Today is the last day to enter our Maghound Your Way to a New Job contest. With so few entries so far, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll win a one-year subscription to an awesome new magazine subscription service (3 monthly magazines for free!).

I’m still on my Inc. 5000 kick, and today we’re looking at a company whose name immediately caught my eye. They’re called College Hunks Hauling Junk, and that’s exactly what they are. Omar Soliman wanted to make some money during the summer, so he borrowed his mom’s cargo van to start hauling away people’s junk. He then entered his business plan in the Rothschild Entrepreneurship Competition and won the $10,000 first prize. He realized that he had a business that he could grow, and now College Hunks Hauling Junk is doing $2.9 million in revenue. Guess that’s why Omar and his co-founder Nick were named (also by Inc.) as Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30. College Hunks Hauling Junk is headquartered in Tampa, FL, but through expansion and franchising they now operate in Anne Arundel, MD; Baltimore/Howard County, MD; Chicago, IL; Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; Indianapolis, IN; Little Rock, AR; Los Angeles, CA; Louisville, KY; Orange County, CA; Orlando, FL; Phoenix, AZ; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Richmond, VA; San Francisco/San Jose, CA; Tampa Bay, FL; and Washington, DC Metro.

Are You Hunky Enough?

College Hunks Hauling Junk certainly has a provocative name, but that’s part of their success. Finding someone to haul away your junk isn’t that hard, but it’s really easy to go with the brand you recognize. College Hunks Hauling Junk is all about grabbing attention so that they’re the company that you choose when you need to get rid of some junk. It doesn’t hurt that they can call themselves green, as they recycle 60% of the junk that they collect. Now, College Hunks Hauling Junk obviously has plenty of jobs available. If you want to get in the business of hauling junk to pay your way through college, they can help, but they’re also a growing company with growing needs. They have a bunch of corporate job postings that consist solely of titles. Since they’re a college startup, it’s hard to say how much experience they’re looking for with each position, but you’ll have to apply to find out. The posted job titles include Truck Captain/ Wingman, VP – Franchise Development, Client Loyalty Associate (Inside Sales Rep), Operations Manager, VP – Marketing, VP – Public Relations, VP – Finance, VP – Business Development, and VP – Information Technology.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• 1800JunkUSA.com
• Jobs at College Hunks Hauling Junk
• About College Hunks Hauling Junk
• College Hunks Hauling Junk’s Blog
• Junk Hunk History
• College Hunks Hauling Junk’s Fact Sheet

Have you used College Hunks Hauling Junk?

Somehow the Coca-Cola brand has been indelibly tied to the image of Santa Claus. In fact, there’s even an urban legend that the modern image of Santa Claus was created by The Coca-Cola Company. It’s not true, but the fact that many people believe it to be true speaks volumes about Coca-Cola’s branding prowess (dating all the way back to the 1930s). We considered a lot of Christmas themed companies to feature today, but we keep coming back to the image of St. Nick sipping on a glass bottle of Coke. Let’s see how you can find a job with Coke.

Live on the Coke Side of Life

Surprisingly, Coke doesn’t appear to have any sort of entry level hiring program. If they do, they certainly don’t mention it on their website. It’s quite possible that they do some college recruiting (they definitely do it for internships), but all we could find were some entry level jobs posted on their site. Some examples include Administrative Assistant (Irvine, CA and Brussels, Belgium), Supply Planner (Houston, TX), Brand Experience Junior Project Manager (Issy-les-Moulineaux, France), and CDT Business Analyst (Columbia, MD, Bentonville, AR and Irvine, CA). There aren’t a ton of jobs from what we can tell, but we have heard word of Coke’s hiring 300+ new college grads every year. We’re not sure where you can find all of those jobs. Maybe they’re posted seasonally. You can apply for a job with Coca-Cola directly from the job descriptions, and if you don’t see anything that you like, you can search their career opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• TheCoca-ColaCompany.com
• Jobs at Coca-Cola
• About Coca-Cola
• Why Work at Coke?
• People at Coca-Cola

Merry Christmas!

This is a sponsored post. We’ve worked directly with Alcoa to bring you the inside scoop on their top entry-level career opportunities.

My introduction to Alcoa came through the Baseball Express catalog. I was a high school baseball player, and I spent hours poring over the pages dreaming about saving up enough to buy a brand new baseball bat made out of cutting edge materials. The catalog’s copy had me convinced that a bat made from Alcoa’s latest alloy was the key to hitting home runs. Had I spent more time in the batting cage, and less time researching my baseball bat purchase, maybe I would have done more than played Club Baseball in college for a year. Then again, the bat that I finally chose did hit the ball a lot farther than the bats that I had used in previous years. Since you probably had better things to do in high school than read baseball catalogs from cover to cover, you may not be familiar with Alcoa, but you should know that producing aluminum for baseball bats is just a tiny sliver of what they do. It is, however, an excellent example of how Alcoa seems to have a hand in almost everything.

What Does Alcoa Do?

In one word: aluminum. Alcoa’s major cash cow is their Global Flat Rolled Products business, which “offers the widest variety of aluminum plate and sheet in the world.” If you’re using a product made out of aluminum, there’s a good chance that it started out at Alcoa’s Global Flat Rolled Products. Just think of all the cool things that are made from aluminum – baseball bats, beer and soda cans, airplanes, consumer electronics – we could keep going. If you really want to see some of the coolest things that have been made out of aluminum, you should check out Alcoa’s blog posts from the Consumer Electronics Show. The possibilities with aluminum as a material are seemingly endless, and that’s why Alcoa has branched out over the years into an a amazingly diverse array of businesses that include Defense, Plastics, Energy, Recycling, Propulsion, HVAC, and many more. They’re blogging about their work in Recycling and Aerospace, so check those blogs out for a unique look inside Alcoa.

When it comes to researching Alcoa, you could spend weeks learning about the entire company – it’s huge. They have 97,000 employees who work in 34 countries. Your best bet is to focus on the divisions that interest you the most, and learn about them and their specific entry-level opportunities. You may never have considered a job at a major industrial corporation, but you should look closely at Alcoa. It’s likely that they’ll exceed your expectations. For example Alcoa has recently been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies and one of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies. They also send their employees on Earth Watch trips and invite them to blog about their experiences. Pretty cool, huh?

What Can I Do at Alcoa?

Alcoa is a major entry-level employer, and they typically add about 175 new college graduates to their ranks every year. The positions that they hire for are as diverse as the businesses that they operate in, and they have locations all across the country – there’s something for everyone. They’ve worked with us to identify the positions that One Day, One Job readers will be most interested in, and you will find those listed below. They’ve also provided a link directly into their applicant tracking system for students who can’t find a job listing that is well suited for them. If you don’t find anything below, use this link to submit your cover letter and resume for consideration by Alcoa’s college recruiting team. If you look like a good fit, they’ll work with you to find the right position in the company.

We know that Alcoa has a very strong internship program, so we asked the folks at Alcoa what kind of jobs their interns who stay with the company usually take after they graduate from college. We were told that last year’s intern class went into areas like Legal, Electrical Engineering, Plastics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, and Finance. We were also told that Alcoa counts internships, volunteer work, and other similar activities as years of experience. That means that even if a job listing says that 3 years of experience is required, you shouldn’t be afraid to apply.

Here are Alcoa’s entry-level jobs for new college graduates with the most recently posted listed first:

• ABS Technician (Continuous Improvement/Lean Production/Manufacturing) – Global Primary Products – Point Comfort, TX
• Communications Specialist – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Warrick, IN
• Associate Buyer – Alcoa Corporate – Springdale, AR
• Capital Council Commodity Analyst – Alcoa Wireless Services – Pittsburgh, PA
• NDT Level III – Aerospace Automotive and Commercial Transportation (Howmet Castings) – LaPorte, IN
• Business Analyst I (HRMS) – Alcoa Corporate – Pittsburgh, PA
• Product Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – LaPorte, IN
• Safety Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
• EHS Professional – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Massena, NY
• Tooling/Product Engineer – Aerospace Automotive and Commercial Transportation – Flexible Location
• Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
• Metallurgical Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Winsted, CT
• Electrical Engineer – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Alcoa, TN
• Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
• Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
• Mechanical Engineer – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Warrick, IN
• Metallurgical Engineer – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Warrick, IN
• Safety Specialist – Global Primary Products – Wenatchee, WA
• Cost Accountant – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
• Facilities Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – LaPorte, IN
• Reliability Engineer (Power Distribution) – Global Primary Products – Wenatchee, WA
• Sr. Accountant – Engineered Products & Solutions – Torrance, CA
• Product Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
• Project Specialist – Aerospace Automotive and Commercial Transportation (Howmet Castings) – Whitehall, MI
• Process Engineer – Global Primary Products – Rockdale, TX
• Facilities Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
• Senior Treasury Analyst (Global Leasing) – Alcoa Corporate – Pittsburgh, PA
• Safety Coordinator – Engineered Products & Solutions – Hernando, MS
• EHS Engineer (EHS-RD) – Alcoa Technical Center – Alcoa Center, PA
• Mechanical Engineering Technician – Engineered Products & Solutions – Cleveland, OH
• Marketing Analyst – Engineered Products & Solutions – Nashville, TN
• Jr. Business Analyst – Engineered Products & Solutions – Simi Valley, CA
• Project Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Eastman, GA
• Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Eastman, GA
• Facilities Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
• Environmental Engineer – Global Primary Products – Wenatchee, WA
• Engineered Products & Solutions – Global Primary Products – Nashville, TN
• Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
• Manufacturing Engineer – Sapa (Alcoa Extrusions) – Morris, IL
• Production Planner – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
• Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – LaPorte, IN
• Plant Sales Representative – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
• Manufacturing Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Hampton, VA

If you see something that catches your eye, just click the link, read the description, and apply. They’ll know that you came from One Day, One Job. If you’re intrigued by these jobs, but don’t see anything in your desired field or location, you can still send your resume and cover letter to Alcoa through this online form or you can use their search function to find newly listed opportunities. You may also want to look at Alcoa’s GREA Acquiring Talent Program, which is a Leadership Development Program and has a separate application process.

Thanks to Alcoa for working with us to bring you these excellent entry-level job opportunities. Now go get researching!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Alcoa.com
• Careers at Alcoa
• About Alcoa
• Working at Alcoa
• Profiles of Employees at Alcoa
• Why Alcoa?
• Alcoa’s Career Opportunities for Students (Mostly Internship Related)
• Alcoa’s Businesses
• Alcoa’s Vision and Values
• Alcoa’s Annual Report

What’s your favorite product that’s made out of aluminum? Leave a comment.

Ryan Partnership has challenged its people with their unofficial motto of “See How Far Ideas Can Take You.” (Ryan’s official motto is Free Beer, No Assholes – FBNA for short. Seriously. It says so on their website.) Ideas (or maybe it’s the free beer and lack of assholes) have taken Ryan Partnership to the top of their industry, as they were named one of iMedia Connection’s Top 5 Integrated Marketing Agencies in 2006 and PROMO Magazines “Agency of the Year” in 2007. With $58.5 million in revenue in 2006, Ryan is a mature company that is still growing briskly (34% growth rate last year).

Mary Perry, President of the Promotion Agency division of Ryan Partnership, recently spoke at Montana State University. Although there’s no transcript of her speech, the title “Blending Generations in the Workforce” tells us that Ryan is the kind of place you want to work when you’re fresh out of college. The Careers section on Ryan’s website is titled “Want In?” Sounds like an elite club based on the FBNA motto.

Ryan definitely takes a different approach from most companies when it comes to online recruiting. They have a “Ryan Employee Compatibility Test” that asks you four humorously posed questions on your attitude and work experiences. Their entire website is visually appealing and very interesting, but it’s somewhat hard to navigate. For instance, we can’t link to individual pages on the site, because it’s entirely in Flash. The site is also audio and video intensive – if you’re browsing somewhere where it would be inappropriate to have your computer’s sound on, you’ll miss out on their entire message. The Careers section is also short on useful information. There are a ton of positions listed on the Ryan Partnership website, but there’s no information beyond the job title and location. Still, the fact that the Ryan Partnership’s website utilizes video of real Ryan employees to convey information about the company is refreshing and interesting.

Your best bet to get a job at Ryan Partnership is to send a cover letter and resume to humanresources@ryanpartnership.com and ask them what positions are appropriate for an entry-level candidate who just graduated college.

Ryan locations include: Atlanta, GA; Bentonville, AR; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Minneapolis, MN; Toronto, Canada; and Wilton, CT (Headquarters).

Note: On April 21st we revisited entry-level jobs at Ryan Partnership.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• The Ryan Partnership Home Page
• A Quick Fact Sheet on Ryan Partnership
• PROMO Magazine Article on Ryan Partnership
• Donna’s Promo Talk Blog on Ryan’s Campbell’s Soup Campaign
• Donna’s Promo Talk Blog on Ryan’s Heineken Campaign
• Donna’s Promo Talk Blog on Ryan’s Dove Campaign

What do you know about jobs at Ryan Partnership? Leave a comment.