One Day, One Job » New Mexico

Citizen Schools

Willy Franzen — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:31:53 +0000

Middle school is a big turning point in the lives of students. They generally enter still looking and acting like children, but by the time they leave they’re well on their way to adulthood. Middle school is also the point at which academics become much more rigorous–you have real tests, real grades, and real responsibility. That’s why Citizen Schools was founded in 1995 to re-imagine “the learning day to bring more time, more talented adults, and more relevant learning experiences to middle-school students in low-income neighborhoods.” They’re headquartered in Boston, MA, and they’re getting citizens off the sidelines and into schools in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Texas.

Be a Good Citizen

Citizen Schools’ focus is on “expanding the learning day.” To get a sense of what they mean by that, you should take a look at Citizen Schools’ Model and Growth Strategy. The story behind Citizen Schools is pretty neat, so I strongly recommend that you watch their Citizen Schools 101 video below (e-mail readers need to click through):

If you want to be part of that story as it continues to get better, then you need to take a look at Citizen Schools’ wide range of Career Opportunities. They offer a variety of paths including Teaching Fellowships (applications open later this month), Teaching Associate positions, Campus Director positions, and a variety of other openings. Browse through everything and see what makes the most sense for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Citizen Schools?

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?

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?

Ball Aerospace

Willy Franzen — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:23:55 +0000

Now, I’m not a rocket scientist, but there’s a chance that you are—or want to be. If that’s the case, then you need to check out Ball Aerospace. And even if your pursuit of rocket science ended with building model rockets as a kid, you still might want to take a look. I first came across Ball Aerospace while reading an article about the 20-foot tall, 130 pound rocket that their interns launched 4,000 feet into the sky. That puts my childhood rocket launches to shame—which it should considering the fact that Ball Aerospace “is a leader in design, development and manufacture of innovative aerospace systems.” They develop things like “spacecraft, instruments and sensors, RF and microwave technologies, data exploitation solutions and a variety of advanced aerospace technologies and products that enable exciting missions,” so a 20-foot tall rocket is child’s—er—intern’s play for Ball Aerospace, which is located in Boulder, CO; Dayton, OH; and Albuquerque, NM.

Get on the Ball and Launch Your Career

Ball Aerospace has been around since 1956. They work with both defense and civilian government agencies and commercial customers too. To last that long in such a rapidly advancing industry, Ball Aerospace has to be constantly innovating, and to do that requires great people. Which is why Ball Aerospace is extremely aggressive about college recruiting. They’re looking for the best minds in aerospace, and they’re trying to get them while they’re young. There’s an entire College Relations section on their Careers site. They visit a select number of campuses, but most students will have to interact with them online. You can start by browsing their Job listings; however, I think that reaching out to collegerelations@ball.com to get a feel for the kinds of opportunities that are available at Ball Aerospace might be a better bet. That e-mail address is not meant for résumé submission, so keep that in mind.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you play with model rockets as a kid?

Public Allies

Willy Franzen — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:30:23 +0000

I happen to work with someone who knows a thing or two about leadership development. We’ve already developed one product to help future leaders land a job, and we have more in the pipeline. That’s why Public Allies caught my interest when a friend recently told me that they are hiring. They’re a Milwaukee, WI based non-profit that aims to “advance new leadership to strengthen communities, nonprofits and civic participation.” They do this in three ways: putting diverse young adults through a paid full-time nonprofit apprenticeships, engaging and growing an alumni network of diverse leaders, and helping leaders and organizations better harness the assets of diverse teams and communities through training and consulting programs.

Join the Allies

By holding “the conviction that everyone leads,” Public Allies is creating a permanent network of leaders who are committed to a concerted effort to initiate positive change. They’re doing this where they’re headquarted in Milwaukee as well as in Phoenix, AZ; Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH; Bridgeport, CT; Wilmington, DE; Estes Park, CO; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Albuquerque, NM; New York, NY; Durham, NC; Pittsburgh, PA; San Antonio, TX; and Milpitas, CA. Their Ally Program is the first thing that may interest you. It’s a 10-month full-time Americorps apprenticeship that puts you to work at a non-profit in your community. You can check out the application and eligibility requirements here. Beyond this program, Public Allies also has a number of job openings. They’re not necessarily entry level, but the following positions (all located in Chicago, IL) might be worth looking at: Program Support Coordinator, Program Director, and Program Manager / Leadership Series Coordinator. You can find specific application information on the individual job postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever heard of Public Allies?

ATA Engineering

Willy Franzen — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:36:04 +0000

If you’ve read our article on 9 Magazine Lists That Will Find You a Job, you know that we’re always looking for new lists of great companies who might be hiring new grads. We recently came across the Wall Street Journal’s Top Small Workplaces 2008, so of course we’re going to poach from it to bring you more companies with great entry level job opportunities. The list is alphabetical, and we didn’t even have to go past A because ATA Engineering Inc. looks like an awesome place to work, they appear to hire a lot of new college grads, and this is just one of many awards that they’ve won. They’re an employee-owned engineering consulting firm, and they specialize in the areas of Spacecraft, Launch Vehicles, Entertainment, Electronics, Airframes, and Software. ATA Engineering is all about teamwork, and their compensation plans and hiring processes reflect that. They only thing that they don’t do for their employees is give them an iPod on hire, but if you win our contest, you’ll already have one.

Alphabetically the Best Small Workplace for 2008

ATA Engineering’s Jobs page starts with a question: “Are there really career opportunities with a company that designs, analyzes, and tests amusement park rides, aircraft, launch vehicles, satellites, consumer electronics, sports equipment and more?” Obviously the answer is yes, and ATA Engineering really does all of those things. They don’t specifically have job listings for new college grads, but they have quite a few jobs posted that only list academic requirements. These jobs include: Dynamic Test Engineer, Analysis-Driven Design Engineer, Engineering Applications Software Development Engineer, Thermal Analysis Engineer, and Structural Analysis Engineer. All of the positions that ATA Engineering is hiring new grads for require an Engineering background, but they do occasionally have positions in Administration and Business (we don’t know if they’re ever entry level though). ATA Engineering is looking for the best of the best, so you better have excelled in college if you’re going to apply for one of their jobs. ATA Engineering is headquartered in San Diego, but they also have regional offices in Los Angeles, Denver, Albuquerque, and Northern Virginia. All of the jobs that we listed above appear to be based out of San Diego, except the Software Development position which can be in San Diego, Denver, or Northern Virginia.

To apply for a job with ATA Engineering, you should send your cover letter and resume to careers@ata-e.com. Since many of their contracts require access to government, defense, and classified information, they’re not able to consider applications from people unless they are a US citizen or possess a US permanent resident alien visa (green card). Also, if you do land an interview, be sure to be nice to everyone. ATA Engineering’s hiring process is team oriented, and a single employee has the power to veto any hire.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have any insight on what it’s really like to work at ATA Engineering? Please share it with us in the comments.

NASA

Willy Franzen — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:00:21 +0000

Typically young children are quite realistic about their career aspirations. They want to be firefighters, policemen, and teachers – professions that are in constant, steady demand. The more ambitious children might want a job as a doctor or veterinarian – still steady, but requiring a significant investment in education. It almost seems that as children we’re more realistic about life and careers than we are when we reach adulthood – except those kids who wanted to be astronauts. Since the beginning of the space program, there have only been 321 astronauts selected. Ever. There’s no surefire (or easy) way to become an astronaut – pilots, schoolteachers, doctors, scientist, and engineers have all been astronauts – but if selection as an astronaut is one of your life goals, you need to start preparing now. If you’re not ready for the commitment that it takes to be an astronaut, there are still plenty of entry-level jobs at NASA that will enable you to have a meaningful impact on the space program and NASA’s other endeavors.

NASA is a large government agency with many entry-level jobs, so instead of identifying each job opening, we’re going to guide you through how to their jobs website and help you find the information that you need before you decide to apply for a job. Usually, we complain that companies shortchange job searchers in terms of career related information on their website, but with NASA the problem is one of too much information. Maybe it’s a test to weed out candidates who can’t deal with navigating through complex situations, but we were a bit overwhelmed by NASA’s jobs site. Before you jump in and start looking around the site, you might want to read NASA’s Applicant Guide. It’s audaciously long, but it covers everything you need to know to get a job at NASA. If we left you to navigate the site, it would probably take you quite a while to find the guide, but we think it’s important to reward our loyal readers with shortcuts straight to meaningful content (if you like shortcuts, subscribe to One Day, One Job).

If you read our post about entry-level jobs at the US Forest Service, then you’re aware of the fact that all jobs with the United States government are posted on USAjobs.gov. Since NASA does not accept applications for unspecified positions, you must go through this site and search specifically for NASA jobs. We couldn’t find any information on an application process tailored specifically to entry-level candidates (probably because there isn’t one); however, there is a guide for college students who are seeking employment. There are also lists of occupation types, applicable entry-level pay ranges, and NASA locations to help you determine which jobs you should apply for. NASA also offers a FAQ for students. Like we said, there’s a ton of information.

In addition to NASA’s jobs site, there are a few other sites that are worth mentioning. First is NASA People, which is a site that appears to be targeted towards current NASA employees. It covers almost any question that you could have about what it’s like to work at NASA, so serious job searchers should spend some time browsing this site. Second is the annual ranking of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, which ranks NASA at fourth. This gives in-depth statistics about what kinds of people are more likely to be happy working at NASA (most employees), and what types of people are less likely to be happy at NASA. It also breaks down the rankings into a number of factors that may or may not be important to you.

Finally, there is this Wired article that details the struggles that NASA is having connecting with young people. The problem is pretty obvious. The space race to put the first man on the moon created an amazing amount of interest in NASA for our parents’ generation, but we have been given technology like the Internet to explore the world that we live in. Many young people don’t see the point in exploring space, when there is so much to discover right at our fingertips. The article includes a presentation that was given to NASA management by some of NASA’s younger employees on how to improve engagement with Generation-Y/Millennials/whatever you want to call us by emphasizing NASA’s continued relevance to the issues that concern our generation. Even people who are not interested in jobs at NASA would do well to read this article as it brings up a lot of important questions about NASA, science, and the workplace. The Wired article ends by pointing to OpenNASA.com, which is a blog by NASA employees. It’s excellent, and as authentic of a resource as you’ll find on what working at NASA is like – especially for someone who is not far removed from college. Although the blog is unofficial, it’s the type of resource that every company could use to improve their recruiting practices.

If you want an entry-level job at NASA, you’ve got a lot of research to do. Get moving!

Note: On April 25th we revisited entry-level jobs at NASA.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Want an internship at NASA? They have a lot of them, and we’re talking about them at One Day, One Internship.