One Day, One Job » Pennsylvania

buildOn

Willy Franzen — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:49:24 +0000

It’s easy to think of the developing world as having completely different problems from the ones we have in the U.S. But when you look more closely, you start to realize that the link between poverty and a lack of good education is consistent across the world–our inner cities and the developing world have similar problems that require similar solutions. buildOn is a non-profit organization based in Stamford, CT that aims to break “the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through service and education” by “putting youth in service and building schools in developing countries.” Most non-profits either focus on education abroad or domestically, buildOn is unique in that they believe that they can better solve both problems by working on them at the same time.

Build Something

You’ll probably want to start your research on buildOn by reading Founder Jim Ziolkowski’s story. After that you’ll want to dive into the “buildOn Is a Movement” video:

buildOn’s domestic programs are based in Chicago, IL; Detroit, MI; New York, NY; Oakland/San Francisco, CA; Philadelphia, PA; and Stamford, CT. The goal is to engage 100,000 U.S. based students every week by 2031. In the same time period, they want more than 1 million students to be attending schools built by buildOn. It sounds like an amazing movement, so if you want to get involved, head over to buildOn’s Careers page. Right now there are a few positions posted worth checking out:

Program Coordinator (San Francisco, CA)
Program Coordinator (Stamford, CT)
Program Coordinator (Philadelphia, PA)

These look like amazing job opportunities, so give them a close look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about buildOn?

Highlights

Willy Franzen — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:05:50 +0000

Yesterday I almost got highlighted. I was in a boat, on a river, fishing with my Dad and a guide. A thunderstorm came up behind us, and we decided to tuck the boat in a cove under a bunch of trees and take cover. It wasn’t the best spot, but there wasn’t anywhere else for us to go. When it started hailing, I got a little nervous. And then BANG! A bolt of lightning hit the water about three feet to my right. You and I are both lucky that you’re reading this today. This story has nothing to do with today’s company except for the fact that yesterday’s near death experience made me want to regress back to being a little kid–the kind that reads Highlights. If you’re not familiar, Highlights is a Columbus, OH company that develops products for children with a common theme: “Fun with a Purpose.” It’s all about “wholesome fun” that “is dedicated to helping children grow in basic skills and knowledge, in creativeness, in ability to think and reason, in sensitivity to others, in high ideals and worthy ways of living.”

Share Your Highlights

I definitely had a subscription to Highlights at some point in my life, but even after it lapsed I still picked up the magazines in places like doctor’s offices. You can get a feel for what Highlights looks like today by taking a look a their Favorite Characters and Features page. My favorites were always the What’s Wrong and Hidden Pictures. I truly hope that these somehow find their way into Highlights’ hiring process. It wouldn’t be right any other way. You may also want to check out Highlights’ State of the Kid 2011 Report. It will help you get in touch with today’s Highlights reader. If “Fun with a Purpose” describes your approach to life, then you have to take a look at Highlights’ Jobs page. There are a few positions worth taking a closer look at including:

Administrative Assistant – Accounting & Finance
Analyst – Campaign Management
Web Production Associate

Before you apply, you probably want to pick up a recent issue of Highlights and get reacquainted.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you read Highlights as a kid?

GNC

Willy Franzen — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:30:38 +0000

Considering a job in Sales but lacking experience? SinglePlatform is hiring and training 50 new grads.

Lifting weights is one of the best things that you can do for physical fitness. Strength training can have amazing effects on its own, but you can get extraordinary results when you combine your training with proper nutrition. There’s a next step if you really want to get serious: supplementation. There seems to be a supplement for everything, from gaining muscle to improving brain function. And if there’s a name that you think of when you think of supplements, it has to be GNC. They’re a Pittsburgh, PA based worldwide retailer of health and nutrition products that include vitamins, supplements, minerals, herbs, and more. If you’re looking to get more out of your body, there’s something at GNC that will at least claim to help you do it.

Supplement Your Job Search

The only thing that I’ve ever bought from GNC is whey protein powder. I’ll barely ever even taken an aspirin, so the idea of taking all kinds of pills, powders, and extracts doesn’t really appeal to me. However, if you’re going to do it, GNC is a good brand to trust. They’ve set “the standard in the nutritional supplement industry by demanding truth in labeling, ingredient safety and product potency, all while remaining on the cutting-edge of nutritional science.” That’s a big deal when you hear about things like pro athletes testing positive for banned substance because they took supplements from a shady supplier. There’s absolutely no doubt that GNC is a world leader with more than 7,000 locations (they use a franchising model) and billions in revenue. GNC is exactly the kind of company that most people know about but never consider working for. Now is your chance. If you take a look at GNC’s Careers page, you’ll see that they have a few positions suitable for a new or recent grad including:

There are also opportunities at the retail/store level listed separately, so you may want to check those out too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use any supplements?

Entercom

Willy Franzen — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:29:17 +0000

The next car I get will definitely have some sort of iPhone integration. Right now I still rely on one of those tape to AUX thingies, which means that I usually just listen to the radio. I couldn’t find any good stats on the topic, but I have to think that listeners in cars are what’s keeping radio going. But according to Entercom, radio is still going strong. You would expect them to say that though, considering that they’re “one of the five largest radio broadcasting companies in the United States.” Entercom is headquartered in Bala Cynwyd, PA, but they operate more than “100 stations in 23 markets, including San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Portland, Sacramento and Kansas City.”

Enter Entercom

While Entercom’s stock performance over the past ten years doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the future of radio, it’s hard to write off a business that reaches so many people. The best way to get a better understanding of Entercom’s business is to read up on their markets and the stations that serve them. To me the most noteworthy point is that Entercom stations are the broadcast partners of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, Oakland A’s, Kansas City Royals, New Orleans Saints, Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, and San Jose Sharks. Sports is huge, and online delivery of radio broadcasts is becoming a big deal (I love listening to baseball games on my iPhone). If you’re thinking about a career in radio, Entercom would be a great place to start. Their Jobs page shows a ton of positions in locations all across the country. Whether you’re interested in working in Sales/Account Management, On-Air, Promotions, Copywriting, Production, Journalism, Marketing, or something else, there’s probably something for you at Entercom or one of their stations.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite radio station?

Ancestry.com

Willy Franzen — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:01:11 +0000

Since we celebrated National Pancake Day yesterday, we’re not going to make a big deal about Leap Day, but if you’re looking for a leapy post, you may want to read our profiles on LeapFrog and TicketLeap. Instead of the calendar, we’re going to talk about family history. I’m lucky in that my family has done a great job of documenting our history. One of the best stories from my family’s past is about William Ker Muir (my Great Great Great Grandfather), who at 24 left his homeland of Scotland to take a job in Canada’s burgeoning railroad industry. Four years later in 1859, he was riding in the last seat of the last car on a train from Toronto to Hamilton. He heard a crash at the front of the train and jumped out the back door. He landed safely on the track as the Desjardins Bridge collapsed and the train fell into an icy gorge killing or injuring most of the passengers and crew. Without those quick reflexes, I wouldn’t be here. It’s stories like those that make investigating genealogy worthwhile, and if you’re going to do that, online tools like those provided by Provo, UT based Ancestry.com can be a huge help. It’s “the world’s largest online resource for family history, with more than 1.7 million paying subscribers around the world.”

Know Your History

Because of its name, you may think of Ancestry.com as some tech startup. While they have certainly taken their business in that direction (Software as a Service), they were actually founded in 1983 as Ancestry Publishing with a “focus on publishing genealogical book and magazine titles.” They’ve obviously used what they’ve learned by studying genealogy to help them adapt their business to changing times. Having been around for nearly three decades is a huge advantage for Ancestry.com in that they have compiled a ton of information (over 8 billion historical records), but what’s even more important is the network effect that they’ve created. As more and more users submit information to the site, it becomes more useful for everyone. This encourages more people to join, and the network effect keeps growing in a virtuous cycle. That’s why Ancestry.com has more than “31 million family trees and [has] added over 4 billion profiles.” They’re working on adding DNA tests, and I have to imagine that will be a huge step forward for the product. If you’re loving what Ancestry.com is all about, then head over to their Jobs page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new grads including:

Assistant Genealogist (Salt Lake City, UT)
Associate Software Engineer (Provo, UT or San Francisco, CA)
Document Preservation – Contractor (Swarthmore, PA)
Document Preservation – Contractor (Worcester, MA)
iOS Developer
Marketing Coordinator (Provo, UT or San Francisco, CA)
Inside Sales & Account Specialist (Salt Lake City, UT)
AppOps Engineer (Provo, UT)

If history is important to you, then a job with Ancestry.com might be just what you’re looking for.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Ancestry.com?

Grant Street Group

Willy Franzen — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:59:08 +0000

Much to most people’s chagrin, governments need to generate revenue. Without money, they can’t operate, so they’re always looking for new and better ways to get it. Sometimes that means levying new taxes or fees, but sometimes it just means taking a more efficient approach to collecting established revenue streams. One of the best ways to do this is through software, and that’s exactly what Grant Street Group does. They’re a Pittsburgh, PA based company that “develops, hosts and administers customized software applications used by government entities and financial institutions to support a variety of financial transactions related to revenue collection and auctions of fixed income instruments, tax deeds and real estate.” Auctions are an extremely effective way to eke out more revenue out of a resource, and software that automates the auction process is pretty much the ultimate in efficiency.

Going Once, Going Twice

Grant Street Group got its start in 1997 with “the world’s first online bond auction for the City of Pittsburgh.” Since then they’ve added over 2,000 clients and processed more than $10 trillion in transactions. I don’t see any stats on what percentage of that $10 trillion can be considered a return on investing in Grant Street Group’s software, but even a tiny percentage would be an extremely significant figure. If you really want to dig in and learn more about Grant Street Group’s products, you can read up on how they help improve Revenue Collection or you can take a look at their upcoming auctions. You may also want to read up on the company’s history to get a better feel for how the business has progressed over time. If you’re interested in what you see, then you should consider Jobs at Grant Street Group. Right now they have a few positions worth checking out including Customer Service Analyst, Software Developer, Perl Software Developer, and Business Analyst.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Grant Street Group?

Sleepy’s

Willy Franzen — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:35:04 +0000

I will never understand why Presidents’ Day is such a big retail holiday. I tried doing some research, and all I could find was that the Federal holiday is still known as Washington’s Birthday, but it’s commonly known as Presidents’ Day because so many retailers use the name. There’s no explanation for why the sales started happening in mid-February, and it’s even more puzzling that the sales are focused on durable goods like cars and mattresses. But that’s the way it is, and since we’re talking about mattresses, I think we should take a look at Sleepy’s. They are based in Hicksville, NY with 700+ showrooms across Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. It all adds up to make them the “largest mattress retailer in the world.” Sleepy’s tv advertisements are ubiquitous, so it’s nearly impossible for me to think about mattresses with out thinking Sleepy’s (and hearing their jingle in my head).

Don’t Sleep on Sleepy’s

An average day for Sleepy’s means delivering more than 3,000 mattresses. Add that up over a year, and you get over a million mattresses. I wonder how many of them are sold during Presidents’ Day week. Sleepy’s doesn’t stray too far from the mattress business. They do sell some bedding and furniture, but those selections seem to be pretty limited. Sleepy’s appears to sell all of the major brands of mattresses, and they’re willing to stand behind the products they sell (even if they don’t make them) with their Comfort Exchange Policy and their 8 Year Comfort Guarantee. If all this talk about mattresses gets you excited instead of sleepy, then you should check out Sleepy’s Careers page. I’ll warn you that even though the Careers page looks ok despite all the stock photography, their job search function is barely usable. There’s no simple listing of all of their jobs, and when you run a search with all categories selected, you get results that aren’t that helpful. Despite all this, I’ve found a few positions that you might want to take a look at including:

Those are the jobs that seem most appropriate for new grads; however, there are also a ton of sales positions available at Sleepy’s retail locations. I’ve heard they have a pretty extensive training program, so you may want to check those out too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What kind of mattress do you sleep on?

Specialized

Willy Franzen — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:02:24 +0000

They say that you can’t forget how to ride a bike, but I’m giving it my best try. In elementary and early middle school I was constantly riding around town. I picked up inline skating for a year or two after that, and never got back on the bike. Now I tell people that I hate bike riding. I don’t actually hate it, but as I mentioned in my post on Niner Bikes, I love seeing people’s reactions to that statement. My twelve year old self would be disappointed that I don’t even own a bike, let alone a cool brand like a Cannondale or Specialized. Luckily for Specialized, they’ve been able to grow an impressive business without me as a customer. They’re based in Morgan Hill, CA, and from what I can gather their annual revenue is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars (but I can’t find a reliable source on that). That’s impressive considering that it all started in 1974 when founder Mike Sinyard sold his “old VW Microbus for $1,500 and used the money to fund a cycling trip through Europe.” That led to importing Italian bicycle parts into the United States, and a business was born.

Are Your Skills Specialized?

Specialized positioned itself at the high end from the start, and they’re still all about quality whether you’re talking about their Mountain, Road, Multi Use, or Kids bikes. Their vision is to be “the best cycling brand in the world,” and it seems that in many people’s eyes they’ve achieved that. It’s hard for me to really dig into Specialized since I’m no longer into bicycles, but I’m sure that those of you who are will find all of the information you need on their site. One thing I found frustrating about Specialized’s website is that you don’t find any background information on the company until you hit their Careers page. Luckily, there’s a ton of information there. There are videos, an About tab, a History tab, and obviously job postings. In fact, there are a lot of jobs posted, and some look great for new or recent grads including:

City & Globe Product Engineer
Credit Representative
Field Visual Merchandiser (Philadelphia, PA)
Field Visual Merchandiser
Jr International Trade Specialist (Salt Lake City, UT)
MTB Product Engineer
Social Media / Customer Service Specialist
Store Designer/BIM
The European Fitness / Mobility Graphic Designer (Switzerland)
Video Editor and Asset Manager

There are even more jobs that I didn’t cover, and there’s also a general job posting called Bike Shop Experience Wanted!. It mentions positions in sales, marketing, customer service, product, engineering, design, operations, and finance, so I’d apply to that position if you don’t see anything that matches up with your skills.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What kind of bike do you own?

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?

Accuweather

Willy Franzen — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:06:13 +0000

We’re finally getting our first snow storm of the winter here in Chicago. I’m not traveling anywhere, I don’t have a commute, and I know well enough not to drive on Lakeshore Drive today (this is what happened last year), so I’m excited and watching the weather hoping for a lot of accumulation (even though there are no sledding hills nearby). I don’t have a favorite weather site, so I keep my eyes on a number of them including Accuweather. I guess it’s a bit of an understatement to call Accuweather a site–they’ve been around since 1962 and they call themselves “the World’s Weather Authority.” They’re based in State College, PA (with an office in New York, NY) where they’re stockpiling meteorologists there (the most in any location in the world). They need these weather guys and girls because they provide “products and services to more than 175,000 paying customers in media, business, government and institutions.”

Forecast Your Future

I love weather, so I think I’m thrilled by how much information and data is available the average person over the Internet. But I have to admit it’s a bit disappointing that weather predictions are so inaccurate–sometimes I think I can do a better job predicting weather by just looking at the radar. I’m thinking that Chicago is going to get more than the 4-8 inches that Accuweather is predicting right now, but you’d probably be better off going with their prediction. It is their business, and they are trusted by countless media sources. There’s not much more to say about Accuweather than they devote a ton of resources on the meteorology side–just take a look at the stats on their headquarters on their About page. It really is the ultimate weather tracking center. If you’d like to work there or at Accuweather’s Sales office in NYC, check out Accuweather’s Careers page. It takes too many clicks to get to their actual job listings, but once you’re there you’ll see a number of positions including:

Ad Sales Marketing Associate (New York, NY)
Mobile Applications Developer (State College, PA)
Account Executive – Advertising (New York, NY)
Staff Accountant – Payroll (State College, PA)
Staff Accountant (State College, PA)
Network Operations Center Technician (State College, PA)

Take a look at the jobs, and hope for a snow day!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How much snow are you expecting?

Crayola

Willy Franzen — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:37:40 +0000

I took a Career Development course in college. It was 2 credits pass-fail and met twice a week for half the semester. I figured that it was a good way to fill out my schedule, but it ended up being “the hardest class I took in college.” I wish I could say it was because it was so intellectually demanding, but it was actually because the work was so tedious and mind-numbing. To pass the class we had to submit a four-inch thick portfolio of all of our homework and reading notes (yes, reading notes in college). The class was entirely process-oriented and taught me nothing relevant to actually getting a job. The lowest point was when the class met in a special room and the professor asked us to close our eyes and envision our future lives as she played some weird new age music. She then handed out blank pieces of paper and small packs of Crayola crayons. She asked us to draw the future we envisioned. I AM NOT KIDDING (and the drawings went in our portfolio). What a waste of good crayons. Crayola is based in Easton, PA, and they were founded in 1885 as Binney & Smith, an industrial pigment supplier. They quickly got into pencils, chalk, and crayons, which built them into one of the most recognizable brands in America.

Picture Your Future at Crayola

Crayola has 99% brand recognition in the U.S., and the scent of their crayons is said to be the 18th most recognizable scent behind coffee and peanut butter. It’s unfortunate that I now tie that smell to such an infuriating educational experience, especially considering that Crayola is all “about helping parents and educators raise creative and inspired children, who we believe will one day lead the world.” Crayola has obviously expanded well beyond selling just crayons, pencils, markers, and chalk, but the business remains about giving kids the ability to express their creativity in any way they want. Even with the continued focus on simplicity, Crayola was able to reach $700 million in sales in 2010. That’s impressive. If you want to be part of the Crayola story, check out their Jobs page. Right now they have a few positions that you may want to consider including The Crayola Store – Retail Associate, The Crayola Experience – Associate, International Business Analyst, and Supply Chain Planner. Check them out and see if any of the positions might be in the picture you drew of your future.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite Crayola memory?

Kembrel

Willy Franzen — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:57:32 +0000

Kembrel is members-only, but you can get in using this link. They’ll even give you a VIP Card for free (worth $20) and $5 in store credit to get you started.

There’s a battle going on between traditional retailers and e-commerce companies. The former offers the opportunity to get your hands on the merchandise, but the latter usually offers better prices, better selection, and more convenience. This leads to a lot of people using retailers to check stuff out and then buying online. I want to see companies start merging those two business models, and that’s exactly what Kembrel is doing. They’re a Philadelphia, PA based “online club” that allows “students to access their favorite fashion, food, and fun for a fraction of the retail price.” The online flash sale strategy is being combined with retail stores (they recently opened their first in Philly) to build the brand and offer members the opportunity to actually interact with products.

Join the Club

I find it really interesting that Kembrel is so intently focused on the college market. Fashion, food, and fun are a lot easier to sell to people who are post-college and have an income. Still, college kids are fashion conscious and need a place to buy clothes, and I think a hybridized online/retail model is the best way to sell to them. If you’d like to be a part of growing this model, then you need to check out Kembrel’s Jobs page. They kind of have a trying too hard to appeal to college kids way of copywriting, but maybe that will appeal to you college kids. Here’s what their Jobs page says:

Working for Kembrel is basically like working for a golden sunset that occasionally rains candy and happy hour beers in the form of a pastel-colored rainbow and there’s a wind in the air that sounds softly like hip hop mixes and there are gentle ponies with glittering braids that leap across the waving fields of tall grass delivering trendy clothes and vanilla mint ice cream to all the cheerful workers typing giddily at their desks.

Right now they’re hiring a Women’s Apparel Buyer, student photographers, and a bunch of interns. Take a look at the positions and see if any make sense for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Will you shop at Kembrel?

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?

Brunner

Willy Franzen — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:42:55 +0000

We want to do even more to help you land a job. Take our survey and let us know how we can better serve you as we start our fifth year.

Every day within a few minutes of when I press send to deliver our daily e-mails, I get at least a few out of office replies. The names start to become familiar, as it’s often the same people–most of them work in career services. Lately, I’ve been noticing out of office replies from someone with a brunnerworks.com e-mail address. I didn’t make much of it until I went through some results from our survey and noticed someone recommended Brunner as a company that we should feature. I took a look at the Pittsburgh, PA and Atlanta, GA advertising agency and quickly agreed. Brunner’s tagline is “Ideas for a Smarter, Faster World,” and they seem to be living up to that with a Top 75 ranking among U.S. based ad agencies.

It’s Funner at Brunner

Brunner does work in a variety of areas including Insight and Startegy, Creative, Digital, Communications Planning, Media Planning and Buying, Mobile, Public Relations, Social Media, Shopper Marketing, One-to-One, and Measurement and Analytics. And they do it for big names like Heinz, Bob Evans, GNC, GlaxoSmithKline, Zippo, and Huffy. You can take a look at their work to get a better sense of their approaches to different kinds of campaigns. I really like the print campaign they did for Case Knives, but I’m sure you’ll have your own favorite. Brunner also has a great People section on their website, so you can get to know more about some of the folks behind the work.

If you’re digging what Brunner is all about, then you’ll want to take a look at their Careers page. They currently have a few opportunities that could be suitable for new or recent grads including Interactive Designer, Interactive Media Planner/Buyer, and User Experience Designer in Pittsburgh. There’s also an Interactive Media Planner/Buyer position in Atlanta. Additionally, Brunner encourages job seekers to apply to future openings or to apply for freelance work. There’s also an internship program and a Career contact on their Contact page, so you have a number of options if you’re trying to get in at Brunner.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Brunner?

Chemical Heritage Foundation

Willy Franzen — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:06:43 +0000

When I was a kid, I had my own chemistry set. It was pretty cool–I could do things like change the color of a liquid by mixing a few different powders. Ok, so it wasn’t that exciting, especially after I learned that my Dad would make his own gunpowder and blow stuff up when he was a kid. After having a watered down chemistry set as a kid, I ended up having a completely inept chemistry teacher in high school. It should be no surprise that my interest in chemistry fizzled out, but if I wanted to get the reaction going again, I might look to the Chemical Heritage Foundation. They’re a Philadelphia, PA based non-profit organization that “fosters an understanding of chemistry’s impact on society” by “inspiring a passion for chemistry; highlighting chemistry’s role in meeting current social challenges; and preserving the story of chemistry and its technologies and industries across centuries.”

Show Your Chemical Heritage

The Chemical Heritage Foundation has four key program areas. The first is The Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History, which is exactly what it sounds like. The second is The Roy Eddleman Institute for Interpretation and Education, which is focused on bringing chemistry to a broader audience and includes the Museum at CHF. The third is The Center for Contemporary History and Policy, and it’s all about promoting chemistry’s current and future role in society. Finally, there’s The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry, which “hosts a community of visiting fellows.” As you can see, the CHF is working in every area that it can to connect society with the wonders of chemistry. You can explore CHF’s work much more deeply by browsing their website, so I highly recommend that. And if you really like what you see, you can go to their Jobs page. Oddly enough, the job that they have posted doesn’t require a background in science, as it’s a Project Development Assistant position. It looks like a great opportunity for a new or recent grad, so check it out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you have a chemistry set as a kid?

Ketchum

Willy Franzen — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:16:15 +0000

While we’ve featured a couple of companies located in Ketchum, ID (Smith Optics and SCOTTEVEST) and a company with a subsidiary called Ketchum (The Pursuant Group), we’ve never actually looked at Ketchum. They’re a global public relations agency that is headquartered in New York, NY and has more than 100 offices and affiliates in 65 countries. In other words, they’re pretty huge. Ketchum has five globe practices, which include Brand Marketing, Corporate, Healthcare, Food & Nutrition, and Technology, and 25 specialties, so they seem to cover almost everything. Some of their biggest clients are IKEA, Häägen-Dazs, and Diet Dr. Pepper, so that gives you an idea of the scale that they operate on. If you want the full rundown, Ketchum’s Quick Facts page is extremely helpful.

Ketchum If You Can

Some of the most interesting stuff I found about Ketchum isn’t on their website. That’s because they’ve been involved in a few scandals and slip-ups, and you can read up on them on the Ketchum Wikipedia page. PR is an industry where you often have to take risks, so I don’t think any of these issues reflect too poorly on the firm. Ketchum has won PRWeek’s “Campaign of the Year” award for the past three years, so some of that risk taking is certainly paying off. To see the work that Ketchum actually wants you to see, you should check out their Case Studies. There’s a lot more to see on Ketchum’s website, so you’ll probably want to do a little more exploring. If you like what you see, then take a look at Ketchum’s Careers section (which has a ton of content) and their current opportunities. Right now they’re looking for an Account Associate (New York, NY) and a Junior Project Manager (San Francisco, CA). Additionally, they have links where you can apply to future positions in New York, NY; Atlanta, GA; Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Pittsburgh, PA; and Washington, DC.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Ketchum?

Empathy Lab

Willy Franzen — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:53:10 +0000

When I land on a company’s website, I have a semi-routine. I check out the About page, the Careers page, and try to dig into what the company does and what they’re about. When I landed on the site for Empathy Lab, I was thrown off my routine. They have a huge image with a headline that links to a blog post about buying tennis shoes front and center on their home page. This may seem an odd choice for an advertising and marketing agency, but it works. It instantly frames the Conshohocken, PA based firm as a group of innovative thinkers, which is exactly what you want from a company that aims to “create strategies, experiences and programs for companies seeking success in the digital landscape.” That’s why I’m not surprised that they made the Inc. 5000 with 201% three-year growth to $11.5 million in annual revenue.

Are You Empathetic?

Empathy Lab isn’t just a name. It’s also a mindset. That’s why Empathy Lab is focused on “viewing the world from the users’ perspective” and generating “client solutions so dead-on and insightful and insidiously right that they seem guided by almost supernatural forces.” (Take note: empathy is also the secret to landing a job.) If you want to see what work looks like when it’s “guided by almost supernatural forces,” look no further than Empathy Lab’s Case Studies. They’ve done some cool stuff, and it’s just a sliver of the services that they offer. And after you take a look at those, you may want to dig into Empathy Lab’s Ideas. If you’re digging it all, then it’s time to head over to the Empathy Lab Careers page. They have a number of entry level positions including Junior Designer, Mobile Developer, HTML Developer, and Associate Project Manager. Hopefully one of them will be a good fit for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Empathy Lab?

Pathways to Housing

Willy Franzen — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 17:38:43 +0000

It’s hard not to notice homelessness when you live in a big city like Chicago. I can’t even leave my apartment without seeing a panhandler–there’s one guy who is always sitting in front of the Starbucks down the street during the day and in front of the Hooters next door at night. I don’t give him money because I don’t think that it helps solve the root of the problem, but I often think about what would be an effective solution. Pathways to Housing is a non-profit organization that seems to have it figured out. They’re based in New York, NY with offices in Burlington, VT; Washington, DC: and Philadelphia, PA, and they’ve taken a “housing first” approach that is focused on “addressing homelessness among people with psychiatric disabilities.” In other words, they provide housing before any other services, and they’ve found that this is a far more effective way to attack the root causes of homelessness.

Where Does Your Pathway Lead?

If you give a person a home, they’ll quite obviously no longer be homeless. But you won’t have really solved anything. However, Pathways to Housing has found that providing housing first makes it far easier to offer “supportive treatment services in the areas of mental and physical health, substance abuse, education, and employment.” It’s a counterintuitive model, but it seems to work. You can read more about it and how it’s now being used all over the world here. If you like what Pathways to Housing is doing, you’ll want to check out their Work with Us page. For some reason their Job Openings link won’t work for me, but you can check out their current postings on Idealist or try using our job search engine. There are some entry level Assistant and Coordinator type positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Pathways to Housing?

Petplan

Willy Franzen — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:25:34 +0000

You can get insurance for just about anything. In the past we’ve featured companies that insure vocal chords, good (or bad) weather, and cars, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg (the Titanic owners should have bought insurance for that one). Petplan is a Philadelphia, PA based company that offers pet insurance to cover unexpected veterinary care. Considering that animals are getting more and more advanced medical care, the costs of owning a pet are going up. Petplan offers pet owners protection from the double whammy of a sick pet and a big bill. Yet another Inc. 500 company, Petplan has seen 2,207% three-year growth to $18.7 million in revenue.

What’s Your Plan?

There’s no doubt that some people are crazy about their pets. I’m sure there’s some Tumblr blog out there that pokes fun at the ridiculous things people do to pamper their pets. In the grand scheme of things, insurance for your pet actually seems to make a lot of sense. And that’s why it shouldn’t be a surprise that Petplan is growing so quickly. Here’s how their insurance works, and here are some of their case studies. 90% of Petplan’s policy holders renew every year, so that’s a good sign that they’re keeping people and pets happy. If you love animals and can get excited about insurance, then Petplan may be a great place to start your career. If you look at their Jobs page, you’ll see that they have a number of positions posted including Happiness Manager, Claims Adjuster, Claims Administrator, and Claims Service Representative. Petplan looks like a really cool business, and their Meet the Team page shows how pet friendly they truly are.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you ever buy pet insurance?

Leadnomics

Willy Franzen — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:20:54 +0000

Today is my favorite day of the year, at least when it comes to writing daily company profiles. Why? Inc. Magazine just released the 2011 Inc. 5000 List. It’s a ranking of the 5,000 fastest growing privately held companies in the United States. It includes all kind of businesses in locations all across the country. It’s one of the best job seeker resources out there. As I looked through the list I saw a lot of companies that I’ve already written about and a lot of new ones that don’t have any jobs posted. Then I saw Leadnomics–they came in at #48 with 3,932% 3-year revenue growth to $5.8 million in revenue last year. The lead generation and performance marketing company is based in Philadelphia, PA, and they’ve been growing rapidly in terms of both revenue and headcount.

Take the Lead

A lead is nothing more than contact information for someone who may be interested in a product or service. Leads are the lifeblood of businesses in which the sales process isn’t as simple as checking someone out at the cash register (or the online equivalent). Some industries where lead generation is essential include Financial Services, Education, Insurance, and Consumer Offers. In most scenarios the quality of the lead is extremely important–some people are far more likely to buy than others, and you want to focus on the easiest sales. The web has become an amazing lead generation tool, but finding quality can be difficult. Leadnomics is all about taking the entire lead generation process and optimizing each part of “the consumer purchasing decision.” That means that they take a scientific approach to how they “acquire traffic, capture leads, analyze and filter for quality and deliver leads in real-time.” Considering that Leadnomics’ business is entirely performance based and that they’re growing rapidly, it looks like they must have figured a few things out. If you want to work with them, check out their Jobs page. They have an open call for people interested in Performance/Internet Marketing, while they are also looking for a PHP Web Developer, a Paid Search Manager, a Web Application Developer (PHP/LAMP), and a Flash Web Graphic Designer. You can lead the way.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Leadnomics?

Mobilize.org

Willy Franzen — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:46:06 +0000

Looking for a job in the non-profit world? Samaritan’s Purse has a number of great opportunities for you.

Yesterday we looked at an organization called Youth Service America that encourages youth to get involved in their communities. Today we’re going to look at an organization with a similar, but slightly different approach. Mobilize.org is a Washington, DC based non-profit organization that aims “to improve the way democracy works by investing in Millennial-driven solutions.” I kind of hate the term Millennial, but it is important that our generation makes an effort to act together in our shared best interest. It all started with a guy named David Smith who was a student at UC Berkeley. He learned of another tuition increase, and instead of taking it, he mobilized some peers and made some noise. It worked, and David decided to make the movement national by starting Mobilizing America’s Youth, which eventually became Mobilize.org.

Get Mobilized

Often when we look at non-profits, we see that they call themselves “non-partisan.” Sometimes this is true, but often it’s pretty clear that the organization leans one way or the other politically. Mobilize.org describes itself with a term that I’d never seen before: “all partisan.” What does that mean? It’s a little hard to explain, but the best explanation that I could find was here. As far as I can tell, Mobilize.org isn’t as much focused on specific issues as they are focus on equipping our generation to engage in the political process and make things happen. If you want to be part of that, check out Mobilize.org’s Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for a Community Mobilizer. They’re specifically looking for someone to cover San Jose, CA, but they also have these positions in Detroit, MI, Miami, FL, Charlotte, NC and Philadelphia, PA.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about Mobilize.org?

Monetate

Willy Franzen — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:43:46 +0000

Sponsored Jobs: Are you always rooting for local restaurants to succeed? If so, you’d be perfect for an entry level sales job at SinglePlatform. They have a ton of openings across the country.

When you’re running an online business, your biggest challenge is usually getting people to visit your site. That’s why Google has been able to build a multi-billion dollar business–they are able to consistently send sites substantial, high quality, targeted traffic. Because site owners are investing so much money in building traffic (whether they do it organically or pay for advertisements), they often overlook another part of the equation that is nearly as important: making the most of having a site visitor’s attention. This may mean getting them to read a piece of content, click on an ad, or buy a product. Whatever your business goal is, you want to make sure that your content is encouraging site visitors to do what you want them to do. That’s where Monetate comes in. They’re a Conshohocken, PA based company that helps “marketers test and target product pitches and site features.” Monetate covers all the technical hurdles so that in-house creatives can stick to doing what they do best and not worry about dealing with the IT department to implement the changes that they want.

Can You Monetate?

There’s a reason that major brands like Urban Outfitters, QVC, L’Occitane, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and many more use Monetate. It makes site optimization simple for marketers. The Monetate platform isn’t simple at all–it’s serious software–but end users only have to copy and paste text and images to use it. Monetate takes those content changes, segments the audience by different characteristics, and tests different combinations of the content against each other. It finds the most desirable results for the marketer, and helps them iterate towards a site experience that drives the most desirable business and user outcomes. It’s really cool stuff, even if it’s a bit creepy for the casual web surfer. If you’re excited at the thought of helping businesses make the most of their online presences, then you need to head over Monetate’s Jobs page. They have a few positions that look like fits for new or recent grads including Market Development – Inside Sales, Interactive Designer, Front-End Developer, and Backend Software Engineer. You’ll also want to meet some Monetate employees and check out the Top 10 Reasons To Work At Monetate before you apply.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Monetate?

Shecky’s

Willy Franzen — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:30:35 +0000

I like writing about companies that I find interesting, which isn’t hard because I have very broad interests. However, I occasionally come across a company that I know is interesting, but it just doesn’t resonate with me. That’s definitely the case with Shecky’s. They’re a New York, NY based company that makes it their “mission to create social experiences that empower and reward women to discover and socialize with their girlfriends.” I think you can understand why that doesn’t resonate with me, but you’ll impressed to learn that Shecky’s was actually founded in 1998 by a Wall Street executive named Chris Hoffman. Despite the potentially ambiguous first name, Chris is a man who is apparently very in touch with “what women want.” He started by publishing the 1st Shecky’s Bar, Club & Lounge Guide in 1998, and then moved on to hosting hosts the “1st Girls Night Out” in New York City in 2001. In 2002 Chris found Claudia Chan and made her president after merging her company into Shecky’s. The business has continued to grow with a focus on improving the interactions that women have with their girlfriends, and I’m sure having a woman at the helm who understands the market better than any man ever could is a big reason for that.

Who’s Shecky?

One of the biggest pieces of the Shecky’s business is Girls Night Out. They hold these events in cities across the country, and they provide an opportunity for women to “discover unique designers, sip our delectable drinks, and cap your night with some pretty pampering and glorious Goodie Bags.” It appears that Shecky’s has finally moved away from the guidebook business, and has instead decided to put far more focus on their digital properties. I’ll bet that is turning out to be a really smart move. With the events and the website, Shecky’s is a marketer’s dream. It should be no surprise that advertising and sponsorships are big parts of Shecky’s business. If Shecky’s resonates with you and you know the importance of having a strong group of girlfriends, then take a look at jobs at Shecky’s. Right now they’re looking for a Sales Account Executive and a Customer Service Rep. Additionally, they often hire freelancers for their events in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Hamptons, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington, DC. These positions include Photography, Event Staff, Writing/Reporting, and Administrative Assistant opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you familiar with Shecky’s?

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?

Precision Therapeutics

Willy Franzen — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:00:42 +0000

In just the past year and a half, I’ve lost two important people in my life to cancer. Chances are that you’ve been similarly affected by the disease considering that 1 in 4 deaths in this country are caused by cancer and that there were more than 1.5 million new cancer cases last year. The numbers sound grim, but every year we’re getting better and better at treating cancer. One of the major trends that I keep hearing about is that doctors are starting to see cancers as individual diseases instead of as one disease that affects many areas of the body. Precision Therapeutics is a Pittsburgh, PA based company that is taking this idea once step further. They believe that cancer should be treated at an individual level. In other words, they see every single case of cancer as potentially unique, and they want to help doctors and patients find the best way to treat it.

You Need Precision in Your Job Search

Precision Therapeutics was founded in 1995, and since then most of their focus has been devoted to a single product. It’s called the ChemoFx® Drug Response Marker, and it is “a test that quantifies an individual cancer patient’s probable tumor response to various chemotherapeutic and biologic agents—providing both sensitivity and resistance information.” It works by testing a range of different chemotherapies on a patient’s cancer cells. It then determines which of the different therapies are most likely to be effective and ineffective, so that doctors have a better chance of taking the right course of action. Obviously I’m not qualified to give you the full overview since my last Biology class was in 9th grade, but what I’ve told you should be enough to pique your interest. If it has, then you will want to take a look at Precision Therapeutics’ Careers page. Right now they’re looking for a Data Analyst, a Java Software Developer, and a Medical Records Coordinator. All three positions look suitable for a new or recent grad, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Precision Therapeutics?

The Wandering Scholar

Willy Franzen — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:28:37 +0000

I love seeing students pursue learning outside of the classroom. There’s only so much that you can be taught—eventually you need to go out and start experiencing things for yourself. One of the best ways to do this is to travel. Not only does it teach you street smarts, but it also provides a vast array of learning opportunities that you would never be exposed to sitting at home. Travel is becoming more and more common for college students, and even high schoolers are starting to see the world in an effort to enhance their learning. Unfortunately, international travel isn’t accessible to everyone. Even no frills travel is expensive, which is why The Wandering Scholar was started. They’re a relatively new New York, NY based non-profit organization that “makes international travel and learning opportunities accessible to low-income high school students.” It’s a really cool idea that I hope catches on, because everyone should have the opportunity to see and learn about other parts of the world.

Where Are You Wandering?

Because there is more to The Wandering Scholar than just enabling students to travel, their programs include Travel Mentors, Pre-Departure Planning, Documentation Projects, Trip Log and Blogging, Post-trip Workshop and Presentation of Learning, and Peer to Peer Recruitment. They really want to enable students to make the most out of travel experiences that could be once-in-a-lifetime. Now, The Wandering Scholar is an upstart with a super small staff, so landing a job with them right now might not be realistic. However, if you’re moved by their mission, then you need to reach out to them and see how you can fit in. They have positions for both Mentors and Interns right now, and it’s certainly possible that they’ll be growing their team in the near future.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of The Wandering Scholar?

TastingTable

Willy Franzen — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:08:43 +0000

Since it’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, you may want to check out our post on The King Center from 2009. It also happens to be my anniversary with my girlfriend, which means that we’ll be going to a fancy dinner tonight. I try to stay up on the Chicago food scene as much as I can, and one way that I used to do that was by subscribing to TastingTable (though I must admit that I eventually unsubscribed even though the e-mails are really good). They send “a free daily email that delivers the best of food and drink culture to adventurous eaters everywhere.” The company is based in New York, NY, and beyond their national e-mail list, they also offer e-mail lists for New York City, New York Specials, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chef’s Recipes with lists for Boston, Philadelphia, and Portland coming soon. In the national e-mail they send “one delicious idea about dining, wine, cocktails, cooking or restaurant personalities” every day, while in their local editions they’ll “alert you to a must-try dish at a forgotten restaurant, a hot new bar that deserves its buzz, under-appreciated cook shops and neighborhood food purveyors who may otherwise go unnoticed.”

A Tasteful Career Choice

I don’t know about the rest of you, but college was when I really started to appreciate decent food. After a couple of years of dining hall food (even at Cornell where it’s supposed to be good), pizza, wings, and other college staples, I started cooking on my own and trying some of the ethnic restaurants that I was previously too scared to try. I even found an online guide that gave me the inside scoop on Ithaca’s food scene. Since there has been a huge upswing in the amount of foodie-focused online media. TastingTable is a perfect example. They provide quality content for a very specific audience, and they’re able to monetize that content with ads targeted to a food-loving audience. (I know a lot about this business model.) You also have to like that Bob Pittman, “most successful investor in newsletter space,” is one of TastingTable’s backers (he also backed DailyCandy and Thrillist). If you like what you see at TastingTable, check out their Jobs page, which doesn’t seem to be linked from anywhere on their site. Right now they have a number of open positions that could be good fits for new grads including Editor, Food Editor, and Sales Account Manager. Don’t be scared off by the titles, the experience requirements are lower than you might expect. Right now all of the job seem to be based in NYC, but I imagine that they also sometimes have opportunities in their other cities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you subscribe to TastingTable?

Solve Media

Willy Franzen — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:39:46 +0000

In the past 15 days there have been 1,310 spam comments left on One Day, One Job. Luckily, I have software that identifies most of them, so that I only have to look at 10 or so a day and decide for myself whether they are spam or not. Spammers are constantly looking for ways to pitch their wares, and most of what they do is completely automated. That means that one of the best ways to conquer spam is to verify that the person leaving a comment, signing up for a site, or sending a message is actually a human and not a computer pretending to be a human. One of the most successful ways to combat automated spam these days is called the CAPTCHA (here’s the Wikipedia entry) or “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart.” I’m sure you’re familiar with CAPTCHAs, and you probably hate them. Unfortunately, they’re a way of life, even if they feel like a waste of time. Solve Media is a Philadelphia, PA based company that is putting the CAPTCHA to work. Yes, they think that they can make money off of the CAPTCHA, and I think they can too.

What Problems Can You Solve?

Ad blindness is a huge problem on the Internet. There’s a good chance that you didn’t notice the ad at the beginning of this post even though it’s super relevant to you. Banner ads just don’t work well these days unless they’re super-targeted. Solve Media is putting advertising that you can’t ignore in the CAPTCHA. Why can’t you ignore it? Because you have to type an advertising message to complete the CAPTCHA. The video below explains how it all works (e-mail readers should click through):

Basically, Solve Media offers publishers a new way to monetize, advertisers better recall of their ads, and you less time spent squinting trying to figure out what the CAPTCHA says. Oh yeah, and the spammers are still left out from the party. It’s a revolutionary idea, and it makes everyone better off. Solve Media just launched a few months ago, and they don’t even have a Jobs page yet, but they’re already offering internships. If you’d like to consider a job with them, use their Contact page to reach out and see what might be available. It’s worth a shot.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever seen a Solve Media CAPTCHA in the wild?

Rodale Institute

Willy Franzen — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 16:51:51 +0000

Last week I got an e-mail from a One Day, One Job reader who is just wrapping up a seasonal position and looking for her next gig. In doing so, she realized that other readers might be interested in her current position, so she wrote me to tell me about it. When I saw the name Rodale Institute in her e-mail, I swore to myself that I had already featured the organization, but it was actually a publishing company named Rodale that was started by the same person as the Institute and used to be financially linked to it as well. The Rodale Institute is a Kutztown, PA based non-profit organization that is “dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach.” They’ve been at it since 1947, and they’re going to keep “researching the best practices of organic agriculture and sharing [their] findings with farmers and scientists throughout the world” because they believe that eating organic is the healthiest option for people and for the Earth.

Go Organic!

What’s old is new again. For most of human history, farming was organic—there was no other option. But as technology moved forward, more and more chemicals made their way onto our farms—and this was great because it enabled us to produce food on a massive scale. Unfortunately, there are a lot of negative effects that come along with industrial farming. J.I. Rodale was one of the first people to realize what was going on, which is why he founded the Rodale Institute “to study the link between healthy soil, healthy food and healthy people.” The mission hasn’t changed over more than 60 years, and The Institute continues to be a leader in research and advocacy for organic farming. They’re proving that improvements in farming technology don’t require chemicals and industrial practices. If you want to be part of the organic movement, then you should consider jobs at the Rodale Institute. The Seasonal Research Technician is the position that I was e-mailed about (there are 5 different options), and there’s also a Part Time Store Assistant position.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you eat organic?

Environment America

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

Want to connect with me and other One Day, One Job readers? Join our LinkedIn Group.

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?