One Day, One Job » advertising

The Boston Globe

Willy Franzen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:48:50 +0000

It feels pretty good to be talking about a Boston based newspaper today knowing that they have to report on another trip to the World Series for the Yankees; although, I’m sure they’d much rather be publishing stories on what Dustin Pedroia and Jonathan Papelbon are doing during their offseason (possibly watching the World Series from their couches). Now that I’ve gotten in my dig at Red Sox fans, we can take a look at The Boston Globe, Boston’s most widely read newspaper. The paper is owned by the New York Times and has an excellent web presence at Boston.com. Much like other newspapers the Globe has had significant financial struggles, and The New York Times even threatened to shut the paper down if the paper’s union didn’t accept major concessions. Apparently those problems have been worked out, and The Boston Globe is now on more stable ground. At least that’s what the fact that they’re hiring would indicate.

Navigate The Globe

When it comes to newspapers and magazines, there’s no better way to get to know them than to read them. Luckily, you can do that online at Boston.com, which is a good example of how newspapers should use the web. I’m especially impressed with their Big Picture photoblog, which is constantly getting voted up on social media news sites. Since you’re going to have to start reading The Boston Globe to get a feel for them, let’s jump right to their jobs. If you take a look at their Job postings, you’ll see that there are only a few openings; however, a number of those jobs seem perfect for new grads. These include positions in Outbound Sales, Web Programming/Development, Technical Production, and Online Advertising Traffic Coordination. Most of the job postings don’t appear to be very fresh, but they’re still posted, so apply online and see what happens.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read The Boston Globe?we

Delivery Agent

Willy Franzen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:28:05 +0000

Product placement started out as a secret. Companies realized that they could pay to get their products featured in books, television shows, and movies, so they did. And we, the viewers, assumed that these products were included for editorial reasons. At some point we got smart and realized what was going on. It didn’t really change much, but we became a little more skeptical. Now product placement is assumed. If someone is promoting something, you take for granted that they’re getting paid for it. Delivery Agent is a San Franciso based company that realized this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They’re taking product placement to the next level with a level of integration that we’ve never seen before. They call this “shopping-enabled entertainment.” When you see Dwight Schrute wearing a great looking shirt on The Office—ok, bad example—when you see a beautiful necklace on Gossip Girl, you can go to the show’s website and check out the “Seen On” section for more information how to buy the necklace. There’s also SeenON.com, which aggregates the information from all of Delivery Agent’s clients and makes it easy to “shop by show” or “shop by celeb.”

Become an Agent of Delivery

Delivery Agent is killing it right now. They currently monetize 90% of the Nielsen Primetime Top 50 Shows, and they just closed a $25 million round of financing. Their “Seen On” service is what has been driving most of the attention publicly, but they’re also doing some pretty cool stuff behind the scenes—they’re pushing to convince companies whose products are featured on tv to buy supporting advertising during the show. It’s a brilliant idea. The best part is that they’re already working with the most impressive names in entertainment, which is the biggest challenge a company like this has to overcome. When you can list ABC, CBS, NBC, MTV, FOX, and many more as partners, you’re in a great place to grow your business.

Even cooler is the fact that Delivery Agent has taken product placement and made it more results based than it has ever been before. They’ve also made everyone better off. Viewers can find the products they want. Media companies can more easily monetize their content. And companies with products increase their sales. I’m extremely high on Delivery Agent, and I strongly recommend that you check out their Jobs page. Right now they have quite a few jobs posted, but only a couple are suitable for new grads. These include E-mail Marketing Coordinator and M-Comm Site & Smart Phone App Developer (Contract). You can apply online, so get to it.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you buy anything through Delivery Agent’s “Seen On” service?

The Daily Beast

Willy Franzen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:51:28 +0000

Once you start interviewing for jobs, you realize how important it is to stay well informed. Whether it’s staying up on the industry that you want to work in or just keeping up with current events, you need to be able to speak (somewhat) intelligently about a wide range of topics. Chit chat and small talk play a big part in the impression that you make, so don’t try to use the fact that you “live in a bubble” at college to explain away your ignorance. Instead, you should subscribe to the The Daily Beast. It’s a cheat sheet for current events that covers a wide array of topics. Some would call it a news aggregator, but they like calling what they do “curating.” The site was created by Tina Brown, who was formerly the editor at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. The Daily Beast, which is based out of New York City, launched just over a year ago, and has been able to garner a huge amount of traffic pretty quickly. I guess it might have something to do with their IAC backing.

Beast on These Jobs

The way we consume news is changing, and The Daily Beast is a perfect example of how smart startups can create growth in what many people deem to be a dying industry. I could go into more detail about what The Daily Beast covers, but you’re better off just checking it out for yourself. After you give it a look, be sure to read their About page, which is really a Q & A with Tina Brown, the company’s founder. It will give you a lot of insight into what the company is all about. It’s an extremely entertaining Q&A, so I’m sure that you’ll like what you see. If that’s the case, then you’ll probably want to check out jobs at The Daily Beast. Their job listings are mixed in with the job postings from other IAC companies, but it’s a pretty easy list to scan through. (It’s pretty obvious that The Daily Beast is growing well judging by how much hiring they’re doing.) You’ll see a number of intriguing entry level positions including Business Analytics Manager, Graphic Designer, Assistant Video News Editor (West Hollywood, CA), Editorial Assistant, Social Media Associate, Sales Partnership Associate, Traffic Coordinator, and Web Developer. You can apply online for any of these positions, and be sure to read The Daily Beast before your interview.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read The Daily Beast?

Classified Ventures

Willy Franzen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:33:00 +0000

I remember being in middle school and deciding that I wanted a drum set. I already had a snare drum, but I knew that a full set would be much cooler. My mom bought me a copy of the Bargain News, a local paper full of classified ads, and helped me pore over the listings in search of a drum set. That’s certainly a relic of the past, but classified ads are far from dead. They’ve just moved online. You’re probably most familiar with Craigslist, and maybe you’ve considered using Facebook Marketplace or something like that. What you probably didn’t realize is that there is still a huge business behind classified ads. Take Chicago based Classified Ventures for instance. They’re another Inc. 5000 company, and they’ve increased their revenue from $146.7 million to $297.5 million over the past three years. They’ve done this with four distinct businesses: Apartments.com, Cars.com, HomeGain.com, and HomeFinder.com. You’ve probably noticed at least one of those sites before, which is exactly what they’re looking for.

Get Classified

Whether you’re looking for a car, an apartment, or a home, Classified Ventures is going to do its best to grab your attention and show you some ads. Since classified ads are the kind of ads that people actually seek out, Classified Ventures’ main focus is on driving traffic. As long as they can keep linking up more buyers and sellers, their business is going to grow. They’re already a pretty good sized company with “offices in Chicago, IL, Emeryville, CA, Santa Monica, CA and Austin, TX, and over 1,100 employees in 37 states,” but they’re not stopping there—their Jobs page shows 33 current openings. You might want to consider the following positions: Product Specialist – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Ad Trafficker – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Dealer Experience Advocate – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Software Engineer – ApartmentHomeLiving (Austin, TX), Software Quality Assurance Analyst – HomeFinder.com (Chicago, IL), Inside Sales Manager SBU – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Freelance Web Designer – Cars.com (Santa Monica, CA), Account Receivables Analyst – Corporate Services (Chicago, IL), Account Manager – Apartments.com (Chicago, IL), and Technical Web Producer – Apartments.com (Chicago, IL). You can apply online directly from the job descriptions, so see which of these jobs suits you best—no need to scan the classifieds.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used classified ads in your job search?

Shedd Aquarium

Willy Franzen — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:13:34 +0000

My parents are in town for the weekend, and I’ve been thinking of fun things to do with them around Chicago. One place that came to mind is Shedd Aquarium. I don’t think that we’ll end up getting a chance to make it there this weekend, but it was certainly a good thought. And once I thought about it, I realized that they’re probably hiring. Shedd Aquarium is much like other aquariums now, but it really stood out when it was opened in the 1930s. The aquarium was founded by John G. Shedd, retired president of Marshall Field & Company, and financed by him with $3 million in gifts. The goal was to bring Chicago up to par with other “cosmopolitan” cities that had aquariums, and by the end of the project Chicago’s aquarium “housed the greatest variety of sea life under one roof.” It also happened to be “the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater collection,” which meant that they had to ship millions of gallons of seawater from Florida on trains to provide a proper habitat for the sea life.

Shedd Your Job Search Worries

To this day, I still find it extremely impressive that an aquarium in Chicago can have whales and dolphins. The idea of a Beluga Whale in the heart of the midwest blows my mind. Although now the aquarium is more focused on education than on bringing up Chicago’s status, it’s still a great tourist attraction and a wonderful resource for the city. I’d imagine that Shedd Aquarium is very much like other aquariums in its mission and values, which means that they’ll have similar jobs. Right now they have a number of jobs posted, and a few look like possibilities for new grads. These include Membership Coordinator, Administrative Assistant (President’s Office), Brand Traffic Assistant, and Media Coordinator. You can apply by sending a cover letter and résumé to jobs@sheddaquarium.org.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever been to Shedd Aquarium?

Tennis Channel

Willy Franzen — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:07:02 +0000

Judging by what people are watching on the televisions on the cardio machines at my health club, there’s a lot of excitement about the US open right now—and we haven’t even reached the exciting part yet. There’s a decent amount of television coverage of the Open on ESPN2 (check out ESPN’s entry level jobs), but if you really want to watch a lot of tennis you need to watch the Tennis Channel. They’re a tv network that is based in Santa Monica, CA (with locations in Atlanta and New York City), and they’re “the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to the professional sport and passionate lifestyle of tennis.” Tennis Channel obviously isn’t for everyone, but that’s what niche media is all about. They own the tennis market.

Game, Set, Job

While niche networks usually don’t get coverage rights to the biggest events, in tennis there are so many matches during the course of a tournament that there’s no way that major networks could show all of the tennis. That’s why Tennis Channel has telecast rights to the Grand Slam Tournaments US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros (French Open) and the Australian Open. Beyond tournaments their content consists of “one-on-one interviews, game analysis and skills instruction” with personalities like “John McEnroe, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, James Blake, Andy Roddick, and Serena and Venus Williams.” If you’re interested in television and love tennis, there couldn’t be a better place to be. If you want to make that happen, check out Tennis Channel’s Jobs page. Right now they have a Traffic/Ad Sales Coordinator position in Santa Monica, CA available that looks pretty well suited to new grads. You can apply by sending a cover letter, résumé, salary history and salary requirements to HRrecruiter@tennischannel.com with “Ad Sales Coordinator” in the subject line. That’s all they have no, but keep your eyes peeled for new postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you going to watch the US Open?

Professional Sports Publications

Willy Franzen — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:49:07 +0000

If you haven’t already entered out Back to School, Back to Work Contest, make sure that you do before Friday. You could win two HP laptops and a Timbuk2 bag!

Be sure to scroll down for an addendum to this post.

Programs! GET YA PROGRAMS HERE! You can’t go to a major sporting event without hearing that ring across the crowd. I’m not typically one to buy a program, especially now that I can look up anything important (like up to the minute stats) on my phone, but I realize that for a lot of people it’s about having the memento. New York City’s Professional Sports Publications and University Sports Publications (different names but essentially the same company) are in the business of publishing these mementos. They are respectively the leading publisher of professional souvenir magazines and yearbooks and college souvenir magazines and yearbooks. PSP Sports is also the publisher of the official NBA magazine HOOP.

Take Home a Souvenir from PSP or USP

PSP Sports and USP Sports have pretty simple business models. They publish lots of different magazines for specific teams, and they sell targeted, local advertising in these magazines. In fact, you could argue that they are more a local advertising company than a publishing company. And that’s where their entry level jobs seem to be focused. Take this Craigslist posting for an Inside Sales Representative. They very clearly are looking for new college grads to fill this positions, and they apparently pay $50,000 base salary plus commission and health insurance. That sounds way too good to be true, but the only negative thing that I can find about PSP Sports is this post from a disgruntled employee (have to take those with a grain of salt). Selling advertising isn’t glamorous, but it can definitely pay, so give it a look. I haven’t found any information on other positions with either company (for instance on the Editorial or Publishing side), but you can inquire about job opportunities by sending a cover letter and résumé to dgerschw@pspsports.com or dgerschwer@university publications.com (obviously the same guy).

Addendum:

I had some initial concerns about PSP and USP Sports before posting about them, but I spent about an hour researching them and couldn’t find anything substantive. Only minutes after our daily e-mail sent out, I received a note from a loyal reader who told me that she had friends who worked there and had bad experiences. That led me to this link and this video:

This is a perfect lesson on how careful you need to be during your job search. Always respect your intuition. I apologize for not having done more due diligence, but I hope that we can all learn from this. I can’t say definitively that these companies should be avoided, but be sure to do your research!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you buy programs at sporting events?

R/GA

Willy Franzen — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:52:52 +0000

It’s hard to imagine that a film production company could morph into “a holistic interactive agency built for a digital world;” however, that’s exactly what New York City’s R/GA has done. Now, film production and advertising aren’t all that different, but it’s still a big psychological leap from one to the other. Moreover, not many companies are willing to take a huge risk and move where innovation takes them. R/GA embraces change. They’re also really freakin’ good at what they do. Their clients include Nike, Verizon, IBM, Target, Bank of America, and a bunch of other extremely well known companies. They also have the best corporate website built in Flash that I’ve ever seen. Everything about it works—I can actually give you links to specific pages. Beyond that, the site does a fantastic job of presenting R/GA’s brand. It’s packed with information and has fantastic videos (they obviously haven’t abandoned film production completely).

Enroll at R/GA University

Everything that I’ve come across related to R/GA has impressed me. Their website. Their client list. Their portfolio. And even their Jobs page (powered by Jobvite—ok, I can’t link directly to the jobs, but the site is still very easy to use). Oh yeah, and don’t forget R/GA University. It’s R/GA’s take on continuing education for employees, and it includes six pillars: Professional Development, Industry Trends, Leadership Development, Inside R/GA, R/GA and You, and Work + Life Balance. They “believe that the broad base of courses piques curiosity and encourages people to try new things. And ultimately makes people more well rounded and better at their jobs.” You have to like the sound of that. Anyway, R/GA has more than 25 job openings, and a number of them seem suitable for new college grads. Entry level positions include: Junior Designer (London, UK), Associate Desktop Support Administrator (New York, NY), Junior Copywriter (New York, NY), Junior Open Standards Developer (New York, NY). They also have a San Francisco office, but no entry level positions posted there. You can apply for any of these jobs online, or you can post a résumé for an unlisted position to any of their departments.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you impressed with R/GA?

Sony Pictures

Willy Franzen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:00:22 +0000

I’ve never really understood the idea of the “Summer Blockbuster.” Why would you want to sit inside and watch a movie when it’s nice and hot outside? I guess sometimes it gets too hot, and sometimes it rains, but I’d rather be outside. If you disagree with me, then you’re probably a big fan of Culver City, CA’s Sony Pictures. They’re in the business of producing, marketing, and distributing entertainment, and you’re probably familiar with some of their recent an upcoming releases like: Julie and Julia, Angels & Demons, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. They’re also responsible for Seinfeld. Since I’m not much of a movie buff, I don’t know if anyone actually cares what production house puts out a movie, but I do know that Sony Pictures’ end products seem to pretty darn good—they even made my favorite movie (about the outdoors, obviously), A River Runs Through It.

Picture Yourself at Sony Pictures

Sony Pictures is obviously part of Sony, but there are also a number of distinct businesses within Sony Pictures. There is the Motion Picture Group, which has multiple labels including Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, and Sony Pictures Classics. Then there’s Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which brings feature films along with tv episodes right into your home. You also have Sony Pictures Television, which is actually responsible for those tv episodes and other tv programming, and Sony Pictures Digital Productions, which does visual effects and animation. If you’d like to work in any of these businesses or the Corporate arm of Sony Pictures, then you’ll need to head over to SonyPictures.com. It’s not a particularly great Careers site, but it gets the job done. From there you can check out all of their posted jobs, where you’ll see entry level opportunities like Financial Analyst, Global Ad Sales & Digital Media Coordinator, Marketing Assistant, Fitness Assistant, and Data Security Administrator. You can apply for any of the jobs with Sony Pictures online, and although nothing appears to be directly related to movie production, I’d bet that those jobs don’t just pop up on their job board all of the time (read: try networking).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite movie to come out of Sony Pictures?

Erwin-Penland

Willy Franzen — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:15:03 +0000

We’ve featured quite a few integrated integrated marketing agencies in the past, but I’m not sure that we’ve ever actually talked about what integrated marketing is. According to Wikipedia (original reference has a dead link), integrated marketing communications is “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.” That sounds desirable, but how do you accomplish that? You either do it all yourself, or you hire an agency that does it all. It’s really hard to to accomplish integrated marketing when you have one agency doing PR, another doing TV ads, and another doing interactive. Greenville, SC based Erwin-Penland is an agency that does it all—interactive, public relations, direct mail, event planning, advertising, strategic planning, and media—and they don’t farm any of it out to freelancers or other agencies.

Take a Trip to Erwin-Penland

The cool thing is that Erwin-Penland takes an integrated approach to branding themselves and their jobs. They have a gorgeous website, and they make it very easy to understand what they’re all about. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video from Erwin-Penland’s About page because that’s the perfect way to show you what they’re all about, so I’m going to encourage you to go watch it now. It makes the company look like a really fun place to work. So does the fact that Erwin-Penland divides their workforce into client teams, not departments. That should make for a very different work experience than most other agencies offer.

If that sounds like something that you’d enjoy, then you need to check out Jobs at Erwin-Penland. Right now there are quite a few opportunities posted, and there’s also a Twitter account for EPJobs (in fact they just announced 7 new hires this week—what recession?). The job openings that seem most suitable for new grads are Junior Account Executive and Junior Copywriter; however, you may also want to check out Traffic Manager, Graphic Designer, Planner, Billing Coordinator, and Technical Support Analyst. Additionally, Erwin-Penland encourages new grads to apply for their paid internships. There’s a résumé submission form on each job description page, so find the right job for you and apply today.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Erwin-Penland?

Moroch

Willy Franzen — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:22:49 +0000

Sometimes I don’t completely get advertising. Take McDonald’s for example. How many people in the US have never heard of McDonald’s? Not many. So what’s the point in advertising? Maybe you can convince some more people to come in to buy off of the Dollar Menu or get more kids to beg their parents to buy them a happy meal, but it seems like McDonald’s would be just fine without any advertising at all. That’s something that the folks at Dallas’ Moroch will disagree with strongly because they are an ad agency that happens to do a lot of work with McDonald’s. And since Moroch’s About page says that they’re really all about helping their clients make more money (usually through advertising), I’m going to take a wager that all of the Mickey D’s advertising that you see has a significant effect on the bottom line. Beyond McDonald’s, Moroch also works with huge brands like Verizon, Walt Disney Pictures, Monster (yuck), and Make-A-Wish. That may sound cushy, but that means that there’s always a constant pressure to deliver spectacular results.

Your (Personal) Brand Wins

If you’re looking to learn a lot about the Advertising industry, Moroch looks like a fantastic place to do that. I wish that I could intersperse links throughout this post, but Moroch uses Flash for their website. That means that we can’t link directly to the pages, so you’ll have to do some browsing to read case studies, check out their client list, read their story, and see where they have offices. The good news is that we can link to their Jobs page (even if it is a kind of crappy Applicant Tracking System). There you’ll see some interesting opportunities that are suitable for new college grads. There’s a McDonald’s Account Coordinator in Sacramento, CA along with opportunities to submit a creative portfolio (Copywriters, Art Directors, Creative Directors and the like) or to submit a general résumé (Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations) to the Dallas, TX office. Moroch looks like a pretty cool place to work, so give it a shot.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think McDonald’s advertising is effective?

Kontera

Willy Franzen — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:05:59 +0000

One thing that I’ve learned as I’ve become more familiar with the world of online marketing is that some of the most annoying tactics are some of the biggest money makers. In online marketing everything is about results. If you’re making money, you’re succeeding—even if the large majority of people hate the way you’re doing it. Kontera is a perfect example of this. They’re a San Francisco based online advertising company that “delivers the most relevant In-Text Advertising & Related Information solutions online.” What that means is that webmasters can insert Kontera’s code on their site, and it will automatically create links from the text on their web pages to targeted advertisements. I’m sure that you’ve seen it on the web before, and it probably annoyed you. Still, it works. Kontera is growing at a great rate, and they just secured $15.5 million in additional funding in a round led by one of the most prestigious venture capital firms in the world, Sequoia Capital.

Insert Yourself at Kontera

Considering that Kontera just secured a big round of funding in a down economy, they must be growing at a pretty good rate. I guess their technology that predicts user intent using semantic analysis must be pretty good. Usually more funding means more jobs, so don’t be surprised to see increased hiring at Kontera in the future. Right now their Jobs page shows 8 job openings, but only one specifically for a recent grad—Software Developer. There’s also a Ruby Developer position that might be suitable, and you should also note the fact that one of their Spring interns has just been hired as a Business Development Coordinator, so there are certainly entry level opportunities at Kontera outside of software development.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Kontera’s advertising?

GrubHub.com

Willy Franzen — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:32:26 +0000

I’m one of those people who has trouble deciding what to eat. I know it’s annoying, and I know that it reflects poorly on my character. I’m that friend that nobody likes to have, but I’m working hard to get better. It’s not easy. I don’t have a problem with normal decision making, but when it comes to food I shut down. Luckily there are serviced like GrubHub.com that make my life (and the lives of my friends) easier. They’re an online menu repository for every restaurant that delivers in your area. They started in Chicago, which is where they’re headquartered, and they also serve San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, New York, and Philadelphia. Not only do they give you all of the information that you need to make an informed ordering decision, but they also let you place your order online so that you can avoid that dreaded phone call to order food. Deciding what to eat has never been so easy—unless, of course, you’re paralyzed by choice.

Grubby Jobs

It’s amazing that ordering food online still isn’t ubiquitous. GrubHub is doing their best to change this, but developing relationships with every restaurant that delivers in an area takes a lot of time. Hopefully one day GrubHub will have the entire country covered, but they have a long way to go before that happens. Now, I’m not an unabashed GrubHub fan. It’s an extremely useful service, but there’s a ton of room for improvement—especially when it comes to restaurant discovery. If you know what you want, ordering is easy, but if you’re like me and can’t decide, it’s tough to get a good view of all of the dining options. I think that CampusFood.com (they don’t appear to be hiring anyone) does a better job in terms of usability while offering a nearly identical service. Maybe GrubHub should focus on helping me find a meal instead of asking me to share their site with friends as soon as I land on their home page.

Now that my complaints are out of the way (hopefully someone from GrubHub is reading), lets take a look at GrubHub’s jobs. They’re a small company with only about 30 employees, but they do appear to be growing. Right now they’re looking for an Advertising Sales Executive in New York City. It’s a job that will require a lot of cold calling, but it offers the opportunity to play a big part in moving GrubHub forward as a business. It’s the only job posted, but you can always try reaching out to GrubHub to see if they have anything else available in Chicago or one of the other cities in which they operate. To apply for the Advertising Sales Executive position, send an e-mail to sales@grubhub.com with your resume and cover letter.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ordered through GrubHub before?

Mochi Media

Willy Franzen — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:30:49 +0000

Have you ever tried mochi? It’s delicious, right? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, mochi is “a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape.” Ok, so that doesn’t make it sound good, but when it comes filled with ice cream it’s extraordinary. Now, I’m not sure why Mochi Media chose to name their company after a delicious Japanese treat, but it seems to be working for them. They’re a San Francisco based company that happens to run the largest ad network for online Flash games—they reach over 100 million gamers.

Try Some Mochi

There’s no dispute that Flash games are fun, but they often seem like time wasters. I try to avoid these types of games, because if I start playing one, it usually ends up 3 hours later and I still can’t beat it. I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences. Because of the nature of Flash games, I’d imagine that they’re pretty hard to monetize; however, Mochi Media seems to have figured it out. They’re enabling game developers to actually make money off of something that the developers used to do just for fun. Additionally, Mochi Media is also building a pretty solid business off of their network of free games. If you want to work somewhere where getting caught playing games on your work computer isn’t going to result in your getting fired, then you should check out jobs at Mochi Media on Startuply. Right now they have two design positions posted—one in CSS/XHTML Design and one in UI/Visual Design. Mochi Media used to have their own Careers page, but it doesn’t seem to be active since they redesigned their site. You’ll need a strong portfolio to land one of these jobs, so be sure to include a link when you apply online.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever tried mochi?

Justin.tv

Willy Franzen — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:39:41 +0000

You know about YouTube. You’ve known about YouTube for years. It’s the place to go for online video. There are some competitors that offer some pretty great services, but YouTube is still the default. Now, what if you want to watch live video? Or what if you want to broadcast live video? The Bay Area’s Justin.tv beats out YouTube when it comes to live stuff. You can watch white labrador retriever puppies, live soccer, or some kid in your dorm’s lifestream. The options are pretty much endless. You may ask why anyone would want to sit on a computer and watch puppies, but you’d miss the obvious answer – they’re cute. Actually, there’s an audience for just about anything these days. Justin.tv taps into that. Live video on the Internet isn’t new. There were people doing it in 1996, but the technology now makes doing it much more worthwhile. The question of whether the actual content being broadcast is worthwhile is up to you.

Webcast Your Career

Justin.tv started with Justin Kan, a guy who decided to broadcast his life 24/7. A lot has changed since then, but you can still watch the Justin.tv office live. Now “Justin.tv is the largest online community for people to broadcast, watch and interact around live video [w]ith more than 41 million unique visitors per month and 428,000 channels broadcasting live video.” That’s crazy! But Justin.tv isn’t just about people broadcasting their lives. There are all kinds of cool content, and there’s some really cool technology behind the platform.

Justin.tv’s live video platform scales to support massive audiences by measuring demand in real-time and intelligently replicating streams to additional servers to meet that demand. Constructed by a team of MIT and Yale graduates, the Justin.tv platform pushes more than 177 Gbps of video at peak usage – the equivalent of 16,946 standard DVDs per hour.

Justin.tv is doing cool things, which is why it’s no big surprise that they’re offering some pretty cool jobs. If you check out their Jobs page, you’ll see that they have a number of opportunities that should appeal to recent grads. These include Ad Integration Engineer, Software Engineer, and Flash Developer. All of these jobs require pretty strong technical skills, and the job descriptions are pretty descriptive, so make sure that you really show off when you apply to jobs@justin.tv.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used Justin.tv?

Travers Collins & Company

Willy Franzen — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:46:00 +0000

“Go Local” is a pretty common buzz phrase these days. You’re supposed to eat local, shop local, and even study local. To some people this is a new idea, but businesses like Travers Collins & Company have been focusing on working locally for a long time (in their case since 1995). They saw a void in the Buffalo, NY area when it came to advertising, public relations, interactive and investor relations, so they filled it. Judging from the number of times “Buffalo” shows up on their client list, that seems to have been a smart move. They’re now “one of Buffalo-Niagara’s largest locally owned and operated integrated marketing communications firms,” as they have more than 40 employees.

Buffalocal

It’s always hard to differentiate between marketing communications firms, as they all kind of look alike. The easiest way to get a quick read on whether one of these companies is right for you is to take a look at their portfolio. It also can’t hurt that the “Buffalo-based agency won 24 of 63 Excalibur awards, which were presented by the Buffalo/Niagara chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.” If you like what you see, you’ll want to check out Travers Collins’ Jobs page. They don’t have specific listings, but they do have an open call for applicants as well as internship listings with points of contact in Public Relations, Advertising Account Management, Investor Relations, and Creative (there’s also a contact for Interactive on their Contact page). I’d imagine that those might be the same people that you want to talk to about entry level jobs; however, they list employment@traverscollins.com as the best way to apply for a job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you know anything about Travers Collins & Company?

Amp Idea

Willy Franzen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:13:00 +0000

I know just what you’re thinking right now! “I don’t get advertised to enough.” (If you’re really thinking that, why don’t you check out our job search prep course that will teach you how to get a job faster?) Ok, so that’s not really what you’re thinking, but it’s what the guys at Boston based Amp Idea are thinking. They think that online advertising has developed some amazing ideas, while outdoor advertising (and other similar mediums) have lost their effectiveness. They want to bridge that gap through things like Taxi Interactive Screens, Hotel Tourist GPS, Tabletop Restaurants, and Limo and Bus interactive devices. Over at One Day, One Internship we checked out a company called Captivate Network that is doing this kind of thing in elevators, so it seems as though there is a lot of room for growth in “digital advertising in the out of home space for business owners.”

Get Amped About Amp Idea

Amp Idea is very early stage startup, but they’re already deploying interactive taxi screens in Boston, and they plan to expand to New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. in the very near future. It’s a really cool idea, and if they can gain market share quickly, they’re going to have a very serious business on their hands in a couple of years. According to the company’s LinkedIn Profile the company has 5 employees, and they’re looking to add more. They have an Outside Sales Executive position posted on Startuply that looks pretty interesting. Now, they have this posted as a commission only position, so I think that they’re going to have a tough time finding the person with 2 years in the Advertising Industry that they’re looking for. That means that if you think that you have what it takes, you’ll probably have a pretty good shot at landing this job (it’s not a lot of risk to them). Now it’s up to you to decide if a job without base salary is something that you can do (and if it isn’t, you can always try negotiating).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How do you feel about interactive advertising in taxi cabs?

Skyhook Wireless

Willy Franzen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:18:48 +0000

In my opinion one of the coolest features of the first generation iPhone was its ability to accurately give you your location despite its lacking a GPS chip. The technology is based on using Wi-Fi access points and cellular tower triangulation to determine your coordinates. Obviously a GPS chip is a better alternative (at least as long as you don’t have a roof blocking your satellite signal), but there are plenty of applications where Wi-Fi location comes in pretty handy. That’s why Boston based Skyhook Wireless is a growing company. They’re behind the technology that provides location to non-GPS equipped iPhones (as the New York Times covered quite well), and they’re also using their technology for geotagging, device recovery, social networking, and much more.

Locate Yourself at Skyhook Wireless

Now, it may sound to you as though GPS is a major threat to Skyhook Wireless’ business, but that’s not the case at all. If you take a look at the graph below, you’ll see that Skyhook’s XPS is a hybrid of GPS and Wi-Fi Positioning, and that it provides an amazing level of reliability in nearly all situations.

Beyond just being able to give people their locations, Skyhook Wireless also focuses on what people do with those locations on whatever device they’re getting them on. We’ve barely even touched the surface with using location data in our every day lives, so I think that Skyhook Wireless has a pretty bright future. If you want to be a part of that future, you should check out their Jobs page. A few of Skyhook’s job openings look like they might be suitable for new or recent grads: Wireless Product Manager, Web Product Manager, and Embedded Device Engineer. To apply for any of these positions (or maybe an unlisted one) send a cover letter and resume to careers@skyhookwireless.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Where are you?

Agency Nil

Willy Franzen — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:36:58 +0000

Considering that I do this nearly every day, I see a lot of companies and a lot of jobs, but today I came across something that I’ve never seen before. It’s called Agency Nil, and it’s an full-service advertising agency, except it’s nothing like any ad agency that you’ve ever seen. They don’t have a physical location, they don’t have a salaried staff, and they don’t have set fees. It’s almost as they don’t exist (I think that’s where the “nil” comes in), but they do. As PSFK puts it, Agency Nil “hopes to channelize the skills of experienced but laid-off talents from the advertising industry, as well as that of graduate students from advertising programs – people who just can’t seem to lay their hands on that elusive job.” In other words, they’re trying to put the glut of available talent to good use. It’s brilliant.

Will Work for All It’s Worth

The whole idea behind Agency Nil is that clients pay what they think the work they get is worth. They do have to cover any expenses, but beyond that the billing is completely discretionary. It allows them to put all of the risk on the agency, and that means the client is likely to get a lot more creativity than they would ever get in house. Ageny Nil’s slogan is “cheaper than freelance, better than interns,” and I think it’s pretty obvious why. Agency Nil was started by Hank Leber, a recent grad of the graduate program at VCU Brancenter, and he’s looking for more talent to join him at Agency Nil. If you’re interested in working in a pure meritocracy with a lot of uncertainty, send something impressive to audition@agencynil.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of the Agency Nil concept?

HotChalk

Willy Franzen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:29:41 +0000

Last week I told you about Sramana Mitra’s book Entrepreneur Journeys and how it was loaded with cool companies that would be awesome to work for. One of those companies is HotChalk, an educational startup that provides online learning management systems for free. They enable teachers to bring their classrooms online in minutes without having to worry about administration approval or staying within a budget. HotChalk isn’t just tailored to teachers though; HotChalk also focuses on pleasing students, parents, school administrators, and tech coordinators. The simplicity of the whole thing has enabled HotChalk to gain a ton of marketshare—they have over 7 million monthly unique visitors and more than 375,000 teachers using the service. That’s what “free” will do for you.

HotJobs at HotChalk?

The most interesting thing about HotChalk is their revenue model. Instead of building a freemium product where schools can pay for premium services once they’re forced to by teachers who have adopted the free service, HotChalk has decided that advertising is the key to profitability. They offer extremely targeted advertising to each of their user bases—teachers, students, parents, administrators, and tech coordinators; however, HotChalk has strict guidelines about what kind of advertisements can be targeted towards students, and they can never be shown ads during school hours. Now, how about jobs at HotChalk? Their Jobs page says that they don’t have any current openings, but it also says that they “are always looking for talented people.” If education technology is something that gets you excited, you should send a cover letter and resume to careers@hotchalk.com. According to HotChalk’s LinkedIn profile they have 27 employees right now, and they’re split between the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used HotChalk?

Adify

Willy Franzen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:10:16 +0000

I finally got around to reading a review copy of Sramana Mitra’s Entrepreneur Journeys
over the weekend, and it offered a pleasant surprise. Beyond providing an inside look at the lives of more than a dozen entrepreneurs, it also provided me with a number of ideas for companies to write about here. Today, we’re going to take a look at Adify. They’re a San Bruno, CA based company that helps media companies build vertical ad networks by combining “advanced ad serving and targeting technology together with an invaluable layer of expert human judgment and monitoring.” In other words, they make it technologically easy for content companies to monetize their websites.

Jobify

What Adify does may seem a little complex if you’re not familiar with the online advertising industry, but it’s actually pretty simple. Say that you have one of the most popular websites on fly fishing, and you want to sell advertising targeted to fly fishermen. Unfortunately, there’s no ad network that does the specifically, so you need to use a large ad network like Google’s that doesn’t really understand the audience as well as you do. With Adify, you can create your own ad network so that not only your site’s ad inventory can be sold, but you can also get other similar sites to join your network and sell their ad inventory. Adify provides the back end technology for all of this, while you can focus on content and selling advertising. It’s pretty cool. Right now Adify has a bunch of jobs posted, and a couple seem like they might be well suited for new grads. If you head over to their Jobs page, you should be sure to check out the QA Engineer, UI Engineer, Solutions Engineer, and Platform Solutions Associate. You can apply for any of the jobs by sending a cover letter and resume to jobs@adify.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Sling Media

Willy Franzen — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:07:23 +0000

We’re at a transitional point right now when it comes to television. In some ways it’s easy to watch the shows that we want to see by heading over to Hulu or some other Internet destination, but in many situations we’re still at the mercy of the television networks. We are not yet able to watch what we want to watch when we want to watch it no matter where we are, but that’s quickly changing. San Francisco’s Sling Media is one of the companies that is pushing that change. They’re behind a device, called a Slingbox, that you can hook up to your tv and cable box to watch and control your television from any Internet connected computer or smartphone.

Sling Your Career Forward

The opportunities for use are endless, but here’s one example. I love the Yankees, but in Chicago they’re rarely televised. I can set up a Slingbox in my parents’ house in Connecticut, that will let me watch all of the Yankees games (and whatever other local channels that I want) right on my computer at no cost beyond the hardware investment. It’s a pretty sweet technology, and I can even control a DVR to record the game if I’m not going to be near a computer to watch it. (The other option is to watch it on my iPhone under the table at dinner.) Most of what Sling Media is about right now is the Slingbox, but the company’s main focus is letting you control how you consume media. If that sounds like something that you’d like to be a part of, then you should check out their Jobs page. Current openings that may be suitable for new or recent grads include Sling Retail Sales Associate (San Francisco/Los Angeles), Ad Operations Trafficker/Coordinator (New York City), and Video and Photo Associate (New York City). They also have a bunch of Software Development jobs, but they all appear to have pretty hefty experience requirements. To apply for any of the jobs with Sling Media, send a cover letter and resume to jobs@slingmedia.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use a Slingbox.

Mono

Willy Franzen — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:40:38 +0000

I love simplicity. I also appreciate singularity. You know… One Day, One Job. There’s so much clutter these days that it can become really hard to focus. I’m sure that you’re seeing it in your job search, and you’re probably wondering why companies just keep layering on more complexity to what they do. If so, then you’re in good company. Mono is a Minneapolis, MN based branding, advertising, and design agency that is all about simplicity. They think that putting smart, innovative people on client projects is the key to great branding. That’s it. I like it. And so do their clients (it’s an impressive list).

Mono Day, Mono Job

I took a few minutes to browse through some of Mono’s client work, and it’s awesome. I’m not just saying that they work with really great brands (which they do), but I’m also saying that their stuff is out of this world. Just look at what they did for NBATV, Herman Miller, and PBS. Simple, but beautiful. Mono doesn’t offer a ton of information about themselves online, but they get the message across just fine. You can tell who they are by using their website. They don’t even have a Jobs page – just an e-mail address for employment inquiries. They do, however, have what looks to be a fantastic internship program, so they clearly have an interest in young talent. If you’d like to work for Mono or you just want to know whether the company was named after a disease or not, get in touch with them at employment@mono-1.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you appreciate Mono’s simplicity?

CollegeHumor

Willy Franzen — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:00:03 +0000

I really wanted to play a gag on you this year. I wanted to post a ridiculous sounding job with a ridiculous application process, but I couldn’t bring myself to have fun at your cost. The job search is stressful enough. You don’t need someone messing with you even if you should know better than to believe anything that you read on April 1st. It’s going to be hard to top last year’s April Fools’ Day jobs with Motley Fool, and unfortunately I wasn’t smart enough to save jobs with The Onion for today, so we’re going to go with CollegeHumor, which “was founded in 1999 by two high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland who went to different colleges as a way to share all of the pictures, videos, and links their friends would IM and e-mail each other.” Somehow, a completely childish and immature website turned into a real media company over the past 10 years; in fact, IAC recently bought a majority share in CollegeHumor’s parent company. College, just like April Fools’ Day, is a time to have fun – often at the expense of others. I guess it makes sense that CollegeHumor, now based in New York City, has become a real business, with real employees.

CollegeHumor Isn’t a Joke

CollegeHumor isn’t for everyone (back in the day they had a disclaimer saying that anyone over 32 shouldn’t be on the website), but if you are amused by what others deem offensive, then a job with CollegeHumor might be your jam – especially if you want to work for a company that has a corporate beer pong team. Ok, so it’s not all fun and games. According to CollegeHumor’s Jobs page, they’re only hiring interns right now. That’s ok though, because if you let a lack of job postings stop you from landing your dream job, then you seriously need some job search help. I recommend that you head over to their About page, where they list all of their employees and job titles, and pick a job that you want. Then contact CollegeHumor and try to steal the person’s job. You can say, “April Fools’! I took your job. Happy unemployment!” It’ll help if you offer to take payment solely in Busted Tees (one of CollegeHumor’s sister companies). Your other option is to check out the Jobs from Connected Ventures, CollegeHumor’s parent company. They’re looking for a PHP/MySQL Developer and an IT Technician. If you want to land a job with CollegeHumor, you’re going to have to show some creativity and a serious sense of humor, so step away from the cover letter and resume, and find a better way to get their attention.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

CollegeHumor.com
ConnectedVentures.com (CollegeHumor’s Parent Company)
Jobs at CollegeHumor
About CollegeHumor
CollegeHumor’s FAQ

What’s your favorite prank on CollegeHumor?

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Willy Franzen — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:08:43 +0000

I always say that when it comes to ad agencies, marketing companies, and PR firms, the best way to evaluate the company is to check out their client list and look at the work that the company has done. It’s not going to tell you everything that you need to know, but it’ll give you a solid idea whether or not the company is a place that you might want to work. If you want to work with big brands who are willing to take big risks with their advertising campaigns, then Crispin Porter + Bogusky might be the place for you. The Subservient Chicken is one of their more successful campaigns that started out virally, while the Microsoft campaign with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld was one of their well-publicized flops. CP+B is headquartered in Miami, FL, while they also have major locations in Boulder, CO; Los Angeles, CA; and London, UK. Their client list sits at the bottom of every page on their website – probably because it is so impressive.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky = A Job for You?

The brands that Crispin Porter + Bogusky have worked with are unparalleled, so if that’s what gets you excited, keep reading. Here’s what CP+B has to say about what they do:

We’re a factory. A factory that makes advertising and branded creative content. But there is no assemly line. All the work is custom desgined and assembled by hand. We don’t have the luxury of knowing the product we build today will be exactly like the product we built yesterday. To be successful, we have to apporach every single day like it will be our defining moment. Because that’s reality.

They’re clearly a company that knows how to tell stories – their own and their clients’. My only issue with Crispin Porter + Bogusky is that their site is in all Flash, so it’s impossible for me to link to all of the interesting things on their website. They might want to work on that. So how can you land a job at CP+B? You can start by checking out their Employment page. It consists of a list of areas that they typically hire for – Creative, Integrated Production, Interactive Creative, Interactive Development, Content Management, Cultural and Business Insights, Productions Solutions, Creative Content Distribution, and Factory Support – with e-mail addresses to apply to. There are no specific job descriptions or anything like that. There is, however, an online version of Crispin Porter + Bougsky’s Employee Handbook, which will give you an inside peek at what it’s like to work for them. You should note that Crispin Porter + Bogusky recently laid off 6% of their staff, so getting a job may not be easy. There is hope though, because they have a 4 jobs posted on TechCrunch’s Job Board. Maybe they’ll be replacing the people that they laid off with cheaper entry level talent.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s work?

Emotive

Willy Franzen — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:29:52 +0000

As we learned in the most recent round of elections, the Internet matters. Even 4 years ago there was a lot of talk about the importance of campaign website, but not a lot of real value. Now it’s absolutely essential to use the web to organize your base and to reach swing voters. Add to that the fact that politics are recession-proof (unfortunately), and you’ll understand why Arlington, VA based Emotive is so well positioned right now. They’re a direct marketing company that specializes in online solutions for political campaigns, trade associations, and issue-based coalitions. If you want to see some of the work that they’ve done, you can check out the websites for The Governator and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation. They offer complete solutions, so as they put it, “We’re not only going to build you a Cadillac, we want to be your chauffeur.”

A Job at Emotive Doesn’t Make You an Emo

Whether you’re interested in direct marketing, web development, politics, organizing, or all of the above, Emotive could be a really interesting place for you to work. They’re conveniently located in the DC area, which is smart considering their clientele. Their website doesn’t say a ton about what they do, but I think that the Portfolio on their About page should tell you everything that you need to know. Just yesterday, Emotive posted 3 job openings on their LinkedIn Company Profile. The job titles are Interactive Designer, Interactive Developer, and Account Manager, and all of them look like they may be suitable for new college grads. You can apply for the jobs through LinkedIn, and you can also find out a lot more about the company from their profile.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How important do you think the web is to political campaigns?

POKE

Willy Franzen — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:50:24 +0000

The word “poke” brings quite a few things to mind for me. There’s that useless Facebook feature that nobody uses any more (my girlfriend won’t even poke me back these days). There’s the Hawaiian dish of cubed raw fish. There’s the obvious annoying gesture/action of poking someone, and it’s even a term for an awkward looking base hit in baseball. Those are the things that came to mind for me. What didn’t come to mind, but should have is POKE, a New York City based creative company that happens to be taking a creative approach to how they recruit new employees. I wish that I could tell you more about what they do, but they’re having some website issues, which I’ll discuss in a second.

Get POKEd

Ok, so my introduction to POKE was pretty good – I found out about them from an AdFreak.com story about their internship recruitment. It led to my featuring POKE’s Internships on One Day, One Internship a few days ago. When I was doing my research on them, I headed for their home page at POKENewYork.com to get their full story. Unfortunately, their home page wasn’t working so well on Monday, but today it looks like it’s back in action. It’s in a blog format, which means that it’s loaded with information. Unfortunately, their Contact & FAQ link is still broken. To get a full sense of what POKE’s creative endeavors entail, you should take a look at their Portfolio, their Working with POKE page, and POKE Live. Since it seems as though a lot of POKE’s work is web design, you’d like to see their own website working properly.

Enough with the negative though. POKE still looks like an awesome place to work. The following quote sums up their approach to recruitment: “If you’d like to work with POKE don’t assume that you’re going to see a want ad on the website. Send us a mail. A link to your blog, portfolio or something you’ve done is quite often much more useful than a resume.” That’s really all that you need to know (ok, if you want to know more, check out Working with POKE). If you have an interest in design, marketing, advertising, web development, social media, or anything else creative, then you should let POKE know via their Contact page. Don’t just wait around for them to post a job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of when you hear “poke?”

Hulu

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:24:39 +0000

When NBC Universal and News Corp. announced a new online video venture, I rolled my eyes along with nearly everyone else who had an interest in online video. Large corporations had consistently proven that they just didn’t get it. They were too busy removing videos from YouTube and suing college kids for file sharing. That’s why I was really surprised when I started using – and loving – Hulu. The fact that I can watch new episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, reruns of Doogie Howser, M.D., and Speed 2: Cruise Control (ok, their movie selection is still a little week) all for free with limited commercial interruption is pretty awesome; in fact, I now watch Hulu more than I watch tv. It’s no wonder that Hulu, which is based out of Los Angeles, CA, is winning all kinds of awards now.

What’s a Hulu?

The story of how the name Hulu came about is relatively interesting, but not too far off from many other naming stories. What is remarkable about Hulu is that they’ve combined a startup mentality with old media connections. It may be a little more top-down than YouTube, but it’s stuff that you can actually watch for a prolonged period of time without feeling considerably dumber (ok, not all of it is). The coolest thing about Hulu is a business is that they’re old media meets new media, which is also reflected in their jobs. They are always on the lookout for top-flight Engineering talent for positions like SQL Database Developer, Software Developer, and Technical Project Manager. If these jobs interest you, then you’ll probably want to check out the About Hulu Engineering Page. If you’re interested in the other side of the business, you might want to take a look at jobs like Traffic Coordinator or Campaign Manager. And if you’re really in for an adventure, you might want to check out their jobs located in Beijing. To apply for a job with Hulu, you should send a cover letter and resume to jobs@hulu.com, but before that you should definitely read What Defines Hulu.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite thing to watch on Hulu?

Plaid

Willy Franzen — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:57:05 +0000

Do you like intersecting stripes? How about branding? If you like both, then Plaid is the perfect company for you. They’re a small Danbury, CT based agency that specializes in Design & Branding, Emerging Media, and TV. They’re media agnostic, which means that they love it all as long as they can be creative. Seriously. Just look at their portfolio – it gives a great overview of exactly what they do and what their style is. I’m extremely impressed by their work, especially by what they’ve done on their own website. It’s fun and does a great job of expressing their brand’s personality. They look like a lot of fun!

Get Plaid

If you’re looking for a job where you’ll be surrounded by creativity, you shouldn’t think about getting paid, you should think about getting Plaid. While I was scanning Twitter for job postings this morning, I came across a ton of tweets referring to a new opening at Plaid. The job description has mixed messages about whether Plaid is looking for someone who is entry level, but the opportunity sounds so cool that I thought that I’d tell you about it anyway. They’re looking for “the greatest Project Manager/Producer/Master-controller-of-the-universe.” That title sounds a bit intimidating, but the rest of the description isn’t:

You’re a great communicator, with fantastic people skills, and organization/planning skills that would make our heads explode. You might even have previous agency experience, or interactive experience. You likely have an understanding of the production process relative to a design and brand firm. And you’d be even more awesome if you’re already on Facebook or Twitter.

You can find the whole job description on their blog, and you can apply for a job with Plaid by sending “your details to darryl@thinkplaid.com, with ‘greatest job in the world’ in the subject line.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you thinking Plaid?

Rubicon Project

Willy Franzen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:53:40 +0000

As far as I can tell, now is not a good time to be in Advertising. When the economy slows down, ad sales usually take a hit. I know that first hand, which is why we’ve moved towards offering useful products – like job seeker training – instead of selling ads to employers (remember: all of our daily posts are editorial). With that said, online advertising is still the future, and with the struggles that many publishers are facing, now is a perfect time for innovation. That’s what Rubicon Project is all about. They’re a Los Angeles, CA based startup that is “on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry.” This means optimizing unfilled ad space through software. With 300+ ad networks to choose from, publishers just can’t possibly evaluate every ad network’s offers on their own. Rubicon Project can – in a matter of seconds – and then server the most profitable ad immediately.

Past the Point of No Return

According to Wikipedia “‘Crossing the Rubicon’ is a popular idiom meaning to pass a point of no return.” If you take a job with Rubicon Project, you will be past the point of no return towards a successful career in the advertising industry. To get a better sense of what Rubicon Project does, you should check out this video overview and then the rest of Rubicon Project’s videos. After that you can head over to Rubicon Project’s Jobs page. They have quite a few openings, and not all of them require a technical background. Opportunities that might appeal to new grads include Quality Assurance / Technical Support Engineer, Software Engineer, GUI Designer/Developer, Database Administrator, Stats Coordinator, Associate – Ad Network Alliances, Publisher Operations Coordinator/Analyst, Publisher Strategist, and Yield Management Specialist.

Rubicon Project has some interesting application questions because they get so many resumes. They include:

1. What are your three favorite restaurants in Los Angeles?
2. What’s one product (or gadget) you couldn’t live without and why?
3. What’s your idea of a fun night out?
4. How would you describe yourself?
5. Describe an innovative and original advertising idea.
6. What are your favorite websites?
7. And why not include an interesting bit of trivia about yourself.

You can send your answers to these questions to jobs@rubiconproject.com along with a cover letter and resume.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you noticed trouble finding jobs in Advertising lately?