by Willy Franzen on January 24, 2010
I live across the street from what was formerly the world’s largest building—the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It’s massive at 4,000,000 square feet, which is extremely impressive considering it was opened in 1930. What’s even more impressive is that, with some debate, the Merchandise Mart is now the world’s largest “green” building. It is LEED-EB Silver certified, and apparently the retrofitting that they did to achieve this certification has cut utility bills by 10%. Upgrading one of the largest buildings in the world to be more energy efficient and environment-friendly is a daunting task, luckily the LEED Certification process provided the owners of the Merchandise Mart with guidelines to work to. The organization behind LEED is the U.S. Green Building Council, which is based in Washington, DC. They are a non-profit that is “committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
administrative,
all employers,
analyst,
certification,
construction,
customer service,
education,
energy,
greene,
information technology,
non-profit,
program development,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on March 17, 2009
Although people mostly associate St. Patrick’s Day with drinking, I like to think of it in terms of searching for something good. Just think – there’s the four leaf clover, and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and… ok that’s it. Well, you can also use St. Patrick’s Day as motivation for your job search. That’s why we’re looking at Richmond, VA based Luck Stone today. Not only are they a company that fits in with our St. Patrick’s Day theme, but they’re also a company that is all about searching for something good. The only thing that’s different about them is that they consider the stuff that you dig through to be the “pot of gold.” Yes, that’s right. It’s the stone that they’re after.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
all employers,
construction,
engineering,
geology,
holiday,
IT,
marketing,
Maryland,
mining,
North Carolina,
Virginia
by Willy Franzen on July 6, 2008
Continuing with our patriotic weekend, we’re going to take a look at Arena Stage, a non-profit theater company that produces “huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit.” They put out all types of productions “from vast epics to charged dramas to robust musicals.” Located in Washington, DC, Arena Stage has been around 6 decades and was one of the first non-profit theater companies. They reach an annual audience of over 200,000 people (we reach more here!) and strive “to instill in the public a life-long love of and participation in the theater arts through [their] education programs.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
all employers,
arts,
construction,
development,
drama,
sales,
Virginia,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on July 1, 2008
I’ve written before about how run down the house that I lived in during college was. It was in constant need of maintenance, which mostly consisted of quick fixes that would break within a week. The giant ball of mold that started growing out of the ceiling received a little more attention, but not much. The guys who did maintenance on our house were always nice (even if the landlord was a total jerk), but it made me a bit uneasy knowing that they had a key to my place – if you know what I mean. Since my roommates and I weren’t paying for the “maintenance,” we didn’t have any say in who was working in our house. If we did, we would have used a service like ReliableRemodeler.com, which connects quality contractors with homeowners.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
all employers,
construction,
marketing,
Oregon,
project management
by Willy Franzen on May 7, 2008
It’s hard for me to write this post, because I have a strong allegiance to Marvin, which is one of Pella’s biggest competitors. It started in 7th grade when I was working at my Dad’s architecture firm. The entire office was invited to a lobster lunch put on by some Marvin sales reps. My partner in crime (a friend of mine who was old enough to have the coveted title of intern) and I jumped at the chance to take a break from shooting rubber bands at each other and join the architects for a free lunch. We had to endure a long sales pitch about windows, like that South Park episode where the parents endure a time share sales pitch in return for a free skiing weekend, but when it was finally over, we chowed down. My then overweight 7th grade self put away a couple of lobsters and almost put one in my pocket for the ride home. It was by far the best day during my Summer job, but I’m willing to forget a couple lobsters and start pushing Pella, because they’ve truly impressed me with their college recruiting and entry-level hiring program.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
all employers,
construction,
engineering,
human resources,
Iowa,
Kentucky,
Minnesota,
Ohio,
Pennsylvania,
sales,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on February 28, 2008
This time of year, many of the entry-level consulting jobs are already filled. It’s amazing and a little disappointing if you’re still in the job market, but a good portion of consulting firms fill all of their entry-level job openings six to twelve months in advance of when the new hires will start working. That leaves a lot of soon to be college graduates who want to get into consulting with limited choices. Whether you were turned down when you applied in the fall, never got around to applying, or just realized that you’re interested in consulting, the apparent dearth of consulting jobs probably has you considering looking at other fields in lieu of consulting. Don’t give up so fast! There are still a lot of great consulting jobs out there, you just have to look beyond the sexy names. As is typical in the industry, Navigant Consulting does most of their hiring through campus recruiting in the Fall, but they still have some entry-level job openings.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
all employers,
California,
construction,
consulting,
energy,
Massachusetts,
New York,
Washington DC
is the funniest, most in-your-face career guide on the market.