One Day, One Job » strategy

GREE

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

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

They’re Huge in Japan

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

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you play any GREE games?

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?

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?

Hill Holliday

Willy Franzen — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:52:54 +0000

I have to admit that I’m a little bummed that the holiday weekend is over. Since it’ll be a solid 2 months until we get another one, we’re going to have to make do with Hill Holliday. They’re a full-service advertising, marketing, and communications agency with presences in Boston, MA; New York, NY; and Greenville, SC. It all started in Boston in 1968 as Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc., and now it’s a firm of more than 800 employees with some really big name clients including Dunkin’ Donuts, Major League Baseball, Anheuser Busch, CVS, Liberty Mutual, Bank of America, and more. Unless you are a total hermit, there’s almost no way that you wouldn’t recognize at least some of their work.

Another Holliday!

Whenever I look at advertising or marketing agencies, the first thing that I do is look at their work. Hill Holliday’s work is super impressive, and there’s a ton of it to look at. At first I though there were only a few pieces, but then I noticed the slider at the top of the page that lets you browse everything that they’ve done by client. One of my favorites has to be Brian Wilson’s Beard. If you’re digging Hill Holliday’s portfolio, then you’re in luck, because they also appear to be an awesome place to work. In 2010 they were named #1 in the “Boston Globe 100 Top Places to Work.” That’s why you should check out Hill Holliday’s Careers page, and then dive into their job postings. They have a bunch of opportunities for new or recent grads including Junior Studio Designer (Boston, MA), Administrative Assistant (Boston, MA), Front End Developer (Boston, MA), Jr. Flash Animator/Developer (Boston, MA), and Junior Media Buyer (New York, NY). There are a bunch more positions that require a little more experience, so you may want to check those out too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Hill Holliday?

Ahkun

Willy Franzen — Sun, 15 May 2011 14:08:43 +0000

The last century or so has been all about mass produced goods. Everybody wants what everyone else has. If all your friends had a Chinpokomon, then you’d want one too. That’s starting to change. More and more people are interested in handcrafted, bespoke goods. Consumerism is changing, albeit slowly. Additionally, more and more people are looking to do good when they make purchases. Whether it’s wearing a Livestrong bracelet or TOMS Shoes, people like showing off their inner “do gooder.” Ahkun is a New York, NY based non-profit that serves the intersection of these two consumer trends. They “work with entrepreneurs who have received microloans” by connecting “them to the global marketplace–creating sustainable businesses and closing the gap between microfinance lenders and borrowers, consumers and producers.” In other words, Ahkun allows you to buy handmade goods from people who are doing their part to grow developing economies.

Ahkun Means Thank You

It’s cool enough to get a hand knitted scarf or hand sewn dress made by some hipster in Brooklyn, but it’s even cooler to get a scarf made by a woman who is helping to build her community in Cambodia. Even in a most selfish act like buying something for yourself, you can do good because of the power of Ahkun. They’re a very new non-profit, and they’re only in the early stages of working with entrepreneurs who have been funded through Kiva, but there’s a ton of promise here. They’re not explicitly hiring full-time, but most early stage non-profits aren’t. They do have unpaid internships posted on Idealist in Outreach and Partnerships, Strategy and Marketing, and Development and Fundraising. Maybe you can start a conversation with them about a bigger, more permanent role. You’d have to be able to offer a lot of value early on, but it’s worth a shot.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you buy something from Ahkun?

Better Place

Willy Franzen — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:08:32 +0000

Sponsored Job: Marathon Building Services is a Gaithersburg, MD based company that offers construction cleaning services. They’re currently looking for new and recent grads to join as Sales Representatives to help them grow their business. If you’re interested, send a résumé to Meredith Berlin at hr@movementtechnologies.com.

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone but an oil executive who isn’t excited at the prospect of electric cars. Yet, the only ones that I’ve seen on the road are from Tesla Motors, and those are few and far between. The problem is two-fold. First, the technology is just getting to the point where it’s actually reasonable to have an electric car as your everyday automobile. Second, the infrastructure for charging electric cars away from home is nearly non-existent. Better Place is a Palo Alto, CA based company that is working to change this. They “build and operate the infrastructure and systems to optimize energy access and use” for electric vehicles, so that they can achieve their mission of “accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation.” They have a long road ahead of them, but they’ve already made a big impact.

Better Jobs

When we think about fueling our cars, we automatically think of gas stations. Many assume that charging an electric vehicle will be similar, but that’s not necessarily true. Better Place is working on all of the potential options for battery charging. These include home charging stations, battery exchange, and charging networks. Because electricity can be transported so easily, the need for a gas station like system will probably fade. (The only question is where we’ll stop for bathroom breaks and Doritos.) Better Place is working on all fronts to make electric vehicles “affordable to buy, easy to use, and amazing to own.” Beyond charging solutions they’re also developing driver services and network software that will deliver increasing benefits as more people go electric. Better Place is even working with international standardization bodies to ensure that market fragmentation doesn’t slow the adoption of electric vehicles. If you want to be part of the transition to sustainable transportation, then it’s time to take a look at Better Place’s jobs. At first look it seems that their positions are either internships or require too much experience, but the Knowledge Management Associate Internship actually looks more like an entry level job. The descriptions for the year-long Market Development and Product Strategy positions also look pretty serious, so maybe you could take one of them and turn it into a full-time job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Better Place?

Vodori

Willy Franzen — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 17:32:00 +0000

I’ve met a lot of awesome people since I moved to Chicago–many through the local startup scene and many others through playing volleyball. What’s great about constantly meeting new people is that they often introduce me to new companies. One of the companies that a couple of my volleyball friends work for is called Vodori. They’re a Chicago, IL based full-service digital agency, and they do some killer work. The best example is their own site, which they just redesigned. It looks amazing, it conveys a clear message, and it’s super engaging. It not only makes you want to hire them, but it also makes you want to work for them. They even have a section on their site that shows how many pages they’ve published, pixels they’ve pushed, cups of coffee they’ve drank, miles they’ve biked, Whole Foods lunches they’ve eaten, and languages they’ve spoken.

Hipsters and Nerds and Suits, OH MY!

Vodori breaks their services down into three categories: Technology, Strategy, and Creative. In other words they have “hipsters, nerds, and suits ready to meet your goals.” When you bring those three together, you get a complete, unified marketing message that makes sense to customers. Some of Vodori’s client include Abbott, USG, and LifeFitness, and you can take a look at Vodori’s portfolio of case studies here. Still, I think the best example of their work is Vodori’s own website. That’s why you should go check it out and let it convince you that you want to work for them. You can meet their team and look at their job openings, but more importantly you can get a feel for who they are, how they work, and what they do on a daily basis. Right now they’re looking for a Content Manager, a Strategy Analyst, a Front End Developer, a Java Developer, and a Platform Engineer. The perks sound awesome (a half-day every ten days is my favorite), so get on it!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Vodori’s newly designed site?

Corporate Executive Board

Willy Franzen — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:15:02 +0000

As someone who started a bootstrapped business straight out of college, I’ve had to rely on free resources to learn the tricks of the trade. Sites like Hacker News, SEOmoz, Mixergy have been invaluable to me. But you can only get so much for free. Fortune 500 companies often spend many millions of dollars to ensure that their executives are well informed and well advised. One place that 80% of Fortune 500 companies go for advice is The Corporate Executive Board. They are an Arlington, VA based company that helps “senior executives at the world’s leading organizations… and their teams with actionable insights, analytic tools, and advisory support to quickly and confidently focus efforts on what they need to know, and do, next.” The Corporate Executive Board spun off from The Advisory Board Company (they focus only on healthcare and higher education) in 1997 and has since IPO’d.

Hop On Board

The Corporate Executive Board may sound like a consulting firm (and they do some consulting), but they have a somewhat unique model. Companies pay an annual membership fee to The Corporate Executive Board, and this allows them to access CEB’s resources. The beauty of this model is that member companies also share information with The Corporate Executive Board, so there’s a network effect–the advice that they provide gets better as more members join. The Corporate Executive Board’s services focus on a wide range of areas that include: Communications, Corporate Finance, Corporate Strategy, Customer Service, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal and Compliance, and Sales and Marketing, with additional offerings tailored to the Financial Services, Government, and Midsized sectors. With an eye to these areas, CEB helps executives manage six key challenges:

Assessing Key Performance Trends and Risks
Organizing and Managing Critical Talent
Benchmarking Performance and Plans
Establishing Innovative Operating Approaches
Driving Alignment and Support for Change
Navigating Leadership Transitions

If you’re fascinated by large corporations and how they work, then The Corporate Executive Board would be an excellent place to start your career. I know that they do a lot of on-campus recruiting, but that all happened in the fall. Luckily, CEB has more than 100 jobs posted on their Careers page, and many of them can be considered entry level. Unfortunately, TheCorporate Executive Board’s Jobs site doesn’t allow me to link directly to specific postings. You should start looking at their undergraduate opportunities here, and then move on to their full job listings here. Their locations include Washington, DC; San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; Needham, MA; Rochester, NY; Scottsdale, AZ; West Chester, NY; Toronto, Canada; London, UK; New Delhi, India; Singapore; and Sydney, Australia.

The Corporate Executive Board has two heavy concentrations when it comes to job opportunities. One is positions that help them put out their products and services. The other is positions that help them sell memberships. Makes sense. You’ll want to look for job titles like Research Analyst, Sales Specialist, Web Designer, Member Support Associate, Meetings Associate, Market Research Specialist, Data and Tools Analyst, Business Development Associate, Business Analyst, Associate – Learning & Development Team, Analyst, Account Management Associate, Account Administrator, Quantitative Analyst, Online Community Specialist, Junior Sales Executive, and lots more. And if you’re looking for another way to catch the eye of the folks at The Corporate Executive Board, you may want to check out their Case Competition that just opened up. It looks like a great way to win a scholarship and possibly get a job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about The Corporate Executive Board?

iContact

Willy Franzen — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:54:56 +0000

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.

iContact Them for a Job

A lot of people think that social networking is replacing e-mail, but it’s just not true. I find that when I send people Facebook messages it’s not nearly as likely to receive a response as a simple e-mail. There’s a reason that I’ve built much of my business on having an e-mail list—it’s a great way to keep people engaged. Just think about Groupon and Gilt Groupe—they’ve built huge businesses really quickly by leveraging e-mail effectively. If you want to get into the e-mail game, then you should check out jobs at iContact. They have a ton of job openings, and a few seem right for new or recent grads including iContact Labs Software Architect, Associate – Business/Finance Analysis, Small Business Sales Representative, Pre-Sales Representative, Partner Development Specialist, Administrative Assistant – Sales Department, Outbound Lead Generation Rep, Pay-Per-Click (Paid Search) Analyst, and Corporate/Business Strategy Associate. There are lots of options, so check them out and see what gets you excited.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you receive any e-mails sent by iContact

Lloyd’s of London

Willy Franzen — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:17:19 +0000

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I still have a lot of Inc. 500 companies to look over as I try to find you all jobs; in fact, I haven’t even reached #50 yet. I’ve passed up quite a few companies that look interesting, but don’t have any entry level opportunities right now; however, one company with no jobs page really caught my attention—Exceptional Risk Advisors. They are high limit disability insurance experts, and reading about them made me instantly think of Lloyd’s of London, which has plenty of jobs (though most of them are in the United Kingdom). Lloyd’s of London is behind every cool insurance policy that you’ve ever heard of. They’ve issued a $1 million policy on Troy Polamalu’s hair, as well as policies on Celine Dion’s vocal chords, Keith Richards’ fingers, and Tina Turner’s legs. According to Wikipedia, Lloyd’s of London isn’t actually a company, but a “meeting place where multiple financial backers, underwriters, or members come together to pool and spread risk.” If it helps, you can pretend it’s a company. Anyway, Lloyd’s of London has a long and storied history, as they got their start by serving mostly people in the shipping and maritime industries.

Insure That You Find a Job

It’s not often that we feature international companies (mostly because it’s hard to say whether they’ll hire U.S. students), but Lloyd’s of London is just so cool. They’re not only a company that is just generally worth learning about (I’m excited about them and I hate insurance companies), but they’re also one of the best places you could possibly be if you wanted to learn the insurance industry. Now, Lloyd’s of London has offices around the globe including ones in New York, NY; Chicago, IL; Frankfort, KY; Los Angeles, CA; and St. Thomas, USVI. Unfortunately, Lloyd’s Careers page only covers positions in the U.K. They have a great section of their site for graduates, which provides everything you could ever want to know about their hiring process—from an Introduction to a Blog to How to Apply. Lloyd’s graduate program offers opportunities in the following areas: Corporate Communications, Delegated Authorities, Exposure Management, Human Resources, Information Technology Group, International Markets, International Regulatory Affairs, Market Operations, Market Services, Relationship Management, Risk Management, Strategy and Business Planning, and Underwriting Performance. Lloyd’s will hire foreign students, but it’s up to you to do all of the visa stuff yourself—you can also reach out to people at the U.S. offices to inquire about positions here.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

If you had to insure one part of your body, what would it be?

IGT

Willy Franzen — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:38:01 +0000

My family is in Colorado Springs this week, and we’re staying at an amazing ranch on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Yesterday we went back to civilization for the first time, and we decided to visit Cripple Creek—an old mining town that was home to “the last great Colorado gold rush” and more than half a billion dollars in gold ore. Unfortunately gold mining can only last so long, and Cripple Creek eventually became a ghost town. In 1991 voters legalized gambling in Cripple Creek, and the city was reinvigorated, albeit with most of the storefronts inhabited with gaming establishments. Our visit was interrupted by a massive hail storm, so we waited in the car until it let up a bit and ran into the first restaurant we could find. Turns out that it was a restaurant inside of a casino, and we had to walk past a bunch of slots and other machines to get a bite to eat. Of course, I couldn’t make it past the Game King video poker machine without playing, and luckily I came away from “lunch” 90 bucks richer. That gave me the idea to take a look at IGT (International Game Technology), the Reno, NV based gaming company that designs and manufactures the Game King machine among many other casino machines.

A Jackpot for Your Job Search

IGT calls itself “the leading company specializing in design, development, manufacturing, distribution and sales of computerized gaming equipment, software and network systems worldwide.” And that seems fair considering how ubiquitous their machines seem to be on casino floors. I guess that’s why they just won 16 awards from Casino Player Magazine’s Best of Gaming Reader Poll—the most of any manufacturer. IGT’s success spans across types of gaming machines; however, some of their biggest successes have come with cobranded machines like the Wheel of Fortune slots. The only issue with IGT seems to be that they’re extremely sensitive to the recession, as any player in the gaming or hospitality industry will be. Judging from both their Job postings and LinkedIn, it appears that they haven’t been doing much hiring of late. However, IGT just named a new VP of HR, so that may get things going again.

IGT is really big on campus recruiting, and they seem to put a lot of effort into their University Relations presence for both entry level hires and internships (they’ve since merged this into their regular Careers page). You can get an overview of the types of opportunities available at IGT here, and they include positions in Accounting & Finance, Administrative Services, Casino Services/Casino Support & Training, Corporate Strategy, Engineering, Facilities & Security, Game Design/Art, Human Resources, Information Systems/ERP, Legal/Compliance, Manufacturing & Operations, Marketing, Product Management, Sales & Business Development, and Technical Documentation/Drafting. You can also take a look at ~~IGT’s Employee Profiles~~ (since deleted) to get a better feel for the positions that you might be interested in (most of which are located in Reno and Las Vegas, but they also have opportunities in nearly any area where gambling is big). Unfortunately, IGT doesn’t seem to provide an HR contact on their website, and their applicant tracking system is terrible. To apply for an unlisted position (since it’s off cycle for college recruiting right now), I recommend that you try reaching out to them at Careers@IGT.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you played any IGT games?

Upward Strategy

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:07:16 +0000

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It seems that most PR and Marketing firms are started by people who have been in the industry for years. They know their field well, but they may not fully understand the businesses of their clients. Upward Strategy is a little different. It is a New York City based digital strategy firm that helps “organizations chart and execute a powerful, results-driven product, communications and engagement strategy online.” Ok, that doesn’t sound all that unique. What’s different about Upward Strategy is that its ideas are born out of the entrepreneurial experience of the company’s founder and CEO, Rachel Sterne. She only graduated from NYU in 2005, but she’s already put together an impressive track record of entrepreneurship, and she’s even been named one of America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs by BusinessWeek. It’s hard to tell whether there are any other employees at Upward Strategy besides Rachel—I couldn’t find any on LinkedIn—however, that’s about to change.

Are You Moving Upward?

Upward Strategy’s clients include Equinox, Daylife, TopGuest, The Aspen Institute, and quite a few more. These aren’t major brands like we see with many digital strategy firms, but that’s not what Upward Strategy is going for. They want to work with brands that are early in their lifecycle and propel them to the next level. They do this through a variety of services that include: Strategy and Positioning, Press Releases and Announcements, Media Management, Conversation Seeding, Speaking Engagements and Events, Networking and Introductions, Social Media Management, Partnership Development, and Monthly PDF Media Reports. It definitely sounds like an exciting place to work, which is why you’ll be happy to hear that they are looking for a Junior Account Associate. It’s an intern to hire position, but it’s paid and looks pretty great. The description gets really in-depth, so check it out and consider applying.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about Upward Strategy?

Aruliden

Willy Franzen — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:56:12 +0000

I feel as though I’ve been coming across a lot of innovation design firms lately. I guess it must be a growing field, which makes sense considering that design-focused companies like Apple are making a killing lately. Today we’re taking a look at Aruliden, a New York City based “brand strategy and product design consultancy formed by Rinat Aruh and Johan Liden in 2006 to bridge the gap between design and marketing.” They’re a small firm, but they make up for it by working with big name clients like Motorola, Jaguar, MINI Cooper, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Volkswagen. And not suprisingly, the work that Aruliden has done for these clients is just as impressive as the names of the clients. There’s the Motorola Sparrow and there’s retail strategy for Starbucks. Then there’s Areaware Clips and Scoot, Hydrogen Scooter. As you can see, Aruliden is always working on cool stuff.

Are You Aruliden?

If I had to compare Aruliden to some of the other innovation firms that we’ve featured, I’d say that Aruliden leans a bit more towards the marketing side than most. If you take a look at their capabilities, you’ll see that they list Strategy, Marketing, Product Design, Brand Identity, Packaging, Research, and User Interface (all done in eight languages) in that order. Still, it seems to me that Aruliden is very much in the camp of people who believe that the product is the marketing. Aruliden doesn’t get specific about what kind of jobs they offer, but their Contact page does encourage interested people to apply to jobs@aruliden.com. Usually with these kinds of firms you’d want to have a product design background, but I think at Aruliden that may not be necessary. (For instance they’re currently looking for a Strategy Intern, a position that doesn’t require design skills.)

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of Aruliden’s projects do you like most?

Trumpet

Willy Franzen — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:00:38 +0000

Today is my half birthday, which has nothing to do with trumpets or creative agencies, but I thought it was worth noting in case you want to buy me a present. Trumpet says “Don’t Advertise. Connect.” So that’s what I’m trying to do. Connect with me by buying me a gift. Anyway, Trumpet is a unique creative agency. They’re based in New Orleans, LA, and they typically work with startups, launches, and turnarounds. Since those are exactly the kinds of businesses that New Orleans needs right now, they’re a perfect fit for the city. Trumpet offers holistic strategy guidance that goes beyond advertising and touches on areas like “product development, social or digital strategy, publicity, events, design or sponsored content.” They really aim to touch all areas of the businesses that they work with.

Trumpet Your Abilities

If you want to take a closer look at Trumpet’s approach, all you need to do is look at their work. They’re another company that was named to Fast Company’s list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies,” but it wasn’t just for their work as a creative agency. Since they work with so many startups, Trumpet has decided to raise $3 million in capital to invest and work with early-stage companies. They are now an agency with a spin off incubator. If you’re intrigued by the story and you like the work, then you’ll probably want to consider a career. They don’t have anything posted on their website, but I found this posting on Work NOLA. It says that they’re hiring mostly on a project basis, but that full-time isn’t out of the question. If you would describe yourself as any of the following, you should reach out to them:

digital artists
writers
designers
environmental design
product design/development
analytics/crm
art directors
public relations
social media
project managers
production supervisors
strategists
researchers
anthropologists

To apply, “email a cover letter summarizing what you bring to work everyday along with your resume to erin@trumpetgroup.com.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Trumpet?

Visa

Willy Franzen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:40:07 +0000

It’s Black Friday! And that means that it times to talk about spending money. In previous years we’ve taken a look at jobs at Amazon.com and Ernst & Young (for companies that are “in the black”). We also look at jobs with SlickDeals, one of the best websites for finding Black Friday deals, a few months ago. Today we’re gong to look at Visa, since it’s hard to do any amount of serious shopping without some sort of debit or credit card. Many people think of Visa, which is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, as a credit card company, but that’s not exactly right. Credit cards are backed by a bank or similar financial institution that actually lends you the money to make your purchases. Visa is “a global payments technology company.” That means that they provide the network for your transactions, but they aren’t actually the lending institution backing your credit card.

Swipe Your Way to A New Job

One thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that payment processors like Visa get a cut of every transaction they enable. It typically comes out to a small percentage of the purchase price—so whether you pay for your lunch or buy a huge tv, the merchant isn’t getting the full amount of the charge. Merchants would make more money per purchase if they only accepted cash, but they’d likely lose a lot of customers that way. Obviously, it’s in Visa’s interest to get as many purchases going across their network as they possibly can. That’s why they’re constantly trying to develop new technologies, products, and services to make it easier to make a purchase using your Visa.

If you’re intrigued by payment processing or just think that Visa is a great brand that you’d like to work for, you should check out both their Careers page and their Campus Recruiting page. There’s a lot of information about jobs at Visa, along with a sections specifically on opportunities for undergraduates. Typically they offer positions in Systems (IT), Operations, and Finance along with a New Graduate Development Program that provides a rotation through the areas of Product, Marketing, Sales, and Strategy. The campus recruiting season for Visa has pretty much passed for undergraduates at this point in the year, but you can use their job search function to find specific opportunities to apply for.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you have a Visa?

ExactTarget

Willy Franzen — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:53:54 +0000

I think that e-mail is still the king of social media. We have all of these fancy social networking accounts, but they all send their notifications to our inboxes. If you want someone’s attention, e-mail is the way to go (assuming your message doesn’t look like spam). Heck, you’re probably reading this in your e-mail. That’s why e-mail marketing continues to be a rapidly growing industry. We’ve already taken a look at jobs with Constant Contact, Aweber, and e-Dialog, and now we’re going to look at an industrial strength e-mail marketing company, ExactTarget. They’re based in Indianapolis, and since 2000 they’ve been focused on “providing the most powerful on-demand software for email communications and finding the best and brightest marketers on the planet to revolutionize the way people think about email.”

Target Your Job Search Exactly

ExactTarget offers a wide array of e-mail Products, Services, and Solutions that are used by clients like CarMax, Expedia, The Home Depot, and other huge brands. If you’d like to join ExactTarget at the forefront of e-mail marketing, then you should check out their entry level Catapult Rotational Program. Here’s an introductory video on the program (e-mail readers click through to watch):

If you like what you just saw, then there are two tracks that you can take. The ExactTarget Business Track will allow you to gain experience across departments like Marketing, Accounting, Solutions Consulting (SolCon), Account Management, Deliverability Services, Strategic Services, Training, SMB/Renewals, Partnerships, Human Resources, and Sales, while the ExactTarget Technical Track will have you working in Solutions Consulting (SolCon), Customer Support, Integration, Product, Quality Assurance, Deliverability Services, Training, Implementation, Design and Deployment. You may be able to meet up with ExactTarget recruiters on your campus, but if they’re not recruiting at your school you can get the run down on how to apply for the program here. ExactTarget has done a fantastic job with their entry level recruiting program, and I bet that reflects how much they value young talent.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of the Catapult Rotational Program?

Revel Consulting

Willy Franzen — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:51:40 +0000

When I was a freshman at Cornell, a bunch of my friends decided to form a group called the Red Revelers. We would go to sporting events and act rowdy. We had t-shirts and everything. I guess that’s why Revel Consulting caught my eye when I was browsing through the Inc. 5000 (expect to be hearing a lot about that list in the next few weeks—it’s my favorite resource for finding cool companies). They’re a Kirkland, WA based consulting firm that has expertise in Product Management, Program & Project Management, Change Management, Process Engineering, Sales and Marketing Management, Strategy Development & Measurement, and Cloud Computing. They’re also the 34th fastest growing private company in the United States. Beyond an awesome growth rate, they were also “named to the list of 100 Best Companies to Work For by Seattle Business magazine based on job satisfaction, work environment, and professional growth opportunities.”

Revel in Consulting

The problem with consulting companies is that most people don’t know what they do. Sometimes even the consultants can’t tell you exactly what they do. Part of the reason for that is that consulting is a very flexible field—at least in terms of subject matter. It’s often more about the process than the specifics of the project. Revel Consulting seems to have a good mix of specific areas of expertise—Cloud Computing for example—and more general practice areas such as Program & Project Management. You can’t even take a look at Revel Consulting’s portfolio or client list, because consulting firms usually try to keep that stuff under wraps. What you can look at is the fact that they went from less than $400k in revenue to $13.2 million in revenue in just three years. That tells you that Revel is a place that you want to be. Revel’s Careers page has information on Culture, Consultant Experiences, and Campus Recruiting. The latter focuses mostly on internships, but that’s ok because Revel has one application form for all jobs. They’ll take a look at you and figure out where you’ll fit in best—no need to apply for a specific position.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Revel Consulting?

Mars & Co.

Willy Franzen — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:00:36 +0000

We’re always looking for less publicized entry-level opportunities in high demand industries, especially now that most campus recruiting is winding down. Consulting is one area where excessive job searcher attention is directed towards the top names, while boutique firms get overlooked. We especially like smaller companies when they have a distinct identity or competitive advantage, and that definitely applies to Mars & Co..

No Conflict of Interest Here

Mars & Co. is a strategy consulting firm build that was founded in 1979 by Dominique Mars, a former Director at The Boston Consulting Group. He didn’t like the fact that all large consulting firms refused to offer exclusivity to their clients. What does that mean? Let’s say that your company makes blue widgets. You hire a consulting firm to help you size the market for blue widgets. You then find out that the same consulting firm has been contracted to do the same thing for a company that makes aqua widgets. Wouldn’t that bother you? It would definitely bother me. That’s why Mars & Co. was founded as the “only consultancy of consequence to guarantee fidelity.” It’s a great angle for a consulting firm, and we imagine that it alone is enough to draw in a stellar client list.

Always Recruiting?

Mars & Co. currently has approximately 250 consultants; however, they’re looking to grow to about 450. That doesn’t happen without hiring great people (they need to be great, or you won’t be able to afford new hires). That’s why Mars & Co. is eager to hear from top college graduates who have a background in “engineering, math, economics, or one of the hard sciences” and fit these dimensions. New grads who are hired will start as Associate Consultants and will play significant roles on project teams. Mars & Co. does not post specific openings on their site, so it’s hard to tell if they have a distinct recruiting schedule. Their website certainly makes it sound like they’re always looking for top talent, so go ahead and apply to one of their offices. You’ll find a lot more information about the recruiting and interviewing process on their site, which is extremely straightforward and easy to understand. Get started researching with the links below.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Not a Facebook Fan yet? Why not? It’s a great way to interact with other One Day, One Job users, and it gives us an ego boost every time someone signs up.

CarMax

Willy Franzen — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:00:16 +0000

Buying your first car and getting your first job have a lot in common. They’re both relatively uncomfortable and unfamiliar processes that are filled with false formality and lots of back and forth. To be successful at either, you need to put yourself in the driver’s seat (ugh, sorry for the pun) and take control of the situation by ensuring that you’ve done your research and that you know exactly what you want. If only recruiters and HR representatives would work as hard as a car salesman to sell you on why you should work for their company. CarMax, being in the auto sales business, has figured this out. Just like they make car buying easier and less stressful with “No-Haggle Pricing,” CarMax also makes finding your first job easy with an exceptional entry-level hiring program.

CarMax is the biggest used car dealer in the United States, and they’ve reached this point in only 15 years of operations. CarMax was started as a side project by Circuit City’s then-CEO Richard L. Sharp, but grew so rapidly that it was spun off from Circuit City in 2002. There are 80 CarMax used-car superstores across the country, and they all do business in a way that you might not expect from a used car dealer. Like we said before, there’s no haggling on price, and there’s also no negotiation on trade-in valuation. CarMax kind of kills the stereotype of the sleazy used car salesman.

We really like CarMax, not only because they’ve been named one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For 4 years in a row (most recently ranked #46), but also because they make their entry-level hiring program as clear as can be. Their college recruiting page is easily visible, and gets right down to business. CarMax has three career paths for new college graduates – a Finance and Accounting career development/rotation program, a Strategy Analyst position, and an Information Technology position. CarMax explains each of these positions in detail. We don’t need to elaborate much, because CarMax nails it on their Career site (yes, that’s 3 companies in a row with phenomenal careers sites). Now that hiring and car buying are out of the way, what awkward process can CarMax make easier next?

CarMax does a lot of on-campus recruiting, so check out their schedules (Finance and Accounting, IT, and Strategy) to see when they’re visiting your campus. If they’re not coming to your campus, you can apply by sending a resume and cover letter to college_recruiting@carmax.com. On the other hand, if you would prefer to get directly into auto sales and aren’t interested in corporate type jobs, you can take a look at the CarMax’s store positions. We wouldn’t recommend it though (kidding!). We just think that the corporate jobs sound way cooler, considering that the corporate office has a full basketball court, two racquet ball courts, a baseball field, and work out facilities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What makes you more uncomfortable? Buying a car or trying to find a job? Tell us in the comments.