One Day, One Job » humor

Spartz Media

Willy Franzen — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:28:29 +0000

Life isn’t nearly as exciting with no new Harry Potter books or movies coming out. I’m pretty bummed about it, but probably not nearly as bummed as the people who hang out on MuggleNet. In case you’ve never heard of it, MuggleNet is “the world’s #1 Harry Potter site.” It was started by Emerson Spartz when he was 12 years old, and it quickly started generating a ton of traffic. And with that traffic came some serious revenue opportunities. As MuggleNet turned into a real business, Emerson rolled it into a company called Spartz Media and started launching new entertainment focused sites. Some of the bigger names include OMG Facts, Gives Me Hope, and SmartphOWNED. Spartz Media is located in Chicago, IL (about 3 blocks from me), and they’re reaching more than 8.5 million people every month through their web properties. They’ve been at it since 2009, though MuggleNet has actually been around since 1999.

OMG Jobs

I actually learned about Spartz Media from a guy I occasionally play volleyball with who works there (though I’d heard of MuggleNet before that). He made it sound like a pretty cool place to work, and how can it not be when your business is all about making websites that entertain people? You can check out all of Spartz Media’s brand here, just make sure that you don’t end up wasting a few hours. What’s cool about Spartz Media is that it’s not all fun and games–there’s a science to what they do. Whether you want to be part of the fun, the science, or both, you should take a look at Spartz Media’s jobs. Right now they’re looking for a Business Analyst and a PHP Developer, and if you look at their Team page you’ll see that there may be other potential opportunities in Design, Web Development, Project Management, Editorial, Community Management, Business Intelligence, Analytics, and more. If you do end up applying, be sure to let them know that we sent you (and if you want an intro to my fried, just e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com). It’s a really young company, so I bet it’s a great place for new grads.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of Spartz Media’s sites is your favorite?

Funny or Die

Willy Franzen — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:43:05 +0000

I love the idea of April Fool’s Day, but I’m almost never impressed with the pranks that people come up with. It’s really become a day where people show off how lame their sense of humor is. Since this is my fourth April Fool’s Day doing this and I still don’t have the heart to play a trick on hopeful job seekers, we’re going to do what we’ve done for the past three years–look at companies with good senses of humor. Last year we covered Second City (and at least one reader landed a job there). The year before it was CollegeHumor. And the year before that we took a look at Motley Fool (check out this job that their recruiter sent me this morning). We’ve also covered jobs at The Onion, but that wasn’t for April Fool’s Day. This year it’s all about Funny or Die, the “rapidly growing celebrity-anchored video website” based in San Mateo, CA. I guess this is what you get when you combine “a bunch of Silicon Valley dudes and ladies” with funny guys Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow, Adam McKay, and Chris Henchy.

Don’t Die

Funny or Die has a pretty decent April Fool going on right now: Rebecca Black has taken over the entire site. I’m just glad to see that she’s finally getting the recognition that she deserves. I remember the first Funny or Die video that I ever saw. It’s “The Landlord” with Will Ferrell. I have to admit that I didn’t love it, but maybe you will (e-mail readers click through to see the video).

If this video has you in hysterics, then Funny or Die might be the right place for you to start your career. Their Jobs page is kind of a semi-permanent April Fool’s Day gag since they don’t provide any listings or a contact e-mail address, but that shouldn’t discourage you. They mention 50 employees and offices in Hollywood, Palo Alto, and New York, so there have to be some options–maybe in areas like video, production, editorial, advertising, sales, and marketing. You can browse LinkedIn to get a better feel for how their ad-supported business works.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you visit Funny or Die?

Anti-eco

Willy Franzen — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:42:57 +0000

I’m not a big t-shirt guy. Don’t get me wrong, I have a ton of t-shirts, but they’re usually ones that I somehow managed to get for free. For me a t-shirt isn’t a great way to make a statement, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy the statements that other people make across their chests. Anti-eco is a New York City based t-shirt company that is all about making statements. They are “lovers of social commentary, rational provocation and a thriving healthy planet,” so they poke fun at the environmentalist movement while actually supporting it. You’ll find t-shirts with sayings like “acid rain tastes like chicken,” “be organic. eat an organ,” and “global warming sounds comfy.” They certainly sound anti-eco, but then you see that they use organic cotton, water based inks, and certified responsible apparel production methods. How ironic!

Are You Anti-eco?

Anti-eco’s goal is to “create a product that is as planet-conscious as it is cheeky,” and they do just that. And to add to their responsibility, they also donate a percentage of every sale “to the clean-up and preservation of wildlife in the Gulf oil spill.” Anti-eco’s shirts are quite funny, and so is the copy on their website. As long as you’re not afraid of puns, you should take a look at their Philosophy page. Now, Anti-eco is just a tiny t-shirt startup right now, but they could become a lot more. They’re offering unpaid internships in areas like Fashion PR and Marketing, Creative/Humor Writing and PR, and Fashion Sales, so they appear to have an eye towards growth. If you want to work for Anti-eco and actually get paid, then you have two options: Sewer or Hand Beader. These aren’t exactly career track positions, but they certainly could lead towards something bigger at Anti-eco in the future. Maybe you even combine one of the paid positions with an unpaid internship and really force their hand. You can apply by contacting jonathan@anti-eco.com (who I hope calls himself the Anti-ceo).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you wear an Anti-eco t-shirt?

The Second City

Willy Franzen — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:26:09 +0000

I know how tough the job search is, so I’m not going to pull a prank on you. It would just be mean to tell you about some awesome jobs and then say that they don’t exist. Instead, I’m going to stick to what I’ve done for the last two April Fools’ Days and introduce you to some jobs with a humorous side to them. Two years ago we took a look at Motley Fool, and last year it was College Humor. This year we’re going to check out The Second City, which is “the leading brand in improv-based sketch comedy.” They have theaters in Chicago and Toronto, along with Training Centers in those cities and Hollywood too. The Second City is also where famous comedians like Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis (Ghostbusters!), Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Steve Carell, and Chris Farley cut their teeth. (My buddy Jason Seiden also did a little work at their Training Center.) It is the place for comedy, and it’s all located a mile up the street from where I live.

These Jobs Are No Joke

I’ve been to a Second City performance, and I thought it was pretty good (although I expected a little better). That’s the way that improv comedy works though. Some nights are good, and some aren’t so good. Beyond the theater, The Second City does a ton of improv training. Some people do it to pursue a career in comedy or acting, others do it for fun. Some people do it for personal development, and it wouldn’t be bad for the job search. If you can walk your way through an improv skit and get some laughs, then a job interview should be a piece of cake. If that job interview is with The Second City, then you might really need that improv training. Right now their Jobs page shows two positions: Assistant Theater Manager and Administrative Coordinator (both are at the Second City Training Center in Chicago). The jobs look great, and they may be right for new grads depending on what you’ve done in the past. The only catch is that if you land the job, I’m expecting some free tickets. The Second City also occasionally holds cast auditions, so if you’re serious about comedy, that’s the way to go.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you seen any Second City performances?

Know Your Meme

Willy Franzen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:00:22 +0000

Today’s post came from a reader recommendation (thanks Derek!), which is awesome because I was on the company’s site a few days ago and never would have imagined that they offer jobs (or even considered them a company as opposed to a website). The reason that I was on the site was that I was reading the story of Epic Beard Man (it is tagged NSFW), which is another one of those ridiculous things that has become popular on the Internet. The term that many use to describe these phenomena is meme. Know Your Meme is a website that organizes all of the world’s memes. Let’s say that you’re looking for the story behind Rickroll because you have no idea why people think it’s so funny. Know Your Meme, which is based in New York City, will not only explain the meme to you, but it will also detail the history of how the meme became popular and how it evolved. To some Know Your Meme may seem frivolous, but in many ways it’s the Historical Society of the Interwebs.

Know Your Job

If you’re still not sure what a meme is, then use Know Your Meme’s Random Meme Generator. Try it a few times and you should get the hang of it. You may recognize some famous memes from the Weezer Pork And Beans video, the South Park episode Meet the Internet Stars, or that Super Bowl commercial that had some Internet stars in it. My favorite meme of all time has to be Numa Numa guy. Yes, this may all seem idiotic, but Know Your Meme is building a business off of Internet celebrities. In addition to the advertising angle, they are also selling meme merchandise. It must be working, because Know Your Meme is hiring. If you check out their Jobs page, you’ll see that they’re looking for a Rails Developer and a Junior Web Developer. I know that most of you aren’t developers, so you should take note that Know Your Meme’s internships are in Community Management, Merchandise, Research, and Writing. These are all areas where Know Your Meme might be hiring in the future, and if you push them enough, they might even be hiring right now. You just need to reach out to them at forthelulz@knowyourmeme.com with “any resumes, writing samples, portfolios in the body of the email or linked to file-hosting sites.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite meme?

CollegeHumor

Willy Franzen — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:00:03 +0000

I really wanted to play a gag on you this year. I wanted to post a ridiculous sounding job with a ridiculous application process, but I couldn’t bring myself to have fun at your cost. The job search is stressful enough. You don’t need someone messing with you even if you should know better than to believe anything that you read on April 1st. It’s going to be hard to top last year’s April Fools’ Day jobs with Motley Fool, and unfortunately I wasn’t smart enough to save jobs with The Onion for today, so we’re going to go with CollegeHumor, which “was founded in 1999 by two high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland who went to different colleges as a way to share all of the pictures, videos, and links their friends would IM and e-mail each other.” Somehow, a completely childish and immature website turned into a real media company over the past 10 years; in fact, IAC recently bought a majority share in CollegeHumor’s parent company. College, just like April Fools’ Day, is a time to have fun – often at the expense of others. I guess it makes sense that CollegeHumor, now based in New York City, has become a real business, with real employees.

CollegeHumor Isn’t a Joke

CollegeHumor isn’t for everyone (back in the day they had a disclaimer saying that anyone over 32 shouldn’t be on the website), but if you are amused by what others deem offensive, then a job with CollegeHumor might be your jam – especially if you want to work for a company that has a corporate beer pong team. Ok, so it’s not all fun and games. According to CollegeHumor’s Jobs page, they’re only hiring interns right now. That’s ok though, because if you let a lack of job postings stop you from landing your dream job, then you seriously need some job search help. I recommend that you head over to their About page, where they list all of their employees and job titles, and pick a job that you want. Then contact CollegeHumor and try to steal the person’s job. You can say, “April Fools’! I took your job. Happy unemployment!” It’ll help if you offer to take payment solely in Busted Tees (one of CollegeHumor’s sister companies). Your other option is to check out the Jobs from Connected Ventures, CollegeHumor’s parent company. They’re looking for a PHP/MySQL Developer and an IT Technician. If you want to land a job with CollegeHumor, you’re going to have to show some creativity and a serious sense of humor, so step away from the cover letter and resume, and find a better way to get their attention.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

CollegeHumor.com
ConnectedVentures.com (CollegeHumor’s Parent Company)
Jobs at CollegeHumor
About CollegeHumor
CollegeHumor’s FAQ

What’s your favorite prank on CollegeHumor?

The Onion

Willy Franzen — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:43:21 +0000

Happy Election Day! I’m not going to urge you to vote like most other people will, because yesterday I learned that “It’s more likely that you will be killed driving to the polling booth than it is that your vote will change the outcome.” That’d be a lot to have on my conscience, so I’m going to say vote at your own risk. If you’re upset that I’m making a mockery of the political system, then today’s company isn’t for you. That’s because we’re talking about The Onion and their entry level jobs. I can’t think of a more fitting company for election day (except for maybe Diebold, but they’re not nearly as much fun) than The Onion because politics and satire go hand in hand. Without politics satire is hamstrung, and without satire politics is utterly painful. The Onion is not only “America’s finest news source,” but also “the funniest publication in the US” according to the New Yorker.

Many Layers to the Onion

Think about career paths where your best isn’t good enough – investment banking, consulting, medicine… humor? It wasn’t the first thing to come to your mind, yet writers at the Onion go through 600 ideas to generate just 18 headlines. That’s a failure rate of 97%, yet they’re “failing forward” to generate satirical genius every week. Unfortunately, if you want to join this fail happy team of writers, you’re going to have to wait. They don’t currently have any job openings posted on the editorial/writing side. They are also about as cold calling unfriendly as it gets. Their contact page has the following disclaimer (which is in way too serious of a tone for The Onion):

Unsolicited bulk e-mail, e-mail attachments, and junk e-mail of any kind are not accepted and will be discarded/filtered immediately upon receipt. Please do not send/e-mail resumes concerning listed positions unless specifically told to do so in the listing. Any unsolicited Resumes will be immediately discarded.

NOTE: Editorial submissions of any kind are not accepted. The Onion cannot guarantee their return, nor can The Onion guarantee a response to unsolicited submissions. Requests for articles/graphics from past issues are not accepted and The Onion cannot guarantee a response to such requests.

I mean, having your resume immediately discarded isn’t too much of a threat, but it’s clear that The Onion wants nothing to do with you if you’re not applying for a specific job opening. They must get bombarded with resumes and submissions from people who want to work for them, and they probably don’t have the resources to give them all a fair look, so they just trash them all.

This is kind of disappointing, but there is still some hope. If you can sell with a sense of humor, then one of The Onion’s Account Executive positions might be worth applying for (they won’t throw away your resume if you apply for these). They want people with 1-2 years of experience in selling, but at least one of the job descriptions says that they will consider new college grads. There are Account Executive positions in New York, San Francisco, and the Twin Cities. To apply, you should send a cover letter, resume and compensation requirements to scurtis@theonion.com. Make sure that you look at the job descriptions carefully, since The Onion is clearly very anal about how they accept resumes.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Post a link in the comments to your favorite article from The Onion.