One Day, One Job » project management

Forbes

Willy Franzen — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:36:53 +0000

I’m a big fan of magazine lists. They can be a great tool for your job search, and I’m not just talking about the “Best Place to Work” lists. One list that you may not think to use but you should is the Forbes list of The World’s Billionaires. Take a look at what the world’s most successful people have done to get where they are today–it might just lead you in some interesting directions. Forbes is a company that is best known for its lists. The New York, NY based publisher goes by the motto “The Capitalist Tool,” though that sounds like something a NATO protester called me this weekend (just kidding). But seriously, when you hear the name Forbes, you think money, right?

Start Your Way to the Forbes List

Forbes made their name with their magazine Forbes, but they also have Forbes Asia, ForbesLife, The Forbes Investors Advisory Institute, and The Forbes Newsletter Group. But my favorite Forbes business has to be the Social Register Association, which “is considered by many to be the only reliable, and the most trusted, arbiter of Society in the United States.” In other words, it’s a directory (complete with addresses and phone numbers) of the country’s elite. I bet getting your hands on one of those could really help your job search (too bad you can only get one if you’re listed in it). Obviously, a big part of Forbes’ business has moved online. You’ve probably tried to read an article on Forbes.com, but decided against it after being hit with an interstitial ad. Forbes also owns and operates ForbesWoman.com; RealClearPolitics.com; RealClearMarkets.com; RealClearSports.com and RealClearWorld.com.

If you want to join an old media name that is trying to make it work in the digital age, then take a look at Forbes’ Careers page. Right now they’re hiring for the following positions:

Forbes has some great opportunities for new grads, so check them out and get started on making that billionaires list.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read Forbes?

Pop Labs

Willy Franzen — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:18:18 +0000

These days it seems that just about everyone claims to be an expert on things like social media and SEO, but very few people have a track record that shows a repeated ability to deliver results. Why is that? Because online marketing is really hard. We see stupid things go viral and think that anyone can do it, but we overlook the fact that getting someone to look at something is very different from getting someone to buy something. Pop Labs is an interactive marketing agency in Houston, TX that is known for getting results. I’m not just talking about for their clients either. Pop Labs nearly tripled their revenue between 2007 and 2010, which shows that what they’re doing works for them as well as for their clients.

Make It Pop

Pop Labs’ main focuses are SEO, Social Media, Conversion Optimization, and Advertising, but it’s really all about ROI. That’s why Pop Labs’ Case Stuides talk about numbers that can be directly tied to revenue. Pop Labs doesn’t have a long list of client names on their website (which is often how I judge big agencies), but that’s ok. It’s a lot harder to do good work for a “Consumer Services Retailer in Nevada” or a “National Marketing Information Provider,” than some big brand who already has resources that you can leverage. If you want to dig in and really learn about online marketing, then you should take a look at Pop Labs’ Jobs page. Right now they have some great positions for new or recent grads including:

Sales Executive
Business Development (San Francisco, CA)
Project Coordinator
Web Designer
Production Specialist
Marketing Specialist

These look like great opportunities to learn, so give them a good long look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Pop Labs?

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?

World Economic Forum

Willy Franzen — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:48:21 +0000

I think it’s pretty mind blowing how interconnected the world economies have become during my lifetime. While international trade has existed for many thousands of years, never before have people had to rely so heavily on the production of others half way around the world. I generally think this is a great thing, but many issues come along with the growth. The World Economic Forum is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab in Geneva, Switzerland to be “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.” The World Economic Forum, which also has offices in New York, NY and Beijing, China, is probably best known for its annual meeting at Davos where they bring together some of the world’s most important leaders to engage on some of the most pressing issues.

See You in Davos

The easiest way to learn more bout how The World Economic Forum operates is probably to browse through their issues. There’s a ton of content, but it will give you a sense of what kind of problems the organization likes to cover and what their approach is to solving them. Now, let’s make it clear, The World Economic Forum doesn’t actually take action on their issues. But they do start a dialogue through their events, build communities, and publish research reports. If you want to learn about international affairs, the World Economic Forum website is a great place to do so. An even better way, though, might be working for them. They have job pages for Geneva, Beijing, and New York. All three are worth checking out, but I’m only going to focus on New York’s postings which include a Project Associate position and an open call for General Applications. There are a lot more opportunities in Geneva, so if neither of these look good (and you’re willing to live abroad), then take a look at those.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about The World Economic Forum?

OpenSky

Willy Franzen — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:23:16 +0000

Yesterday I came across Fast Company‘s list of The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies. I love lists like these not only because they’re an interesting read, but also because they’re a fantastic source for company ideas. Unfortunately, this list in particular is always a little disappointing in terms of the latter–mostly because I’ve already written up a lot of the companies. That’s why it took me until #49 on a list of 50 to find a company to tell you about. Luckily, OpenSky looks pretty cool. They’re a New York, NY based company (with another office in Nashville, TN) that is changing the online shopping experience through a focus on curation (that’s a big buzzword lately). They’ve hand selected some of “the brightest stars in food, healthy living, style and design” to provide product recommendations. You can “add” any assortment of these experts to customize your shopping experience.

The Sky’s the Limit

Personalization in online shopping isn’t anything new. There are tons of companies that gather data about you, and then try to sell you things that they think you’ll buy. The problem is that the recommendations tend to be the same kind of things over and over. OpenSky is different because they don’t base recommendations on what you’ve purchased or indicated that you like but on your selection of people whose style you like. This adds an element of creativity and randomness that other recommendation engines can’t provide. And people must love it. OpenSky has over 1 million members and does $500,000 in sales weekly. Those are really big numbers for a young company, which means that they’re hiring to keep themselves growing. Right now their Jobs page shows a few interesting positions including Customer Service Representative, Graphic Designer, and Freelance Retoucher. There are a few other positions like Healthy Living Buyer and Project Manager, but they require some previous experience.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used OpenSky?

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?

Internet Brands

Willy Franzen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:07:03 +0000

In case you missed our e-mail from last week, Kembrel loved the response from our post about them so they’re offering a free VIP card (usually 20 bucks) to all ODOJ readers and $5 in store credit. Sign up here.

On Monday we took a look at Vertive, a company that builds internet properties to help people save money. Today we’re going to look at a company with a similar model of building and buying websites, but a much broader approach. Internet Brands is based in El Segundo, CA and started as CarsDirect.com in 1998. It was a successful brand for them, but in 2005 they realized that the platform they had built could be applied to other verticals. Now Internet Brands operates more than 100 websites that reach over a billion visitors every year. Amazingly, they’ve been able to generate almost all of this traffic organically (without buying advertising). This is all because of the platform that they’ve developed and the ability to share resources across brands. Internet Brands is a case study of how economies of scale can work on the web.

Get Branded

The best way to get a better feel for Internet Brands is to explore their… brands. There are a lot of them, but they typically fit into one of nine verticals: Automotive, Careers, Health, Home, Legal, Licensing, Money, Shopping, and Travel. Chances are that most of the brands will be new to you, but I found a few that I was familiar with. Unlike Vertive, Internet Brands doesn’t shed much light on how they operate. Even the Internet Brands Careers page is filled with mostly generic stuff like “Do you have energy, drive and ambition?” and “Do you have a strong sense of where you are going and how to get there?” Would any job seeker answer no to those rhetorical questions? At least Internet Brands makes up for it with a ton of job postings. Here are the ones that look well suited for an entry level job seeker:

That’s a lot of jobs. Hopefully a few of them will catch your interest.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Internet Brands?

mcgarrybowen

Willy Franzen — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:11:56 +0000

I really enjoyed watching football last night. I’m not a huge football fan, but those were both great games. I’m also happy to see that advertisers are gearing up for the Super Bowl. They’re breaking out new commercials and actually trying to get viewers’ attention. That means it must be an extremely busy time of the year for an advertising agency like mcgarrybowen. They’re based in New York, NY and Chicago, IL, and they work with big names like Burker King, Chase, Disney, Kraft, Marriott, Reebok, Sears, Verizon, and plenty of others. They also recently landed the Bud Light account, and they’re expected to do some Super Bowl work for them. What a surprise! Bud Light will be advertising during the Super Bowl.

A Better mcJob

Though I don’t typically keep up on the latest happenings in the ad agency world, my research tells me that mcgarrybowen is so hot right now. They’ve been picking up huge accounts left and right, and that led to their being named Agency of the Year on AdvertisingAge‘s Agency A-List. All these new accounts mean lots of new jobs. Just look at mcgarrybowen’s Chicago office that grew from 16 employees when it opened in 2009 to more than 200 now. The folks at mcgarrybowen would probably attribute this success to the fact that they’re “built differently, on the simple premise that clients deserve better.” I’ll take a wager that it also has something to do with their work. If you love the agency’s work and agree with the premise that clients deserve better, then you should visit mcgarrybowen’s Careers page. Right now they have a few openings worth checking out including Digital Account Executive (New York, NY) and Social Media Specialist with PR experience (New York, NY). If mcgarrybowen keeps winning accounts, expect even more jobs to get posted. You can even anticipate this by submitting a general application here

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you like mcgarrybowen’s work?

Underground Elephant

Willy Franzen — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:42:53 +0000

Company names usually take one of two directions. They either explain exactly what the company does (i.e. Accuweather), or they tell you absolutely nothing about what the company does (i.e. Benzinga). There’s a third type that sounds totally random but actually has a significant meaning, and those tend to be my favorite. Underground Elephant is one of those names. The company is based in San Diego, CA, and they offer “a complete turnkey solution” for customer acquisition in “a wide range of vertical markets.” How is this relevant to their name? Underground Elephant plays a huge role in their clients’ businesses, yet their participation is essentially invisible to everyone but insiders.

The Elephant in the Room

If you’re not familiar with the performance marketing industry, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. How can a company that delivers tons of customers to their clients do so without being noticed? Watch this video on Underground Elephant to get a better idea of how their business works.

While what Underground Elephant does a good job of keeping a low profile when working for clients, they haven’t been able to do the same in the San Diego media. Their CEO was named a Most Admired CEO Finalist for the third consecutive year by San Diego Business Journal, and they’re also one of San Diego’s fastest growing private companies. I guess an elephant can only hide underground so long. Now that you’ve found them, you need to take a look at their Careers page. Right now they have some great openings for new or recent grads including:

There are a ton of great entry level or near entry level job opportunities at Underground Elephant, so don’t look past them. Not only does Underground Elephant look like a really cool company to work for, but they’re based in San Diego.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard bout Underground Elephant?

Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Willy Franzen — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:24:10 +0000

New Year’s Eve is a wonderful holiday for celebrating a great year past and the prospects of a great future. It’s a time that we spend with family and friends and think about how we can better ourselves. Yet for many alcohol plays a prominent role in the celebration, and the new year begins with a hangover. That’s not my style, but you’re free to have a great night however you want. Just make sure that your alcohol use doesn’t negatively affect anyone else. Most importantly, that means don’t drink and drive. That’s the message that Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been spreading since it was founded in 1980 by Candy Lightner “after her daughter, Cari, was killed by a repeat drunk driving offender.” Three decades later MADD, which has national offices in Irving, TX and Washington, DC and chapters all across the country, has made a lot of progress fighting drunk driving, but there’s a long way to go considering that there is an injury from an alcohol-related crash every minute.

Get MADD

MADD is best known for it’s work to stop drunk driving, but they also do a lot of work to prevent underage drinking and to provide victim services. The organization played an extremely prominent role in pushing for the .08 BAC limit in the U.S., and now they’re setting their sights on legislation that requires convicted drunk drivers to “blow before they go” by installing in car breathalyzers. Some criticize MADD for fudging their statistics and being part of the “alcohol prohibition lobby,” but they’re really just about saving lives. For 2012 their goal is to get U.S. drunk driving fatalities under 10,000. It’s hard to argue with that. If you like what MADD is doing, take a look at their Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for:

Court Monitoring Project Specialist (Chicago, IL)
Court Monitoring Project Specialist (St. Louis, MO)
Program Coordinator (San Diego, CA)
Program Coordinator (Los Angeles, CA)

All of these jobs require some prior experience, but they’re still worth checking out. Have a happy and safe new year!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Drive safely!

OpticsPlanet

Willy Franzen — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:25:36 +0000

When I was a kid, I had eyes like a hawk. At my best I had 20/12 vision. Then in high school things started getting blurry, and I eventually had to get contact lenses. Luckily, humans have spent a ton of time and energy in developing technology that helps us see better. Whether you want to see something really small, far away, or in the dark, there’s optical equipment that can help you out. The thing is that microscopes, binoculars, night vision goggles, and even glasses aren’t something that you buy casually–you want to buy from someone who knows his or her stuff. OpticsPlanet is a Northbrook, IL based company that employs a whole bunch of those people. They are “one of the world’s leading online retailers of a wide selection of sport optics, tactical and military gear, scientific products, hunting gear, professional grade products and eyewear.” I get excited when I get a new contact lens prescription, so I bet getting to play with some of OptcisPlanet’s offerings would make me giddy.

Seeing Is Believing

When you end up on OpticsPlanet.com, it looks like a pretty generic e-commerce site. I would have never guessed that they generated $82.6 million last year, but thats’ what the numbers from the Inc. 5000 say. They’ve also been growing at a 113% rate over the past three-years, so they must be gaining a significant share in the optics market. I found a video on their About page that gives a pretty good intro to the company, so check it out below:

If you like what you see in the video and you also like the fact that OpticsPlanet was named one of “The Chicago Tribune’s Top Workplaces,” then you have to take a look at their Careers page. Right now they have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

User Interface Designer
Communications Designer
Content Project Manager
Junior Web Developer / JavaScript
Accounts Payable Specialist
Call Center Quality Assurance
Risk Management – Order Review Agent
Search Engine Optimization Specialist
Pay Per Click Marketing Specialist
Online Marketing Specialist
Copywriter
Vendor Services Account Coordinator

There are all kinds of opportunities at OpticsPlanet, so take a really close look and see if you like what you see.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What would you get from OpticsPlanet?

Josephson Institute for Ethics

Willy Franzen — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:51:54 +0000

The job search is a vulnerable time for most people, and that results in a lot of people trying to take advantage of those who are looking for work. This makes me very angry, which is why I always do my best to stick my neck out for job seekers. I won’t hesitate to turn down sponsors who seem even a little sketchy, and I’ve put a lot of effort into exposing job scams and pushing for employers to pay their interns. I guess you could call these the ethical duties of my job, and I take them extremely seriously. Josephson Institute for Ethics is a Los Angeles, CA based non-profit organization that also takes ethics extremely seriously (in case you couldn’t tell by their name). Their mission is to “improve the ethical quality of society by changing personal and organizational decision making and behavior.”

An Ethical Choice

Josephson Institute for Ethics focuses on five core areas: Youth, Sports, Business, Public Service, and Policing. The Institute was founded by a lawyer named Michael Josephson in 1987 in honor of his parents, and it does its work by developing and delivering “services and materials to increase ethical commitment, competence, and practice in all segments of society.” Josephson Institute is a bit unique as a non-profit in that they raise money by actually selling stuff (the aforementioned services and materials). Of course they also take donations and grants to allow them to work much more broadly than for their clients (it’s kind of weird to see a non-profit’s client list, right?). One of the projects from Josephson Institute that I find most interesting is the Ethics of American Youth Survey, which shows widespread problems with “lying, cheating, bullying, and other high-risk behavior in high school students.” If you find project like this one interesting, then you should definitely take a look at Josephson Institute for Ethics’ Jobs page on Idealist (it’s way more up to date than their actual Jobs page). Right now they’re looking for a Research Assistant, an Associate Web Producer/Writer, a Program Assistant – Character Counts, and a Marketing Project Manager. These look like really interesting jobs, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you had any ethical dilemmas in your job search?

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?

Attack!

Willy Franzen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:23:54 +0000

If you’re going to plan an effective attack, you often need boots on the ground. This is obviously true in military endeavors, but it can also be true in marketing. Believe it or not, having actual people doing face to face marketing can still be remarkably effective–I’m sure you’ve even seen it on your college’s campus. When companies need temporary staff for event based or experiential marketing, they often go to San Francisco, CA based Attack! (which also has offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York). They’re yet another Inc. 5000 company, and they’ve seen 180% three-year growth to $7.9 million in annual revenue. If you’re wondering how it all works, you’ll see that it’s mostly based on skydiving sumos.

Attack!

The best way to get a better feel for what Attack! does for their clients is to look through their laundry list of Services. The biggest focus is on Nationwide Event Staffing, but they also offer Experiential Services and Field Support. If you want to see what these services actually look like in practice, then you’ll want to check out the Attack! Case Studies. You can see the work that they’ve done for brands like Nickelodeon, VISA, Jamba Juice, and Canadian Club. If you like how different Attack!’s approach to marketing is from other firms, then you’ll want to take a look at their Careers page. You’ll see that they have a few job openings right now including Producer/Project Manager (Los Angeles, CA) and Account Manager (Los Angeles, CA and San Francisco, CA). Give them a look, you might like the experience.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Attack!?

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?

Lynda.com

Willy Franzen — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:01:35 +0000

When I came across Lynda.com and their awesome job opportunities, I realized that their courses in things like Excel, Photoshop, Web Development and more could be a huge help to most job seekers. That’s why I signed up for their affiliate program to get you a 7-day free trial.

The biggest mistake that job seekers make is that they focus too much on trying to land a job and too little on improving their skills. If all you do is apply to jobs every day for 6 months, there’s a good chance that you’ll end up still unemployed and you’ll be even less attractive to employers than when you started. I know it’s counterintuitive, but most of you need to spend less time looking for jobs and more time making yourself a better candidate. There are lots of ways to do that, and one is by taking skill-specific courses. Lynda.com is a company that offers exactly that–”online software training videos that really work.” They’re based in Carpinteria, CA, and they’re yet an Inc. 500 company with 250% three-year growth to $49.9 million in annual revenue. And I’d bet that the amount that they’ve increased their users’ salaries is a lot bigger than that.

Who’s Lynda?

Lynda is a real person. Her last name is Weinman, and she’s “a Web graphics and design veteran” who co-founded Lynda.com with her husband, Bruce Heavin. Together (along with a lot of team members that had joined along the way) they’ve built Lynda.com with the goal “to make everything we know available to you to help reach your creative and career goals.” What I find interesting about the company’s business model is that they don’t charge by the course. If you sign up for a subscription to access one course, you can access all of the others for as long as you stay signed up. And these courses are good. I’ve never taken any, so I’m going on the fact that Lynda.com is used by huge names like Amazon, Google, Yale University, Apple, and Microsoft. If you like what Lynda.com is doing, then the next logical step is to check out their Careers page. They offer a number of opportunities that you might find interesting including:

Project Coordinator, Creative and Marketing
Account Services Representative
Training Production Coordinator
Video Compressionist
Video Editor
Software Engineer
UI Engineer

There are a ton of other positions posted, but Lynda.com has some pretty hefty experience requirements. You’d think that a company that is all about online learning might be more open to people who may not have 5-10 years of experience. They do allow you to submit a general application, so that may be worth a shot if none of the posted positions seem like a good fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Lynda.com? If you want to, here’s a link for a 7-day free trial.

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?

Quickparts

Willy Franzen — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:14:53 +0000

I’m headed to Atlanta for a wedding this weekend, so I decided to do a little searching for interesting companies in ATL. Pretty quickly (no pun intended) I came across Quickparts, and they stood out because I’ve never covered a business that does what they do before. The Atlanta, GA headquartered company that is “dedicated to providing [their] customers with an online e-commerce system to procure low-volume and high-volume custom manufactured parts.” What does that mean? You can upload CAD drawings for some sort of part or product to their site, and they will instantly offer a quote based on “the part geometry, the required materials, lead time, and quantity.” If the quote meets your specs, then you give them the go ahead to start manufacturing. Yes, this company actually make stuff!

Be Quick

It’s kind of mind blowing how easy it is to have a product made these days. Quickparts makes it even easier. They’ve worked with huge names like Boeing, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, General Electric, NASA, Nike, and plenty of others, so you know that they must do great work. I wish I knew more about Rapid Prototyping and Injection Molding, so that I could explain them better, but I only have experience in building web products. If you really want to dig into the ins and outs of Quickparts’ business, you should check out their Learning Center. If you like what you see, you’ll want to look at jobs at Quickparts. Right now they have a few positions that you may want to check out including Receptionist, Territory Accountant, Graphic Designer, Project Manager, Business Analyst, and Inside Sales Manager. All of the positions have some experience requirements, but they’re generally pretty light.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Quickparts?

BlueStar Energy Solutions

Willy Franzen — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:21:24 +0000

I find it weird when a company tries to convince me to use less of their product and spend less on it. That can’t be good business… or can it? It can be when you’re competing in commoditized markets with entrenched players. It’s a tactic that seems to be working for BlueStar Energy Solutions, a Chicago, IL based (just a block from me) alternative energy supply company. They already serve “customers in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland and Washington D.C,” and they’re “considering expanding [their] supply services to New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine.” They’re bringing competition to all of these markets, and they’re offering a lot more than traditional utilities–great customer service, lower prices, and a much greener approach. It should be no surprise that BlueStar Energy Solutions’ revenue continues to grow rapidly.

Get a BlueStar

I’ve heard a lot of negative things about energy deregulations, but it seems that it has opened up the market for innovators like BlueStar to really make a difference. The hard part is getting customers to switch utility companies–many people don’t even realize that they have a choice. There’s huge potential for BlueStar to have a ton of impact by helping people save money on energy while making choices that benefit the environment. If that sounds like something that you want to be a part of, then check out jobs at BlueStar Energy Solutions. Right now they have a number of positions that seem suitable for new and recent grads including Business Development – Energy Manager and Associate Project Coordinator. It looks like a really cool company to work for, and they’re located in a great neighborhood.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about BlueStar?

Museum of Food and Drink

Willy Franzen — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 14:20:07 +0000

As someone who has been a part of both a startup company (this one) and a startup non-profit (board member), I think that starting a non-profit is the more difficult of the two. It’s not all that hard to start a small organization that does good work, but to be able to fund it on a sustainable basis feels nearly impossible in the early stages. You actually need to get people to have enough faith in you and your team to give you money to achieve your mission. If you can do that, you can probably succeed. That’s why I’m excited about the Museum of Food and Drink in New York, NY. In March they held a Get-the-Ball-Rolling Fundraiser that included cooking by David Chang, Wylie Dufresne, Nils Noren, and some other big names. To get these chefs behind a cause and to get enough product donated for a $250 a plate lunch is a big accomplishment. It sounds like the dinner was a big success, which hopefully means that the Museum of Food and Drink ball is officially rolling.

Hungry Yet?

The Museum of Food and Drink is still a long way away, but the dream is big. They aim to be “nothing short of the Smithsonian of food.” I’m not sure I’d call myself a foodie, but I definitely love the art, science, and culture behind food. This museum sounds like it would be a must-visit for me–especially because “above all, when visitors come to the museum, they will eat.” There are three main goals of the Museum:

To educate everyone-from picky and apathetic eaters to gastronomes and food lovers-about the importance of culinary history and anthropology. Visitors will not only see exhibits, they will taste them.
To connect people to what they eat by explaining food production and distribution.
To encourage a widespread appreciation and understanding of lost and endangered culinary arts: recipes, techniques and regional ingredients.

It’s a massive project that is just getting started, but maybe you can be a part of it. Their website is barely anything, and there’s not much info out there about them beyond the coverage of their initial fundraiser, but they seem to have gotten a great start. Their Idealist page shows an Internship posting, but no jobs. That’s ok. Sometimes you need to “volunteer” your way in with an early stage non-profit. If you love the culture of food, a job with the Museum of Food and Drink would be a dream come true.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

MOFAD.org
Jobs at the Museum of Food and Drink (Idealist)

Would you visit the Museum of Food and Drink?

Minimal Inc.

Willy Franzen — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:58:41 +0000

There are two ways to go about your job search. You can push or you can be pulled. You can seek out companies that you want to be a part of, or you can wait passively for companies to blast their job openings out to the world. The former will lead to far more rejection, but it can be well worth it. This is why I occasionally like to cover companies that don’t appear to have any opportunities posted for new or recent grads. If they’re doing something fascinating, they’re worth looking at regardless of what they have posted. One of the coolest things that I’ve seen lately is the iPod Nano watch made by LunaTik. It’s simple, elegant, and totally awesome. Basically it’s a watch band that you can slip a 6th generation iPod Nano into–totally putting calculator watches, game watches, and every other kind of watch to shame. Not only can you tell the time and use it as a stopwatch (with a multitouch interface), but you can listen to music and track your runs with Nike+. If I didn’t hate wearing watches, I’d totally buy an iPod Nano just so that I could get one of these watches. Now, LunaTik is the brand that these watches come from, but it seems that the whole product line came out of a Chicago, IL based product design shop called Minimal Inc.. Both are founded by a guy named Scott Wilson, so they seem to be very closely related if not formally connected.

Watch Out for Minimal Inc.

The whole TikTok + LunaTik thing started when Scott Wilson saw the newest release of iPod Nanos. As the former Global Creative Director for Nike Watches he was inspired by what Apple had done, so he riffed on the design and came up with a really cool way to make the product even more functional (and achieve what watchmakers have been trying to achieve for a long time). He went to a site called Kickstarter to raise some money for the project so that he could build it out and start selling it. His goal was to raise $15,000 in 30 days, but he ended up raising nearly $1 million (making it the most successful project in Kickstarter’s history). His idea was validated, and he went to work producing watches and expanding the product line. Here’s a good video on the whole story (e-mail readers may need to click through):

Minimal Inc. is about more than just these watches, but this project is a perfect example of the kind of work that they do. They’ve designed all kinds of cool products with the same care and style that you see in TikTok + LunaTik. I have to think that the popularity of the watches may have somewhat altered the direction of the business. Like I said before, it’s unclear how intertwined Minimal Inc. and LunaTik are, but they both seem like they’d be cool to work for. Minimal does have a Jobs page (which I can’t link to because it’s a Flash site) that lists a Senior Designer position while also encouraging “talented product designers, image designers, engineers, and project managers” to “send a resume and samples to: info@mnml-jobs.com.” My guess is that things are changing quickly at Minimal, and now might be the right time to reach out to them about working for them. They also have offices in Portland and Milan, so there could be options there too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you buy one of these watches?

Seilevel

Willy Franzen — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:15:53 +0000

I often hear from readers that I don’t cover jobs in their preferred location or in their area of interest. On a day to day basis that may be true, but over the past three and a half years I’ve written about a truly wide range of companies, industries, job types, and locations. Just check out our archives to see them all. (Remember, the goal of these daily profiles isn’t just to get you to look at the company we’re featuring–it’s supposed to be a jumping off point for you to generate new ideas for your job search.) However, the companies I cover are going to be skewed towards areas with job growth, both in terms of geography and industry. Sometimes you have to move where the action is to land a job. I find that readers get most frustrated by the plethora of available software development jobs that seem completely out of reach to grads without computer science degrees. Today we’re going to try to relieve some of that frustration by looking at Seilevel, an Austin, TX based company that is “exclusively focused on IT Product Management services for Fortune 1000 companies.” They’re working hard to change the way that companies write software requirements. You may not know what that means right now, but you can learn. Just like another One Day, One Job reader who told me about Seilevel after landing a job there with no background in software development.

Above or Below Seilevel?

When I learned what Seilevel does, I immediately thought of Tom Smykowski (video clip) from the movie Office Space. He’s the “people person” who invented the “Jump to Conclusions Mat.” He was also responsible for taking specifications from customers and bringing them to software engineers. At Initech this wasn’t a very important job (which is why Smykowski was being “downsized”), but when Seilevel does it they add a ton of value. They don’t just transfer the specs from one party to another, they actually write the software requirements to ensure that the project succeeds. Their website says:

Analysts report that as many as 71 percent of software projects that fail do so because of poor requirements management, making it the single biggest reason for project failure – bigger than bad technology, missed deadlines or change management fiascoes.

In other words the needs of the customer often aren’t adequately communicated to the people who are writing the software. When so much money is being invested into an IT project, it’s essential that all parties are on the same page and that expectations are clear. This is exactly what Seilevel does. Check out that link, it will make it a lot easier to understand what they do and how they do it. And since they’re experts at aiding communication between techies and non-techies, it also seems that they’re experts at training non-techies to be techies. That’s why their Jobs page says they’re “looking for disillusioned science majors who want to learn how to become software product managers” (I think they’d still like to hear from you even if you’re not a science major.) The job description sounds awesome, and so does the company culture. They’re also hiring Software Product Managers, so check that out if you do have the Computer Science/Software Development background.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Seilevel?

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Willy Franzen — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:41:43 +0000

Ever consider a career in teaching? Here’s some info on how to get started.

There’s a long history of poking fun at Martha Stewart, and it started well before she went to prison. There’s just something funny about someone who takes perfection in domesticity as seriously as she does. My family even played an integral role in the satire of Martha with my little sister’s appearance in the parody magazine Martha Stuart’s Better Than You at Entertaining, which was a follow up to Is Martha Stuart Living? (here’s a picture my sister as young Martha Stewart in the parody). We can keep laughing at Martha Stewart, but she’ll always get the last laugh. She has an amazing track record of reaching the top in nearly everything that she has done–from babysitting for Mickey Mantle’s kids to starting a successful catering company in her basement to building a New York, NY based media empire in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Martha Stewart is apparently now worth well over half a billion dollars, and has used her personal brand to build amazing print, television, online, and merchandise properties.

Are You Living?

Whether or not you’re a Martha Stewart fan, you have to be impressed by what she’s done throughout her career. She’s had an amazing ability to stay relevant, and a lot of that has to do with her media strategy. She easily could have settled with a successful catering business, or a popular magazine, or having her own television show, but she didn’t. It seems that she is obsessed with using every channel possible to reach people with her “unique lifestyle content.” That’s what Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is all about. If you enjoy the Martha Stewart brand and want to work on the media or merchandise side, then you definitely need to take a look at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Careers page. There are some great opportunities posted in their job listings, and a few seem suitable for new or recent grads including: Assistant Food Editor, PHP Application Developer – Internet Content Management Systems, Front-End Web Developer, Decorative Pillow and Bedding Accessory Designer, Executive Assistant, Freelance Recipe Taster, Retail Merchandising Assistant, Apparel Designer – Martha Stewart Pets and Quilt Designer. You can also apply for an unlisted position if you don’t see something that suits you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you a Martha Stewart fan?

Avail-TVN

Willy Franzen — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:07:26 +0000

We’ve put together some information on how you can prepare yourself for the 500,000 teaching jobs that will be added in the U.S. over the next decade. You can find it here.

There’s no question that the way in which we consume video content is changing. It wasn’t that long ago that watching something meant sitting down in front of the television at a specific time. Now we have DVRs, On Demand, sites like Hulu, and a variety of other ways to consume content on our own schedules. This isn’t just a cultural shift; it comes as a result of (while also being a cause of) significant technological advances. One of the major companies behind this shift is Avail-TVN. They’re based in Reston, VA and they work “with every major studio and television network” to offer “a full content line up of MPEG-4 encoded live programming as well as video on demand content in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 to multichannel video providers throughout the US, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico.” I know this might be a little confusing for the non-techies out there, but the basic gist of it is that they make it possible for you to watch video over IP (internet protocol).

To Your Avail

Avail-TVN’s business is obviously complicated from a technical standpoint, but it’s also pretty complicated from a relationships standpoint. They work with over 200 content providers to secure the rights to delivering a wide range of video content, and then they have to work with a number of parties in between (ending with the cable/satellite/telco provider) to ensure that the content you want can be delivered to you in your home when you want it. I’m sure that I’m missing a lot, but that’s what I’m able to piece together from the Avail-TVN website. It seems like a fascinating business, and it appears to offer opportunities in a range of areas. Avail-TVN doesn’t have many jobs that seem like perfect fits for new or recent grads, but their Jobs page does show a couple of positions that are worth checking out like Jr. Systems Engineer (Kalispell, MT), Project Manager (Sherman Oaks, CA), and Customer Onboarding Program Manager (Sherman Oaks, CA). I also saw on LinkedIn that they recently hired a Marketing Coordinator (which is an entry level position), so you may want to reach out to them and see if there are any other positions that don’t require the type of experience that the positions I mentioned do.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you watch a lot of video on demand?

StubHub

Willy Franzen — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:52:08 +0000

It’s Opening Day! (Check out all of our baseball related jobs.) For me it’s like Christmas in April…or late March (it just doesn’t feel right when the season starts in March).I try to watch as many Yankees games as I possibly can, so my daily routine will have to change for the next 7 months. When I first moved to Chicago, I religiously used the MLB At Bat app on my iPhone to listen to games. Then I got DirecTV with MLB Extra Innings so that I could watch all of the games in HD. Now I’m using MLB.tv for viewing games on my phone, laptop, and television through an AppleTV (I’ve already watched quite a few spring training games). However, none of these compare to actually catching a game in person. Unfortunately, when the Yankees come to Chicago to play the Cubs at Wrigley this year, I’m going to be out of town. But last year when they came to play the White Sox, I was able to easily get tickets through StubHub. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that is owned by eBay and enables people to buy and sell tickets to all sorts of events.

Your Ticket to a New Job

Buying tickets on the secondary market is scary for a lot of people. I had a surprisingly good experience with a drugged out scalper in Denver (for $10 I ended up in the 3rd row, but I figured there was at least a 50% chance the ticket was counterfeit) and a terrible experience with a seemingly reputable ticket broker (my Dad bought me playoff tickets for my 13th birthday and when we showed up at the stadium the broker didn’t have them). StubHub eliminates all of the uncertainty with their FanProtect Guarantee. Even better, you can often get your tickets delivered electronically. I’ve also found that if you wait until about 3 hours before a game, you can often get tickets for well below face value (but don’t wait too long because they close ticket sales 2 hours before the game). This means that if a friend bails at the last minute, you can e-mail or text another friend the ticket. StubHub has really helped push ticketing into the 21st century. StubHub is a “middleman” that provides a ton of extra value, which is why you might want to take a look at their Careers page.

StubHub’s Jobs page dumps you into the eBay Careers site, which is a little annoying. It’s unclear whether eBay’s Campus Recruiting also covers StubHub, but you can just run a search with StubHub as the “subsidiary” to see all of the job postings at StubHub. Right now there are a few positions that seem suitable for new or recent grads including Seller Experience Associate and Sourcing Representative. (I can’t link directly to the postings because eBay uses BrassRing, which is another terrible Applicant Tracking System made by Kenexa.) The eBay Campus Recruiting page also mentions job opportunities in Information Security Engineering, Project Management, QA Engineering, Research, Software Engineering, Business Process Analysis, Business Development, and Trust and Marketing Management, but I don’t know how many (if any) of those titles would apply at StubHub.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

If you like what you see at StubHub, you may also want to check out jobs at SeatGeek.

Reader’s Digest Association

Willy Franzen — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:48:21 +0000

I must admit that I’ve never known anyone under the age of 60 to subscribe to Reader’s Digest, but I’m sure that there’s at least one college student out there with a subscription. I mean it was the top circulating consumer magazine for a long time up until 2009. They also can claim “more readers with household incomes of $100,000+ than Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Inc. combined. That means that they have some serious advertising power. Now Reader’s Digest is just one of the publications owned and operated by New York, NY based Reader’s Digest Association, which is “a global multi-brand media and marketing company that educates, entertains and connects audiences around the world.” They also have AllRecipes, Every Day with Rachel Ray, The Family Handyman, and quite a few other brands.

Make Your Grandma Proud

We typically like to look at growing companies because they tend to offer the most exciting job opportunities. But sometimes larger companies that are struggling with environmental changes that affect how they do business can offer similarly interesting opportunities. Reader’s Digest Association is in a tough spot. Their big brand, Reader’s Digest, has a dying (sorry to be morbid) subscriber base and increasing competition from web based publishers. That’s why it’s no big surprise that Reader’s Digest Association went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 after five straight years of reporting losses. Still, Reader’s Digest Association has vast resources and significant brand equity. There are certainly some bright spots in Reader’s Digest Association’s numbers. They have 90 magazine titles, worldwide readership over 100 million, 83 branded websites, and annual book, music, and video sales of more than 30 million units. Another bright spot is Reader’s Digest Association’s Jobs page–they have a lot of opportunities posted including quite a few that seem suitable for new or recent grads:

Advertising Sales Assistant – Home & Garden Group (New York, NY)
Marketing Coordinator, Reader’s Digest Ad Sales & Sponsorship Marketing (New York, NY)
Digital Coordinator / Project Management Team (Greendale, WI)
Online Food Editor – Australia Site (Seattle, WA)
Finance Leadership Development Associate (White Plains, NY)
Marketing Coordinator (Greendale, WI)
Account Manager – Home & Garden (New York, NY)

It’s hard to say what the future holds for Reader’s Digest Association, but I think that there’s a big opportunity for entry level talent to help them ensure that their brands are just as popular (or even more popular) when we become grandparents.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you know anyone under the age of 60 who subscribes to Reader’s Digest.

Global Inheritance

Willy Franzen — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:03:21 +0000

If you haven’t already taken a look at our profile on MATCH Public Charter School, now is the time to do it. They’re changing the world of education, and they’re hiring a ton of new grads.

On Friday we took a look at Voxiva, a company that uses mobile technology to help people make simple behavioral changes to improve their health. They’re a for-profit company that is using creative ways to encourage behavioral change to better the world. Global Inheritance is a non-profit that is taking a similar approach, but doing so in a very different way. The Los Angeles, CA based organization develops “unique initiatives [that] focus on the power of creativity to communicate issues with audiences that need a kick in the butt.” The audiences that they’re talking about seem to be largely those at concerts and festivals, but it could be anywhere where young people congregate (and that includes online communities).

What World Are You Inheriting?

Global Inheritance is extremely program focused. They claim to devote 98% of their time designing and executing programs (and not fundraising). These programs are typically focused on using “technology, the arts and interactivity” to reinvent “activism by inspiring people to act responsibly and make the right small every-day choices, which are the ones that matter and create change.” Global Inheritance’s programs include Energy Playground, Energy FACTory, TRASHed :: Recycling Store, TRASHed :: Art of Recycling, Tour Rider, Environmentaland, and more. Some of the programs seem a little goofy (like having Spin and Shake classes where “bike-powered blenders to generate delicious protein shakes for all participants”), but they’re certainly thought-provoking. If you’d like to get involved with Global Inheritance, then you should check out their Idealist page. Right now they’re looking to hire a Special Project Coordinator. The position starts as an unpaid internships but will turn into a paid, full-time position after a month of excellent performance.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Global Inheritance?

Voxiva

Willy Franzen — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:14:52 +0000

Looking for an entry level job in Boston, MA? MATCH might have just what you’re looking for.

If you’ve been a reader for a while, you probably know that I love using magazine lists to find interesting companies. I just found out that Fast Company released their list of Most Innovative Companies. It’s led by names like Apple, Twitter, and Facebook, but there are also some unfamiliar names on there–and that’s what we’re looking for. One of the names on the list that caught my eye was Voxiva. They’re a Washington, DC based company that delivers “interactive mobile health services.” They’ve been around since 2001, and they offer patient engagement services that “combine multiple technologies – SMS text messaging, interactive voice, email, mobile apps, devices, and the web – to support prevention and wellness, disease management, adherence, and more.”

Text4Jobs

When most people think about health care, they think about complex things like insurance, surgeries, and pharmaceuticals. These are all very important pieces of the overall health care picture, but the truth is that simple behavioral changes often offer far more benefits than most medical interventions. The trouble is that changing behavior isn’t easy; however, mobile technology is making it easier. While they do offer custom solutions, Voxiva has three core products: Text4Baby (Maternal Health), Text2Quit (Smoking Cessation), and Care4Life (Diabetes). Each of these services delivers customized messages and reminders to help individuals better address specific health issues. There’s much more to what Voxiva does, but these three services should give you a clear idea of how powerful mobile technology can be in health care. If you’re excited by Voxiva’s innovation, you should check out their Careers page. The current postings require some prior experience, but I know that they’ve had entry level jobs like Project Associate in the past.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Voxiva?

Sandbox Industries

Willy Franzen — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:51:25 +0000

99% of the graduating classes from 2004-2010 at MATCH Public Charter School in Boston, MA were accepted to four-year colleges. That’s an astounding result considering most students were performing well below grade level when they started at the school. Find out how you can be part of these success stories as a teacher or tutor.

Since I moved to Chicago in October of 2008, I’ve been getting more and more involved with the local startup scene. I’ve met a lot of cool people ranging from founders of some of the city’s most successful startups to the awesome people at Jelly Chicago (it’s a co-working group, and you should join us). One of the better events that I’ve been to was midVentures Launch. I even got to introduce myself to the guy who makes me feel bad every time I go to the gym because he a) always seems to be there no matter when I go b) is always doing ridiculously difficult workouts. That may seem completely irrelevant, but it turns out that he’s a Project Manager at Sandbox Industries, which is a Chicago, IL based venture capital firm. They have three distinct areas of focus: their incubator, the Sandbox Venture Fund, and the BlueCross BlueShield Venture Fund. As I was doing my daily browsing for interesting opportunities, I came across some postings from Sandbox Industries, so I figured that it was time to take a closer look at them.

Play in the Sandbox

From what I’ve seen, Sandbox Industries is extremely hands-on with their portfolio companies, so they’re not just looking to make smart investments. Sandbox Industries devotes significant resources towards ensuring that the companies in their portfolio become successful. They do this by “combining creativity with world-renowned managerial experience and an eite network of business contacts, resources, and expertise.” The best way to get a feel for Sandbox Industries’ investing philosophy is to take a look at their portfolio. Some of the standouts include: Marbles, a store that helps you improve brain fitness; FeeFighters, a company that helps other businesses lower payment fees; Phreesia, the national leader in patient check-in; and BookYap, a book discovery site. The investments may seem all over the place, but they’re actually based on a strict set of principles. If you’re intrigued by the world of venture capital, but you’re more interested in building businesses than buying pieces of businesses, then Sandbox Industries might be the place for you. Their Careers page shows that they’re looking for a Junior Ruby on Rails Developer, but I also found internships in Social Media Marketing and Content Writing. Looking at Sandbox Industries’ Team page might also help you identify other potential opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of Sandbox Industries’ startups is most interesting to you?

Alloy Media + Marketing

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

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

Be Part of an Alloy

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Alloy Media + Marketing?