One Day, One Job » Minnesota

row27 Studios

Willy Franzen — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:14:05 +0000

Reasoning Mind is an education focused non-profit that uses the web to teach kids math, and they’re hiring 30 new grads as Program Coordinators. Learn more about these amazing entry level opportunities.

It looks like yesterday’s post on The Human Fund got a lot of you. April Fools! (If you didn’t get the jokes, you’ll find the explanations here and here.) Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about sports. We have the Men’s NCAA Basketball Championship tonight, the Women’s NCAA Basketball Championship tomorrow, the Frozen Four next weekend, and Opening Day for Major League Baseball happening in between. I love this time of year, and I’m sure the folks at row27 Studios do too. row27 Studios is a Minneapolis, MN based company that “provides digital solutions for sports teams.” By combining state of the art technology with sports marketing acumen, they’ve built a business that works with some of the biggest names in sports.

Get a Seat in row27

row27 Studios got its start in 2007, and since then they’ve worked with more than 90 sports teams ranging including top college programs like Kansas, Baylor, Wisconsin, and UConn and top pro teams like the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders. row27 Studios’ work includes “TV commercials, stadium intro videos, interactive microsites, and Facebook applications.” Take a look at their Video and Web Development work to get a better feel for their capabilities. You should also check out The Row Show, which is the row27 weekly video podcast. If you like what you see, then take a look at row27 Studios’ Jobs page. Right now the only job they have posted is for a PHP Developer, but they’re also looking for paid interns in Account Management and Sports Marketing. They mention that these are 90 day positions with the potential to go full-time, so they’re certainly a reasonable alternative to an entry level job. These look like awesome opportunities to break into sports marketing, so don’t pass them up.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Kansas or Kentucky?

50CAN

Willy Franzen — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:48:29 +0000

I was really lucky in that my parents sent me to a top notch private school for 6th through 12th grade. I have no doubt that it had a significantly positive effect on my education. Why? Because it was a truly great school. Private schools obviously aren’t the only great schools (and plenty of private schools aren’t all that great), but there’s no doubt that many of our country’s public schools are underperforming. 50CAN is a New York, NY based non-profit organization that is pushing for education reform because they believe that “Great Schools Can Change Everything.” They don’t just mean test scores and individual outcomes. They mean our economy, our democracy, our dreams, our competitiveness, our health, our communities, and pretty much everything else. 50CAN is different from many of the education focused non-profits that you’re likely familiar with in that 50CAN is focused squarely on advocacy.

YouCAN

50CAN has a wonderful website. It’s beautiful, and it does a great job of conveying information in a simple way. I recommend that you start browsing it by reading their Why Schools? page. Next you’ll want to read through the 50CAN Model. You’ll get an in-depth look at how they’re going state by state to “build citizen movements to ensure that every child has access to a great public school.” If you want to see what kind of results this approach delivers, just check out 50CAN’s Case Studies. Hopefully as you check out these pages, you’ll be drawn into other parts of 50CAN’s website. There’s a lot more to learn about the organization. So far CAN is operating in Minnesota, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, and New York (North Carolina is coming soon). Obviously the goal is to reach all 50. If you want to be a part of 50CAN, check out their Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for a Government Relations Associate for RI-CAN (Providence, RI) and a New Site Development Manager (New York, NY). If neither of those positions look right for you, you can also sign up to bring 50CAN to your state.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you go to a great school?

Outward Bound

Willy Franzen — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:52:46 +0000

I went to small, private middle and high school. They were really big on outdoor education, so almost every year we took some kind of class trip to promote bonding and a kind of learning that can’t be done in the classroom. The trips were wonderful–even when 20 of us got lost in the woods with one teacher overnight. I was lucky to get these kind of experiences through my school, but if I hadn’t, there’s a good chance I would have done something like Outward Bound. They are “a non-profit educational organization and expedition school that serves people of all ages and backgrounds through active learning expeditions that inspire character development, self-discovery and service both in and out of the classroom.” Outward Bound is headquartered in Golden, CO (but operating across the country), and “was founded in 1941 in the tumultuous waters of the North Sea during World War II, to provide young sailors with the experiences and skills necessary to survive at sea.” They got their start in their current state in 1961.

Job Bound?

While Outward Bound may no longer be about teaching survival skills to people who are actually likely to use them, they still do some really important educational work. Outward Bound’s programs serve all kinds of people ranging from “at-risk youth” to corporate employees, and they stretch across all kind of activities including Canoeing, Rock Climbing, Dogsleeding, Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, and more. I know that Outward Bound has an extremely strong connection with alumni, and that speaks to how truly great their programming is. If you want to be part of the Outward Bound family, take a look at their Careers page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new and recent grads including:

Backpack/Canoe Instructor (Baltimore, MD)
Backpack/Canoe Instructor (Philadelphia, PA)
Canoe/At Risk Instructor (Ely, MN)
Backpack/Canoe/At Risk (Newry, ME)
Course Director (Omaha, NE)
Field Instructor (St. Paul, MN)
Insight Facilitator (Baltimore, MD)
Insight Instructor (St. Paul, MN)
Logistics Coordinator (Midpines, CA)
Logistics Coordinator (Newry, ME)
Logistics Coordinator (Wheeler’s Bay, ME)
Logistics Coordinator (Redmond, OR)
Logistics Coordinator (Moab, UT)
Mountain Instructor (Leadville, CO)
Mountain/Raft Instructor (Redmond, OR)
Program Manager (Omaha, NE)
River Instructor (Moab, UT)
Sailing Instructor (Wheeler’s Bay, ME)
Urban Center/Field Instructor (Omaha, NE)

If you love the outdoors and want to work in the non-profit world, it’d be hard to beat a job with Outward Bound.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you do Outward Bound?

The Nature Conservancy

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

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

Nature Over Nurture

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

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about The Nature Conservancy?

W3i

Willy Franzen — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:19:57 +0000

Sponsored Job: PEAK6 is a Chicago, IL based proprietary trading firm that specializes in inventory and risk management, and they’re hiring a Junior Project Manager.

I recently discovered an awesome iPhone/iPad flight simulator/shooter game called MetalStorm: Wingman. It’s free, and it’s a lot of fun, but the publisher is constantly trying to eke revenue out of the game. There are ads, upsells to buy new planes and weapons, and suggestions of other apps to download. It’s that last one that caught my attention, and it led me to a company called W3i. They’re based in Sartell, MN, and they are in the business of “intelligently connecting people to apps.” They do this with both mobile and desktop apps, and they provide an opportunity for app developers to both expand the reach of their software and make money by promoting other apps.

Put the App in Apply

Believe it or not, W3i isn’t some startup. They’ve been in the business of promoting apps for over 10 years (and they’ve been profitable for most of the time!). That means that they’ve had to constantly adapt as the landscape of software downloading has changed. Some companies would get crushed by all of the changes in technology and app store rules (depending on Apple’s whims must be tough), but it sounds like W3i has responded by doubling sales since last year. If you want to really dig into what W3i does, you can read up on their offering for both desktop apps and mobile apps. You may also want to check out what they’ve done for some of their clients. If you like what you see, you’ll want to head over to W3i’s Careers page, which is beautifully done. You can learn about Life at W3i, browse careers by department, or head straight to a list of all of their current openings. The best positions for new grads include:

There are a ton of awesome opportunities at W3i, so hopefully one of them will be just what you’re looking for. If not, you can also apply for Future Opportunities. (I’m assuming that all of these positions are in the Sartell office because nothing states otherwise, but W3i also has offices in San Francisco, Berlin and Minneapolis.)

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What are your favorite apps?

Smashburger

Willy Franzen — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:03:10 +0000

I love hamburgers, but I wouldn’t eat a fast food burger even if it could make me fly. Luckily, better burger places are popping up all over the place. Some are local joints and some are chains, but they’re all working to remind us what a burger is supposed to be. Smashburger is taking a leading role in restoring dignity to hamburgers, although I can’t fully support a burger chain that won’t cook a burger medium-rare or even medium. They’re another Inc. 5000 company with 2,673% three-year growth from $1.4 million to $39.4 million in annual revenue. Smashburger is based out of Denver, CO and they have locations all across the country. They “start with 100% Angus Beef, smashed, seared and seasoned on the grill, placed on a butter-toasted artisan bun and topped with the highest-quality cheeses, freshest produce and condiments.”

Smashing Jobs

It used to be that chain restaurants were indelibly linked to low quality food, but that has definitely changed. Smashburger is a perfect example of how combining higher quality food with the fast food business model can lead to rapid success. In 2007 there was one Smashburger in the Denver area. Then they opened a few around town. Now there are dozens of Smashburgers all across the country. If you don’t have one in your neighborhood yet, it’s only a matter of time (they plan to grow from 70 restaurants to 500 restaurants over the next 4 years). With this rapid growth, Smashburger is hiring a ton of people. Most of them are obviously in the restaurants, but they’re also growing on the Corporate side. If you look at Smashburger’s Jobs page, you’ll see a few opportunities that are suitable for new or recent grads including Strategy Analyst, Real Estate Analyst, Data Analyst, FP&A Analyst, and Field Marketing Coordinator (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever had a Smashburger?

American Public Media

Willy Franzen — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 16:00:30 +0000

When I was in high school, my family carpooled with two other families. When my parents were driving, I got to sit in the front seat, which meant that I controlled the radio. My usual choice was HOT 97, New York City’s finest Hip Hop and R&B station. But when the other parents were driving, it was usually their choice, and more often than not the choice was the local NPR station (check out our post on jobs at National Public Radio). I can’t say that I learned to like it then, but I do find myself listening to public radio far more often than my high school self would have ever imagined. If you listen to NPR, there’s a good chance that you listen to something produced by American Public Media. They are a St. Paul, MN based non-profit organization that “is the largest owner and operator of public radio stations and a premier producer and distributor of public radio programming in the nation,” while also being “the largest producer and distributor of classical music programming in the United States.” So if you listen to NPR in Minnesota, Southern California, or South Florida, you probably listen to one of American Public Media 43 stations or 32 translators.

Listeners Like You

American Public Media reaches 16.5 million listeners every week, and are able to have such a wide reach not only because of their own network, but also because they have 20+ national programs that are broadcast across over 800 stations. These programs include A Prairie Home Companion, Marketplace, and Performance Today. American Public Media has a ton of information on their website, so I really recommend that you dig in and start to learn more about them. Their Organizational Structure page is probably the best place to start. Then you might want to check out their Accomplishments, their FAQs, and their programs. If you like what you see (or hear), then you’ll want to check out jobs at American Public Media. They have a bunch of openings, and a few seem well suited for new or recent grads including Associate Producer – The Madeleine Brand (Pasadena, CA), Django/Python Developer – Web & Apps (Pasadena, CA), Marketing Specialist (Los Angeles, CA), Newscaster/Weekend Fill-In (St. Paul, MN), and Web Developer (Los Angeles, CA). There are lots of options, so check them all out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you listen to an American Public Media station?

Octagon

Willy Franzen — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:19:11 +0000

Usually when readers recommend companies, I put them on my list and cover them soon after if they look interesting and have relevant opportunities. Lately I’ve had two readers mention that they applied to Octagon, but I somehow overlooked the company. My only excuse is that I’m often skeptical of sports and entertainment marketing companies because there are so many sports marketing hiring scams. But that’s very clearly not the case with Octagon, they’ve been around since 1983 and they have offices all across the world. As they put it, they’re “the recognized, global thought leader in passion-based, sports & entertainment marketing.” Some of people they represent are Chris Paul, Michael Phelps, Randy Johnson, John Elway, Elena Dementieva, Landry Fields, Michael Johnson, Anna Kournikova, Apolo Anton Ohno, and many more huge names.

Can You Compete Inside the Octagon?

From what I can tell, Octagon separates their business into four divisions. On their Octagon’s What We Do page, you’ll see links to: Marketing, Marketing North America, Athletes & Personalities, and Events. Within the Athletes & Personalities section you’ll find links to specific verticals like OctagoOly.com, OctagonHockey.com, OctagonBasketball.com. Additionally, there are separate sites for Octagon’s international businesses like OctagonBrazil.com, and Octagon-UK.com. It’s all a bit overwhelming, but it’s indicative of how big Octagon’s presence is in the field of sports and entertainment marketing. In fact, the best overview of what Octagon’s businesses actually do is on their Careers page. Once you read through that, then you can take a look at their current job postings. Right now they have a few positions that seem right for a new or recent grad including Account Executive – Telecom (Kansas City, KS), Non-Profit & Media Relations Coordinator (Portland, ME), Account Executive – Sales Assistant (Norwalk, CT), Associate Producer – Digital (Norwalk, CT), and Account Executive – Multicultural – Home Improvement (Atlanta, GA).

Octagon has offices in the following locations, so you may want to watch out for new postings in any of these places:

Atlanta, GA
Cary, NC
Charlotte, NC
Chicago, IL
Los Angels, CA
McLean, VA
Minneapolis, MN
Naples, FL
New York, NY
Norwalk, CT
Ormond Beach, FL
Portland, ME
Richmond, VA
Rogers, AR
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Ottawa, Ontario
Waterlool, Ontario
Adelaide, South Australia
Hobart, Tasmania
Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Beijing, China
Mumbai, India
Tokyo Japan
Singapore, Malaysia
Paris, France
Frankfurt, Germany
Doha, Qatar
Moscow, Russia
Cape Town, South Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa
Barcelona, Spain
Sevilla, Spain
Stockholm, Sweden
Istanbul, Turkey
London, United Kingdom

That’s a lot of locations, so keep an eye on Octagon’s job postings for opportunities closer to home (or further away if that’s what you’re looking for).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about Octagon?

Perkins+Will

Willy Franzen — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:25:29 +0000

Despite having a father who is an architect, I have to admit that my appreciation for architecture is quite basic. Except when my Dad drags me along, I don’t go out looking at buildings just for the fun of it, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t notice things that are architecturally interesting. When I came across a link to some positions at Perkins+Will, the first thing that I did was look at their work. I was surprised by how many of their projects I’ve noticed and enjoyed. Just a few of them include the San Francisco Ferry Building, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, and The Contemporaine (which is only a couple of blocks from me). And that’s just a small sampling of the work that the firm has done. Perkins+Will was started in Chicago, IL in 1935, but since then they’ve expanded to 23 offices across the world (including locations in Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Dubai, UAE; Hartford, CT; Houston, TX; Los Angeles, CA; London, UK; Miami, FL; Minneapolis, MN; New York, NY; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia, PA; Research Triangle Park, NC; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Shanghai, China; Toronto, ON; Vancouver, BC; and Washington, DC.) I spent some time trying to figure out if they have an actual headquarters or main office, but I couldn’t come up with anything.

Where There’s a Will There’s a Way

Like I said before, I’m not much of an architectural critic. It definitely says something that Perkins+Will’s work caught my eye, but what’s more important is that they’re constantly getting recognition from big names in the industry. They’ve been ranked #1 Sustainable Design Firm and #2 overall in the “Architect 50″ by Architect magazine, #2 University Design Firm by Building Design+Construction, and #2 Interior Design Giant and one of the Most Admired firms by Interior Design. I’m even more impressed by the names that they’ve worked with, which include: Cornell University, Chicago O’ Hare International Airport, NASA, Mayo Clini, Stanford University, UCLA Medical Center, Perspectives Charter School, Crate & Barrel, and plenty more. If you want to get the full view of all of Perkins+Will’s noteworthy accomplishments, just check out their Press Kit. Anyway, if you love Perkins+Will’s work, then you have to check out their Careers page. Their current job listings include entry level positions like Architect I (Chicago, IL), Architect I (Seattle, WA), Graphic Designer (Dallas, TX), Interior Designer I (Glastonbury, CT), Interior Designer I (Washington, DC). That’s it for now, but I’m sure that they regularly have positions popping up all across the world.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of Perkins+Will’s projects is your favorite?

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?

Volunteers of America

Willy Franzen — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:22:13 +0000

When you’re job searching, volunteering is a great way to both put your skills to use and develop new skills. There are countless non-profit organization that put volunteers to work in situations where they can really make a difference. One of our country’s largest volunteer organizations is Volunteers of America, which is a faith-based non-profit headquartered in Alexandria, VA. With their staff of 16,000 paid employees and 70,000 volunteers, they’re able to help “more than 2 million people in over 400 communities in 48 states.” Since the organization was founded in 1896, they “have supported and empowered America’s most vulnerable groups, including at-risk youth, the frail elderly, men and women returning from prison, homeless individuals and families, people with disabilities, and those recovering from addictions.” An organization that has been around as long as Volunteers of America has must adapt to changes over the years. While they continue to remain focused on providing neighborly aid to all people, it looks like Volunteers of America is putting more emphasis on helping the growing population of aging Americans.

Volunteer for a Job

Volunteers of America has a nice video on their About page that goes more in-depth in describing how they work and what they do. I’ve embedded it below (e-mail readers need to click through).

Volunteers of America also has this Overview sheet that provides some really specific information about the organization’s work. If you’re moved by their mission, then you’ll want to check out Volunteers of America’s job opportunities. They separate these into three groups: National Office, Nationwide, and Health Services. The Nationwide section actually has over 200 positions posted, along with 25 entry level opportunities, so it probably makes the most sense to check out. They have a wide range of opportunities, and they’re in a variety of locations, so you should be able to find something that piques your interest.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Volunteers of America?

Toro

Willy Franzen — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:33:23 +0000

I love going out in blizzards, and Groundhog Day is my favorite made up holiday. (On past Groundhog Days we’ve look at opportunities with The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, MyPunchBowl, and NOAA.) Unfortunately, I was up sick all night, so I’m not going to be able to enjoy either today. And even if I was feeling well, I probably wouldn’t be able to get anywhere without a serious snow blower. Since I’m taking a snow/sick day, it’s up to you to take a look at one of the leading manufacturers of snowblowers, Toro. They’re a Bloomington, MN based company that also makes lawnmowers, golf and grounds equipment, commercial landscaping equipment, and irrigation equipment.

Toro! Toro!

Since I’m under the weather in more ways than one, I’m going to let you do all of the research on Toro. There’s a lot to learn about them, but eventually you should end up on their Campus Relations page. It gives the full rundown on entry level jobs, internships, and co-ops. And if Toro’s not for you, think about other companies that might be relevant to today’s weather situation.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used any Toro equipment?

Alloy Media + Marketing

Willy Franzen — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:47:05 +0000

Marketing is all about targeting. Marketers want to reach specific audiences, and media companies try to develop audiences that marketers want to reach. Typically, the more specific an audience is, the more valuable it is—at least as long as there’s something that you can sell to that audience. Alloy Media + Marketing, which is headquartered in New York City is a company that operates on both the marketing and media sides. They specialize in targeted youth media and promotional programs, and they operate a number of businesses in those areas. Youth marketing is a big deal—not only do young people spend a large portion of their income (even if it’s relatively small) on discretionary purchases, but they also are impressionable. If you can gain an 18 year old’s loyalty, you’ll have a long time to extract value from them as a customer. Alloy leverages “a diverse array of assets and services in interactive, display, direct mail, content production and educational programming” to build relationships with and market to teens and college students.

Be Part of an Alloy

Alloy Media + Marketing’s businesses include Alloy Media, Alloy Access, AMP Agency, Alloy Education, and Alloy Entertainment. Alloy’s businesses really cover a lot of ground, so it’s worth looking at each individually to get a feel for what they do. If you want to take a look at one of the major media properties that they run, you can check out Alloy.com. Once you get a feel for all of the stuff that Alloy Media + Marketing does, you should check out their job listings. There are a wide range of opportunities available including quite a few that seem suitable for new or recent grads. Some of the job postings are a bit outdated and some require a few years of prior experience, but the following jobs are worth checking out: Web Designer – Alloy Education (Chicago, IL), Marketing Coordinator – Media Services (New York, NY), Integrated PR Account Executive – AMP Agency (Boston, MA), Media Negotiator – Media Newspaper Services (New York, NY), Social Media Assistant (Los Angeles, CA), Media Planner – AMP Agency (Boston, MA), Account Coordinator – AMP Agency (Boston, MA), Editor (New York, NY), Sales Representative (Cedar Rapids, IA; Coralville, IA; Minneapolis, MN; Des Moine, IA), Desktop Specialist (Boston, MA), Sponsored Content Producer – Alloy Digital (Los Angeles, CA), Entertainment Sales Account Executive – AMP Agency (New York, NY), Digital Sales Account Executive – AMP Agency (Boston, MA), Web Developer (New York, NY), and Associate Project Manager – Alloy Digital (New York, NY).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Alloy Media + Marketing?

Environment America

Willy Franzen — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 16:44:36 +0000

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Now, I’m not one to worry much about Global Warming, especially when I’m enjoying a snap of 60-plus degree weather in Chicago in mid-November, but that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned about the environment. There’s no doubt that our way of life has numerous negative impacts on the natural world around us, and we’re not doing enough to minimize those impacts. Environment America is a nationwide, non-profit “federation of state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations” that is headquartered in Washington, DC. Their strategy is focused on combining “independent research, practical ideas and tough-minded advocacy to overcome the opposition of powerful special interests and win real results for the environment.” (Yes, they’re another special interest that is fighting special interests.) They’ve been around for 30 years, and I’m sure that they’re going to keep on going as long as mankind is harming the environment.

Try a New Environment

While much of Environment America’s work is focused at the state level, some of of the broader initiatives that they’re currently working on are Repower America (Green Energy), Stopping Global Warming, Our Rivers, Lakes & Streams, and Stop Toxic Pollution. As you can see, Environment America spreads their work across a lot of issues, which means that they have a ton of different job opportunities. You can find the full rundown here. For students and recent grads, their Fellowship Program is probably the best fit (and I believe potential locations include Mobile, AL; Little Rock and Fayetville, AR; Phoenix, AZ; Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and Santa Barbara, CA; Denver, CO; Hartford, CT; Washington, DC; Miami and Tallahassee, FL; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Des Moines, IA; New Orleans, LA; Portland, ME; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Ann Arbor, MI; Minneapolis, MN; St. Louis, MO; Gulfport, MS; Missoula, MT; Las Vegas, NV; Concord, NH; Trenton, NJ; Albuquerque, NM; Albany and New York, NY; Raleigh, NC; Columbus, OH; Portland, OR; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA; Providence, RI; Austin, TX; Richmond, VA; Seattle, WA; and Madison, WI), but you may also want to check out positions like Communication and Development – Grants Associate (Los Angeles, CA), Financial Assistant (Washington, DC), Executive Assistant (Boston, MA or Washington, DC), Communications Associate (Boston, MA or Philadelphia, PA), Web Associate (Boston, MA), and Online Organizing Software Developer (Denver, CO). There are all kinds of options, so give everything a good look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What environmental issues are you most concerned with?

Reach Sports Marketing Group

Willy Franzen — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:48:26 +0000

I get asked all the time about how a new grad with no experience or connections can get an entry level job in sports (click that link for all of the sports related opportunities that we’ve featured in the past). The truth is that I don’t have a good answer. Jobs in sports are in low supply and high demand, which means that you probably need experience in the form of internships or solid connections to get your foot in the door. It also means that there are a ton of scammers who use “sports marketing jobs” to lure wet behind the ears grads into MLM scams. Fortunately, there are some legitimate options out there. Take Reach Sports Marketing Group for example, they’re an Eden Prairie, MN based company that made the Inc. 500 with 806% three-year growth and $2.5 million in annual revenue. Their business is pretty simple, they sell local advertisements on “digital signage screens and direct mail coupon sheets.” They have digital signage in more than 300 recreation and fitness centers across the country, and there’s a decent chance that they’re in the gyms at your school.

Reach Your Potential

If you want to get a feel for what Reach Sports Marketing Group’s signage looks like, you can see a demo here. It turns out that Reach isn’t really in the business of marketing sports, but instead they’re in the business of marketing to sports enthusiasts. Most of the advertisers that they work with are local businesses that want to reach an athletic audience—orthopedists, plastic surgeons, dentists, etc. If you really want to dig into it, you can look at the Lifetime Fitness Media Kit that Reach Sports Marketing Group put together. The only bummer here is that Reach Sports Marketing Group’s entire website is in Flash, which means that I can’t link to specific pages. To get to their Careers page, you’ll need to click the About Us link, and then there will be a Careers link in the dark grey stripe. I missed it at first, so you probably will too. Right now Reach Sports Marketing Group is offering positions in Digital Network Advertising Sales, Reach4Deals Advertising Sales, and Software Sales; however, they seem to want people with prior sales experience. Your best bet is to reach out to Reach Sports Marketing Group at careers@reachsportsgroup.com and inquire about what kind of position might be suitable for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

ReachSportsGroup.com

What do you think of Reach Sports Marketing Group?

Underwater Adventures Aquarium

Willy Franzen — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:52:05 +0000

When I’m doing my daily research and looking for interesting jobs or internships, I often find postings on third party job boards. I’m not a big fan of job boards, so I try to go directly to the employer’s site to get information on the opportunities. Today I was Googling an internship, and the first result was completely unrelated. Luckily, it was a way more interesting internship with Underwater Adventures Aquarium at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. It’s the world’s largest underground aquarium, and it’s just the kind of place that you might end up at during a summer vacation road trip. They say it’s like scuba diving without getting wet. There are 1.2 million gallons of water, and there’s a “300 foot-long curved tunnel, complete with a moving walkway that simulates a scuba diving adventure.” Underwater Adventures has sharks, octopuses, jellyfish, and all kinds of fish, and you can watch them all get fed. They even offer birthday parties where you can sleep with the sharks.

Take Your Job Search Underwater

Judging from the excitement that Shark Week generates among my friends, there are plenty of you who would love to work at an aquarium. Whether it’s sharks, sea turtles, boring old fish, or one of their other 5,000 aquatic creatures that get you excited, Underwater Adventures (which will soon be rebranded as Sea Life Centres) is worth checking out. They don’t really have a great About page, so the Wikipedia article on them is the best place to get background information (beyond making a visit, of course). If you like what you see, then you should consider jobs at Underwater Adventures Aquarium. Right now they have positions available that include Animal Interpreter, Box Office Sales, Energetic Mascot, On-site Educator, and Outreach Educator. There are also some more advanced positions in Sales/Marketing. Take a look, hold your nose, and dive in.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever visited Underwater Adventures Aquarium?

Accruent

Willy Franzen — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:23:52 +0000

Location. Location. Location. You know how important it is. Chances are that one of the major drivers in your job search is location. It’s even more important for businesses, yet they rarely manage their locations as effectively as they manage everything else. There are all kinds of sophisticated software platforms to manage customer relationships, products, human resources, and plenty of other things, but what about managing the places where they do business? That’s what Accruent is all about. They’re a Santa Monica, CA based company that develops software to help businesses “analyze [their] real estate and facilities portfolios and implement actions to cut costs and drive performance improvements.” It may not sound like the most exciting stuff on the face of it, but when you realize that Accruent helps clients manage “over 1 billion square feet of commercial space, for which they pay over $100 billion in rent annually,” you start to realize how interesting what Accruent does actually is.

Accruent Is Accruing Talent

Think about your college. Huge facilities with lots of people using them. How the heck do they figure out how to make the most of what they already have? If you went to Yale, USC, Michigan State, Syracuse, Brown, or one of the other higher education institutions on this list, you’d know that they used Accruent to figure it out. Accruent also has clients in Retail, Corporate, and Public Sector environments. That includes “20% of the Fortune 500 and over 40% of the top 100 retailers.” If you’re intrigued by what Accruent does, then you should check out their Careers page. In their job listings you’ll see postings for entry level Account Executive / Sales positions in Little Rock, AR; Jacksonville, FL; Philadelphia, PA; New York, NY; Minneapolis, MN; Houston, TX; Boston, MA; Denver, CO; Chicago, IL; Altanta, GA; and Des Moines, IA. There’s also an entry level Software Developer and Quality Assurance Engineer positions in Austin, TX. There are lots of opportunities, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Accruent?

Groupon

Willy Franzen — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:46:22 +0000

If you’re not already a Groupon member, here’s an invitation link.

In February of 2009, when I had only been in Chicago a few months, I got invited to an event for Chicago tech startups hosted by a local incubator named midVentures. I felt awkward when I walked in because I didn’t know a single person, but I quickly got to meeting people. One of the people I talked to was named Andrew Mason. He started a collective action site called The Point that allows you to put up money for big ideas with the qualification that you only have to pay if a certain threshold is met. That way you can put up money to build a collapsible dome over Chicago for the winter, but not have to worry about shelling out the cash unless the project is actually going to happen. At that point Andrew was working on an offshoot of The Point called Groupon. In some ways it was much like One Day, One Job. Instead of offering its readers a new job every day, it offered a deal. It was growing really fast, and he and I both knew that he was on to something pretty neat, but I don’t think either of us appreciated how big it could be at the time. Now, a year later, Groupon is valued at over $1 billion dollars. That would be nine zeroes if you ignored the fact that their actual valuation is around $1,350,000,000 (only 7 zeroes, ha!). The company is growing at an insane rate, and they always seem to be hiring. I’ve pinged Andrew and one of his recruiters a couple of times to let me know when they have positions to feature, but I get so many requests on Groupon that I’m just going to pull the trigger.

Get Your Groupon

For those of you who don’t know what Groupon is, it’s pretty simple. Every day they offer a new deal from a local business—it’s essentially a heavily discounted gift certificate. The business gets new customers, you save money, and Groupon gets a big cut of the sale. That’s what is so impressive about Groupon. Their growth is based on real revenue. Most startups as early as Groupon are losing money, while Groupon would probably be less profitable if they had a money printing machine. They’re not hiring people on a hope and a dream. They’re hiring people because they’re leaving money on the table otherwise. This may make them sound like they’re all serious, but Groupon also happens to be one of the goofiest startups out there. Humor is a key part of the company, and that clearly comes from the top, as Andrew is a pretty goofy guy.

Another key to the company is sales. Groupon is all about helping local businesses reach customers, and that means that their sales force has to kick butt. That’s why you’ll notice that most of Groupon’s postings on their Jobs page are Account Executive positions. They have Inside Sales positions in Chicago, and Outside Sales positions all across the country including cities like Birmingham, AL; Boston, MA; Cincinnati, OH; Denver, CO; Honolulu, HI; Indianapolis, IN; Jacksonville, FL; Kansas City, KS; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Minneapolis, MN; Nashville, TN; New Orlenas, LA; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR; Raleigh, NC; Sacramento, CA; San Diego, CA; San Franisco, CA; San Jose, CA; Seattle, WA; and St. Louis, MO. The Inside Sales positions seem better suited to new grads that the Outside Sales positions, but I bet that they’ll happy to talk to you if you’ve proved that you can sell. Groupon also has a variety of other positions that might interest new or recent grads like Copywriter, Factchecker, Reviews Researcher, Customer Service Representative, Recruiter, Loyalty Marketing Coordinator, SEM Specialist, Affiliate Manager, Front-end Developer, QA Engineer, Software Developer, User Experience Designer, and Visual/Graphic Designer. There are a ton of jobs, and I’m sure there will be plenty more in the near future. It may seem like you’re too late, but remember that Groupon hasn’t even been around for two years.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you a Groupon member?

Fast Horse

Willy Franzen — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:30:12 +0000

Telling you about a new company every day is just part of what we do—our blog is filled with articles that will help you land a job. If you haven’t read my post on How to Use Facebook Ads to Make Employers Hunt You Down, then you haven’t had the full One Day, One Job experience yet. I’m bringing that up specifically because this morning I came across a guy who used Google AdWords brilliantly in his job search. (You need to see this!) And if you love these creative marketing ideas, then you’ll love what Fast Horse does. They’re a Minneapolis, MN based boutique consumer marketing agency with expertise in non-traditional marketing. Their clients include Coca-Cola, Odwalla, Radisson, and Marvin, and they’ve eschewed a traditional corporate website in favor of a blog format.

Get on a Fast Horse

Fast Horse doesn’t seem to have a portfolio page, but they do have an Our Work tag for blog posts that show off what they’ve done. One of my favorites is the short movie that I’ve embedded below (RSS and e-mail readers will have too click through).

Another quirk about Fast Horse is that they host their Jobs page on Facebook. Well, it’s not exactly a Jobs page. It’s more “a resource for aspiring professionals seeking internships or entry-level positions in advertising, graphic design, marketing, public relations, interactive, etc.” But it’s also how they recruit their own entry level talent. They’ve just announced their Summer Intern Search on both the Facebook page and the Blog. Usually I leave the internships to One Day, One Internship, but they’re looking for someone who is a recent grad and they’re offering the potential for this to turn into a permanent position (the internship is paid). The really interesting thing is that they’re only accepting video applications, and they’re letting their Facebook page’s Fans/Likers/Whatever Mark wants us to call them these days, make the final decision on which of the top 3 applicants will get the position. This is a really cool idea, but I worry that it’s a discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen (I’m not a lawyer, but I did major in Industrial and Labor Relations and took Labor Law). Anyway, if you’re interested, you can find all of the details here.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about Fast Horse’s approach?

AEG

Willy Franzen — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:54:32 +0000

I swear that half of all college grads want to work in sports and entertainment. Unfortunately most of the job postings you’ll find in those industries are actually scam jobs. Getting a position at a legitimate sports and entertainment company is not easy, but with AEG you have a shot. They call themselves “one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world,” and although that sounds broad, it’s a good description. AEG operates in a number of business areas including Facilities, Sports (Teams and Events), Music (Events), and Merchandising. They own/control arenas like the STAPLES Center, Conseco Fieldhouse, and the Prudential Center, while also owning professional sports teams like the LA Kings and Los Angeles Galaxy (can you tell that AEG is based in Los Angeles?). They’ve also “promoted tours by artists including Britney Spears, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Christina Aguilera & Justin Timberlake, The Dixie Chicks, Yanni, Paul McCartney, Usher, Kanye West, Prince, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Nickelback, and PopTarts Presents American Idol.” And that’s not even half of it. AEG is a major player in sports and entertainment, and a great place to start a career.

Join AEG’s Team

Describing AEG’s business in a few paragraphs isn’t easy, so I guess that the best way to put it is that if it has to do with sports or entertainment, they’re probably involved in some way. That means that AEG offers job opportunities in a wide variety of areas. They actually have a halfway decent job search function on their site, so you can narrow things down by AEG Company, Area of Interest, Location, or Facility. They have nearly 100 jobs posted (a lot of them are internships though), and they’re in locations all across the country. I’m not going to list entry level opportunities for you, so you’ll have to do the searching yourself, but you should note that AEG’s job offerings are typically in areas like Accounting & Finance, Administrative & Clerical, Box Office, Creative Services, Event Services, Facilities Operations, Guest Services, Merchandising & Retail, Player Operations, Real Estate, and Sales & Marketing. You can apply for any of the positions that you find through their online application process.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about AEG?

General Mills

Willy Franzen — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:51:47 +0000

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In past years we’ve looked at Shamrock Boats and Luck Stone to celebrate the holiday, but today we’re going to take a look at jobs with Minneapolis, MN based General Mills because there’s no more authentic Irish breakfast than Lucky Charms. Now, it’s been a while since I last had a bowl of everybody’s favorite marshmallow-filled cereal—ok, it’s been a month—but it feels like it’s been much longer. Beyond Lucky Charms, General Mills’ brands include Cheerios, Pillsbury, Gushers, Haagen-Dazs, Betty Crocker, Cascadian Farm, and many more names that you’ll recognize from the center aisles in the grocery store. Most of them may have nothing to do with St. Patrick’s Day, but add some green food coloring if that’s what you’re really concerned about.

Work at the Mills

There’s not much more to say about General Mills. Their focus is on their 100+ brands, and that’s what makes them the world’s 6th largest food company. They hold the No. 1 or No. 2 position in nearly every category that they compete in, and their products are so ubiquitous that the average U.S. grocery shopper places at least one General Mills product in his or her cart every time he or she shops. Because General Mills is such a large company, they have a very strong Campus Recruiting Program. Unfortunately, their Campus Events Calendar indicates that most of their recruiting has passed. Typically they place new grads into the following areas:

Because the Campus Recruiting season has passed for General Mills, your best bet is to use their job search function to look for positions. There are certainly entry level positions available, so give it a look and hope for some St. Patrick’s day luck when you apply.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite General Mills brand?

ING Direct

Willy Franzen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:42:55 +0000

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

Saving Towards a Career

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you have an ING Direct account?

Caribou Coffee

Willy Franzen — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:55:49 +0000

It’s Christmas Eve—the day… err… night… that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer made a name for himself. We give Santa Claus all of the credit for delivering presents all across the world, but it’s those reindeer that are doing the hard part. Here in North America, we have reindeer just like the ones that pull Santa’s sleigh, but they’re known as caribou. Since I can’t think of any companies using reindeer in their brand name, that led me to Caribou Coffee. I’m not a coffee drinker, so I don’t typically patronize Caribou Coffee, but I figured that a company with 6,000 employees would have to have some interesting entry level opportunities. The company is based in Minneapolis, MN, and has 500 retail locations in 16 states along with the District of Columbia. Caribou Coffee’s mission “is to provide a total experience that makes the day better,” and they’re able to do that for a lot of people by serving great coffee.

Then One Cloudy Christmas Eve…

Whether you’re in the Christmas Spirit or you’re being a total scrooge, there’s a decent chance that a job at Caribou Coffee might be the perfect way for you to start off the new year. The company does a really nice job with their Careers page, as it lays out all of the options that you have: Team Member (Store Level), Shift Supervisor (Store Level), Corporate Support Center Positions, Store Manager, District Manager, and Corporate Positions. They give a nice rundown of what the jobs entail along with a list of benefits. I’d imagine that most of you are more interested in the Corporate stuff than the Store level stuff; however, there isn’t anything that screams entry level to me on their corporate postings. That means that you have three options if you want to work at Caribou Coffee: start at a store, wait for something more suitable to be posted, or hope for a Christmas miracle (try cold calling!). Good luck.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you drink Caribou Coffee?

VEE Corporation

Willy Franzen — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:09:01 +0000

One of my earliest memories is from Detroit’s Thanksgiving parade. I think that I was about 2 years old at the time, and I saw Oscar the Grouch on some sort of float. I don’t remember much more about the parade, but I remember that. I guess that I’m an experiential marketers dream since I managed to remember that over all of the other cool things that happened when I was two years old (another early memory was getting my head stuck between the bars on a McDonald’s playground—another branded memory). I think that the people at VEE Corporation would be especially happy to hear about my early memory since they’re the company behind Sesame Street Live. They’re a Minneapolis based firm that provides “live entertainment, promotion and event marketing services for America’s most respected brands, properties and agencies.” They’re big on full-body costumes and mascots as well as merging marketing and entertainment.

Experience VEE Corporation

Running the Sesame Street Live show seems like a big enough deal, but plenty of other huge brands have entrusted their identifying characters to VEE Corporation. These include Mr. Potato Head, Shrek and Donkey, Sponge Bob Squarepants, Mariah Carey’s legs, the Lucky Charms Leprechaun, and plenty more. VEE’s service offerings include Planning & Consultation, Logistics, Design & Ingenuity, Costumes/Creatures/Mascots, Fabrication & Construction, and Ship & Store. It’s a completely different kind of marketing company, which means that their job offerings are especially unique. If you check out Vee Corporation’s Jobs page, you’ll see what I’m talking about. They don’t have a lot of specific postings right now, but they split their offerings into a few categories of application pages—Theatrical, Corporate, Production Services, Shop and Craftsperson, and Operations and Road Crew. It’s interesting to see that VEE Corporation is using a Ning site to manage their application processes, but it doesn’t seem as though they’re tapping into all of the site’s social functionality. That might be a cool addition. They actually have so many different application forms that things get a little confusing, but it shouldn’t be too hard for you to figure out which form is the right one for telling VEE Corporation why you’ll be a great addition to their team.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you seen any events put on by VEE Corporation?

Uline

Willy Franzen — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:49:51 +0000

I love boring businesses. It may not seem like it considering the fact that I’m often featuring startups that are on the cutting edge of technology, but I really do appreciate when a company is able to take an extremely simple idea and make it profitable. Uline is a perfect example. They are a Waukegan, IL based company that considers itself “the leading distributor of shipping, industrial, and packing materials to businesses throughout North America.” It all started in 1980 when Liz and Dick Uihlein identified a need for a local shipping supplies distributer. They started the business in their basement with the H-101 carton sizer, and now they have a product line that fills a 452 page catalog. That’s a lot of growth, and I expect it to continue as e-commerce and the shipping that results from it keep expanding (I have about a dozen boxes in my apartment from various holiday season shipments). And if for some reason the shipping business does slow down, Uline can always reorganize as a producer of forts for children—I always loved playing in cardboard boxes.

Box It Up

Now, if you give Uline a closer look, there are some striking similarities between their business and our favorite fictional employer, Dunder Mifflin. They’re both customer service oriented companies that provide businesses with essential supplies; however, I’m going to make a wild guess that the similarities between Uline and Dunder Mifflin end there. Companies with dysfunctional leadership don’t have sustained growth, and Uline is growing so much that they broke ground on a new Pleasant Prairie, WI corporate headquarters last Fall. With that growth comes jobs, or American jobs as Uline likes to call them. If you take a look at Uline’s Jobs page, you’ll see that they have opportunities in Ontario, CA (that’s California, not Canada—I know it’s confusing); Toronto, Canada; Duluth, GA; Waukegan, IL; Tijuana, Mexico; Eagan, MN; Allentown, PA; Coppell, TX; and Seattle, WA. Positions that might be suitable for new or recent grads include Account Rep (Ontario, CA), Administrative Assistant (Toronto, CA), Customer Service Representative (Toronto, CA), Account Rep (Toronto, CA), Accounts Receivable Clerk (Toronto, CA), Account Rep (South Florida / Duluth, GA), Computer Operator / Help Line Technician (Waukegan, IL), .NET Web Developer (Waukegan, IL), Internet Marketing Associate (Waukegan, IL), Desktop Technician (Gurnee, IL), Account Rep (Eagan, MN), Account Rep (Iowa / Eagan, MN), Account Rep (NYC / Breinigsville, PA), Account Rep (Pittsburgh, PA / Breinigsville, PA), and Account Rep (Dallas – Ft. Worth, TX / Coppell, TX). You can apply online for any of these positions, just don’t try delivering yourself in a box to their corporate headquarters. That would be weird.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Uline?

Minnesota Children’s Museum

Willy Franzen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:52:09 +0000

Although I’ve never been there, I hear that the Mall of America is great. It’s an impressive spectacle of consumerism, and it’s a must-see if you’re in the Twin Cities area. However, I’d imagine that it’s not the most educational place to take your kids. Luckily, Minnesotans have the Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul. It was named by Cookie Magazine as one of “sixteen road trip-worthy museums that put the emphasis on children.” The Museum is loaded with cool exhibits like Earth World, which focuses on local habitats, and Habitot, which creates exploration opportunities for toddlers. They also play host to exciting traveling exhibits like Dinosaurs, which will be arriving in 42 days (they have a countdown on their homepage).

Get a Job for the Children

Now, Minnesota Children’s Museum may not be record-breaking big, but it makes up for it with awesome educational opportunities. A monstrous mall just can’t compete when it comes to intellectually stimulating activities for kids. But what about intellectually stimulating jobs for you? The Minnesota Children’s Museum Jobs page only shows one position posted right now, but it’s a cool one. They’re looking for an Exhibit Graphic Designer. It appears that they’d prefer someone with experience both in museums and graphic design, but I think someone who has been doing the right things throughout college might be a perfect fit. You can find application instructions with the job posting, and you can keep an eye on the MCM Jobs page for more opportunities in the future.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever visited the Minnesota Children’s Museum?

Facet Technology

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:57:50 +0000

In my day… Columbus Day was a real holiday. Now there’s a huge portion of the population that doesn’t even get the day off. Yes, I understand that Christopher Columbus was a bit overrated as a historical hero (and a lot of the things that we learned about him in grade school were inaccurate), but I’m still amazed that he had the guts and the persistence to make a voyage across the Atlantic happen. Now we’ll barely take a walk down the street without a GPS enabled device in our pocket. Navigation and exploration have a long history, but I’m not sure how much more advancement is possible. Facet Technology would disagree. They’re an Eden Prairie, MN based software and services company that is changing what state of the art means when it comes to the Transportation, Mapping and Food Processing Industries. They’re another Inc. 5000 company with 110.4% three-year growth, and I think they’re going to shoot up the rankings over the next few years.

Explore Every Facet

Computers are pretty good at identifying objects when they know what to expect. For instance, a factory that makes widgets can quite easily set up computers that use vision technology to ensure that the widgets are consistently produced. Every widget should be the same, so detecting differences isn’t all that difficult for computers. This all changes when you leave a controlled environment. This is how Facet Technology responds:

Many environments, however, don’t allow full control over all the parameters that make standard computer vision tools easy to use. By changing one of the parameters – either moving the man-made object into an uncontrolled environment (outdoors) or by changing the man-made object into a natural object (grain, fruit, meat, poultry, etc.) – the identification and inspection task becomes several times more difficult. This is where Facet’s patented technology shines and allows computer vision tools to now be used successfully. Facet allows you to control the uncontrollable.

Think about how this technology can change the way we navigate—the possibilities are endless. It really is the next step after GPS and location aware devices. If you’re intrigued by what Facet Technology is up to, then you should check out their job postings. Right now they’re looking for an Associate Software Engineer, a Computer System Specialist/Software Tester, and a Data Acquisition Vehicle Operator. While the latter doesn’t require a college education, it sounds like a pretty cool gig (driving around a camera equipped, ultra high-tech SUV to collect data). You can apply to any of the jobs by sending a cover letter and résumé to jobs@facet-tech.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How important do you think Facet Technology will be in the future of navigation?

Mattel

Willy Franzen — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:10:29 +0000

Take a second and think of your favorite toy growing up. Was it a Barbie? Matchbox Car? American Girl Doll? View-Master? Magic 8 Ball? Rock’em Sock’em Robots? Hot Wheels? Polly Pocket? Even if it wasn’t one of those, there’s a good chance that it was made by Mattel. I’m sure that you’ve heard of the El Segundo, CA headquartered toy company before, but I bet you never realized just how many toys they actually make. Not only do they have some of the biggest toy names in the world, but they’re also behind all of Fisher-Price’s toys. If you always wanted to be like Tom Hanks in Big and work for a toy company, Mattel is your chance to live every child’s dream.

All Work and No Play Makes You a Dull Job Seeker

Usually, the problem with companies that seem really cool (especially in the fashion industry from what I hear) is that they know they’re hot stuff. That means that they treat their employees like commodities because they know that there’s always someone who wants to work for their brand. This isn’t the case with Mattel according to the FORTUNE list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Despite the fact that they did go through some layoffs last year, Mattel appears to be hiring now for quite a few positions. There is a Campus Recruiting section on the Mattel Careers site; however, it doesn’t say anything about entry level jobs.

To get the scoop on what kind of opportunities Mattel has, you’re going to have to dive into their Applicant Tracking System instead. Their are 54 jobs posted right now, and a few look suitable for new grads. They include Mechanical Engineer(New York, NY), Associate Art Director – American Girl (Middleton, WI), Key Account Coordinator – Fisher-Price (East Aurora, NY), Key Account Representative (Brondby, Denmark), and Child Testing Researcher (El Segundo, CA). Mattel’s locations El Segundo, CA; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; East Aurora, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Middleton, WI; Minneapolis, MN; and New York, NY, so keep that in mind if you don’t see something posted that fits what you’re looking for. You can apply for all of the jobs directly from Mattel’s Applicant Tracking System (which isn’t all that bad compared to others that I’ve dealt with).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What was your favorite Mattel toy?

Concur

Willy Franzen — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:15:31 +0000

Since you’re looking for your first job, it’s probably a safe assumption that you are not familiar with “expensing” things. Hopefully you will be one day (soon). Many companies (especially consulting firms) allow their employees to pay for travel, lodging, and food, and then submit receipts to the company to get reimbursed. It can be pretty sweet if you’re getting $30 a night to spend on dinner, while racking up credit card points and frequent flier miles at no expense to you, but the downside is that submitting expense reports to get reimbursed is time consuming and quite annoying. Concur, a Redmond, WA based company that I learned about in Sramana Mitra’s Entrepreneur Journeys, solves this problem through their “on-demand Employee Spend Management business services.” Put simply, they have a suite of solutions that enables companies to automate the expensing process.

Do You Concur?

Expense management is a complicated process that you’re probably not going to understand fully any time soon, but all you need to understand about Concur is that they make the process much simpler. Or as Concur puts it, their “unified approach to managing employee spend delivers a 360 degree view into all employee expenses, helping companies globally enforce policies and monitor vendor compliance, while delivering unprecedented control and valuable insight.”

The cool thing about how Concur started is that they fixed a problem that was bothering them. Concur’s current CEO, Steve Singh, was complaining to his business partner about how he had to file $150,000 in receipts a week before a project closed to make sure that he’d get reimbursed. From this complaint came Concur—a solution. The company has grown significantly since it was founded in 1993, and they seem to still be growing as they’re hiring now. They do have a College Recruiting Page, but it seems a bit out of date. Your best bet to get the scoop on jobs at Concur is to check out their main Careers page and then take a look at their specific job openings. The most suitable options for new grads are Records Maintenance Clerk (Redmond, WA), Market Development Representative (Prague, Czech Republic), Account Manager (Eden Prairie, MN), Collections Specialist (Sydney, Australia), Collections Specialist (Eden Prairie, MN), and Accountant – Internal Auditor (Redmond, WA). You can apply online directly from those job descriptions, so get at it!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever dealt with an onerous expensing process?

Fleishman-Hillard

Willy Franzen — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:57:25 +0000

This is a guest post by Heather R. Huhman. Heather is the media relations manager at a national health care professional association and entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com.

When I was in college, I wanted nothing more than to work at Fleishman-Hillard. Renowned for their corporate culture, Fleishman-Hillard is headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., has 80 offices throughout the world, does business in more than 20 languages and has 29 practices areas. In 2008, the firm’s work and culture earned them the “Best Agency to Work For” by The Holmes Report. But their list of awards hardly stops there, including “103 Silver Anvil Awards, 90 CIPRA/SABRE Awards, and numerous other national and international awards.”

And Fleishman-Hillard doesn’t just win awards outside the organization, but also with its own employees. In 2007, 98 percent of Fleishman-Hillard employees called the firm an organization “of which they can be proud,” according to an employee satisfaction survey. Fleishman-Hillard rewards their employees in return, giving out two awards annually – the “team player” and John D. Graham – recognizing “individuals in various geographic regions for unparalleled commitment to the client, the agency and their team.” Managers also give awards at their discretion for “their heroic efforts.” I’ve known many individuals who’ve worked for Fleishman-Hillard over the years, including one of my college mentors, and I’ve heard nothing but good things.

Be Rewarded at an Award-Winning Agency

Fleishman-Hillard is currently seeking a Coordinator in its Boston office. (Fleishman-Hillard also has offices in Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; Kansas City, MO; London, England; Los Angeles, CA; Melbourne, Australia; Miami, FL; Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN; Montreal, Canada; New York, NY; Potland, OR; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Sacramento, CA; San Antonio, TX; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; St. Louis, MO; Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Canada, and Washington, D.C.) This position is a mix of “traditional” and “new” public relations in a large agency setting. Beyond administrative and office duties, the Account Assistant also conducts media relations, media monitoring and reporting, research and other junior-level account activities. The best way to land this position is to have had a prior agency internship while in college, preferably with Fleishman-Hillard itself or another large agency.

Interested? Apply for the job online here. Even though the position is in Boston, much of the recruitment process originates in the St. Louis office. I recommend reading their blog, Stand Out, and the biographies of some of the folks in charge of talent development.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Need help with your cover letter and résumé—or your entire job search? Heather offers low-cost coaching packages specifically for students and recent graduates seeking careers in public relations. Click here to learn more.