One Day, One Job » jewelry

Chloe + Isabel

Willy Franzen — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:59:07 +0000

There are essentially two completely different jewelry businesses. There’s the high-end business that is centered around gold, platinum, diamonds, and other gemstones (I know all about that having recently bought an engagement ring). Then there’s the fashion focused business that is more about completing an outfit. The latter is where Chloe + Isabel is focusing. They are a New York, NY based startup that targets 18 to 28 year old women with jewelry in the $18 to $200 price range. That’s not all that unique. What is unique is that Chloe + Isabel is approaching this market by combining direct selling with web-based social technology. Essentially they’re bringing affiliate marketing to a group of people who may not even know what affiliate marketing is.

You + Chloe + Isabel

I tend to be skeptical of direct selling “opportunities,” but I know that they can be great for developing entrepreneurial skills. I think Chloe + Isabel really gets it right with their online platform. You don’t need to make an initial investment in inventory to sell for them–you can just use their “personalized online dashboard” to put together your “own boutique shopping experience.” To get a better sense of Chloe + Isabel’s style, I recommend that you take some time to browse their jewelry. Then you probably want to read up on their Merchandiser opportunity and watch this video about it:

Even if direct selling isn’t for you, it will help you better understand how the Chloe + Isabel works. Once you start to get it, you can take a look at Chloe + Isabel’s Jobs page, where they list their non direct selling opportunities including:

Customer Care Representative (San Francisco, CA)
Sales Development Manager (San Francisco Bay Area, Utah, Florida, Texas, and Michigan/Illinois)
Graphic Designer
Web Designer
Ruby Developer
User Interface Designer

Whether you’re interested in a full-time job or want to do some direct selling, Chloe + Isabel has some great opportunities for new and recent grads.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you purchased anything from Chloe + Isabel?

Claire’s

Willy Franzen — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:59:34 +0000

When I think of shopping malls, I instantly think of escalators, Auntie Anne’s pretzels, and overpriced gadget stores. Because I was never a teen/tween girl, my memories don’t include Claire’s. In case you’ve never heard of Claire’s, they are a retailer of “fashion trends, accessories and jewelry for young women.” They have more than 3,000 stores across the world and are in 95% of U.S. shopping malls. That’s a massive retail presence. While Claire’s is headquartered in Pembroke Pines, FL, they only have Customer Service and Investor Relations located there. Most of the action (and most of the jobs) seems to be at Claire’s Hoffman Estates, IL office.

Accessorize Your Job Search

Claire’s describes their target market as “young women, teens, tweens and girls ages 3 to 27.” That’s an interesting range, as it’s very specific and much broader than I would have expected. One of the keys to Claire’s branding is ear piercing. They’ve pierced more than 80 million ears. That’s an absolutely unbelievable number in its own right, but it’s even more amazing when you consider that a massive number of women (and probably a good number of men) have a major life memory tied to Claire’s. That’s called branding. If your mall memories are deeply tied to Claire’s (or you’re just really interested in their business), then you should definitely check out their Jobs page. Right now there are a few great opportunities for new and recent grads including:

Associate Planner
Allocation Analyst
Transportation Operations Analyst

There are also a number of jobs that require a little more experience like Buyer, Planner, and Assortment Planner.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you shop at Claire’s?

Blue Nile

Willy Franzen — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:51:24 +0000

If you’ve been reading for very long, you’ve probably seen me mention my girlfriend Amy. She’s awesome. She was the setter on Cornell’s volleyball team, she spent nearly 3 years as a consultant at McKinsey, and now she runs Competitive Intelligence at Groupon. I’m constantly impressed by her, and I’m extremely thankful for how supportive she has been as I’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs to build this business. Considering that she’s stuck with me long enough to see One Day One Job achieve meaningful profitability, I figured it was time to put some of those profits towards a ring. I was referred to an amazing custom jeweler who walked me through the entire process and helped me design something that she’d be happy wearing forever. On Wednesday afternoon I got the ring, and on Wednesday night I popped the question. Thankfully, she said yes! While I didn’t use Blue Nile for the ring, I thought it was a fitting company to take a look at today because I was constantly on their site doing research during the process. They’re based in Seattle, WA, and they’ve become “the largest online retailer of certified diamonds and fine jewelry.”

I Didn’t Go to Jared

Buying a ring has to be one of the most intimidating processes that a young guy can go through. It’s really tempting to do the whole thing online, and Blue Nile’s focus on customer service makes that a reasonable choice (though I’m glad I didn’t do it online). I think the best thing that they offer is a 30-day guaranteed return period, but it’s in tight competition with their user interface. It’s ridiculously easy to find what you’re looking for–and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s ridiculously easy to educate yourself using Blue Nile’s resources. Even though I didn’t buy from them, I’m still a huge fan, which is why I think that you should take a look at Blue Nile’s Jobs page. They have a few opportunities that look well suited for a new grad including: Bilingual Customer Service Representative, Assistant Buyer, and Website Development Engineer. The jewelry business is fascinating, so working at Blue Nile would probably be pretty exciting.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Two engagement tips:

1. Use browser privacy when you’re looking for jewelry online. If you don’t, you will get bombarded by ads.

2. Don’t change your relationship status on Facebook until your fiancée has told everyone she needs to tell. Even though it says that it will wait for her confirmation, it will still tell everyone that you’re engaged (but not whom you’re engaged to until you’ve confirmed). I learned this one the hard way.

BeachMint

Willy Franzen — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:37:43 +0000

So far our survey says that you find the job search frustrating. Tell us more so that we can help.

Back in June we told you about Birchbox, a company that offers a subscription to customized beauty product samples for $10 a month. It’s an interesting model, and it seems to be working out extremely well for them. BeachMint is a “social commerce” startup with a similar subscription model, but a very different approach. They’re a Santa Monica, CA based company with four brands: JewelMint.com, BeautyMint.com, StyleMint.com, and ShoeMint.com. I think you can guess what each offers a subscription to. When you sign up they give you a quiz to get a sense of what you like and what you don’t like, and then they start making new recommendations for you every month. It’s a little weird in that it’s structured like a subscription, but you don’t have to buy every month (but it sounds like it’s more of a monthly opt-out than opt-in). I kind of wish they stayed true to their name and would send me to a different beach every month.

Making a Mint

BeachMint is still a very young company, but they’ve raised a ton of money (nearly $40 million) and had some great early successes (apparently BeautyMint got 500,000 visitors in its first day). A big part of BeachMint’s strategy and a likely reason for their rapid growth is that they’ve aligned with some big name celebrities like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Jessica Simpson, Rachel Bilson, and Kate Bosworth. I’m sure they had to spend a lot of their funding on getting those names to sign, but it seems to be paying off with huge growth now. I’ll admit that I find BeachMint’s model a little confusing, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping people from signing up.

If you’re intrigued by what BeachMint is doing, then you should take a look at their Jobs page. There are a ton of jobs posted though most of them are either tech (Web/Software/Mobile Development) or Mint Brand Ambassador Manager / Independent Sales and Promotions Coordinator positions. The latter are available all across the country, and seem to be heavily commission based. The job best suited for our readership is probably the Merchandising / Design Assistant, which unfortunately is only part-time right now. Additionally, there’s the option to apply for future opportunities, and I also found a Customer Care Associate position and an Executive Assistant/Office Manager position on Startuply. I also found a Content Department Coordinator posting from a couple of months ago. It seems that BeachMint might be a bit disjointed in posting jobs, so don’t be afraid to apply for future opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried any of BeachMint’s offerings?

Pawngo

Willy Franzen — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:20:15 +0000

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I’ve never stepped foot in a pawn shop, but I am hopelessly addicted to watching both Pawn Stars and Hardcore Pawn. The two shows offer diametrically opposed views of the pawn industry. The former is all about antiques and interesting merchandise, while the latter is more focused on the people who pawn everyday items. In case you didn’t know, pawn is one of the simplest forms of credit. You give a pawn broker an item to hold as collateral, and he or she gives you a loan based on the value of the item. To get the item back you have to pay back the principal plus interest within a certain amount of time, otherwise the pawn broker can keep the item and sell it. Pawn makes credit available to anyone who owns something of value, and that’s generally a good thing. The pawn model has been around for thousands of years, so it’s about time for someone to take it online. That’s what Denver, CO and Chicago, IL based Pawngo is doing, and they’re taking it one step further. Pawngo is solely focused on the high end of pawn, so they only do loans from $250 to $100,000 (though you might be able to convince them to go higher if you have a really awesome item).

Be a Pawn for Pawngo

Pawngo’s Denver based operations facility looks nothing like your typical pawn shop. It’s truly a state of the art facility, that you can check out in the video below while also learning about Founder Todd Hills’ story (e-mail readers may need to click through).

If you’re still a little clear on how Pawngo works, you can read up on their online pawning process. I’m extremely impressed with what Pawngo is doing, and it looks like they’re growing well–they’ve already “loaned more than $2.1 million in 46 states.” I’m sure they’ll be loaning a lot more as they take in items like diamonds, gold, Apple products, DSLR cameras, and more. Pawngo makes their money from the interest on loans, but they also are working on opening an online pawn shop where you can buy high end items like Rolex watches. If you’re as fascinated by this business model as I am, then you should take a look at Pawngo’s Jobs page. Right now the two entry level jobs they have are Account Executive – Inside Sales (Chicago, IL) and ECommerce Manager (Denver, CO), but they also are looking for a an Appraiser (Denver, CO) and a Digital Marketing Strategist (Chicago, IL). Get a job with Pawngo before you have to pawn all your stuff to pay rent.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you use Pawngo?

Gemvara

Willy Franzen — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:08:47 +0000

I haven’t purchased a lot of jewelry, but when I have (never for myself), I’ve found the process to be extremely intimidating. Jewelry stores are scary places–at least for men who are buying for someone special. There are thousands of options, all of them are expensive, and the staff can be snooty. I remember walking into one store and waiting 15 minutes for someone to acknowledge my presence. It was the one time that I actually knew what I wanted to buy, so I walked out and bought the same thing elsewhere. The experience made me never want to step foot in a jewelry store again. Maybe Gemvara is the answer. They’re a Lexington, MA based company that sells jewelry through the web, but there’s a really interesting twist.

A Gem of a Job

The most interesting thing about Gemvara is that they don’t carry any inventory (at least in terms of finished products). Everything is made to order “by hand, one at a time, in the USA.” The pieces displayed on their website are just suggestions. You can order one if you want it, but you can also customize your piece to fit your exact specifications. Even better, all of Gemvara’s jewelry is made with “high-quality conflict-free natural gems” and “recycled or responsibly mined precious metals.” They’re trying to completely change the jewelry buying process, and I like where they’re taking it. Gemvara is extremely customer focused, and it shows with their satisfaction guarantee, return policy, and warrantee. If you’re intrigued by Gemvara’s business model, then you need to take a look at their Careers page. They have a number of open positions that seem suitable for new or recent grads including Graphic Designer, Junior User Experience Designer, Quality Assurance Assistant (New York, NY), and Website Copywriter. Gemvara just got another round of funding, so don’t be surprised to see more jobs posted soon.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What kind of jewelry buying experiences have you had?

Waterford

Willy Franzen — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:49:00 +0000

Dropping the ball usually isn’t a good thing—especially in the job search; however, tonight the ball is going to drop in Times Square, and hopefully it will be a good thing for your job search. It will get you acting towards achieving your New Year’s resolution of landing a great job, and it might even give you some ideas of places to look for a job. Take Waterford for example. They’re the company that builds the ball that drops in Times Square. The ball was aluminum up until 1999 (before Waterford was involved), but there was an obvious need to do something a little fancier for the new millennium. Waterford, which is headquartered in Ireland but has offices in New York/New Jersey, is known as one of the finest crystal manufacturers in the world, so it makes sense that they were the choice to build a half-ton, six-foot wide, crystal paned ball. They’re also probably the company that made that crystal vase that you almost broke when you were roughhousing as a kid.

Look into Your Crystal Ball

If you’ve been reading for a while, you have probably noticed that I’m a proponent of using your surrounding to generate ideas for the job search. I got an e-mail the other day from someone who didn’t seem to care too much for jobs relating to Christmas trees. He was missing the point. The idea is that by being aware of your surrounding, you’ll open yourself up to ideas that you never considered before. Maybe Waterford won’t be right for you, but Martinelli’s (sparkling cider) or Times Square Alliance will catch your eye. Or maybe you will decided that you love crystal and that you want to work for Waterford. You’ll be disappointed to see that their jobs page only includes one listing right now, but you’ll persevere and find a way to get your foot in the door. Maybe you’ll reach out to them on Twitter or see if you can connect with anyone through LinkedIn. Yes, you’ll have to go above and beyond clicking a few buttons and filling in a few forms to submit your résumé, but that’s the attitude that you’ll need to get a job in 2010.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any Waterford crystal?

Lucky Brand

Willy Franzen — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:49:56 +0000

Next March I’m going to regret not saving this one for my St. Patrick’s Day holiday themed post, but today we’re going to take a look at Lucky Brand. They’re a clothing manufacturer and retailer that is “rooted in rock ‘n ‘roll with a signature sense of humor.” Their About page will tell you that they stand for “independent thinking, individual style and a feeling as authentic as love” and that they’re known for “great-fitting, vintage-inspired jeans;” however, I think it’s much simpler than that. One of their founders came up with the idea to put the phrase “Lucky You” behind the flies of every pair of pants that they made. It was an instant point of differentiation, and I think that it has a lot to do with why Lucky Brand is going strong 19 years after they started. It really is pure, politically incorrect genius. Lucky you…

Get Lucky

The best way to get a feel for Lucky Brand is to check out their clothes online or visit one of their retail stores. If you don’t get what the brand is about, you’re not going to get a job with them. I think that’s true of any brand, but it’s especially pertinent in industries like apparel where brand is everything. So, what about jobs at Lucky Brand? They have a ton of Store Management opportunities at their retail stores. This may not be exactly what you had in mind post-graduation (or maybe it is), but it kind of offers the opportunity to run your own business—at least that’s what the job description makes it sound like. They have openings for Retail Management in Ala Moana, HI; Miami, FL; Monterey, CA; Pittsburgh, PA; Tampa, FL; San Jose, CA; San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; Waikiki, HI; Westlake, OH; Los Angeles, CA; Manhattan, NY; Las Vegas, NV; El Paso, TX; Aurora, IL; Chicago, IL; Pleasant Prairie; WI; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; Bridgewater, NJ; Elizabeth, NJ; Seattle, WA; Wrentham, MA; Peabody, MA; Boston, MA; Houston, TX; Studio City, CA; St. Louis, MO; and quite a few more locations (although those jobs were posted in March and earlier). You can find all of those job postings on Lucky Brand’s Jobs site.

You also have the option of submitting a résumé for general consideration for corporate jobs in Vernon, CA. I think that this might be worthwhile because of what Lucky Brand has to say about their Internship Program:

The Lucky Brand Fall 2009 Internship Program is intended to help acclimate Junior and Senior level university/college students to our company culture, build on their creativity, and allow them the best opportunity to get to know Lucky Brand. This program is designed to identify, develop and potentially hire top entry level talent.

If they’re looking to hire top entry level talent, then why don’t they have any entry level jobs posted outside of retail? Maybe it’s just a season thing, or maybe they mostly like hiring past interns, but it’s worth investigating. Lucky Brand offers internships in Design, Human Resources, Wholesale Sales & Planning, Accessory Jewelry Design, Accessory Design, eCommerce, and Marketing, so those are areas where they might also have entry level jobs.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you consider yourself lucky?

Tiffany & Co.

Willy Franzen — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:00:37 +0000

Did you forget about Valentine’s Day? Did you accidentally put your ex-girlfriend’s name on the card that came with the flowers you sent your new girlfriend from ProFlowers? Did you forget to use OpenTable and end up having to take your valentine to McDonald’s? Have you still not changed your Facebook status to “In a Relationship,” even though it’s been 4 months? If so, you’re in the doghouse. Instead of focusing on the trouble you’re in and writing about jobs at a company that makes dog houses (we couldn’t find any, anyways), we’re going to talk about a company that has great entry-level jobs and might even help you get out of the dog house. How does a guy get out of the dog house? Jewelry. And for the girls, we apologize that we’ve been writing our intros from the male perspective this week, but we hope it won’t affect your outlook on the companies we’ve told you about.

Tiffany & Co. not only makes and sells fine jewelry, but they also have a wide range of open entry-level jobs. If you’re not familiar with Tiffany & Co., you should know that they have been one of the country’s premier jewelers and designers since 1837. If you want to learn more, you can check out the links at the bottom of this post, but we’re going to assume that most people who would be interested in jobs at Tiffany & Co. are well aware of the brand and its identity. Below are some of the jobs that we found on Tiffany’s Careers site that look to be appropriate for a new college graduate.

Jobs in New York, NY: Replenishment Analyst, Silver Sales Professional, Gift Sales Professional, Assistant Sales Manager, and Coordinator (Associate Producer), Interactive Media.

Jobs Elsewhere in the US: Merchandise Assistant (Dallas, TX), Inventory Control Coordinator (Pelham, NY), and Business Sales Coordinator (San Francisco, CA).

If none of these positions interest you, but you’re dying to work for Tiffany, then you can submit your resume for general consideration (this page allows you to create a profile and then submit your resume).

Now you may have noticed, that we’ve pretty much avoided talking directly about Tiffany’s Careers Site. That’s because it’s basically impossible to find, and once you find it, it’s a nightmare to navigate. We first looked for jobs at Tiffany & Co. by visiting their Home page and their About page. After a quick look, we found nothing career related. So we did a Google search for “Tiffany jobs.” That turned up the usual smattering of job board listings and search results from job search engines, but there was nothing from Tiffany & Co. in the first few pages of result (who looks farther than that?). We then tried looking for “Tiffany careers,” which finally turned up TiffanyCareers.com.

We thought we had finally found what we were looking for, but then TiffanyCareers.com redirected to another site on the domain of the company that Tiffany uses for their applicant tracking system. This page then links back to the main Tiffany.com site. You might not even notice that you’re jumping from site to site, but we do, and so do the search engines (and they don’t like it one bit). It’s the reason that it’s so hard to find information about Tiffany’s employment opportunities in Google. Put really simply, Google trusts Tiffany.com for information about Tiffany & Co., but it doesn’t trust TiffanyCareers.com or the site from their applicant tracking system provider, so they don’t rank well. After confirming that Tiffany & Co. actually has a Careers page, we went back and finally found a link to it on their About page; however, the link only shows up when you put your cursor over the Our Company section. From our standpoint, it looks like Tiffany & Co. hides their jobs on their web site and from Google; maybe they just don’t want to hire anyone.

Sorry that we’re ranting about search engine optimization again, but we feel that making an example out of Tiffany & Co. will help them and other employers understand how frustrating it can be to search for jobs online. Hey employers, make your jobs easy to find! Ok? Thanks.

One last thing, if you look at Tiffany’s listing of all job openings, you might think that it’s only one page long. There are actually 11 pages of job listings. We missed this the first time through, so we thought you might make the same mistake. Despite our gripes about the usability of Tiffany’s website, we still think that they’re an entry-level employer worth looking at. They have quite a few jobs and they are a company at the top of their industry. We’re sorry we had to be so negative about Tifanny’s web site, but we hope that this post will help you find what you’re looking for when it comes to entry-level jobs with Tiffany & Co.

Note: On April 24th we revisited entry-level jobs at Tiffany & Co.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Take a look at the Tiffany & Co. Careers site for yourself and let us know if you agree with us about the usability issues. What do you like about the site? And what do you think could be done better? Leave a comment.