance is a Mountain View, CA based company that has built the “world’s leading platform for online employment.” And they really mean online employment. If you’re looking to work (or hire) on an hourly or project basis and meeting face to face isn’t important, then Elance is the place to go.

Being Sir-Lance-A-Lot

Considering that I studied Industrial and Labor Relations in college, I probably have an unusual interest in how technology affects the world of work, so bear with me for a minute. Elance (and other sites like it) allows you to access a truly global market for labor nearly instantaneously. There’s no need to move capital investments to chase down free labor. This is truly revolutionary. Never has a market for labor operated so freely and efficiently. I can have someone half a world away complete a project for me while I sleep, and they can do it for a fantastic price. That in itself is amazing, but what’s even more impressive is that Elance has built a community where you can actually count on the quality and reliability of the freelancers that you hire. If you’re as amazed by this development as I am, then you will want to take a look at jobs at Elance (their jobs, not the jobs posted on their site). Right now they’re looking for an Account Representative to work with their customers and help them better use Elance. And if you don’t end up working for Elance, you can always use them to find some project or hourly work along the way.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used Elance?

Cabela’s

Willy Franzen — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:57:28 +0000

Being a fly fisherman, I sometimes get frustrated with living in Chicago. Not only are there few opportunities to go fishing without a decent drive, but the winters are way too long (it’s supposed to be spring now, and it’s not). To get through the winter I’ll often visit fishing stores, look at websites, and read through catalogs. It’s not much, but it’s all I have. And Cabela’s provides all three options. The company is based in Sidney, NE, and they’re the “largest mail-order, retail and Internet outdoor outfitter in the world.” It all started in 1961 with a tiny classified ad that Dick Cabela placed in a newspaper because he wanted to sell some fishing flies that he purchased while visiting Chicago for a furniture show (since Nebraska is even less of a fly fishing destination than Chicago is). Despite a lackluster response to the original ad, Dick Cabela kept trying. The company grew organically, and now Cabela’s is dominating three major retail channels. The truly amazing part of the story is that Cabela’s has been able to maintain their commitment to customer service throughout all of the growth. I’m not a big customer (I try to support local shops), but I have quite a few friends who are extremely loyal Cabela’s customers because of the quality of products and service.

Outfitting Your Job Search

If you love the outdoors, you probably already know all about Cabela’s. Their stores are massive shrines to everything that is great about being an outdoorsman. They have fish tanks, taxidermy, indoor mountains, archery ranges, and, obviously, lots and lots of products that you can buy. According to Wikipedia, their store in Kansas City had 4 million customer visits in a single year, while the store in Hamburg, PA covers a quarter million square feet. Obviously, the ultimate Cabela’s experience requires visiting one of their stores, but their catalogs and website are pretty good proxies if you’re stuck at home. And if you are stuck at home, you might as well take a look at Cabela’s Careers site too. You can check out their testimonials and culture quiz, or you can just head straight for their job listings. We’re going to pass over all of the retail positions (there are a ton of them), and only look at corporate jobs that might be suitable for new or recent grads. These include (all positions in Sidney, NE unless otherwise noted):

Cabela’s has one of the worst applicant tracking systems that I’ve ever seen. It’s “Powered by Kenexa,” and it’s completely unusable. I slogged through it so you don’t have to, so the positions above should give you a good idea of what kind of entry level opportunities exist at Cabela’s. There are more entry level postings than just these, but I can only bang my head against a wall for so long.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you shop at Cabela’s?

American Greetings

Willy Franzen — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:36:40 +0000

I can’t remember the last time that I bought a greeting card, but I can remember the last time that I was part of the purchasing process. A good friend of mine was getting married, and he needed a card for his soon to be wife. Because of the dearth of cards for brides from their grooms, I made it my job to suggest alternatives. Trying to convince a stressed out groom to give his new wife a condolences card probably isn’t the nicest thing to do, but it’s certainly entertaining. Yes, greeting cards can be funny, but there’s more to them than that. That’s why American Greetings calls themselves the “leading manufacturer of innovative social expression products that assist consumers in enhancing their relationships.” The Cleveland, OH based company is the largest publicly-traded greeting card company in the world, and their brands include American Greetings, Carlton Cards, Gibson, Recycled Paper Greetings, and Papyrus along with a number of other paper products and online brands.

A Job for Every Occasion

Greeting cards may seem like a niche business, but American Greetings is a very large company with near $1.7 billion in annual revenue and 18,000 employees according to Wikipedia. The company was started in 1906 by a Polish immigrant named Jacob Sapirstein, and it’s been able to stick around through constant innovation. They’ve developed toy brands like Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears and digital properties like Webshots and Blue Mountain. If it can somehow be worked into “social expressions products,” then they’re on it. American Greetings seems to keep on growing, and that means lots of hiring. Their Careers page takes a little bit of navigating, but half a dozen clicks later you’ll find their job listings. There are a ton of jobs posted, but you should look out for the following opportunities: Artist Coordinator (Chicago, IL), Assistant Product Development Manager – Papyrus/Recycled Greetings (Fairfield, CA), Assistant Art Director (Cleveland, OH), Brand Analyst – Papyrus, Graphic Designer (Cleveland, OH), Graphic Line Designer – Derivative Planning (Cleveland, OH), Graphic Coordinator (Cleveland, OH), Marketing Product Assistant (Cleveland, OH), Merchandiser (Nationwide), Order Filler (Cleveland, OH), Programmer Analyst (Bardstown, KY), Receptionist – Papyrus/Recycled Greetings (Chicago, IL), Sourcing Coordinator (Cleveland, OH), and Supply Chain Leadership Rotation Program Associate (Cleveland, OH). That Leadership Rotation Program is the most intriguing, and makes me wonder if they have any other similar programs in different areas.

American Greetings’ Careers page also mentions the following business departments: Accounting, Business Intelligence, Creative, Communications, Engineering, Entertainment, Finance, Human Resources, Interactive, Information Technology, International Operations, Legal, Management, Manufacturing and Distribution, Marketing, Retail Merchandising, Sales, Supply Chain Management, Transportation/Logistics, and Writer/Editor. So if you are interested in any of those areas but don’t see a job that fits you, you might want to keep checking in (or apply for an unlisted position).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s the last greeting card that you sent?

Corporate Executive Board

Willy Franzen — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:15:02 +0000

As someone who started a bootstrapped business straight out of college, I’ve had to rely on free resources to learn the tricks of the trade. Sites like Hacker News, SEOmoz, Mixergy have been invaluable to me. But you can only get so much for free. Fortune 500 companies often spend many millions of dollars to ensure that their executives are well informed and well advised. One place that 80% of Fortune 500 companies go for advice is The Corporate Executive Board. They are an Arlington, VA based company that helps “senior executives at the world’s leading organizations… and their teams with actionable insights, analytic tools, and advisory support to quickly and confidently focus efforts on what they need to know, and do, next.” The Corporate Executive Board spun off from The Advisory Board Company (they focus only on healthcare and higher education) in 1997 and has since IPO’d.

Hop On Board

The Corporate Executive Board may sound like a consulting firm (and they do some consulting), but they have a somewhat unique model. Companies pay an annual membership fee to The Corporate Executive Board, and this allows them to access CEB’s resources. The beauty of this model is that member companies also share information with The Corporate Executive Board, so there’s a network effect–the advice that they provide gets better as more members join. The Corporate Executive Board’s services focus on a wide range of areas that include: Communications, Corporate Finance, Corporate Strategy, Customer Service, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal and Compliance, and Sales and Marketing, with additional offerings tailored to the Financial Services, Government, and Midsized sectors. With an eye to these areas, CEB helps executives manage six key challenges:

Assessing Key Performance Trends and Risks
Organizing and Managing Critical Talent
Benchmarking Performance and Plans
Establishing Innovative Operating Approaches
Driving Alignment and Support for Change
Navigating Leadership Transitions

If you’re fascinated by large corporations and how they work, then The Corporate Executive Board would be an excellent place to start your career. I know that they do a lot of on-campus recruiting, but that all happened in the fall. Luckily, CEB has more than 100 jobs posted on their Careers page, and many of them can be considered entry level. Unfortunately, TheCorporate Executive Board’s Jobs site doesn’t allow me to link directly to specific postings. You should start looking at their undergraduate opportunities here, and then move on to their full job listings here. Their locations include Washington, DC; San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; Needham, MA; Rochester, NY; Scottsdale, AZ; West Chester, NY; Toronto, Canada; London, UK; New Delhi, India; Singapore; and Sydney, Australia.

The Corporate Executive Board has two heavy concentrations when it comes to job opportunities. One is positions that help them put out their products and services. The other is positions that help them sell memberships. Makes sense. You’ll want to look for job titles like Research Analyst, Sales Specialist, Web Designer, Member Support Associate, Meetings Associate, Market Research Specialist, Data and Tools Analyst, Business Development Associate, Business Analyst, Associate – Learning & Development Team, Analyst, Account Management Associate, Account Administrator, Quantitative Analyst, Online Community Specialist, Junior Sales Executive, and lots more. And if you’re looking for another way to catch the eye of the folks at The Corporate Executive Board, you may want to check out their Case Competition that just opened up. It looks like a great way to win a scholarship and possibly get a job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about The Corporate Executive Board?

FactSet Research Systems

Willy Franzen — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:49:22 +0000

The world of high finance is mind-bending. Billions and even trillions of dollars are being exchanged, yet no paper money is actually changing hands. It gets even crazier when you realize that real people are behind all of these transactions. They’re constantly making decisions that affect more money than you’ll probably accrue in your lifetime—and it’s not even their money (some of it might even be yours). When it comes to finance, research is crucial to sound decision making, and as technology has evolved, research has become more and more plentiful. FactSet Research Systems is a Norwalk, CT based company that provides investment analytics tools. As they put it, “FactSet enhances productivity of the global investment professional by providing superior workflow solutions.” It does this by consolidating “all the tools you need to monitor global markets, public and private companies, and equity and fixed income portfolios in a single, intuitive interface.”

Get Your FactSet

FactSet puts most of their emphasis on two business areas: Consulting and Engineering. The former is all about providing excellent service to their clients, while the latter is directed towards constantly innovating and improving their product line. What makes FactSet’s offering stand out is that they combine “hundreds of databases from industry-leading suppliers and clients’ own proprietary data into a single, powerful information system.” This means that clients can use FactSet as “a one-stop source for financial information.” In addition to Consulting and Engineering, FactSet’s other departments include Sales, Product Development, Content Collection, Corporate Communications, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, and Training. However, FactSet seems to focus their College Recruiting on Consulting and Engineering (you can check out some Employee profiles here). They’re right in the thick of their on-campus schedule, so you should try to find them at your school if they’re visiting. If not, you may want to try to find a way to reach out to them (I couldn’t find an e-mail address except for internships@factset.com) or just apply through their Job Search function (there are nearly 100 jobs posted). Beyond their headquarters in Norwalk, CT, FactSet also has offices in Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Newark, NJ; San Mateo, CA; Tuscaloosa, AL; and Austin, TX.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about FactSet?

Simon & Schuster

Willy Franzen — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:46:23 +0000

It’s hard to think of an industry that hasn’t been affected by the Internet in some way, but when you think about those that have seen the most change, publishing has to be at the top of the list. Not only has technology changed the way that we read, but it’s also changed what we read. In fact, I bought a Kindle to force myself to read more books, and half of the reading that I do on it is stuff that I sent to it from the web. However, books are still huge business, and the major brands in the book publishing business still seem to be surviving, if not thriving, in a forever changed book selling environment. Simon & Schuster is a great example (and if you’re looking for other entry level jobs in publishing, you may also want to check out Hachette, Sterling, Penguin Group, and Random House). The New York, NY publisher was able to hit their profit targets last year even though they fell short of revenue targets. This article on a letter from Simon & Schuster’s CEO will give you insight into how the company is embracing digital publishing while also expanding its focus on high growth areas like Children’s publishing. The Internet may just be what keeps the big name publishers alive.

Book It

The most recent data that I can find (mid-2008) had Simon & Schuster as the fourth largest trade publisher in the United States. Back then they represented just under 10% of the market share, and there’s a good chance that they’ve grown it since they’ve really started to embrace digital formats and social media marketing. Now, 10% of the trade books in the United States aren’t labeled as being published by Simon & Schuster—they have a wide range of divisions and imprints that specialize in specific interest areas and markets. Each of these acts as “its own publisher with separate editorial and publicity departments,” but they do share “common sales and business departments.” If you’re intrigued by what Simon & Schuster is doing to maintain (or improve) their position in the trade publishing industry, then you should check out their Jobs page—specifically the section on their Associates Program, which is aimed at providing “opportunities for entry-level candidates to gain hands-on experience in different functional areas in order to broaden knowledge of publishing and fast forward careers.” It’s a rotational program that offers focuses in Adult, Children’s Publishing (including but not limited to Editorial, Publicity, Marketing, Subsidiary Rights, and Managing Editorial), Digital, or Corporate Communications. It looks great, and they expect candidates on a rolling basis, so you don’t have to worry about deadlines or being from a target campus. There also some other positions posted on Simon & Schuster’s Jobs site like Human Resources Coordinator, Editorial Assistant (Gallery Books) – Adult Trade, Inventory Analyst (NYC and Riverside, NJ), Logistics Coordinator (Riverside, NJ), and Business Intelligence Analyst, so the Associates Program isn’t the only option.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which books from Simon & Schuster have you read lately?

Build-A-Bear Workshop

Willy Franzen — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:44:06 +0000

Today the Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For list came out. I’m not a huge fan of these lists, because they seem to be mostly driven by PR prowess. Still, they can be great tools to learn about new companies, which is why I’ve been running through the list to see which companies might appeal most to college students and grads. One that stood out right away was Build-A-Bear Workshop, which came in at #48 on the list. I’ve never built a bear, but I’ve walked by enough of their packed-with-kids stores to understand the brilliance of their business—they turn buying a stuffed animal into an activity. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, MO with stores across the country and a distribution center in Columbus, OH. Now, Build-A-Bear Workshop is really big on bear puns, so if you can’t deal with that, you better stop reading now.

Where Bearish Is a Good Thing

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Build-A-Bear Workshop, they’re a company that aims “to bring the Teddy Bear to life.” They do this by giving you the raw materials to build a stuffed animal that suits your personality. To start, you can choose from “30 varieties of stuffed animals including teddy bears, bunnies, dogs, kitties and more.” Then you can choose what sounds your animal makes, how “stuffed” you want him or her to be, what clothes your animal wears, and what his or her name will be. I’m not exactly sure how many different combinations there are, but they’re essentially infinite—just like the bear puns. Jobs are “op-bear-tunities,” employees “reach fur the stars,” and when employees work together they “collaBEARate.” If you dig the business and the puns, then head over to Build-A-Bear Workshop’s Careers page—you’ll see sections for jobs in Retail, Distribution, and at the World Bearquarters. While the first two offer great options, we’re going to focus on the latter.

Unfortunately, Build-A-Bear Workshop uses a dropdown menu to display their job postings, so it’s kind of a pain to browse through them all. There’s also no way to link directly to the job postings, and the site is actually a bit light in terms of posted jobs right now, but they typically offer opportunities in the following areas: Accounting/Finance, Administrative, Call Center, Creative/Graphic Design, Facilities Management, Human Resources, International, Information Technology, Legal, Logistics, Merchandise Planning/Allocation, Marketing, Product Development, Public Relations, Purchasing, Store Operations, Strategic Planning, and Web / Interactive. Still, there area few postings that seem suitable for new or recent grads including First Impressions Bear/HR Assistant (Receptionist) – Human Resources, International Product Planning Bear – International, and Usability Anabearlyst (Analyst) – Web / Interactive. Build-A-Bear Workshop also allows you to apply for unlisted positions, so you have no excuse not to bear down and send in an application.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own a Build-A-Bear?

Cord Blood Registry

Willy Franzen — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:09:40 +0000

You can sell anything to new parents. They want to create a perfect world for their new baby, so they often tend to go overboard on things like strollers, cribs, mobiles, and clothes. Recently, an expensive new option for parents-to-be has come to market. It seems a little out there at first, but it has the potential to be the most valuable purchase/investment that a parent could make. It’s having your child’s stem cells banked at birth by freezing the blood from the umbilical cord. The mention of stem cells often creates a lot of controversy, but that’s almost always directed at embryonic stem cell research. There are plenty of other ways to procure stem cells—and umbilical cord blood is one of the best, especially for individual medical use. Stem cell therapies are still pretty uncommon, but the hope is that future therapies will be available to those who have had their stem cells banked—and there’s already a long list of diseases that have been treated with stem cells from cord blood. Cord Blood Registry in San Bruno, CA is the world’s “largest and most experience cord blood bank” having “already saved cord blood for more than 325,000 newborns.” Banking cord blood may not be all that common yet, but if you’re going to do it, it looks like Cord Blood Registry is the place to go.

Banking on the Future

Now, there are some people who criticize cord blood banks for taking advantage of naive parents and selling them an expensive product/service that isn’t really necessary. There may be some truth to that, but I’m sure the parents of children who were treated with stem cells from their cord blood are pretty happy with their investment. Now, there’s no way that I could explain the whole process of cord blood banking, but the Cord Blood Registry website does a great job of that. They have sections on Why You Should Bank Stem Cells, Why You Should Choose Cord Blood Registry, and a great database of Frequently Asked Questions. The site is extremely informative, even if it is focused on selling parents on the idea of cord blood banking. If you’re fascinated by what Cord Blood Registry is doing, then you’ll want to head over to their Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for a Client Support Representative, a Human Resources Coordinator, and an Associate Manager/Content Scientist. I wonder if employees get free cord blood banking for their kids?

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would bank your child’s cord blood?

Dachis Group

Willy Franzen — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:52:18 +0000

Do you know what I hated most about college? Group projects. Even if I had a good group (and I usually had at least one slacker and one know it all), getting everyone together and communicating about who was doing what over the course of the project was a pain in the butt. Technology has come a long way in the five years since I graduated college, but I’m sure that group projects are still a pain. Now, imagine doing it in a corporate environment on a daily basis with some outdated technology platform that you’re required to use. There is some really cool stuff happening at the nexus of work, technology, and relationships, but most companies are missing out on the potential gains. Dachis Group is a company headquartered in Austin, TX that helps “businesses to create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace.” They do “social business design,” and they do it well.

It’s About Connections

Business is all about connections, whether it’s with your clients, co-workers, or strategic partners. Dachis Group “helps companies reinvent themselves into dynamic, socially calibrated organizations that gain constant value from their ecosystem of connections.” They seem to take a similar approach that of many management consulting firms, but Dachis Group’s focus is very specific. They work with names like ESPN, Coca-Cola, Foursquare, Intel, Sprint, and Yum! Brands. The idea of social business design is probably a new one for you, so you should definitely spend some time on the Dachis Group website looking at their Approach, Practice Areas, and Results. It’s pretty cutting edge stuff, so don’t worry if you don’t fully grasp it right away—I don’t fully get it yet. Anyway, if you’re intrigued by what Dachis Group is doing, you should check out their Jobs at Dachis Group“>Careers page. They don’t have much that is explicitly entry level (and their Jobs site is annoying to use), but positions like Social Business Consultant, Contract Designer (Indianapolis, IN/Portland, OR/St. Louis, MO), Interactive UI Engineer (London, UK), and Informational Designer (Portland, OR) are all worth at least looking at. The Social Business Consultant/Analyst position in Sydney, Australia actually looks like the best fit, but it’s, unfortunately, half a world away.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about social business design?

Macy’s

Willy Franzen — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 15:37:20 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving! In past years we’ve taken a look at jobs at Pilgrim’s Pride, Jennie-O, and Plimoth Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg. This year we’ve been influenced by the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, so we’re going to take a look at entry level jobs at Macy’s. They’re headquartered in both New York City and Cincinnati, and they are “one of the nation’s premier retailers, with fiscal 2009 sales of $23.5 billion.” The company operates more than 810 stores across 45 states. Over the past decade or so they’ve absorbed a number of other retailers, but the Macy’s brand has reigned supreme—and I bet the popularity of today’s parade has had at least a little something to do with it.

A Parade of Job Opportunities

Obviously with a company as large as Macy’s, there are a lot of different places and ways that you can find information about them. I’m going to leave most of that up to you since I have a football game to get to, but once you start thinking about a job, you’ll want to skip over MacysJobs.com and go straight to MacysCollege.com for the company’s entry level opportunities. They offer Executive Development Programs in Store Management, Merchant, Product Development, Finance/Accounting, Human Resources, Logistics Management, Information Technology, Credit Operations, and Food Management. It looks like most of their on campus recruiting events are over; however, you can still apply for a multitude of positions all across the country by following the instructions here. So take a look at Macy’s, and then go stuff your face.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you shop at Macy’s?