One Day, One Job » China

DivX

Willy Franzen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:55:36 +0000

We’ve looked at plenty of Internet video companies in the past, but we haven’t spent too much time looking at companies that provide the underlying technology that drives Internet video. DivX is a San Diego, CA based company that develops and licenses video codecs. Codec is short for compressor-decompressor, which is essentially technology that allows you to more efficiently transfer data. In DivX’s case they provide a codec that allows high definition video to be compressed without sacrificing quality on the other end. They’re a big part of why Internet video finally works so well. Transmitting uncompressed video over the Internet takes a huge amount of bandwidth, but using a DivX codec significantly decreases the amount of bandwidth necessary to transmit your favorite time wasting video.

Decoding Your Job Search

If you’re going to end up working for DivX, chances are that you know more about video codecs than I do (please forgive me if my explanation above wasn’t up to snuff). While most consumers aren’t familiar with the DivX brand, they most likely use the company’s technology often. Whether it’s on the computer, the tv, or your phone, there’s a really good chance that DivX’s technology makes it possible for you to watch video. Since DivX isn’t typically selling you a product, they have to make most of their money through licensing this technology to third parties. DivX is very much a technology company, so that’s where most of their jobs are. Right now they have 25 open positions, and a few seem suitable for new grads including QA Tester (San Diego, CA), Integration Tester (Malvern, PA), Field Applications Engineer (San Diego, CA), Embedded Engineer – Software Development (Malvern, PA), and Certification Engineer (Malvern, PA). You can apply online for any of these positions, and if you’re interested in working internationally (Germany, Russia, or China), you should check out the rest of DivX’s job postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Had you heard of DivX before?

?What If!

Willy Franzen — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:41:54 +0000

We’ve seen some companies with funky names. Weird made up words. All upper case or lower case. Odd punctuation. And then there’s ?What If!. It kind of looks like someone’s software project gone wrong. It’s definitely not a software project, and I’d say ?What If! is more like a consulting firm gone right. Their business is built on 5 key values: freshness, passion, action, love, and bravery, which sounds a bit different from the values of most companies. The reason that ?What If! deviates from the norms both in name and values is that they’re an innovation company. It’s all about developing new ideas and putting them into action, whether the ideas be products or customer experiences. ?What If! has a long and impressive list of clients, so they’re not just some off the wall company that is all ideas and no action. They’re based in the UK, but they also have offices in New York and Shanghai.

Don’t Leave Yourself Asking ?What If!

Whether it’s innovating to increase the value of research or to help a high-tech business enter the hospitality industry, ?What If! is constantly working on cool projects, and this is obviously reflected in their jobs. ?What If! offers jobs in the UK, Asia, and the US, but we’re only going to focus on their job opportunities in the US today. They have a nice interactive map on their recruitment page, so it’s really easy to view all of their jobs if you’re interested in working abroad. In New York, open positions include Capability Consultant, Innovation Consultant, Creative Coordinators, and Training Consultant. The job descriptions aren’t like most job openings, so it’s hard to get a read on how much experience is really required for each position, but the way that I read the descriptions tells me that the the Creative Coordinator job is most suitable for new grads. Just as the job descriptions are a little different, so is the application process for jobs at ?What If! You can apply from the specific job descriptions, and you’ll get an online application form with questions like “What is the best idea that you’ve ever made happen?” and “If I was on a 12 hour flight with you what would I love about you? And what would irritate me?” You can also apply for an unlisted position, so if you think that you have the talents for innovation consulting but don’t know where you’d fit in, that’s probably the best way to go.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

?What If!

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?

frog design

Willy Franzen — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:51:42 +0000

We’re big on innovation here. We don’t like talking about companies that are doing things the way that they’ve always done. They’re not only boring, but they’re also destined for failure. Look at the auto industry. You can blame the downfall of the Big 3 on a lot of things, but a lack of innovation has to be a big part of your argument. We’re trying to bring innovation to the way that you find jobs, and there are hundreds of startups out there that are defined by innovation. It’s all around us. frog design is a global innovation firm. They “work with the world’s leading companies, helping them create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences,” and they’ve been doing it for almost 40 years. They’ve worked with clients as vaired as Disney, GE, HP, Logitech, Microsoft, MTV, Seagate, Yahoo!, which goes to show you that they’re not easy to pigeonhole. frog design is based out of San Francisco, and they have offices (or as they call them, studios) in Austin, New York, San Jose, Seattle, Milan, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, and Shanghai

These Jobs Might Give You Warts

It seems that on most days the companies that we feature need a little help telling their story, so we do our research and try to make it easier for you to understand what exactly they do. That’s not the case today. Frog Design tells their story perfectly on their About page with the following image. That’s why we’re just reposting it.

I have nothing to add, except of course what kind of jobs at frog design might appeal to new college grads. Considering that they have a ton of internships, you might expect them to have some sort of college recruiting program, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Their Internships page actually says that they “occasionally have internship opportunities for entry-level,” but that’s in reference to internships. It seems like they might do all of the entry level hiring through internships, so you may want to check out our post about frog design’s internships on One Day, One Internship.

On the other hand, if you’ve developed some serious skills relevant to frog design’s core strengths, you might want to take a look at some of their “mid-level” jobs that could be attainable for top entry level candidates. Online Marketing Specialist / Web Developer (San Francisco), Digital Designer II (San Francisco), or Temp Model Maker (San Jose). These are probably stretches for new grads, so go read the Top 10 Reasons to Work at frog to get yourself amped up before you apply. Maybe you’ll just blow them away with your passion.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you love innovation as much as we do?

Kurt Salmon Associates

Willy Franzen — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:25:03 +0000

Consulting jobs are hot for new college grads, even though a lot of people ask, “What could a new grad possibly consult on?” The truth is that consulting firms love fresh talent. They pick the best and the brightest and put them to work on teams with experienced pros to solve problems that other companies are struggling with. If you’re thinking about a job in consulting, you might as well aim for the one of the best. Kurt Salmon Associates is a consulting firm that focuses on Consumer Products and Retail (Supply Chain and Growth and Profitability) and Health Care consulting. They’ve been named a Top 10 Best Firm to Work For by Consulting Magazine for six years in a row, so you know that they’ll take good care of you – if you can land a job with them.

The Myth of the Two-Headed Salmon

Kurt Salmon Associates seems to keep their two businesses separate, which can be a bit confusing for college students who are considering working for them. They have parallel websites for their Consumer Products & Retail Consulting and Health Care Consulting; however, they do have a main Careers site which is shared by both. The shared Careers site mentions the typical career path at Kurt Salmon (Consultant –> Senior Consultant –> Manager –> Senior Manager –> Principal) and how “KSA is Keen on Green,” and then it directs visitors to the parallel Careers sections for their two businesses. Although the two separate businesses have many similarities, you want to make sure that you’re reading the site when you’re researching KSA’s job opportunities.

The Retail and Consumer Products side of Kurt Salmon Associates seems to be bigger than the Health Care side. The former has locations in Atlanta, GA; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Princeton, NJ; San Francisco, CA; Shanghai, China; Tokyo, Japan; Altrincham, UK; Amsterdam, NL ; Düsseldorf, Germany; London, UK; and Paris, France; whereas, the Health Care business only has locations in Atlanta, GA; Minneapolis, MN; Philadelphia, PA; and San Bruno, CA. If you want to learn more specifics about each of the businesses, you should check out their individual sites – Consumer Products & Retail Consulting and Health Care Consulting.

Landing an Entry Level Job with Kurt Salmon Associates

Kurt Salmon Associates provides much more information about Retail and Consumer Products Consulting Careers than they do about their Health Care Consulting Careers. There isn’t much mention of college recruiting on the Health Care site, so if that’s what you’re interested, you should look at their specific job opportunities and consider applying. If you’re interested in a Retail and Consumer Products job, then you’ll have a lot more to look at. They actively recruit at target schools which include Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Geogia Tech, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, Emory, Stanford, Penn State, and New York University (you can find this on their Campus Recruiting page), but they also accept applicants from other schools. To learn more, you may want to look at their brochure, their sample Case Interview, and their consultant profiles. If you’ve already graduated, you can look at KSA’s current opportunities, otherwise you can use KSA’s general application form.

As you can tell, navigating KSA’s web site can be a little bit confusing. If you follow our lead, you should be able to find all the information that you need about getting a job as an entry level consultant with Kurt Salmon Associates.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Laserfiche

Willy Franzen — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:33:24 +0000

Imagine that instead of graduating in 2008, you graduated in 1978. You’re a paralegal, and you’re working on a major litigation for a Japanese auto manufacturer. You are responsible for organizing thousands of pages of documents by keyword so that the lawyers will be able to quickly find relevant depositions. Doesn’t sound like very much fun, does it? Not too long ago this was a reality, and although we’re now mostly blind to the wonders of search, Laserfiche offered a revolutionary product in 1987 when they offered the first DOS-based document imaging system. Now paralegals could just scan these documents, and software would automatically index every single word. This may have been bad for paralegals (software replacing humans), but it was good for anyone who might consider working for Laserfiche. Although it may seem that companies could easily manage their documents now that most things have gone digital, they can’t. That’s why Laserfiche is still kicking around, helping organization manage information.

Microfiche + Lasers = Laserfiche

It’s hard to believe that paper documents still exist, but they are all over the place; in fact, some companies are still adding to their paper files. That means Laserfiche has plenty of opportunities to keep growing, but just in case it ever happens that every important file is finally in an electronic database, Laserfiche has broadened its capabilities. They provide services and software to help companies manage information. It may be hard to understand how difficult it is for a large organization to manage all of its information when you can do so easily on your own computer, but it becomes a major problem. We don’t fully understand how Laserfiche solves the problems (that’s why we’re not in the information management business), but we can see why they need to hire so many new people. It’s important stuff! Their clients include “local, state, and federal agencies; financial services firms; healthcare organizations; educational institutions; and other public and private sector organizations.” Next time you got to Town Hall and fill out a paper application for some permit, it might be Laserfiche’s software that ensures that your permit can be brought up on a computer in a different office.

Laserfiche Isn’t Just About Software

Despite the fact that what Laserfiche does is kind of techie, they offer a number of jobs that are suitable for people with a non-Engineering background (although Engineers will have plenty of options too). Here’s a quote from Laserfiche’s Campus Recruiting page:

Laserfiche is a great place to start your career. Don’t know what your interests are yet? Interested in everything? We allow you to easily move between project groups to work with a variety of new technologies, collaborate in small groups with your co-workers, and gain experience quickly. After a few years, engineers often will have worked on multiple product lines, exposing them to a variety of tools and emerging technologies

Almost all of Laserfiche’s Available Jobs appear to be geared towards new college grads. It is rare that you see entry-level jobs dominating a companies openings, but we can only see it as a good thing. You’ll see that the first 2 jobs are located in Shanghai, but the rest are out of Laserfiche’s headquarters in Long Beach, CA.

The job descriptions on most of these jobs are solid. They’re very clear about what kind of skills you’ll need to succeed in the job and what you’ll be doing once you’re in the job.

Judging from its website, Laserfiche looks like a fun place to work for new college grads. Be sure to take a look at profiles of new grads who are working at Laserfiche, Laserfiche’s benefits and culture, and the video and pictures on Laserfiche’s About page to get a better sense of what the work experience should be like.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Aren’t you glad that you can work for Laserfiche instead of poring over paper documents for weeks at a time?

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.

IDEO

Willy Franzen — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:00:50 +0000

Are you fascinated by innovation? Do you run out to the store when BusinessWeek publishes their issue on the 50 Most Innovative Companies? (Blatant Self-Promotion: Read our new article on how magazine lists can help you find a job.) Almost all of the companies on BusinesWeek’s list are companies that deal directly with consumers, whether they provide products or services, but IDEO is different. They serve businesses by helping them innovate through design. You’ve probably bought many products that IDEO has had a hand in, but you likely attributed the innovations in the product to the manufacturer. Think again.

IDEO is truly a different kind of company, and we don’t feel we can do it justice with just a little blurb. For an introduction to IDEO, read this BusinesWeek feature article on IDEO from 2004. After you get through that, visit the IDEO home page and poke around for a while to get a better feel for the company. Be sure to look at their locations, their portfolio, and their about page. Each of these pages has a multitude of links for you to visit with engaging text and photographs. You may also want to check out how IDEO is working to build a better bicycle or what life looks like through the eyes of an IDEO consulting design engineer. IDEO truly is a fascinating company with amazing ideas; we could read about them all day.

As for jobs, IDEO’s actual Careers page does not have a lot of information. Hopefully browsing around IDEO’s home page will give you a pretty good sense of what it’s like to work at IDEO. Many of the positions that are listed on their Careers page require 1-3 years of experience, but especially in the design industry, it’s possible that you have developed significant relevant experience while in college. These are the positions that we think may be worth a shot for someone who is about to graduate.

Palo Alto
Web Developer
Junior Interaction Designer
Key Client Coordinator

San Francisco
Entry Level Desktop Support

Boston
Business Development Coordinator

Chicago
Entry Level Desktop Support
Recruiting Coordinator

Shanghai
Renderer (Dead Link)

IDEO is currently transitioning to a new online applicant tracking system, so there may be some confusion on their careers site. In the past they’ve welcomed applications for unlisted positions, but we don’t see that on their site anymore. It’s probably still worth a try.

We think getting a job at IDEO is probably a long shot, especially for someone fresh out of college, but if you love innovation in design, a career at IDEO is something to aspire towards. Why not try now and see what happens?

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about IDEO and its innovative ideas? Tell us in the comments section.