Back when I was about 13, I ran a music related website. I designed it myself, and it led to quite a few other web design projects (and they paid very well for a high schooler). If you built web pages, you were a web designer, and that was it. Now, it’s called web development, and it’s been fragmented into quite a few different areas. One of the areas that is getting the most attention these days is User Experience/Interaction Design. As a larger percentage of our life is lived on the Web, how we interact with web sites becomes more and more important. Creating a good user experience leads to more users, more sales, and higher levels of engagement. But you don’t need to tell that to the people at EffectiveUI in Denver, CO. They already know all about this stuff. They stake their reputation on one thing: “delivering superior user experiences that exceed expectations and drive valuable outcomes.” They must be doing that, because Inc. Magazine has them with a 694% three-year growth rate to $15.9 million in annual revenue.
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Sponsored Job: Bluewolf is back because they love One Day, One Job readers! They’re a company that helps some of the world’s largest companies leverage technology for better business outcomes. Their Downtown San Francisco office is hiring accomplished grads from all majors for their Inside Sales Account Manager Training Program to call on C level executives for their IT Staffing and Managed Service offerings. If you’re high energy, dynamic, and have great interpersonal skills, check out the job description here (PDF file), and then apply here.
Happy Election Day! If you want my take on the political process, you should read my post from Election Day 2008 when I took a look at jobs at The Onion. Today we’re going to take a slightly more serious approach by focusing on Omaha, NE based Election Systems & Software. That means that we’re taking a break from the Inc. 500 today, but it makes sense. Election Systems & Software is the largest manufacturer of voting machines in the United States—they “serve four countries, 41 states with more than 4,000 election offices and three states for business services.” In other words, if you vote today, there’s a good chance that you’ll do it on an Election Systems & Software machine.
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Believe it or not, we’ve actually covered a fair number of entry level employers in Utah, but I think today’s company might have the most personality of them so far. Neutron Interactive is a Salt Lake City based interactive agency that is taking online business to the next level. Neutron Interactive is an Inc 500 company that has grown 812% over the past three years. Their annual revenue was $9.5 million last year, so they’re quite big when compared to many of the other interactive agencies that also made the list.
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Yesterday we talked about one way that brick and mortar businesses are catching up with their online counterparts, and today we’re going to dig deeper into how the Internet is changing the landscape for local businesses. In the past we’ve look at companies like Yelp, Groupon, Yext, and even Google that help local businesses do a better job of marketing themselves. Today we’re going to take a look at Demandforce, a San Francisco, CA based company that helps “service businesses thrive in the Internet economy.” How do they do this? Demandforce provides software-as-service that transforms a business’ customers into a powerful social network. By encouraging referrals and reviews from existing customers, the software helps attract new customers. While it also helps businesses retain existing customers by making it easy to stay in touch with them.
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Did you know that you can get Amazon Prime for free
if you’re a college student? That means unlimited, free two-day shipping on everything you buy.
For the past couple of months we’ve been including more numbers than usual in our daily posts—things like three-year growth rates and annual revenues. Since we’ve been looking mostly at companies on the Inc. 500, we figure that it’s useful information. If simple numbers like those intimidate you, then today’s company is definitely not for you. However, if your response to our daily posts is to seek out more numbers and dig into annual reports and other similar documents, then you’re in luck. MCG is a Providence, RI based company that does mathematical, statistical, and strategic consulting. Their motto is “Nothing is too complex.” The first person listed on their Management Team page is their Chief Analytics Officer, so that should tell you a lot about MCG’s focus. And I almost forgot—MCG has grown at an 834.4% rate over the past three years to $2.2 million in revenue (they were only founded in 2006).
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When you send an e-mail to a friend, you just assume that they will get it. If they claim they never saw it, you probably have a friend who is ignoring you. But if you’re like me and running a business that relies on sending a quarter of a million e-mails per month, then e-mail delivery is a slightly bigger issue. It’s not something that you can just do from Gmail or whatever e-mail provider you use. You need a paid provider that specializes in delivering e-mails for business. We’ve already looked at jobs at companies like Aweber, Constant Contact, E-Dialog, and ExactTarget, but today we’re going to look at Durham, NC based iContact. Once again they’re an Inc 500 company, and they have seen 848% three-year growth to $26.5 million in revenue. They’ve done it all by offering a simple e-mail marketing solution that allows businesses to reach their customers’ inboxes.
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Usually when we’re talking about mobile technology it’s sexy stuff—iPhones, iPads, Androids, Kindles, and similar devices that run amazing applications. But there’s a whole world of mobile that isn’t quite as exciting, and sometimes it might even tick you off. While you’re busy using mobile apps to connect with friends, find great restaurants, and play games, the police officer that just noticed your illegally parked car is using a mobile app to write you a ticket. I know it doesn’t sound that great, but it is if you’re working at Brazos Technology in College Station, TX. They “extend public safety software applications to mobile environments for organizations with widespread mobile employees,” and they’re making a lot of money doing it. They came in at #293 on the Inc. 500 with 1,026% three-year revenue growth to $3.4 million.
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I’ve been watching a lot of Mad Men on Netflix lately, and I’m almost through the first season. It’s pretty cool to see what an ad agency looked like 50 years ago, since things seem to be changing pretty rapidly now. Obviously, drinking and smoking are out at work, but what’s way more interesting is how many upstarts are taking on big name clients. Yes, the old guard is still going strong, but companies like The1stMovement, which was founded in 2006, are tearing it up. They’re based in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO, and they’ve seen 1,077% three-year growth to $2.3 million in annual revenue. They are a full-service digital advertising agency, and they actually admit to putting a mastery of technology before creativity. Sometimes the medium is more important than the art, and that definitely seems to be the case when it comes interactive advertising.
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Liquidity can be a big issue in college. Your parents gave you money for food, but it’s all in the form of “meals” at the dining hall. As far as I know, there’s no market for converting these meals into cash, so you’re stuck on campus with the same slop that you’ve been eating daily for past 7 weeks. In the real world, liquidity can be a much bigger issue. There are plenty of people who are millionaires on paper but can’t pay their bills because all of the assets they hold are illiquid or hard to sell quickly. SecondMarket is a New York City and Palo Alto, CA based company that provides the largest secondary market for illiquid assets. In other words they help buyers find sellers and sellers find buyers for a variety of financial products. It’s not like eBay where you can turn Pez dispensers into cash—it’s for serious financial instruments that just don’t have thriving markets like publicly traded stocks do. SecondMarket is yet another Inc. 500 company—they came in at #270 with 1,156% three-year growth to $35 million in annual revenue.
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Thanks to all of you who wished me a happy birthday. It’s great hearing from readers! And if you didn’t e-mail me, why not take a few minutes to let me know why you love One Day, One Job or how I can make it better. Just hit reply.
I moved to a new apartment two weeks ago, but I’ve been forced to work out of my local Starbucks since then because AT&T likes to make you wait a couple of weeks until they install your Internet. It was fun watching people stop in as part of their morning routine, and I also ran into a few friends who apparently frequent this particular Starbucks (I had no idea). And I got offered a job. Some CEO saw that I was reading SEOmoz’s Blog, and asked if I did SEO. When I told him yes, he asked if I needed a job. I obviously said no, but I did give him my card. There are two points to this story. The first is that serendipity can happen in the job search, but nobody is going to offer you a job if they see you browsing Monster.com at Starbucks. You need to be working on something interesting and valuable. People will notice, and they’ll want to hire you. The second is that this guy has some needs at his company, which happens to be #262 on the Inc. 500. The company is named Cellit, and it’s based here in Chicago, IL. They provide “mobile solutions to all by combining world-class customer service and marketing know-how with engineering expertise.” And they must be doing it well—they’ve seen 1,187% growth over the past three years to $2.5 million in revenue.
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I’ve been a Mac user since the early 90s. No joke. I remember the days of trading floppy disks with shareware on them back before the Internet. There weren’t a lot of Mac users, so we had to band together. In fact, I used an Apple IIe before I had a Macintosh, so I’ve been through all of the ups and downs with Apple. It’s a great feeling to walk into a college library and see more Macs than PCs. Even when I was here at Cornell, PCs were still dominant with college kids. Obviously the Internet along with the insane growth of Apple’s market share has made Mac software way easier to find, but Apple still doesn’t have an “app store” for programs to run on your desktop/laptop. That’s where MacUpdate comes in. They are “the number one, Mac-only software website on the Internet.” They not only make it easy to find great software for your Mac, but they also have software that automates updates to third-party applications.
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One of the wonderful things about running this site is all of the reader e-mails that I get. Some of my favorites are from readers who have had success stories about jobs they’ve landed through the site, but I also love it when you guys introduce me to companies or organizations that I haven’t heard of. One reader recently wrote me to recommend The Urban Institute, where he had been temping. It’s a Washington, DC based non-profit that does “nonpartisan economic and social policy research.” They were founded in 1968 in response to President Johnson’s call for “independent nonpartisan analysis of the problems facing America’s cities and their residents,” and they now work in all 50 states and in more than 28 countries.
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So, yesterday we looked at a creative/interactive agency called Modea. Apparently interactive media is a good place to be, because The Visionaire Group, which is based in Los Angeles, CA, also made the Inc. 500. They reached $5 million in annual revenue last year, and they’re doing it with “websites, banner advertising, and application development.” The Visionaire Group seems less focused on offering a full-range of services, and more focused on doing a few things well. Their website consists of only a home page, but it will give you an idea of what kind of work they do.
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Believe it or not, after three years I’m still running a one-man show here at One Day, One Job/Internship. I do all the design, web development, marketing, business development, writing, SEO, and everything else that it takes to run the business. I can’t even imagine how nice it would be to have an agency or in-house team of specialists—you know, people who actually are experts in the given field—work on some of the stuff for me. Even though we’re profitable, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. But if it was, I might consider using Modea. They are a Blacksburg, VA based “digital services agency” that creates “results-driven digital content and campaigns for a diverse group of recognizable consumer brands.” Ok, maybe One Day, One Job isn’t a recognizable consumer brand quite yet, but one day (one job). I’m still running through the Inc. 500, and Modea came in at #221 with 1335% three-year growth to $3.5 million in revenue.
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Usually when a company has a weird name and no website of their own, you start to think that they may be some kind of entry level scam. Not having a home page for you company is a big warning sign; however, I’m not too worried about Quidsi. They’re a Jersey City, NJ company that made it to the Inc. 500 with 1535% three-year growth to $182.5 million in annual revenue. That’s two orders of magnitude great than most of the other Inc. 500 companies we’ve looked at. As far as I can tell, it’s all coming from two businesses—Diapers.com and Soap.com. Both are retail sites that allow you to buy household goods easily online. Although I’m sure there are a lot of other reasons for their success, you have to think that Quidsi has truly reaped the benefits of owning some top notch domain names.
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Want to be able to bring your dog to work? Nestle Purina is the place to do that. They’re our sponsor this week, and they have some great entry level career opportunites.
If you’ve been paying any attention to the Inc. 500 companies that we’ve been featuring over the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed that the way people work is changing. The Internet is not only changing business models, but it’s also changing day to day operations. One good example is software like Central Desktop. They’re a Pasadena, CA that offers “a complete, pure Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) social technology platform that allows business teams to communicate and collaborate more efficiently.” In other words, they enable people to work together more efficiently even if they’re on opposite ends of the world. It’s another growing business area, as Central Desktop has seen 1569% three-year growth to $2.6 million in annual revenue. There’s certainly money in helping people get work done more effectively.
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There’s a good chance that your pets love Nestle Purina, and we do too since they’re sponsoring One Day, One Job this week! Check out our post on them and their awesome entry level jobs.
As I’ve been ripping through the Inc. 500 in search of awesome, fast growing companies that are hiring new or recent grads, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of companies with similar business models. Insurance is big. So is credit card processing. Recruiting is surprisingly robust, and so is SEO/Online/Affiliate Marketing. Another area that is extremely hot is cloud storage. Two weeks ago we looked at ShareFile, and today we’re going to look at Palo Alto, CA based Box.net. They have similar offerings that allow business to simply and securely share files. Although ShareFile has been growing a little faster, Box.net has seen 1,822.3% three-year growth and actually has higher annual revenues at $5.1 million. The other difference is that it seems that ShareFile focuses more on the exchange of files, while Box.net seems to put a bigger emphasis on offering a full content management system.
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Nestle Purina is sponsoring One Day, One Job this week! Check out our post on them and their awesome entry level job opportunities for animal lovers.
Yesterday we talked about search engine optimization and how powerful it can be for driving new customers to businesses. Today we’re going to talk about Genius.com, a San Mateo, CA based company that helps businesses make the most of the leads that they get. Their software as a service solution provides “a complete sales and marketing solution including: email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, website tracking, instant alerts, and closed-loop reporting capabilities to manage and qualify sales leads, shorten sales cycles, drive revenues and prove marketing ROI.” Yes, there are some buzzwords there, but Genius.com seems to be delivering on their promise—they’ve managed to increase their revenue by 1,842% over the past three years to $3 million.
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This is a sponsored post for Nestle Purina.
Who else thinks there aren’t enough pets in college? I understand that college students are often stressed, busy, and living in places where animals aren’t permitted, but I’d like to see more pets on campus. My roommates and I had a cat, a bird, a hamster, and an occasionally visiting dog—all of which our landlord didn’t quite know about. We knew we weren’t supposed to have them, but the excitement that the animals constantly brought to the house made it well worth the risk of a $500 fine. I know a few people who decided to get a cat or dog after graduating from college, but most held back because they didn’t know if their work schedule would allow them to give their pets the care that they would need. This isn’t a problem at Nestle Purina, a St. Louis, MO based company (with dozens of other locations) that is a “leader in the pet products industry.” Not only do they offer a pet-friendly workplace, but they also offer a work environment where you’ll be “dedicated to improving the lives of cats and dogs through quality nutrition and care.” You’re probably familiar with a number of Nestle Purina’s brands including Pro Plan, Purina ONE, Dog Chow, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Beggin’ Strips and many more—and I hope your pets are too.
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Judging from my Google Analytics stats, you most likely found One Day, One Job through Google. Beyond content development (writing these posts every day), one of my biggest business priorities is search engine optimization (SEO). If I make it easy for college students to find this site through search engines, then I’ve overcome one of the biggest challenges that an online business faces—reaching new customers/users. SEO can be extremely valuable for all kinds of businesses, which is why it shouldn’t be a surprise that a company like New York City based Conductor has been able to grow at a 1859% rate over the past three years to $10.4 million in revenue. They are an SEO technology company that works with “more than 250 of the Fortune 500 and Internet Retailer 500… to continually measure, improve and manage their natural search efforts in order to increase site traffic and revenue.” The great thing about SEO is that it’s an investment that pays dividends over the long term, so it’s an area that should only continue to grow over the next decade (unless Google decides to really mess with us).
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Back in the early days of the Internet—when I was a teenage webmaster—one of the best ways to get people to your site was through things called webrings. You and other webmasters who had similar sites would agree to send each other traffic through a simple interface that each webmaster posted on his or her site. Browser who used the webring would get a random walk across a small corner of the Internet. As the Internet has evolved and Google has gotten really good at giving us what we’re looking for, randomness has fallen out of the online experience. StumbleUpon is a San Francisco based company that is bringing randomness back. They’re a social network and “discovery engine that finds the best of the web, recommended just for you.” When you click the “Stumble” button, you’ll never quite know where you’re going to end up, but it will be relevant to your interests and recommended by the greater StumbleUpon audience.
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When you think of optimizing your investments, you probably think about asset allocation, picking the right stocks, getting a better interest rate, and other things related to your personal finances. But what about spending $27 on a job search course that will help you get a job and start making money faster? Let’s say that you’re going to make $800 a week (that’s a pretty decent entry level salary). The things that you learn in the course help you get a job two weeks earlier than you would have otherwise. You just turned $27 into $1600. You couldn’t have done that in the stock market, but how do you know that your investment will pan out? You can’t. You have to take a risk. At worst, you spent $27. But what if you’re a huge business? You can’t just make guesses—you need to know that your maximizing your return on investment. That’s why huge companies like Microsoft, Novell, and EMC use Lattice Engines. They’re a San Mateo, CA based company (with offices in New York City and Boston) that “provides analytic solutions that help customers maximize their return on sales and marketing investments.”
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As the beach volleyball season winds down, I’m starting to spend more time in the gym. Last Wednesday I did a leg workout that was heavy on box jumps, and today is the first day that I’m not feeling sore from it. That’s the sign of a good workout, but it’s also a sign that I need to spend even more time in the gym. I might even want to try some of the TRX Suspension Training products from San Francisco, CA based Fitness Anywhere. The company was founded in 2004 by Randy Hetrick, a former Navy SEAL who had developed some product ideas out of the necessity for training methods that could be used while on a mission without access to gym equipment—stuff you can do anywhere. As the company has evolved, they have grown to “deliver world-class training products and exercise programs for the serious athletes, fitness professionals, first responders and the US military.” You might recognize the names of some of the athletes who use Fitness Anywhere’s products—they include Drew Brees, Jamie Moyer (the dude is 47 and playing Major League Baseball), Carmelo Anthony, and Bob Harper from The Biggest Loser.
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When you do get a job (you will, I promise), you’ll likely face some new information technology frustrations. Even if you are the master of your computing domain, you’ll realize that the systems that most companies have set up are kind of quirky. Take e-mail for example. You’ll probably find that you can’t send a large attachment through e-mail—which is an absolute necessity for many jobs—because the e-mail system won’t permit it. ShareFile is a Raleigh, NC based company that fixes this exact problem. They offer the “perfect solution for any type of business that needs to transfer large files or sensitive data.” ShareFile has obviously found a market in need, as they have seen 2,408.1% growth to $4.3 million in revenue. It’s a simple fix to a common IT problem that companies face, and they seem to have crafted an elegant solution that works in a business environment.
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Yesterday AT&T decided to e-mail their customers and ask for feedback in a centralized location: their Facebook page. It didn’t go quite as planned, as an “angry mob” was forced to “Like” the page before they could actually leave their rants. If you want to see the bloodbath for yourself, you can take a look at AT&T’s Facebook page. We all know that customer service is never an easy task; however, it’s become much more difficult to manage as the Internet has grown. Ten or twenty years ago, you had to write a letter or make a call to complain. Most people wouldn’t take the effort, so companies could manage feedback pretty well. Now most companies get feedback online, and they are often faced with more information than their staff can reliably read. That’s where Clarabridge comes in. They’re #101 on the Inc. 500, and they offer text mining software that helps companies with “customer experience management.” That means that Clarabridge, which is based in Reston, VA, enables companies to process tons of feedback with way less manpower.
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I’m big on brand advocacy. I’m not just constantly plugging brands like Bonobos, Gilt Groupe, and Groupon because they have awesome referral programs (which they do). I plug them because I’ve always had great experiences with them, and I know that they’re perfect for recent grads who are in the job market. Word of mouth marketing works well enough when it happens organically, but it really takes off when you give it a little push (like a referral program). SwarmBuilder is a Salt Lake City, UT based company that works “with Brands, Retailers and Member Organizations to build audiences of sales influencers and convert them into active armies of engaged Brand Advocates.” SwarmBuilder does this with three platforms: 3point5.com (for retail sales professionals), Promotive.com (for Pros, “Bros” and other VIPs), and BrandRiot.com (for vocal web collaborators). Each of these platforms enables its targeted audience to connect with brands and learn about their products while being incentivized to spread the word.
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Just because you’re broke and looking for a job doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. Use Groupon to get awesome deals from local businesses. Who doesn’t like having fun at half the price?
Now that the holiday weekend is over, let’s get back to running through the Inc. 500 in our search for exciting entry level career opportunities. Today we’re going to talk about WiFi. Chances are that you’re using it to read this right now. When I started college, most people didn’t even have Wi-Fi. By the time I graduated it was in every off campus apartment. Now the idea of plugging in to an Internet connection means that you either have an ancient computer or you’re staying at one of those annoying hotels that forces you to plug in and then charges you $19.95 for a day of Internet access. There are a few other bastions of wired Internet left, and they’re often left that way because implementing large scale Wi-Fi networks isn’t easy. Having a single router plugged into a cable modem is basically a no-brainer, but offering uninterrupted Wi-Fi across a huge office building, conference center, or other large structure isn’t so easy. That’s where Xirrus comes in. They are a Thousand Oaks, CA based company that is aiming to “unwire the Enterprise with Wi-Fi that performs like a wired network.”
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Most people see insurance as a good thing. I see it as more of a necessary evil. The truth is that the large majority of people are losing money when they’re paying for insurance. Insurers wouldn’t take on your policy if it wasn’t going to be profitable for them. You’d be amazed at how good insurance companies are at predicting risks, which is why their business operations are so largely skewed towards getting new customers. Ever wonder why GEICO, Allstate, State Farm, and other auto insurers are so aggressive with their advertising? It’s because if you sign up, they’re going to make money. This means that generating leads for insurance companies is a huge business, and that’s why Seattle, WA based QuoteWizard came in at #36 on the Inc. 500 this year with 5,950.5% three-year revenue growth. They provide a simple online tool to help consumers find the best quotes for Auto Insurance, Home Insurance, Renter/Condo Insurance, Health Insurance, and Life Insurance. By organizing and presenting information in a simple way, QuoteWizard is able to generate a ton of leads for insurance companies—and for every lead they generate, they get paid.
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I’m a big fan of location based networks. I’ve been using Foursquare since last July, but I have to admit that I’m getting a little bored of it. Facebook Places seems somewhat interesting, but it’s more because most of your friends already have accounts. If I’m going to be motivated to keep checking into places, I need an incentive. Foursquare occasionally gets me something for free, but the gaming element of the service seems like an afterthought. That’s why I was excited to check out SCVNGR when a reader recommended them as a company to feature. They’re based in Boston, MA, and their focus is on getting people to do challenges at specific places and share what they’ve done with friends. Their go to example is making tin-foil origami out of the wrapper from a burrito place and then uploading a picture of it, but I’ll bet that it can get way more interesting than that. For instance, anyone can build a set of challenges and treks with rewards on SCVNGR—I could take the Cornell Daily Sun’s list of 161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do and turn it into a SCVNGR trek. Maybe I could even team up with a sponsor to reward people who knock off certain items on the list. SCVNGR seems like a really fun way to learn about cool things to do and then share what you’re doing with friends. I can definitely see this taking off—maybe I’ll make a trek for getting a job.
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Massachusetts,
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social networking,
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video games,
web development
There are a lot of things that you can do to get by during the job search when money is tight. You can get a temporary job, you can do consulting, you can live with your parents, you can sell your blood, and you can even collect cans for the deposit money. But if you’re desperate for cash, you might as well start out with low hanging fruit. There’s a good chance that you have outdated electronics lying around your apartment or house. Maybe it’s a first generation iPhone or a video game system that you never play anymore. Why not sell it? You don’t even have to go to some sketchy neighborhood to find a pawn shop or meet some stranger from Craigslist. You just need to use Gazelle, a Boston based company that provides “a practical, responsible, rewarding way for consumers to get value for used electronics.” The are the “nation’s largest reCommerce company,” and they keep growing—they’re #24 on the Inc 500 list with a 7,119.7% three-year growth rate.
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Massachusetts,
recycling,
seo,
software development,
web development
