One Day, One Job » operations

Society for Neuroscience

Willy Franzen — Sun, 20 May 2012 15:43:16 +0000

Neuroscience is a word that is about as intimidating as astrophysics. Most people have no idea what it means, but they’re pretty sure that its definition is over their head. The truth is that neuroscience is simply the study of the brain and nervous system. That’s not to say it’s a simple science, but it’s a science that covers equipment that we all have. With that said, neuroscience gets a bit complex as it draws from “other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics, medicine and allied disciplines, philosophy, physics, and psychology.” (Here’s the Wikipedia article on Neuroscience.) The Society for Neuroscience is a Washington, DC based non-profit member organization for the scientists and physicians who study the brain and nervous system.

Get Your Neurons Firing

The field of neuroscience is young as sciences go, which is why the Society for Neuroscience was only founded in 1969 (I know that seems like a long time ago to you). Back then they only had about 500 members, but today they have more than 40,000. The Society for Neuroscience is similar to other scientific non-profit member organizations in that it works in a number of ways to move the field forward. These activities include creating “venues for sharing great science in an expanding field”; “connecting people around the globe and across specialties”; educating “the public about the wonders of the brain”; and advocating “for policies that promote research.” If you’re interested in things like brain development, sensation and perception, learning and memory, movement, sleep, stress, aging, and more, then you have to take a look at the Society for Neuroscience’s Jobs page. Their current openings include:

Neuroscience is a fast growing field, so now is a great time to get involved. And the Society for Neuroscience is a great place to get a start even if you don’t have a background in neuroscience.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about neuroscience?

Spongecell

Willy Franzen — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:45:52 +0000

Ads make the Internet go ’round. Most of the content that you consume (including what you’re reading right now) wouldn’t be possible without advertising. The problem is that most ads are annoying–they interrupt you from doing what you want to do–so you start to ignore them. As you ignore more and more ads, advertisers are forced to find new ways to catch your attention. Sometimes that leads to ads that are actually interesting, and sometimes it leads to ads that are more interruptive. Spongecell is a New York, NY based company that allows advertisers to “transform standard banner ads into dynamic flash ads with rich media-like functionality.” That may sound more interruptive, but the ads that Spongecell enables are no bigger than a typical banner ad–they just come to life when you hover over them with your cursor.

Be a Sponge

I’m really impressed with the different types of functionality that Spongecell offers in a standard ad unit. There are video, maps, social feeds, coupons, carousels, lead generation, and more. These ads allow you interact with them before you leave the page that you’re on, which immediately makes them more effective. You can see what the ads look like in Spongecell’s extensive gallery. They’ve worked with all kinds of big names to develop rich media ads that target a specific behavior, whether it’s watching a video or getting you to find a bank’s nearest location. If you don’t mind ads and you’re intrigued by what Spongecell is doing, then head over to their Jobs page. Right now they have some interesting positions open including:

Recruiting and HR Coordinator
Marketing Designer
Rails or HTML5 Developer (San Francisco, CA)
Interactive Production Designer
Interactive Production Designer (London, UK)
Sales Associate
Advertising Operations Analyst (London, UK)

These look like great jobs, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you mind online ads?

Work Market

Willy Franzen — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:56:08 +0000

In college I studied Industrial and Labor Relations, which means that I spent four years focusing on the world of work. The curriculum covered everything from slavery and indentured servitude to unions and the movement of capital to find lower cost labor. The common theme was that the way that we define and think about work is constantly changing. Today’s trend is all about having a flexible workforce–people who can join on for a project form wherever they live and then move on to a new project with someone else. Work Market is a company that “give businesses access to an on-demand scalable work force along with tools to manage three categories of labor: employees, contractors and third parties.” Many businesses in this space focus on actually building the market where labor can find work, but Work Market takes it one step further and offers the software for businesses to build their own market.

Are You in the Market?

Work Market’s business is built on taking a cut of every assignment that they make happen. Their fees start at 9%, which sounds high, but is actually extremely competitive. The beauty of Work Market’s platform is that it covers everything that needs to be covered–things like background screening, tax compliance and filing, payment, competency validation, and lots more. We’re going to see more and more of this going forward–not only as a way to get work done but also as a hiring tool. Why use an interviewing process when you can have someone truly audition? If you like the approach that Work Market is taking, you can take a look at their Jobs page. Right now they have some great opportunities that could be a fit for a new or recent grad including: Client Service Professional, Visual / UX / UI Designer, Community Manager, and Operations Engineer. Check them out, or apply through the General Application.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you join Work Market?

Claire’s

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

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

Accessorize Your Job Search

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

Associate Planner
Allocation Analyst
Transportation Operations Analyst

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you shop at Claire’s?

Royal Caribbean Cruises

Willy Franzen — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:54:31 +0000

I’ve never been on a cruise ship, and I’m not looking to change that any time soon. I realize that cruises are the ultimate vacation for some people, but they’re just not for me (especially after hearing about food poisoning outbreaks and the Costa Concordia disaster). Still, I respect the brilliance of the cruise ship. Travelers can sample a variety of destinations without having to think about logistics or anything else really. When you can combine hospitality, transportation, and gambling all in one, you have pretty good foundation for a business. The second largest cruise company in the world is Royal Caribbean Cruises, which is based in Miami, FL and owns the following cruise lines: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises and CDF Croisières de France. Those all contribute to nearly $7 billion in annual revenue.

Go Cruisin’

There’s no doubt that the cruise business is extremely complicated. There are massive fixed costs (namely cruise ships), and there are also massive marginal costs (fuel, staff, etc). Then there’s the fact that the market for travel is extremely sensitive to economic conditions. That’s not to mention that cruise companies have to maintain massive boats while providing an amazing vacation experience for thousands of people at a time. There are plenty of businesses that I have no trouble wrapping my head around, but Royal Caribbean Cruises is not one of them. If this excites you, then you have to take a look at Royal Caribbean Cruises’ Careers page. From here you can check out shipboard jobs with specific lines, seasonal jobs, internships, and corporate jobs. We’ll focus on the latter, which are posted here. There are a few opportunities that look well suited for a new or recent grad including (I’d link to them but their ATS won’t let me):

Marketing Campaign Analyst
Cruise Rep (Wichita, KS)
Cruise Rep (Miramar, FL)
Cruise Rep (Springfield, OR)
Care Team Specialist
Financial Hotel Operations Analyst
Software Engineer
Accounts Payable Coordinator
Business Analyst
Transportation Coordinator
Casino Database Specialist
Administrative Temporary

Those jobs are just the tip of the iceberg (I shouldn’t say that when talking about cruise ships, should I?), so look through all of Royal Caribbean Cruises’ offerings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever been on a cruise?

Coursera

Willy Franzen — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:11:48 +0000

Do you love local businesses? Help them get discovered with an Inside Sales job at SinglePlatform.

You’re not going to like this. You’ve paid a lot of money for a fancy education, and now some of the best universities in the world are giving it away for free. You still have to pay to get the piece of paper, but if you’re just looking for the knowledge, then you need to check out Coursera. They’re a Mountain View, CA based startup that is “partnering with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.” So far they’re working with Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan, and UPenn. It doesn’t get much better than that. What makes Coursera unique from things like MIT’s OpenCourseWare is that these classes are specifically created to be consumed online.

Stay the Coursera

On Coursera class size is only limited by demand. Coursera is designed to scale education to the point where hundreds of thousands of people can take the same course at the same time. Although there is some self-direction, the courses on Coursera are just like college course. They’re only given during a specific timeframe, and you get video lectures, course materials, homework, graded exercises, and even exams. It’s not intended to be casual learning. The one big question about Coursera is: What’s their business model? Despite their .org domain name, they are a for-profit company that just closed a $16 million round of venture capital funding. I’m not too worried as Coursera already has the platform and partnerships for success, but I’m certainly curious. If you want to be part of growing the business, take a look at Coursera’s Careers page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

Coursera has the potential really big, so grab this opportunity to get in while it’s still in its early stages.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which course on Coursera do you want to take?

Everyday Health

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:39:06 +0000

Guys. If you’re going to land a job, you need pants. And shoes. And shirts. And maybe even a jacket and tie. Looking good is important, which is why you should outfit yourself in Bonobos like I do. Here’s $25 off your first order. My gift to you.

I have no idea where people went to ask embarrassing health questions before the Internet. I guess you could have gone to a doctor, but it’s really nice to pre-educate yourself before you ask a professional. That’s why there’s ridiculous demand for health-related information online. Everyday Health is a company that has been reacting to this demand since they started in 2002. They are a New York, NY based company that provides “consumers, healthcare professionals, and brands with content and advertising-based services across a broad portfolio of over 25 websites that span the health spectrum.” If you ask Google and embarrassing health question, there’s a really good chance that you’ll end up on one of their sites. In 2010 they were averaging 26.5 million monthly unique visitor, which is just a massive amount of traffic–especially in a niche as valuable as health related information.

Everyday Jobs

While Everyday Health calls their sites “partners,” I think it would be more accurate to call them properties. Some are generic like Prostate.net and TopDentists.com, while others are based on partnerships with recognizable brands like MayoClinic.com, DeniseAustin.com, and JoyBauer.com. Each site is obviously targeted at a very specific niche and monetized accordingly through advertising. If you’re interested in online publishing and health/medicine, then you need to take a look at Everyday Health’s Jobs page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

These look like great opportunities, so don’t pass them up.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use the Internet to ask embarrassing health related questions?

MathWorks

Willy Franzen — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:48:59 +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.

Just a few days ago I mentioned that computers are better than humans at math. That’s true for many math operations, but the ultimate combination is a smart human working with a fast computer and great software. MathWorks is a Natick, MA based company that makes this possible, as they are “is the leading developer of mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists.” They’ve been around for nearly 30 years, which is a seriously long time in the software business. MathWorks is probably best known for MATLAB, which is “a programming environment for algorithm development, data analysis, visualization, and numeric computation.” It’s used everywhere from research in top universities to designing industrial machines. If advanced math is involved, there’s a good chance that MATLAB will be used.

Work at MathWorks

It’s easy to forget how important math is to our everyday life, even if our teachers reminded us time after time when we were in grade school. I’m not talking about calculating a tip or even understanding a newspaper article about poll numbers. I’m talking about the fact that nearly everything we interact with on a daily basis has been inspired by math, which means there’s a very significant chance that MathWorks’ software tangentially affects your life almost every day. That’s why they’ve been able to build a business $600 million in annual revenue and more than 2,000 employees. If you’re inspired by math and would like to join the ranks, then check out MathWorks’ Careers page. They have a special section for new grads and students, and you can use this search to identify only entry level jobs and internships. How luxurious! You can even sort the postings by Title, Job Function, Location, and Type. I’m going to leave it to you to browse through the postings, which are mostly math/engineering/software development focused, though there are a couple of accounting positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used MATLAB?

PulsePoint

Willy Franzen — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:22:50 +0000

There are some things that computers are far better at than humans, like math. There are some things that humans are far better at than computers, like understanding nuance. Then there are a lot of things that fall somewhere in between, but we can be pretty certain that computers will do them better soon enough. One of these things is determining context. This is especially important in the world of advertising. Right now a human can do a much better job than a computer of determine which ads would fit best within the context of a website, but he or she will be much slower than a computer. PulsePoint is a New York, NY based company that is working to give the computer another win over humans with a technology platform that helps “marketers and publishers gain greater audience transparency and deeper engagement across digital channels at an unprecedented scale.”

Check Your Pulse

PulsePoint is a new company that is the product of a merger between two older companies. ContextWeb acquired/merged with Datran Media (a company we featured in the past) to form PulsePoint, which now offers “a spectrum of services, including data management and media mix optimization, content distribution, contextual ad exchange capabilities, RTB and crowd sourcing.” It’s hard to get a grasp of what all that means if you haven’t worked in the industry before, but the gist is that they are combining smart people with smart technology to make advertising more effective. You can see the technology side in their Contextualizer Demo. Put in any web address, and it will tell you what the page is about. I’m sure you’re not impressed–you can do that too. But can you do it 10,000 times in a minute? Didn’t think so. If you’re interested by what PulsePoint is doing, check out their Jobs page (I’ll warn you that they have one of the crappiest applicant tracking systems ever). Right now PulsePoint has a few jobs that may intrigue new or recent grads including Business Operations Analyst, Sales Planner, and Software Engineer. Check the jobs out and have fun slogging through their slow, hard to use ATS.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of PulsePoint?

HealthTap

Willy Franzen — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:23:46 +0000

Admit it! You’ve used the Internet to self-diagnose a medical problem, and you probably used WebMD. For some of you it was to convince yourself that you’re not going to die tomorrow, and for some of you it was probably the opposite. It’s great having access to so much information, but it’s kind of dangerous when you a) can’t verify its accuracy and b) have no idea how to use it properly. Running to the doctor for every little issue is ridiculous, so there needs to be a better way to get medical information online. Luckily my little sister (who is awesome because she went to art school and then decided she wanted to go to med school, so she’s doing a postbac now) let me know about HealthTap. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that provides “free online and mobile answers from thousands of the best physicians in the U.S.” It’s kind of like Yahoo! Answers for medicine, but the people responding to your questions aren’t complete morons.

Get Tapped

There’s no doubt that there’s a demand for free medical advice online. But would doctors actually be willing to answer questions for free? HealthTap has proven that the answer is a resounding yes. Humans want to share their knowledge–just look at the endless reviews on sites like Yelp and Amazon–but professionals are usually more hesitant to give away their expertise for free. That’s why HealthTap sweetens the deal for docs. Their software helps “physicians better serve existing patients, find new ones, and build their reputation by demonstrating their expertise online.” If you were looking for a dermatologist, wouldn’t you consider the one who gave you great answers to your questions about a rash on HealthTap? I would (if I had a rash). Beyond helping doctors reach new people, HealthTap also provides a platform for doctors to provide something like a FAQ. That means that they spend less time answering the same simple questions over and over.

If you’re interested in the intersection of health care and technology, then a job at HealthTap would be an awesome fit. Here’s their video on why you should work for them:

The available positions most suitable for new or recent grads at HealthTap are pretty technical right now as they include Frontend Software Engineer, Backend Software Engineer, Mobile App Developer, and IT and Operations Engineer. The Interactive Writer / Copy Writer / Editor position looks pretty cool, but it seems like they want pretty significant experience. If you’re not a techie, you may want to try reaching out to jobs@healthtap.com to see if there’s any way you could fit in.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you use HealthTap?

GREE

Willy Franzen — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:29:06 +0000

There’s no doubt that Japanese companies have been and continue to be leaders in the gaming industry. Nintendo, Sega, and Sony are some of the names that you’re most likely to recognize, but it’s very clear that the old guard of gaming is facing stiff competition from upstarts like Zynga and ngmoco that are focusing on mobile and social gaming. While Japan has historically been big on console gaming, they’re not missing out on this trend. GREE is a Japanese that is fervently entering the U.S. market in order to grow a business that generated $1.7 billion in revenue last year. GREE is unique in that their U.S. based branding has been more about hiring than games. They’ve opened a San Francisco, CA office that they’re promoting heavily with billboards, referral bonuses, and even Google AdWords campaigns. They also acquired a company called OpenFeint to speed along the growth.

They’re Huge in Japan

While I love it when companies put a big emphasis on employment branding and recruiting, I’m a little annoyed by how difficult it is to dig into GREE’s business. Their website’s header includes some cool looking game characters, but there’s absolutely no information available about the company’s games. All the site really says is that their goal ” is to make mobile social gaming meaningful by building the best mobile social gaming ecosystem for users and developers worldwide.” The only tidbits of information come from GREE’s News page which mentions that they’re teaming up with Ubisoft for a new Assassin’s Creed mobile game and working with Gameloft on a “Gang Domination” game. You can also head over to OpenFeint’s site to learn more about their games. If you like what you see, then you’ll be thrilled about how many positions are posted on GREE’s Careers Page. Here are the jobs that seem best suited for new or recent grads:

Art, 2D Game Artist
Junior Web/Graphic Designera
UI/UX Designer, Mobile Games
Business Operations Associate
Strategy Associate
Android Engineer
IT Service Delivery Specialist
Software Engineer – Front End
Software Engineer, Game Backend
Software Engineer, Mobile Device Porting
Software Engineer, Mobile Games
Software Engineer, Mobile Integration
Software Engineer, Platform
Web Developer
Recruiting Coordinator
Junior Copywriter
Marketing Coordinator, Platform
Bilingual Executive Assistant (Japanese)
Customer & Community Specialist
Game Integration Engineer
Production Coordinator/Assistant
Executive Assistant

Like I said, GREE is extremely serious about expansion in the U.S., and that’s why they’re hiring so many people right now. There are a lot of jobs to wade through, but the variety of options is pretty wide.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you play any GREE games?

LearnVest

Willy Franzen — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:56:41 +0000

The best personal finance tip that I’ve ever heard comes from Ramit Sethi at I Will Teach You to Be Rich: earn more money. As a job seeker, that’s exactly what you’re trying to do. Oddly enough, a good way to earn more money might be going into the personal finance industry. There’s a ton of growth in the space, and one of the companies that caught my eye is LearnVest. It was started by Alexa von Tobel after realized that she graduated from Harvard and was going to work in finance without any idea of how to manage her own finances. Now they have $25 million in funding, an office in New York, NY, and a mission of helping women “live a richer life.” They do this by providing content, tools, and guidance on all types of personal finance topics.

Live a Richer Life

The personal finance market has a ton of monetization potential, which is why businesses like LearnVest are growing so quickly. What I like about LearnVest is that they’re not just selling advertising, but also providing products and services that they can sell to their users. I have to say that LearnVest has built a really solid suite of tools, content, and services in just a few years. I highly recommend that you start looking through the site to get a better feel of how their business works. It’s also worth looking at LearnVest’s Media Kit. It will give you really deep insight into the entire business. It’s essentially a cheat sheet for a job interview. And if you want to end up in an interview, then you should probably take a look at LearnVest’s Jobs page. Right now there are a few positions that you may want to take a look at: Advertising Operations Manager, Audience Development Associate, Front-End Engineer, Mobile Developer, and Web Developer PHP, WordPress, JQuery. Landing one of these jobs would be a great first step in getting your personal finances figured out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used LearnVest?

Results for Development Institute

Willy Franzen — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:46:47 +0000

The word “results” is extremely common in the business world, but you don’t hear it as much in the non-profit world. That is changing, but I still hear a lot of my friends griping about how ineffective the non-profits they’ve worked in have been. My guess (and hope) is that that’s not a problem at Results for Development Institute in Washington, DC considering that they have “results” in their name. They’re a non-profit organization that “delivers policy analysis, critical information, decision-making tools, and policy advice for governments, civil society organizations, and external funders to use to reduce poverty and accelerate social and economic progress in low and middle income countries.” It’s all about finding the levers that will deliver the highest impact and then finding the right way to pull them.

Deliver Results

Results for Development Institute focuses on three specific areas: Health, Transparency and Good Governance, and Education. They work in these areas across nearly every region of the world, and when they do, they take a five step approach: Knowledge Building, Strategic Advising, Capacity Building, Convening and Promoting Policy Dialogue, and Partnering with Southern Institutions. You can get a better feel for what this looks like by looking over Results for Development Institute’s Projects and Initiatives. Once you have a better feel for how Results for Development Institute works, then you should read through their 2010 Progress Report. It will give you a good sense for what kinds of results the Institute is delivering and how they’ve achieved them to date. If you’re impressed, then the next step is to look at Results for Development Institute’s Careers page. Right now they have a few positions that appear suitable for new or recent grads including Program Associate (2 openings) and Operations Program Associate. These look like great opportunities for someone interested in international development, so give them a look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Results for Development Institute?

The Marketing Arm

Willy Franzen — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:23:26 +0000

Although I only took one marketing class in college, I’ve really learned to love the field of marketing as I’ve built this business. There are so many different approaches, but the core of every valid one is having a great product. (I’m right in the thick of developing a new version of the site that you’re going to love.) Once you have a great product, there are a lot of different ways to spread the word. For the The Marketing Arm, a Dallas, TX based agency, the focus is on promotions. As they put it, they “help brands connect with those consumers by providing insight-driven ideas across nine emotional platforms: TV, film, music, gaming, celebrities, causes, multicultural, sports, and motorsports.” It’s all about creating an incentive to experience the brand, and then providing an exceptional experience when that happens.

Arm Yourself

Promotions is an area of marketing that I’m not all that familiar with in terms of execution, but I’ve certainly been lured in by my share of promotions. Here are some of the areas of promotions that The Marketing Arm focuses on:

Sweepstakes, games and contests
Frequency, loyalty, and reward programs
Discount offers
Partner marketing
Consumer, employee and business-to-business
Premiums and gifts-with-purchase
Design, collateral, and POS
Interactive (Web and wireless)

If you want to see what these look like in action, just head over to The Marketing Arm’s Case Studies. They have some in-depth stories on what they’ve done for different brands and what kind of results they’ve garnered. If you’re excited about what you see, then you’ll want to take a look at The Marketing Arm’s Jobs page. Right now they have a few opportunities that look exciting for new or recent grads including:

There are some excellent opportunities here, so promote yourself to The Marketing Arm and see what happens.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What kind of promotions are your favorite?

Urban Outfitters

Willy Franzen — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:28:02 +0000

I’m a strong believer in the theory of hipster relativity. If someone has more interesting facial hair than you, wears more plaid than you, or has thicker rimmed glasses than you, then he’s probably a hipster… at least to you. I’m pretty far up the chain (though I do have an affinity for plaid), which means that a whole lot of 20-somethings look like hipsters to me. The only thing I don’t get is where they get all of their cool hipster gear. I often walk by Urban Outfitters, and occasionally step inside. The store is packed with people and filled with what I consider to be hipster merchandise. This confuses me, because I know that no true hipster would shop somewhere so mainstream. I mean, Urban Outfitters, which is based in Philadelphia, PA, is publicly traded, has nearly 200 locations, and also owns Anthropologie, Free People, BHLDN, and Terrain. I guess the only loophole for a hipster shopping at Urban Outfitters is if you liked corporations before they were cool.

Get Urban Outfitted

Despite my sarcasm, I actually think that Urban Outfitters is an amazing company. They started as a single store in Philly in 1970, and they have grown the brand and the business to an amazing level. Urban Outfitters may be a corporation with a $4 billion market cap, but they offer a distinctly different feel from many other retailers in the fashion industry. I think the paragraph on Urban Outfitter’s About page really says its all:

Our established ability to understand our customers and connect with them on an emotional level. The reason for this success is that our brands — Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain and BHLDN — are both compelling and distinct. Each brand chooses a particular customer segment, and once chosen, sets out to create sustainable points of distinction with that segment. In the retail brands we design innovative stores that resonate with the target audience; offer an eclectic mix of merchandise in which hard and soft goods are cross merchandised; and construct unique product displays that incorporate found objects into creative selling vignettes. The emphasis is on creativity. Our goal is to offer a product assortment and an environment so compelling and distinctive that the customer feels an empathetic connection to the brand and is persuaded to buy.

If that sounds like a company that you want to be a part of, then check out Urban Outfitters Careers page. You’ll probably get overwhelmed if you look at all of their posted jobs (there are 100s of positions), so I recommend using some of the search criteria they offer to narrow down your search. For instance you can look at positions at their Home Office or in their Anthropologie Retail Stores. I’m not going to list all of the positions that make sense for new or recent grads, bot here are some that caught my eye:

This is just a small sampling of the jobs available at Urban Outfitters, so dig in and see what positions might be out there for you. Judging from that last posting, they must do some campus recruiting too–so that’s something to look into. Finally, Urban Outfiters has a Twitter account for job postings, so you may want to follow that.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you a hipster?

Proper Cloth

Willy Franzen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:18:54 +0000

Want to try Proper Cloth? Use this link to get $25 off your first shirt. It’d probably help to have a shirt that fits when you’re interviewing.

I’m a big guy at 6’3. I typically enjoy the benefits of being tall, but there are disadvantages like having to knee myself in the face on airplanes and not being able to hear a single word that anyone under 5’8 says in a loud room. I’m not so tall that I need to shop at specialty stores for clothes, but I’m just at the point where clothes off the rack don’t fit all that well. I fixed my pants problem with Bonobos, but I have a ton of shirts (button downs, t-shirts, sweaters, and more) that fit beautifully until I start actually moving around–then they somehow bare my midriff like I’m a teenage girl. Nobody needs to see that, which is why I should probably start buying custom shirts from a place like Proper Cloth. They’re a New York, NY based company that makes it “super easy to buy stylish, quality dress shirts that fit.” I haven’t tried them yet, but it’s probably about time that I go custom.

Get a Proper Job

Proper Cloth has been around since 2008, but it seems that they’ve recently become more serious about growth. Maybe it’s because GQ named them “our new favorite online shirt maker.” Or maybe it’s because of their Perfect Fit Guarantee. They work with you to get the exact fit you want on your first shirt. After that they save your measurements so that all other shirts fit just as well. You really should read up on the guarantee, because it’s core to the business. Then you should take a look at Proper Cloth’s shirt designs to get a better sense of what they offer. But don’t be dismayed if you don’t like anything that they have to offer, as Proper Cloth allows you to design your own shirt. I wonder if they’ll let you design your own job? I don’t have any answers on that right now, but I did find their job postings on Startuply. Right now they’re looking for a User Interface Designer/Graphic Artist, a Customer Service and Operations Lead, and an Analytical Marketing Engineer. All of the positions look well suited to a new college grad, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you bought any shirts from Proper Cloth?

BookRenter.com

Willy Franzen — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:38:14 +0000

We’ll be wrapping up our survey soon, so speak now and help shape the future of ODOJ.

I’m convinced that textbook publishers are just really expensive money launderers. You spend an outrageous amount of money on some book that you probably won’t even open, and at the end of the semester you sell it back for 15% of what you paid for it. Your money is clean and you’re slightly more educated, yet there’s this sinking feeling that you’ve been had. Academic publishers have built monopolies title by title, and they’ve reaped the rewards for decades. It’s finally coming to an end. There are now open-source publishers like Flat World Knowledge and textbook rental services like Chegg and BookRenter.com that are digging into the publishers’ profits. Today we’re going to focus on San Mateo, CA based BookRenter.com which was founded in 2006 “to make education more affordable for everyone.” From what I can tell, they were the first textbook rental service, and they’ve been growing big time since they launched.

The End of Rent Seeking

You could make a pretty strong argument that textbook publishers are just rent seekers. They use their connections to professors to charge above market prices. Oddly enough, it’s the rental business that might just put an end to their monopoly power; though, I do wonder whether a move to digital publishing will tip the scales back towards the publishers. Anyway, BookRenter.com has built a remarkable business by making a capital investment in tons of textbooks and building out the logistics to get the books quickly to and from students. Now BookRenter.com just needs to get more and more students to try renting. That should be easy considering that they can easily save an average student more than $500 a year. If you’re liking what BookRenter.com is all about, then take a look at their Jobs page. They have a ton of open positions including:

There are all kinds of great options at BookRenter.com, so join their team and help put textbook publishers in their place.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your worst college textbook horror story?

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?

ClearVision Optical

Willy Franzen — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:16:02 +0000

Apparently wearing glasses is cool again, especially if they’re what used to be considered dorky. I don’t get it. I’m a contact lens kind of guy. I wear my glasses right after I wake up and before I go to bed, but other than that I relish in the fact that we’ve developed tiny pieces of plastic that can make us see perfectly. You’d think technological breakthroughs like contact lenses and Lasik would be bad news for a businesses that was founded in 1949 to distribute fashionable eyewear, but you’d be wrong. ClearVision Optical was started by a Navy veteran to “serve the independent optometrist community” in Long Island, and it has grown into a “global enterprise, serving optical professionals throughout the U.S. and in 40 countries around the globe.” The Hauppauge, New York based company has been able to grow like this because of its devotion to strong customer service that is centered around helping clients build stronger practices.

Do You See What I See?

While ClearVision Optical mainly calls itself a distributor, they’re also in the business of designing and producing “premium eyewear and sunwear products.” One of ClearVision Optical’s main selling points is the brands they work with, which include BCBGMAXAZRIA, Izod, Cole Haan, Marc Ecko, Fisher-Price, and a bunch more. I’m not exactly sure what the relationships with these brands look like, but I do know that ClearVision Optical benefits significantly from being able to sell them all through a single rep. I found out about ClearVision Optical because one of their former interns and current employees e-mailed me to tell me how much she loved working for them (I will note that she now works in recruiting). After taking a look, I was really impressed with how the company has continued to balance growth with remaining family-run. It does look like a cool place to work, and it’s very clear that they put a lot of emphasis on developing talent. They are big on internships, and their Jobs page shows two positions that could be well suited to new grads: Customer Care Associate and Outside Sales Consultant – Designer Eyewear. Take a look, and see if ClearVision Optical might be just what you want to see.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you wear glasses?

Care.com

Willy Franzen — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:58:13 +0000

When you’re young your biggest responsibility is taking care of yourself. But eventually you get a dog, buy a house, have kids, and even have to start caring for your aging parents. As the responsibilities pile up, many people have to seek professional help to handle it all. I’m not talking about mental health professionals–I’m talking about babysitters, nannies, dog walkers, senior caregivers, and other people who can take on some of your daily responsibilities. Care.com is a Waltham, MA based company that makes “it easier for families to find reliable, trustworthy care for their loved ones.” Care.com does this by providing a closed community for matching up caregivers with people who are looking to hire them. By keeping the community closed, Care.com is able to ensure quality with features like background checks, reviews, and reference.

Show That You Care

The biggest impediment to finding a caregiver is trust. Whether you’re looking for someone to bring in your mail or babysit your first born, you don’t want to have any doubts about the person that you hire. Usually people use their real world social networks to find people for these jobs, but where do you go if you can’t find anyone you already know? Care.com wants to be that place. By combining an easy to use online experience with a team of experts, Care.com has positioned itself as the place to go to find caregivers or caregiving jobs. From what I can tell, Care.com is growing at a really good rate and they’re extremely well funded by venture capitalists. That must be why Care.com’s Jobs page has so many opportunities posted. The jobs that look like they might be good fits for new or recent grads include Data Analyst, E-mail Producer, Inside Sales Representative, Marketing Associate, Member Care Call Center Representative, Online Marketing Analyst, Operations Analyst, and Software Engineer. These look like really cool opportunities, so don’t pass them up.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you care for anyone?

Skullcandy

Willy Franzen — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:26:48 +0000

Yesterday we looked at Niner Bikes and how they’ve carved out a really nice niche in the outdoor action sports market by building mountain bikes with bigger wheel bases. Today we’re going to look at a company that has built a much bigger business in the same market by offering products that you may not initially associate with the market. Skullcandy is a Park City, UT based company that “markets high-end headphones, earphones, hands free devices, audio backpacks, MP3 players and other audio enabled lifestyle products.” They target consumers who associate with sports like skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and mountain biking, so they’ve been able to build a really strong brand identity that has fueled some serious growth. Skullcandy was founded in 2003, and they made the Inc. 5000 this year with 354% three-year growth to $160.6 million in annual revenue. In fact, the growth has been so great that Skullcandy had an IPO earlier this year.

Get It Through Your Skull

Obviously a big part of Skullcandy’s brand is style–a really big part. Just look through their headphone selection. It seems that the focus is more about what your headphones say about you than what they actually sound like. There’s nothing wrong with that–it’s obviously working for Skullcandy. Oddly enough, finding information on Skullcandy the company isn’t all that easy. They don’t seem to have an About page, so their Wikipedia entry is worth looking at. You may also want to check out Skullcandy’s Investor Relations page, as it also has some really useful information. Unfortunately, the trend of not providing much information continues to Skullcandy’s Jobs page. They don’t post specific positions and only ask that you “submit a resume and cover letter to careers@skullcandy.com.” They are a publicly traded company with $160 million in revenue that has been growing at an insane rate. It’s time for them to get a little more serious about hiring people. If you’re into the intersection of action sports, music, and fashion, then Skullcandy would be a perfect fit, so don’t let their lack of job postings hold you back.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any Skullcandy products?

Yeti Coolers

Willy Franzen — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:33:33 +0000

I spend a ton of time outdoors between fly fishing and playing beach volleyball. You’d think I’d have a cooler to take along with me, but I don’t. If I did, it’d have to be one of the models made by Yeti Coolers. They’re an Austin, TX based company that builds coolers that are more durable and keep things colder than any other coolers on the market. Yeti Coolers are built for tough conditions, which is why some of the biggest names in outdoors sports endorse them and the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee has deemed them Grizzly Proof. You may think it’s cooler overkill, but the market for high quality coolers seems to be extremely strong. That’s why Yeti Coolers made the Inc. 5000 with 613% three-year growth to $13 million in revenue.

These Jobs Do Exist

Yeti Coolers’ business seems pretty simple. They build a superior product and market it to a demographic that appreciates the kind of quality that Yeti Coolers offers. It’s obviously been a bit more complicated than that considering how quickly Yeti has been able to grow. I’m sure their engineering and manufacturing is pretty high tech, and I’m sure that going up against entrenched cooler manufacturers is a big challenge for a relative upstart. Still, you have to love that there’s still a ton of room for Yeti to grow in the market. If you want to be a part of that growth, then you should check out Yeti Coolers’s Careers page. While they don’t have any openings posted there, they do have an Application Page where you can apply for positions in Account Management, Accounting/Finance, Administrative, Cusomter Service, Human Resources, IT, Marketing, Operations, Order Processing, R&D / Product Development, Sales, and Warehouse. Hopefully your search for these jobs will be more fruitful than the search for the Abominable Snowman.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own a Yeti Cooler?

Mango Languages

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:54:59 +0000

I’ve come to accept that I’ll probably never learn a foreign language (maybe I’ll try a new computer programming language one day). I think my crazy high school French teacher ruined me, but I must admit that technology is making the idea of learning another language more and more attractive. The problem with most language learning software is that it can be really expensive? Mango Languages is a Farmington Hills, MI based company that has solved this problem for a lot of consumers. They provide online language learning services mostly to libraries, schools, government agencies, and corporations. That means that they get the guys with deep pockets to foot the bill for the people who are actually learning the new languages. It’s a smart approach that works considering that Mango Languages made the Inc. 5000 with 629% three-year revenue growth to $3.8 million in revenue.

Do You Like Mangoes?

Now anybody can go sign up for one of Mango Languages online courses (and the prices actually don’t look bad at all), but they’ve made a conscious decision to target multi-use accounts. That means their sales approach is likely different from other companies that offer similar products. Speaking of the product, you’ll probably want to check out what Mango Languages offers. You can read up on their methodology, check out some of their videos, and even do a free trial. That should answer all your questions, but if it doesn’t, you can take a look at the Mango Languages FAQs. If you’re digging the product, then you may want to consider working at Mango Languages. The video below is a quick intro to life at Mango Languages:

If that looks good to you, continue on to the Mango Languages Careers page. They have a bunch of job openings including Bilingual Project Coordinator, Help Desk Support, Human Resources Generalist, Integration Manager, Interactive Designer, Operations Coordinator, Sales Representative, Software Developer, and Web Developer. As you can see there are lots of options, so it’s pretty likely that one of them will be suitable if you’re a language lover.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What languages do you speak?

Ludus Tours

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

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

Take a Tour

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

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

Zoosk

Willy Franzen — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:55:08 +0000

Though I’ve never had the opportunity to try an online dating site, I do have some interest in the industry. First, I think that online dating and online job search have a lot in common. Second, a lot of online marketing innovation comes out of the online dating industry. Third, I have a good friend who has a side project in the online dating space, and I enjoy learning from him and helping him build the business. I guess that’s why I’d heard of Zoosk before. Or maybe it’s those commercials with a bunch of really good-looking people huddled around a computer having fun on a dating site. Either way, I didn’t really bother to take a closer look at San Francisco, CA based Zoosk until I got an e-mail from a reader who recently landed a job there. Now I realize that Zoosk has kind of come out of nowhere to be a massive force in online dating. They have millions of users (they’re apparently bigger than Match.com) and a revenue run rate that was pushing towards $100 million annually back in February.

Social Dating?

I have two hesitations about Zoosk. The first is that they chose to include “zoo” in the name of a dating site. The second is that they use the term “social dating.” Isn’t dating inherently social? Anyway, the concept behind Zoosk is that it’s built on apps that run on top of existing social networks like Facebook. I think there’s also some element of having your friends help you pick dates (that’s what the commercials insinuate), but I couldn’t find a good description of how that works. The business model is a freemium subscription model. You get limited access for free, and you need to pay up to actually interact with people and land dates. Plenty of people are paying up, and a lot seem to be getting their money’s worth–at least if you go by Zoosk’s Success Stories. They also seem to be a good place for job search success stories, as they’re growing very quickly. Zoosk has a wonderful Careers site that provides a lot of information on what it’s like to work for them. From there you can check out their open positions which include Marketing Associate, Freelance Videographer, and a number of Software Engineer positions. The reader who e-mailed me got a position in User Operations, so that could be an option to.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Zoosk?

ReTargeter

Willy Franzen — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:12:15 +0000

Want to be part of the One Day, One Job/Internship team? Here’s your chance!

I’m about to head over to TechWeek to check out midVenturesLAUNCH. It’s an event for new startups to launch and release new products. I figure it’s a good scouting opportunity for finding companies to tell you about. As I was looking over the website for the event, I realized there were a bunch of sponsors that probably have job opportunities. One that caught my eye was ReTargeter, which is an online advertising company based in San Francisco, CA. Last week we looked at RadiumOne and their social targeting technology. Today we’re going to look at ReTargeter and their approach to targeting. Retargeting is all about showing ads to people who have already shown interest in something. I actually started seeing ads for TechWeek all over the Internet after I visited their site a few times. That’s retargeting. (We covered the topic previously in our post about FetchBack.)

ReTarget Your Job Search

ReTargeter says that their retargeting campaigns are 300% more effective than regular ad campaigns. I believe it. Though retargeting isn’t a replacement for traditional online advertising, it’s an excellent supplement. The best way to get a feel for what ReTargeter does is to read through their Case Studies. You’ll also want to check out their Product offerings. I could totally see a job seeker trying out retargeting. I’m not sure how cost-effective it would be, but imagine having a recruiter constantly see ads for hiring you after he or she visits your online resume. I’d love to see someone try it. It might even be a good way to convince the folks at ReTargeter to hire you. Right now their Jobs page shows that they’re looking to fill a number of positions that could be suitable for new or recent grads including Account Executive, Ad Operations Specialist, Front-end Developer, Back-end Engineer, Community Manager, Community Ninja, and Office Manager. Check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What ads get retargeted to you?

RadiumOne

Willy Franzen — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:36:37 +0000

In case you haven’t heard, we’re hiring! I’m looking for help in Writing/Editorial/Content Development, Marketing/Outreach/SEO, and Web Design/Development/User Experience. You can learn more here.

Sometimes when I’m watching television I get irritated by how stupid the ads are. Then I realize that the ads are targeted to the show, and it’s my fault for watching something idiotic. Ad targeting is getting better and better as advertisers gather more and more data on us, and this presents a great opportunity for us to learn about ourselves by observing which ads are targeted to us. The obvious next step in advertising is social, and RadiumOne is a San Francisco, CA based company that “is the first online ad network to leverage social data on the Web.” I know it’s a little creepy, but it’s the future. Brands want to be able to “identify users who are most likely to interact with their ads,” and that’s exactly the service that RadiumOne provides. I just hope the ads they serve me don’t tell me that I don’t have any friends.

A Social Target

Despite the fact that RadiumOne claims to be the first at what they’re doing, I’m sure you’ve heard the term social advertising before. It’s not really a new idea, but it’s an idea that is now ready for the mainstream. So what makes RadiumOne stand out? Results.(What else matters?) This TechCrunch article discusses how RadiumOne has significantly increased advertising ROI for clients. RadiumOne is able to do this because they have great data source. You may assume that they’re partnered with Facebook, but they actually gather data from partners like “niche social networks, blogs, URL shorteners, and media-sharing sites.” RadiumOne has built an entire social ad network parallel to traditional online ad network–they work with different publishers, they use different data, and they deliver different ads. It seems to be working for everyone. If you’re excited about the future of social advertising, check out RadiumOne’s Jobs page. They have a number of positions suitable for new grads including Technical Operations Analyst, Display Optimization Analyst, and Media – Account Manager. There are also a few positions that don’t have job descriptions, so you may want to look at those too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of what RadiumOne is doing?

Morningstar

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

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

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

Good Morning!

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What company have you been ignoring?

Savored

Willy Franzen — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:11:51 +0000

It’s funny how you hear about something for the first time, and soon after it seems to keep coming up over and over again. That’s how I feel about Savored. They’re based in New York, NY, and they were formerly known as VillageVines. They’re yet another deals site, but they’re standing out from a lot of the other “me toos” because of their creative approach–it’s OpenTable meets Groupon. Here’s how it works: You pay $10 for a reservation at one of Savored’s partner restaurants at a time they’re offering, and you get 30% automatically taken off your bill. That’s it. The focus isn’t so much on getting new customers into restaurants as much as it is on getting people to go to restaurants at times when business is typically slow. You can cancel the reservation up until two hours before, and you get a refund if your total savings are less than the $10 you paid for the reservation.

Unforgettable Working

A lot of people are down on the whole deal site phenomenon, but I think it will continue to be a strong market. Coupons and promotions have been around forever, and this is just the next stage. Offering discounts instead of spending money on marketing and advertising makes sense, and there are plenty of businesses with high fixed costs and low marginal costs that can benefit from filling in slow periods with lower margin customers. This is what Savored is all about. They just relaunched with the new name this week while also expanding into some new markets, but it seems that they already have a pretty killer lineup of restaurants participating. The business is built entirely on the $10 reservation fee, which makes it really easy on the restaurants. They just give you the discount, charge you as they normally would, and that’s that. If you like what Savored is doing, head over to their Jobs page. Right now they are hiring Sales Managers and Operations Managers. Despite the Manager titles, they don’t mention any experience requirements, so it’s definitely worth applying.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Savored?

Urban Mapping

Willy Franzen — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:21:33 +0000

One of the most underrated trends in today’s wave of technology is the GPS-enabling of everything. I recently bought a waterproof digital camera with a GPS chip in it, and it has completely changed my perspective on taking photographs. I think that it’s so cool that I can visualize all of my photos across a map. As GPS shows up in more and more devices (it’s in pretty much every smartphone now), we’re going to see all kinds of cool applications come to fruition. Urban Mapping is a San Francisco, CA based company that plays a behind the scenes role in pushing forward mapping technology. As they put it, they provide “geographic data and services to businesses for bigger insights and better decisions.” Put more simply, Urban Mapping organizes all kinds of data around geography in a way that makes it easy to visualize and manipulate the data.

Where Are You Headed?

Urban Mapping’s flagship product is called Mapfluence, which is a “cloud-based mapping platform with thousands of content layers that can be visualized on maps, in tables and charts, or spatially analyzed to derive valuable location intelligence.” It has access to “more than 10,000 variables across dozens of data types, including demographics, educational performance, business analytics, religion, political affiliation, transportation infrastructure, weather, health and industry-specific data.” Just think how powerful that can be. With Mapfluence you could build an app that notifies you when you enter a sketchy neighborhood or helps you find parking spots. There are seemingly endless uses for the products and services that Urban Mapping offers. In addition to Mapfluence also offers a product called Urbanware and a number of Industry Solutions. If you’re excited about the future of mapping technology, take a look at Urban Mapping’s Jobs page. Right now they have a few positions that you might be interested in including Data Researcher, Python Engineer, Inside Sales Rep/Sales Ops, and Hacker in Residence. Some of the job postings appear to be a bit outdated, but don’t let that hold you back from applying. Good things happen to those who act.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you love maps?