One Day, One Job » information technology

Coursekit

Willy Franzen — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:42:34 +0000

I’ve been a devoted Apple fanboy since 1990, yet I didn’t watch the liveblogs for their Education Event yesterday. It’s hard to get excited about digital textbooks when you never intend to read a textbook again, but I have to say that I’m looking forward to seeing how much technology will change the ways that future generations learn. Apple pushed a lot of people forward yesterday, but there’s a lot more to education than the content. Communication between teachers and students is essential, and technology can play an amazing role in this relationship. Coursekit is a New York, NY based company that offers “instructors and students amazingly designed tools to manage their courses – calendaring, file management” while making “it unbelievably easy to interact with one another.” It may kill a lot of your excuses for why you didn’t do your homework, but I think that the benefits are pretty obvious.

What’s in Your Kit?

From what I can tell, Coursekit is currently focused on the college market. That probably makes sense, especially considering how terrible the Blackboard experience is for most students. To get a feel for what Coursekit looks like, check out this video (you may have to click through to see it):

There are already professors at top schools using Coursekit, so check out the company’s Case Studies to get a better feel for how the software fits into the education environment. The remaining question is how does Coursekit make money? The short answer is that they don’t–they’re still running on investor cash. As their FAQ explains, the platform is intended to always be free. How they monetize the platform is yet to be determined. If that doesn’t scare you off, then you may want to take a look at Coursekit’s Careers page. They have a number of opportunities that look great for a new or recent grad including:

If you want to help continue the convergence of technology and education, then it would be hard to find a better place to do it than Coursekit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Were you frustrated by your professors’ lack of tech savvy?

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?

O’Reilly Media

Willy Franzen — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:26:08 +0000

Is it just me or are Black Friday and Cyber Monday pretty much the same these days? Online retailers have big Black Friday sales and brick and mortar brands are offering tons of Cyber Monday deals online. Still, I figured it was worth browsing Cyber Monday deals to see if I could find some cool job opportunities. I lucked out as a deal for 60% off e-books from O’Reilly Media popped up in my Twitter feed almost immediately. This deal is doubly relevant for job seekers because in addition to having some cool jobs, O’Reilly Media is a Sebastopol, CA based company that “spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, research, and conferences.” In other words, they provide educational tools that can make you far more employable.

Oh, Really?

While I’ve never owned an O’Reilly book or attended one of their conferences, I know that they have an amazing reputation in the innovation community. O’Reilly Media was started by Tim O’Reilly in 1978 as “a technical writing and consulting company,” but in 1984 they started “retaining rights to manuals” they created and began offering them to the public. The business continued to grow, and now they’re at the point where they’re covering nearly everything important that relates to the web and technology in one way or another. You could spend hours just trying to figure out all of the topics the they cover, and I strongly recommend that you do that if you’re considering a job with O’Reilly Media. Right now they have a couple of positions that look like they might interest new or recent grads including Publishing Technology Engineer, Web Producer, and Sales & Marketing Coordinator. They also take on people for freelance work, so that may be another way to get your foot in the door.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any books published by O’Reilly Media?

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

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

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

Do You Have Geospatial Intelligence?

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

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

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you amazed by what the NGA does?

Chicago History Museum

Willy Franzen — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:20:57 +0000

I’m starting to get settled in my new place. After living in two moderately new high-rises in downtown Chicago, I’ve moved into a more historic building–it was built in 1921 and served as a Chinese consulate at some point. Now that I’m starting my fourth year living in the city, I feel that it’s only appropriate for me to start learning a little more about the city’s history. That’s why I should probably make a visit to the Chicago History Museum, which is just a mile down the street from me. Ironically, the museum, having been founded in 1856, “is the city’s oldest cultural institution,” though they pretty much had to start over after the Great Fire destroyed their building and most of their collection in 1871. Three years later there was another fire that destroyed most of what remained. Luckily, there haven’t been any more fires, so the Chicago History Museum has had a decent amount of time to build a new collection.

Make Your Job Search History

The Chicago History Museum’s collection focuses on eight specific areas: Architecture, Archives and Manuscripts (including Audio), Books and other Published Materials, Costumes and Textiles, Decorative and Industrial Arts, Fine Arts, and Prints and Photographs. The scope of these collections is limited to items related to Living in the Metropolitan Area, Working in the Metropolitan Area, Governing the Metropolitan Area, The Built Environment, and Individuals and Ideas. Apparently it all adds up to more than 22 million documents and artifacts. If you want to learn more about the specific collections, you should start here. And if you find that Chicago history speaks to you, then you’ll want to take a look at the Chicago History Museum’s Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for a Computer Support Technician and a Collection Manager – Costume and Textile (requires M. A. in Costume History, Museum Studies (Costume/Textile), or related field). If neither of those positions interest you, you could also consider volunteering.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you into your city’s history?

New America Foundation

Willy Franzen — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:01:46 +0000

There’s no question that America’s future is filled with challenges, and we’re going to be the ones who have to rise to them. It’s a huge opportunity, but it’s also a bit daunting. The New America Foundation is a non-profit organization that “emphasizes work that is responsive to the changing conditions and problems of our 21st Century information-age economy — an era shaped by transforming innovation and wealth creation, but also by shortened job tenures, longer life spans, mobile capital, financial imbalances and rising inequality.” They’re based in Washington, DC (and Sacramento, CA), and they’re working to ensure that every American generation is able to live better than the one that came before it.

Are You Part of a New America?

The New America Foundation has ideals that pretty much everyone can get behind, but how do they actually go about achieving their goals? They have a wide range of Programs and Initiatives that cover a number of areas including College Savings, National Security, Open Technology, Economic Growth, and lots more. These programs “combine ongoing research and publications with working groups, conferences and public events” to “bring innovative, cutting-edge policy solutions to the fore of the national debate.” The New America Foundation’s approach is broad, but if you think that you could help them build a better America, then take a look at their Jobs page. They have a number of positions available that look suitable for new or recent grads including A/V Multimedia Producer, Innovation Policy Research Associate, Program Associate – Global Assets Project, Research Associate – Global Assets Project, Schmidt Family Foundation Fellow, Events Associate, Field Analyst – Open Technology Initiative, and Research Associate. There are lots of options, so hopefully one of them will be a good fit for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your vision for a New America?

Internet Archive

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

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

Are You in the Archive?

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you ever use the Wayback Machine?

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?

Ludus Tours

Willy Franzen — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:10:52 +0000

A few weeks ago I told you about a company called Sixthman that gets together groups of music fans and puts them on a cruise ship with their favorite artists. It’s a pretty cool idea that is making a bunch of money (even if it doesn’t sound like my kind of fun). Ludus Tours is another company that organizes group vacations, but they are focus on taking people to specific destinations for specific events. Their main focus is on sporting events like The Olympics, The World Cup, The Master’s, The Super Bowl, and other big events that are preceded with a “The.” However, they have branched out to do other types of trips like Oktoberfest in Munich, Carnaval in Rio, and The Running of the Bulls. They cover all the bases including travel, accommodations, tickets, and all of the other logistics involved with trips like these. San Diego, CA based Ludus Tours serves both individuals and groups, so you can book a tour for yourself or organize a group excursion. They must do a good job considering they’ve seen 1,253% three-year growth to $2.5 million in revenue.

Take a Tour

Part of what has made Ludus Tours successful is that they’ve developed partnerships with a ton of athletic governing bodies including USA Volleyball, USRowing, USA Wrestling, and lots more. Ludus Tours has also worked with some big name clients including Pepsi, Mercedes-Benz, ABC, IMG, and Octagon. Those last three should stand out, since they’re big names in sports–and they’re trusting Ludus Tours to make sure that their trips go on without a hitch. The best way to get a feel for the type of experience Ludus Tours offers is to go on one of their trips, but since you probably can’t do that right now, you should read through some of their testimonials. It should give you a better sense of how the business operates. If you like what you see, then head over to the Ludus Tours Jobs page. They have a number of positions posted. The best fit for a new grad is probably the PR Coordinator position (the linked job description is wrong), but they’re also looking for a Volleyball Account Manager, a Marketing Operations Manager, an Events Manager, and a Technology/IT Guru. Ludus Tours is also hiring London Tour Guides/London Event Staff for the 2012 Olympics, so that could be a cool opportunity as well.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

If money were no object, which big name sporting event would you go to?

Hamilton Farm Bureau

Willy Franzen — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:53:35 +0000

Somehow my Dad and I forgot to get the proper cord to hook up my iPhone to his car speakers. That’s a big mistake when you’re doing two 13 hour drives in less than a week. We really could have used a book on tape considering that NPR is pretty much the only non-music station that comes in reliably in Northern Maine (and the CBC once we get close to the border). I know I’ll catch a lot of flack for this, but I’m not an NPR fan (it bores me to tears, and the CBC is even worse); however, there was a segment this morning that caught my attention. It was on Hamilton Farm Bureau and how they’re having trouble hiring qualified people. Considering that the company is based in Hamilton, MI and has locations across the state of Michigan, you’d think they’d be able to tap into the nearly 20% of state residents who are under or unemployed. Who knew that a cooperative that “sells fertilizer and propane gas, packages and ships eggs, and helps farmers market what they raise” would have so much trouble finding good people?

Cooperate with Hamilton Farm Bureau

I get a lot of complaints from readers who think that I cover too many companies in tech. I realize that a lot of people don’t have the skills for those kinds of jobs, but that’s where the jobs are. I’m waiting for the day that someone e-mails me and asks me about resources for learning the kind of skills that might make them a fit for these kinds of jobs. Hamilton Farm Bureau is facing a similar problem to many tech companies. I guess there just aren’t a lot of people who have strong sales skills and an interest or background in agriculture. If you went to an ag school, you could be a great fit–and if you didn’t, maybe there’s some way you could position yourself to become one.

I must admit that I am a bit frustrated with Hamilton Farm Bureau. Wade Blowers, their COO, was quoted extensively throughout the NPR piece on how the cooperative has had to slow down its growth (they currently have 130 employees and $130 million in revenue) because it can’t find the right people for jobs. He goes on to mention a few ideas for why this might be such a problem (but he never dives into exactly what he is looking for). I have a way better idea than he does. THEY DON’T HAVE JOBS POSTED ON THEIR JOBS PAGE. I’m not joking. They just had a huge PR win for their employment branding efforts, and they are completely unprepared. All they have posted are two delivery positions. I don’t see any postings for sales people who “typically take on a heavy consultative role in the farm.” I don’t see any positions related to agricultural technology. So how you should respond? Do some research. Learn more about Hamilton Farm Bureau and their business. Then track down Wade Blowers and tell him how you can help grow the business. It’s worth a try, right?

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you hear the NPR segment on Hamilton Farm Bureau?

Spiceworks

Willy Franzen — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:46:57 +0000

I don’t know a lot about Information Technology despite my being pretty in touch with the tech world. According to Wikipedia it’s “the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications” and it includes “anything that renders data, information or perceived knowledge in any visual format whatsoever, via any multimedia distribution mechanism.” In other words, IT can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. What I do know about IT is that it can be a huge cost center for businesses of nearly any size. Once you slap the IT tag on something, the price shoots through the roof. That’s why I was shocked to come across a company that offer free IT tools. Spiceworks is based in Austin, TX, and they have built “an easy-to-use software app that simplifies the life of IT pros…kinda’ like an ‘iTunes for IT management.’” And all of you non-techies better not stop reading, they have jobs for you too.

Are You Spicy Enough?

It seems kind of wacky to offer a free product in an industry where the streets are paved with gold, but the people at Spiceworks certainly aren’t stupid–they were on to something. If your customer base has access to big budgets and is accustomed to making big spending decisions, you can try to sell something to them and be just like every other IT vendor out there, or you can earn their trust and make them like you with a killer free product. Then you can provide access to your huge audience of big spenders by selling advertising to other IT vendors who want to reach them. This is an extremely well thought out advertising model. If you want to go orange (Spiceworks orange) and be part of the “free IT revolution,” then take a look at Spiceworks’ Jobs page. Right now they are looking for Online Media Account Executives, Marketing Managers, Software Engineers, UI Application Developers, and User Experience Designers. If those positions don’t quite suit you, don’t be afraid to submit a general application. You can get an idea of the other roles they offer by checking out Spiceworks’ Team page.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Spiceworks?

Greencitizen

Willy Franzen — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:55:44 +0000

Usually when I get a pitch from PR or Communications agencies, I ignore them. Why? Most of the pitches are terrible. They’re not relevant to me, and they show no respect for my time. Even worse, some of them are downright spammy. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I was going through my backlog of e-mail to see a really good pitch on a company that has entry level jobs for environmentally minded grads. (Did I mention that more than 160 people applied for an internship with ODOJ? I’m still getting through all of them.) The company is called Greencitizen, and they’re based in San Francisco, CA. They’re business is all about dealing with the “E-Waste Crisis.” They “help consumers and businesses reduce their environmental footprint of their computer and electronics… by keeping electronics running efficiently through online and in-store repair services, along with environmentally responsible electronics recycling.” So they do a lot of the same things as a typical IT services company (computer repair, data security, tech support, etc), but they’ve made a name for themselves by making everything they do green while also putting a huge emphasis on recycling.

Are You a Greencitizen?

Greencitizen has already served more than 110,000 consumers and 10,000 businesses, so they’re having some serious impact on the environment. They’re also making customers very happy–Greencitizen has 5 stars on Yelp with 55 reviews. That’s impressive. I really like how Greencitizen has positioned itself. Offering free recycling of e-waste is really an ingenious customer acquisition strategy. They must have a constant flow of potential customers walking through their doors. Anyway, Greencitizen seems to be pretty focused on promoting their Career opportunities to those who are interested in Green/Environmental Careers. Their Jobs page shows a number of opportunities that may interest recent grads. These include Entry Level Part to Full-time Warehouse Staff (Burlingame), On-Call to Full-time Warehouse Technician, and PC Technician (Burlingame). These jobs are certainly “hands on,” but they do pride themselves on allowing people to progress through the ranks rapidly (they claim to offer a “Green MBA”). You could also reach out to them about other types of positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How many pieces of hardware do you have lying around that need to be recycled?

ONOSYS

Willy Franzen — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:11:05 +0000

I’ve never liked ordering food over the phone (maybe that’s what growing up as a fat kid does to you). When I discovered that you could order food online, I was pretty psyched (even though I was no longer a fat kid). I even remember my first online food order–it was during my Freshman year at Cornell and CampusFood.com launched on our campus by offering a $10 credit for your first order. It still seems that most online ordering goes through third-party sites like GrubHub. However a company called ONOSYS is trying to change that. They’re based in Cleveland, OH, and they provide software platforms for restaurants to offer their own online ordering, mobile ordering, transaction-based marketing, and management services. This allows restaurants to own their relationships with customers instead of having to go through a third-party every time they receive an order.

Bring Me My Dinner

ONOSYS has more than “75 restaurant chains throughout North America & Europe” using their solution. You can check their client list here. They serve some big names including Applebee’s, Papa John’s, Panera Bread, and a whole bunch of more regional names. It makes sense that restaurants would want to have their own online ordering platform, but it would be kind of silly (and expensive) for each of them to build out their own proprietary software. ONOSYS offers affordable (there is a fixed fee and no transaction fee), customized solutions that offer everything the restaurants want while also increasing the average check size by 25%. That means that there’s a good chance that ONOSYS pays for itself. If you’re interested in helping restaurants better serve their customers through technology, then it’s time to take a look at ONOSYS’s Jobs page. Right now they have two seemingly entry level positions: Technical Support/Assistant Position w/ SQL Experience and Client Support Specialist. Both jobs look great, and I hear you might get a pair of orange Converse All-Stars if you land a job with them.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you mind ordering food over the phone?

MailChimp

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

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

Start Chimping Around

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you love MailChimp’s logo?

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?

Redbox

Willy Franzen — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:40:58 +0000

Want to land a job and save the world at the same time? This week’s sponsor is Samaritan’s Purse, a non-profit organization with some amazing entry level career opportunities.

There aren’t many companies that have as many loyal fans as Netflix. I swear that everybody loves them (check out jobs at Netflix). At least they did until yesterday when Netflix announced a change to their plans. They touted it as a good thing with their “lowest prices ever for unlimited DVDs,” but it really was a price increase for streaming subscribers. I guess yesterday was a good day for Redbox, which is based in Oakbrook Terrace, IL (with a major presence in Bellevue, WA). They operate more than 27,000 DVD and Blu-ray rental kiosks, or redboxes. Believe it or not, rentals aren’t dead, and Redbox has found a sweetspot between Blockbuster and Netflix. There’s definitely something I miss about the old school video rental shops–especially the pre-Blockbuster independent ones. But it’s mind blowing that Redbox is able to fit an entire video rental store in 12 square feet.

Think Inside the Redbox

Redbox has rented out more than 1 billion movies. Back in 2007 the kiosks were averaging nearly 50 rentals a day and almost $40,000 in annual revenue each. That’s pretty amazing considering Redbox kiosksi are typically just filling in empty space in high traffic buildings. Obviously a 12 square foot kiosk can’t offer much variety in terms of movies, but by stocking mostly new releases Redbox is able to stay relevant and serve a significant portion of the demand for in-home movie viewing. Now, we all know that streaming is the future, but there’s still a huge portion of the population that relies on hard media like DVDs and Blu-rays. It’ll be interesting to see how Redbox adapts moving forward, but for now I think they can still find opportunities for growth. If you like what Redbox is doing, you’ll want to take a look at their Jobs page. Unfortunately, it’s just a list of jobs, and there are a lot of them to browse through. Most are Field positions all across the country, but there are a few that seem better suited for recent grads. These include Service Representative – New Ventures (Hayward, CA), Sales & Use Tax Accountant (Oakbrook Terrace, IL), Machine Support Coordinator (Oakbrook Terrace, IL), Web Analyst/ eCommerce Analyst (Oakbrook Terrace, IL), Software Engineer (Oakbrook Terrace, IL), Service Representative – New Ventures (Fairfax, VA), Quality Engineer I (Kent, WA), and Business Analyst (Oakbrook Terrace, IL). There are a lot more mid-level options, so if you have some prior experience, be sure to check those out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Redbox?

Morningstar

Willy Franzen — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:01:41 +0000

Want to land a job and save the world at the same time? This week’s sponsor is Samaritan’s Purse, a non-profit organization with some amazing entry level career opportunities.

Sometimes during your job search a company name will keep popping up. You’ll ignore them because of assumptions that you’ve already made about them. Eventually you’ll give them a look, and you’ll realize that you didn’t know as much as you thought about them. That’s kind of how I’ve been with Morningstar. I knew of them well before I started this site. I have a friend who worked for them. They’re headquartered here in Chicago, IL, and they’re big supporters of the local startup and technology scene. They’re one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, and I’ve even had multiple people tell me to write about them. I guess it’s time to take a closer look at Morningstar, which is “a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.” They serve all investors from individuals to financial advisors to institutions, and they do so with a wide range of products that includes services, software, online publications, and print publications.

Good Morning!

Morningstar is a big company. They have thousands of employees, and work all across the world–26 countries to be exact. They provide “data on approximately 380,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 5 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets.” In other words, there are all kinds of job opportunities at Morningstar. Luckily, they do a great job with their Careers site. You should probably start with the Morningstar Story, and then read up on what it’s like to work at Morningstar (you may also want to check out their Employee Testimonials).

From there you will have two options. The first is to look at Morningstar’s Development Program, which is their formal entry level recruiting program. They’re actually having a Meet and Greet at their headquarters on August 4th for people interested in the program (you must register by e-mailing mdpresumes@morningstar.com before July 29th). The second option is to go straight to their Job postings. You can narrow it down to only Morningstar’s entry level listings, where you’ll see positions like Associate Municipal Credit Analyst, Data Analyst, Private Funds – Custom Software (Chicago, IL),
Data Management Analyst (Chicago, IL), Data Management Analyst (Oakland, MD), IFA Journalist (Australia), Investment Analyst – Morningstar Investment Management (Chicago, IL),
Operations Associate, Morningstar Investment Services (Chicago, IL), Product Consultant (United Kingdom), Product Consultant for Institutional Software (France), Product Support Specialist (Austin, TX), Quality Assurance Analyst – Custom Solutions (Chicago, IL), Research Analyst (Chicago, IL), and Sales Associate – Inside Sales (Chicago, IL). There’s a ton of opportunity at Morningstar, so don’t overlook them like I did.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What company have you been ignoring?

Samaritan’s Purse

Willy Franzen — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:13:00 +0000

This is a sponsored post for Samaritan’s Purse.

We all have a Good Samaritan story–a time where we helped someone in need or were helped by someone when we were in need. These are the moments when people are at their best, yet they don’t seem to happen often enough. Samaritan’s Purse has spent the last 40 years working to ensure that the story of the Good Samaritan lives on and continues to inspire people to “go and do likewise.” Samaritan’s Purse is a non-profit “nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world.” They’re based out of Boone, NC, but they’re constantly repositioning their resources to react to world events. Samaritan’s Purse’s work can typically be separated into two categories: Emergency Relief Programs and Community Development and Vocational Programs. While these two Program groups serve very different situations, they share the goal of helping people in need wherever they may be.

Be a Good Samaritan

There’s no better way to get a feel for Samaritan’s Purse’s work (besides actually joining them and doing it) than taking a look at the In Pictures section of their website. It will give you a feel for what they do, how they do it, and whom they help. One of their major relief projects is focused on helping Japan and the Japanese people recover from the earthquake and tsunami that struck in March of 2011. Samaritan’s Purse was on the ground almost immediately (as you can see here, here, and here). The need for immediate relief supplies has obviously subsided, but now Samaritan’s Purse is leading a rebuilding effort. They are working in a number of communities to get the Japanese people back to a normal way of life before winter comes. This is a tall task when you consider that one community they’re working in “lost 70% of its physical structure” and another was hit by a wave as tall as a 12-story building, but Samaritan’s Purse has a history of excelling with this kind of work.

Right now Samaritan’s Purse is recruiting heavily for their Japan reconstruction effort. Right now their biggest need is for Japanese Interpreters and they think that recent college grads could be perfect fits (they’d also love to hear from people with more experience). This position is vital to the reconstruction effort, and it offers an amazing opportunity to get life-changing experience while doing amazing work. Christian values are an essential part of what Samaritan’s Purse does, so be sure to read their Statement of Faith and learn about their leader Franklin Graham before applying. And if you don’t speak Japanese, there are plenty of other job opportunities posted on Samaritan’s Purse’ Jobs page, and many are perfectly suited for new and recent grads. They include:

Japanese Interpreter (Japan)
Digital Video Producer (Boone, NC)
Marketing/Metrics Analyst (Boone, NC)
Network Administrator (Boone, NC)
Curriculum & Training Specialist (Boone, NC)
Bio-Med Technician (Boone, NC)
Field Accountant (Juba, South Sudan)
Social Media/Marketing Specialist / Communications (Boone, NC)

These look like amazing jobs that truly offer the opportunity to make the world a better place. Give them a look and see which positions fit you the best.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Samaritan’s Purse?

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?

GigaOm

Willy Franzen — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:28:21 +0000

I’m a complete Apple fanboy. I have been since since I first touched an Apple IIe in 1990. Today is the keynote of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, so I’m all sorts of excited. I’ve come to accept that they almost certainly won’t be announcing the iPhone 5 today, but I’m still pumped to hear about all of the software stuff that they’ve been working on. This means that I’ve been anxiously (and irrationally) reading all of the major online tech sites so that I can uselessly speculate about what kind of cool things my phone will be able to do after the next software update. A lot of interesting businesses have been built in the tech news space, which is why we’ve already profiled companies like Engadget, Gawker (Gizmodo), TechCrunch, and gdgt. Today we’re going to look at GigaOm, a San Francisco, CA based company that does the whole tech news thing, but also has a research arm that is growing extremely quickly.

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmm

GigaOm was founded by Om Malik, a guy who “has more than 15 years of experience as a journalist covering technology and business news.” He helped launched Forbes.com as a Senior Editor back in the day, and he continues to lead the GigaOm Editorial Team. Despite doing a great job of covering tech news, GigaOm doesn’t appear to get anywhere near the traffic that some of the sites I mentioned earlier do. That would usually present a problem for a business that is built on covering news to attract eyeballs for advertising, but GigaOm has a slightly different model. They have a paid content section called GigaOm Pro that provides market research and analysis for a fee. This part of the business is doing really well, and must be a major reason for the $40 million valuation that GigaOm just got in their most recent round of investment ($6 million).

By building trust through their free content, GigaOm is able to generate leads for their paid section. It’s a smart idea, and it seems to be working really well. GigaOm intends to spend a big portion of that new capital on hiring to expand GigaOm Pro, so now is the time to start thinking about a career with them. Right now 10 of 41 GigaOm employees do research full-time. Maybe you can help be part of the expected growth in that number. The only position posted right now on the GigaOm Jobs page is for a Webmaster/ Jr. Developer, but that should change soon. You might as well just reach out to the folks at GigaOm now and let them know how you could help with the growth of GigaOm Pro. It’s worth a shot.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read GigaOm?

Seilevel

Willy Franzen — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:15:53 +0000

I often hear from readers that I don’t cover jobs in their preferred location or in their area of interest. On a day to day basis that may be true, but over the past three and a half years I’ve written about a truly wide range of companies, industries, job types, and locations. Just check out our archives to see them all. (Remember, the goal of these daily profiles isn’t just to get you to look at the company we’re featuring–it’s supposed to be a jumping off point for you to generate new ideas for your job search.) However, the companies I cover are going to be skewed towards areas with job growth, both in terms of geography and industry. Sometimes you have to move where the action is to land a job. I find that readers get most frustrated by the plethora of available software development jobs that seem completely out of reach to grads without computer science degrees. Today we’re going to try to relieve some of that frustration by looking at Seilevel, an Austin, TX based company that is “exclusively focused on IT Product Management services for Fortune 1000 companies.” They’re working hard to change the way that companies write software requirements. You may not know what that means right now, but you can learn. Just like another One Day, One Job reader who told me about Seilevel after landing a job there with no background in software development.

Above or Below Seilevel?

When I learned what Seilevel does, I immediately thought of Tom Smykowski (video clip) from the movie Office Space. He’s the “people person” who invented the “Jump to Conclusions Mat.” He was also responsible for taking specifications from customers and bringing them to software engineers. At Initech this wasn’t a very important job (which is why Smykowski was being “downsized”), but when Seilevel does it they add a ton of value. They don’t just transfer the specs from one party to another, they actually write the software requirements to ensure that the project succeeds. Their website says:

Analysts report that as many as 71 percent of software projects that fail do so because of poor requirements management, making it the single biggest reason for project failure – bigger than bad technology, missed deadlines or change management fiascoes.

In other words the needs of the customer often aren’t adequately communicated to the people who are writing the software. When so much money is being invested into an IT project, it’s essential that all parties are on the same page and that expectations are clear. This is exactly what Seilevel does. Check out that link, it will make it a lot easier to understand what they do and how they do it. And since they’re experts at aiding communication between techies and non-techies, it also seems that they’re experts at training non-techies to be techies. That’s why their Jobs page says they’re “looking for disillusioned science majors who want to learn how to become software product managers” (I think they’d still like to hear from you even if you’re not a science major.) The job description sounds awesome, and so does the company culture. They’re also hiring Software Product Managers, so check that out if you do have the Computer Science/Software Development background.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Seilevel?

OpenDNS

Willy Franzen — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:54:10 +0000

The average Internet user probably knows next to nothing about the Domain Name System or DNS. It’s a system that is mostly behind the scenes, even though it is absolutely essential to how the Internet works. When you type in www.onedayonejob.com, your host checks its records (which are constantly updated) for an entry corresponding to the domain name. If it’s up to date and working properly, it will resolve the domain name to the Internet Protocol address 98.158.181.7 (every device connected to the Internet has an IP address). From there the request will get passed on to my name server, and you will be directed to the proper site (since www.onedayoneinternship.com is hosted on the same server). Not many people realize how important a good DNS server is. If your ISP doesn’t update their DNS list often, you may not be able to access a site that moves to a new server. You might also get redirected to an annoying page filled with ads when you type in an invalid domain name. Or you might be using a slow DNS server that takes forever to connect you to the right server. OpenDNS is a company that solves all of these problems and more. They are based in San Francisco, CA, and they are “the leading provider of free security and infrastructure services that make the Internet safer through integrated Web content filtering, anti-phishing and DNS.”

Open Opportunities

You can opt out of using your ISP’s DNS server and use OpenDNS instead. There are a few advantages to doing this. First, their DNS servers are fast and updated constantly. Second, they identify phishing (fraudulent) websites and warn you against accessing them before you accidentally enter your private information. Third, they can give you data on your Internet usage or block you (or a group of users) from accessing a certain group of sites. By doing all of this through DNS, OpenDNS has developed a super affordable way to offer extremely valuable services–services that might be extremely expensive if done with other hardware or software solutions. The service is free for individual users, but they offer premium options at the family, small business, and enterprise levels. I’m a big fan of OpenDNS because it’s saved me a lot of headaches, so I think you should check out their Jobs page. OpenDNS’s current opportunities include Technical Customer Support Representative, User Experience Lead, PR Manager, Inside Sales Representative, Renewals Manager, Web Applications Engineer, Windows Software Engineer, and Distributed Systems Engineer. And make sure you sign up for OpenDNS and give it a try before you apply.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use OpenDNS?

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?

Central Intelligence Agency

Willy Franzen — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:52:33 +0000

I was a senior in high school on September 11, 2001. We were told what had happened during our morning announcements period, and a few of who had free periods after went to the beach across the street from our school’s campus. We knew that on a clear day you could usually see the Twin Towers from there, but all we could see was a plume of smoke. We listened on the radio and heard reports of the towers falling and rumors of other attacks in the works. I was deeply affected by what happened that day, and since then I have been waiting for our country to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. Yesterday, a group of NAVY SEALs did just that under the command of the Central Intelligence Agency, which is based in Washington, DC but operates all over the world. I am extremely grateful to all of those who were involved–especially for those who risked their lives to make us safer. It’s a reminder of how important it is for our government agencies to have top talent working for them. WIthout great people working at the CIA and in our armed forces, bin Laden would still be at large.

Share Your Intelligence

The Central Intelligence Agency “was created in 1947 with the signing of the National Security Act by President Harry S. Truman.” We often think of it as some super secret spy agency, and in some ways that what it is; however, there’s a lot more to the CIA. As the CIA’s About page mentions, the CIA is under the direction of the Director of Central Intelligence, and he or she is tasked with:

Collecting intelligence through human sources and by other appropriate means, except that he shall have no police, subpoena, or law enforcement powers or internal security functions;
Correlating and evaluating intelligence related to the national security and providing appropriate dissemination of such intelligence;
Providing overall direction for and coordination of the collection of national intelligence outside the United States through human sources by elements of the Intelligence Community authorized to undertake such collection and, in coordination with other departments, agencies, or elements of the United States Government which are authorized to undertake such collection, ensuring that the most effective use is made of resources and that appropriate account is taken of the risks to the United States and those involved in such collection; and
Performing such other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security as the President or the Director of National Intelligence may direct.

The operation that occurred yesterday is an example of the CIA at its best (well maybe at their true best we never even hear about it). Obviously, we can’t know most of the details of the operation, but it appears that the processes that the CIA developed over the past 10 years finally led to this accomplishment of one of the major goals of the War on Terror. If you’re inspired by this success, then maybe you should consider a Career with the CIA. They are a major entry level employer, and the Agency offers a very wide range of employment opportunities. Jobs are offered in the following areas:

Accounting, Budget & Finance
Analysis
Clandestine Service
Contracts & Acquisitions
Cyber Security
Engineering
Facilities Services
Geography & Cartography
Graphics, Multimedia, Publications & Photography
Information Management
Information Technology
Investigations
Legal Services
Library Services
Logistics Services
Medical Services
Science, Technology & Weapons
Security
Support Services
Trades and Labor

The CIA is one of the few government agencies that makes it extremely easy to browse through their job opportunities, and you can do that here. Today is a good day to be an American and a good day to think about career opportunities that will allow you to serve your country.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What secrets do you know about the CIA?

Avail-TVN

Willy Franzen — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:07:26 +0000

We’ve put together some information on how you can prepare yourself for the 500,000 teaching jobs that will be added in the U.S. over the next decade. You can find it here.

There’s no question that the way in which we consume video content is changing. It wasn’t that long ago that watching something meant sitting down in front of the television at a specific time. Now we have DVRs, On Demand, sites like Hulu, and a variety of other ways to consume content on our own schedules. This isn’t just a cultural shift; it comes as a result of (while also being a cause of) significant technological advances. One of the major companies behind this shift is Avail-TVN. They’re based in Reston, VA and they work “with every major studio and television network” to offer “a full content line up of MPEG-4 encoded live programming as well as video on demand content in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 to multichannel video providers throughout the US, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico.” I know this might be a little confusing for the non-techies out there, but the basic gist of it is that they make it possible for you to watch video over IP (internet protocol).

To Your Avail

Avail-TVN’s business is obviously complicated from a technical standpoint, but it’s also pretty complicated from a relationships standpoint. They work with over 200 content providers to secure the rights to delivering a wide range of video content, and then they have to work with a number of parties in between (ending with the cable/satellite/telco provider) to ensure that the content you want can be delivered to you in your home when you want it. I’m sure that I’m missing a lot, but that’s what I’m able to piece together from the Avail-TVN website. It seems like a fascinating business, and it appears to offer opportunities in a range of areas. Avail-TVN doesn’t have many jobs that seem like perfect fits for new or recent grads, but their Jobs page does show a couple of positions that are worth checking out like Jr. Systems Engineer (Kalispell, MT), Project Manager (Sherman Oaks, CA), and Customer Onboarding Program Manager (Sherman Oaks, CA). I also saw on LinkedIn that they recently hired a Marketing Coordinator (which is an entry level position), so you may want to reach out to them and see if there are any other positions that don’t require the type of experience that the positions I mentioned do.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you watch a lot of video on demand?

One Economy Corporation

Willy Franzen — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:13:21 +0000

We’re extremely lucky to be coming of age in a time when the Internet is opening up so many economic opportunities. When I graduated from college, I had no idea what was possible. As I became more and more frustrated with my job search, I started to look at online business models. Five years later I’ve built a profitable business that has helped people land awesome jobs and internships. Without today’s technology, I never could have built what I did so cheaply, which is why I’m convinced that making new technologies available to the masses at affordable prices is the key to economic growth. That’s why I’m so interested by the Washington, DC based One Economy Corporation. They’re “a global non-profit organization that leverages the power of technology and connects underserved communities around the world to vital information that will improve their lives.”

Where Do You Fit in One Economy?

One Economy works in a number of areas, but their big focus is on making the Internet and all of the information it provides access to available to all people. One Economy separates what they do into a few categories: Public-Purpose Media, Access Services, Digital Connectors, Broadband Mapping, Global Initiatives, and Sustainable Broadband Adoption. It’s amazing how many societal problems Internet access can help with–health care, education, and unemployment are just a few of them. I just hope that the broadband access that One Economy provides blocks the single greatest threat to economic prosperity: Farmville. But seriously, One Economy has been working in this space for a long time, and they’re having a serious impact. To learn more about their results, you should really read their most recent annual report. If you’d like to be a part of One Economy, then head over to their Jobs page. Current postings include Accounts Payable Clerk (Washington, DC), Guam Regional Staff Person (Guam), and Network Design Engineer (Winston Salem, NC). They also have some positions posted on Idealist including Web UI Developer (Portland, OR) and Community Technology Associate (San Jose, CA). There’s lots of variety here, so give the positions a closer look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about One Economy?

Ocean Spray

Willy Franzen — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:23:55 +0000

Have you ever had Craisins? The ingredients list only says “cranberries and sugar,” but I swear that there has to be something else in there that makes them so addictive. Ocean Spray has made a name for itself by consistently finding new ways to market the fruit that they produce. See, Ocean Spray is an agricultural cooperative (I assumed they were owned by some big conglomerate or something), which means that they’re “owned by large group of cranberry growers throughout North America.” Most of the 600 members are cranberry growers, but there are also 50 Florida grapefruit growers. This means that Ocean Spray is all about finding new ways to increase demand for two tart, but delightful fruits. The company is based in Lakeville-Middleboro, MA, and they’ve been “the leading producer of canned and bottled juice drinks in North America” since 1981.

Crave the Wave

Usually when you think about innovation in fruit, you think of genetic engineering and other creepy stuff like that. At Ocean Spray it’s all about giving consumers new ways to enjoy fruits that they’ve known all their lives. At first it was Cranberry Juice Cocktail in 1930, then Cran-Apple in 1963, Ocean Spray® Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice Drink in 1991, and Craisins in 1993. Ocean Spray has a solid history of successful new product launches, yet they’ve continued to stay true to their grower owned heritage. It’s a simple business, but it’s one that has continued to grow over 8 decades–to the point where Ocean Spray did nearly $2 billion in revenue in 2008. If you love grapefruits and cranberries and would like to become part of the Ocean Spray story, then you should check out their Jobs page. But before you do that, you absolutely need to make sure that you know what a bog is. Ocean Spray has quite a few positions posted, and a few seem suitable for a new or recent grad including Client Technologies Administrator and Supply Chain Coordinator (Kenosha, WI). They had a Business Development Analyst position posted that seemed perfect for a new gradd, and they seem to have removed it just as I was writing this. You can see the Google cache here. You can always reach out to them to see if there might be other similar opportunities that aren’t posted yet.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite Ocean Spray product?

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?

Thomas Jefferson Foundation

Willy Franzen — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:14:34 +0000

Want to make a difference in your first job after graduation? MATCH Charter Public School is a great place to do so.

It’d be pretty cool to have your home turned into a museum. Not only would it mean that you lived in a pretty sweet place, but it would also mean that you made enough of a mark on history for people to actually want to learn about your life. There’s no better example of someone worth learning about than Thomas Jefferson. Not only did he write the Declaration of Independence, but he was also the third president and founder of the University of Virginia. It’s no surprise that he ended up on both the two dollar bill and the nickel. Anyway, many might expect Jefferson’s Monticello to be run by the government, but it’s actually managed by a non-profit organization called the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in Charlottesville, VA. They’ve been maintaining Monticello and 2,500 of its 5,000 acres for nearly 90 years with a dual mission of education and preservation, which is why they have continued to keep it open to the public.

Are You a Jeffersonian at Heart?

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation considers Monticello to be Jefferson’s “autobiographical statement,” which is why they’ve invested so much time and effort into preserving it. The estate includes “a house, an ornamental landscape, a farm, a plantation, a small mountain, and a large and diverse community, and it encapsulates “the interests, talents, ideals, ambitions, and realities of its creative and complex owner.” Monticello.org has tons of information on both Monticello and Thomas Jefferson, so it’s a great place to get started doing some research. In fact, if you don’t get lost in the excitement of reading up on Thomas Jefferson’s place in history, then a job at Monticello probably isn’t for you. And if you do get lost, hopefully you’ll eventually find your way to their job listings which show that they’re hiring for a number of positions including Garden Guide, Museum Shop Receiver, Reservations Associate, Retail Sales Associate – Garden Shop, and Systems Analyst. Most of the positions are part-time or temporary, but they’re still worth checking out. You might also want to consider their volunteer opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever visited Monticello?