One Day, One Job » consumer products

Rosetta

Willy Franzen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:31:08 +0000

I got a tip on this one from a fellow Cornellian (which is cool because a few of my friends from Cornell work at Rosetta). If you ever find a company that you think that we should feature, e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com. We feature a lot of interactive marketing agencies because they’re usually pretty big on hiring young talent whether it be at the intern or entry level. Rosetta stands out because of their size and sophistication—they almost seem more like a consulting firm than a marketing agency, at least in the way that they present themselves. For instance, they recently become a “top ten interactive agency” by means of an acquisition. That seems so different from the image that most agencies try to portray, but it’s working. Through “dedication to client work within Consumer Products & Retail, Healthcare, Financial Services, Consumer Technology & Media, B2B, and Travel & Hospitality industries” Rosetta “has created enduring partnerships with [their] clients including Scholastic, Coach, Borders, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Nationwide, Marriott and Microsoft.” Those are huge names, so you know Rosetta, which is headquartered in Princeton with offices in New York, Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, and Denver, is capable of delivering results.

Relationships Matter

One of Rosetta’s key offerings is their suite of Relationship Marketing Services, which are focused on helping clients segment customers and offer “intelligent, personalized interactions across all online and offline channels.” This is just one part of the story, though. To get the full story on Rosetta’s offerings, you should take a look at this diagram. It shows how Rosetta walks clients through the marketing process—from creating the top-level strategy to using analytics to measure results. This means it’s not surprising that Rosetta’s job offerings are as varied as their service offerings—their Careers page is titled “Graphic Design Careers, SEO Jobs, and Financial Services Consulting Opportunities at Rosetta.”

As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, Rosetta seems to have a strong connection with Cornell (and probably quite a few other colleges) based on campus recruiting. Interestingly enough, Rosetta doesn’t really have a campus recruiting page—just a profile of a new grad who went to work for them. From there you can find their job search function, which is pretty terrible. It does appear to let you search for specifically entry level positions; however, there are at least 3 different queries that you can use, and they all seem to deliver different results. Your best bet is to look at their full list of job openings, or to look for positions like Recent Graduate Business Associate, Recent Graduate Technology Associate, Associate Consultant, Account Executive, Technology Associate, User Interface/Rich Media Developer, Recent Graduate Business Analyst, and quite a few others. The way that Rosetta lists their jobs is really a mess, so you need to take note that different jobs with the same title may be in different practice areas. Additionally, single job postings may be for multiple locations. They do have some nice pages on their Careers site like Meet Our People and Fun at Rosetta, but the whole thing is disorganized. I expect a lot better from a top ten agency. You can apply online for any of these positions, so forgive Rosetta for the lack of usability on their Careers site and see if you can help them move further up the top ten.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Were you looking Rosetta Stone’s jobs?

Green Irene

Willy Franzen — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:21:11 +0000

Some people never need to hire a professional. Whether it’s a plumber, personal trainer, or eco-consultant that they need, they’d rather teach themselves how to solve the given problem. Other people would rather spend their time and effort most efficiently, so they hire a professional when they get in over their heads. If you’re the latter type, and you want to “green” your home or office, then you’ll want to get familiar with Green Irene. They are a New York City based company, founded in 2007, that provides eco-consulting services and sells green products. If you’re worried about the negative impact that you’re having on the environment, you can have one of their consultants visit your home and office to make recommendations on how you can do better. The Wall Street Journal did a nice feature on the eco-consulting industry (it includes Green Irene), so check that out to get a better sense of the overall market.

Go Green with Irene

When I first started looking at Green Irene, there were a couple of red flags that made me nervous about featuring them. The first was that when you type “Green Irene” into Google, the top two suggestions that come up are “Green Irene scam” and “Green Irene complaints.” That’s enough to make anyone nervous, but it’s actually relatively common with companies that operate businesses like Green Irene. The results of those searches didn’t turn up much in terms of negative press. This leads to my second issue, which is probably why so many people are searching those searches: Green Irene uses a direct sales business model (many scam jobs use a similar model). That means that their eco-consultants aren’t Green Irene employees, but “independent business women and men who work from their own home or office as distributors of Green Irene consulting services and green products.” They also have a strong incentive to focus on selling products during their consults.

Although I don’t love this model for a business, I do understand why Green Irene does it (it makes starting up and growing quickly way easier). There are direct sales positions with Green Irene, but those aren’t what caught my interest (I think new grads can learn a lot doing direct sales, but it usually offers less than ideal situations). I’m more interested in the Operations Assistant position posted on their Jobs page—it’s perfect for a new grad. If you like what you see in the description, e-mail your résumé and cover note to jobs@greenirene.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Green Irene?

Green Seal

Willy Franzen — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:25:07 +0000

Whether or not we’re really going through a green revolution is up for debate, but I can assure you that Marketing departments across the world are taking advantage of the public’s appetite for “green” products. Unfortunately, “green” doesn’t really mean anything. To you it might mean one thing, and to me it might mean another. We assume that something that is labeled or advertised as green will be better for the environment, but how do we really know? That’s where Green Seal comes in. They are Washington, DC based “independent non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products and service.” They do this by certifying products that meet their Green Seal standards. By having an independent third party set standards, consumers can actually make informed choices about the products they buy (as long as they’re Green Seal certified, of course).

Are You Green Seal Certified?

There’s a lot that goes into the certification process, and there are plenty of other organizations and businesses that work in the green certification field. The reason that Green Seal is different is that their “standard-setting process is open, collaborative, fair, and completely transparent.” There are no trade secrets. That means that even the most environmentally conscious customers will be able to know if Green Seal meets their personal standards. If Green Seal meets your personal standards, you may want to think about a job with them. I couldn’t find a Jobs page on their website, but they do post open positions on Idealist. Right now they have two opportunities that appear to be suitable for new grads: Environmental Scientist and Environmental Engineer. The jobs sound pretty similar, and they require a strong science background, so check out the full job descriptions and see if you’re the right fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you try to buy certified products? Which certifications?

Seventh Generation

Willy Franzen — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:39:20 +0000

I have to admit that the first time that I noticed the Seventh Generation brand in the grocery store, I was kind of grossed out. That’s because I noticed a big display of toilet paper packages all bearing the company’s name. When I think about what I want from toilet paper, the most important thing is that it’s first generation. We can talk about softness and how many ply it is after that. I realize that my disgust was completely irrational, but I don’t ever want to think that the toilet paper that I’m buying is anything but new. After visiting Seventh Generation’s website, I found out that “the company derives its name from the Great Law of the Iroquois that states, ‘In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.’” This makes sense because Seventh Generation, which is based in Burlington, VT, is aiming to become “the world’s most trusted brand of authentic, safe, and environmentally-responsible products for a healthy home.” They seem to be doing a good job considering that their products have saved 287,359 trees and 584,650 gallons of petroleum at last count.

Be Part of the New Generation at Seventh Generation

What Seventh Generation does is simple. They make simple home products that are better for the environment and for the health of the people who use them. Seventh Generation also puts a strong emphasis on consumer education. Not only do they want people to be well informed, but they are also smart marketers. When you play the role of educator and marketer, you’re in a good spot – as long as the facts are on your side. It seems to us like the facts are on Seventh Generation’s side. Karma certainly is, for they give 10% of their profits to “non-profit community, environmental, health, and responsible business organizations working for positive change.”

So how can you join Seventh Generation’s team? There are a number of ways. I first started looking at their jobs after I saw a job posting for a Green Parenting Blogger. It’s not the best job for new college grads since most of you probably don’t have kids yet, but it shows that Seventh Generation is moving in a cool direction. After checking out this posting I moved on to their Jobs at Seventh Generation which led to me to opportunities like Consumer Insights Specialist, Distribution Operations Coordinator, and Product Manager. These aren’t by definition entry level jobs, but they are certainly worth considering if you have the right internship and educational backgrounds. All of the jobs are based in Burlington, VT and you can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to staffing@seventhgeneration.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Don’t forget about our job search training course. It’s a green product too. How can it not be when it’s administered online?

Tom’s of Maine

Willy Franzen — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:44:01 +0000

In case you missed the message last week, we’re celebrating One Day, One Job’s first birthday today. We have “party favors” for you, so go check our birthday blog post. I considered featuring a special birthday related company, but we’ve already covered Hallmark’s entry level jobs, so I’m out of ideas. Instead, we’re going to do what ODOJ does best and tell you about an awesome company that is looking to hire outstanding college students. Tom’s of Maine is a company that specializes in natural personal care products. What is natural care? It’s “creating safe, effective natural products free of artificial dyes, sweeteners, and preservatives; by harvesting, processing, and packaging with respect for our natural resources; by not testing on animals or using animal ingredients; and by donating 10% of our profits and 5% of our employees’ paid time to charitable organizations.” Tom’s of Maine makes toothpaste, soap, deodorant, mouthwash, shaving cream, and more – not the kind of products that most people get excited about, but people get excited about them when they’re made by Tom’s of Maine.

You of Maine? Or Texas?

The story of Tom’s is simple. Tom Chapell and his wife Kate got sick of corporate America, so they moved to rural Maine. They wanted to “move back to the land,” so they started eating natural, unprocessed foods. They couldn’t find any personal care products that were up to the same standards as the food that they were eating, so they decided to make them on their own. It started with a $5,000 loan from a friend, and now Tom’s of Maine is a $100+ million company that, through a partnership, has become independently run division of Colgate-Palmolive. It’s all because Tom and Kate set out to solve a problem that was bugging them.

Tom’s of Maine is located in Kennebunk, ME (an absolutely gorgeous area), and they’re looking for new college grads to help them keep growing their business. Right now, their current job openings show that they are hiring Grassroots Field Sales Reps in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, TX. It’s not clear if these are multiple positions, or just one, but either way it’s a perfect opportunity for someone who has been using Tom’s of Maine’s products and evangelizing them to friends for years. To get a better idea of what the job entails, you can check out this employee profile of Louanne Genther, who is in the job now (or was when the profile was posted). You can apply for this job directly from its description.

Beyond the posted job, Tom’s of Maine is also open to accepting unsolicited job applications. They have a simple to use submission form, and it allows you to state interest in any of the following areas: Executive
Administrative, Customer Service, Marketing/Brand Management, Inside Sales, Outside Sales, Retail, Manufacturing, Warehouse, Human Resources, Finance/Accounting, Information Technology, Research and Product Development, Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Communications, Public Relations, Copywriting, Graphic Design, and Web Design. We’re not sure what your chances of getting hired for an unlisted position are, but it’s worth trying. Also, before you apply, check out Tom’s of Maine Interview Tips – they may help you craft your cover letter and resume too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Don’t forget to check out our birthday blog post.

GoodGuide

Willy Franzen — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:56:54 +0000

Last week we featured FitBit, a company that was recently announced at the TechCrunch50. This week we’re looking at another startup that was announced at the conference. It’s called GoodGuide, and it’s aiming to be “the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental and social impacts of products and companies.” GoodGuide is pretty easy to use – you can input a product name to see all of the details of the product’s world impact, or you can look at a class of products to find the “goodest.” For instance you can look up Fantastik All Purpose Cleaner with Bleach specifically or you can just look at the ranking for household cleaners. It’s a great concept. They’re also apparently going to offer an iPhone application so that you can look up products as you shop for them in the grocery store; although, GoodGuide would probably prefer that you buy them online through their affiliate links.

GoodGuide. GoodJobs?

GoodGuide considers themselves a “for-benefit” company, which we understand to mean “we want to make money, but we want to do it with a social conscience” (our words, not theirs). We’re not exactly sure about their revenue model, but we’d imagine that it’s based on affiliate programs. When you read a review, it presents the option to buy the product on Amazon. They get a small cut of the sale, and they hopefully become rich while making the world a better place. This is just our take on a possible revenue model, we don’t know if that’s what will truly drive their business, but there are others who agree that GoodGuide’s product is “naturally monetizable.” That’s a good thing to know if you’re going to consider working at GoodGuide.

GoodGuide’s Jobs page doesn’t have a lot of information, but it does have specific listings of positions that they’re hiring for. These include VP of Engineering, Business Development, Developer, Systems Engineer, Release Project/Program Manager, Director of Content, Researcher, Health Scientist. It’s hard to tell which of these jobs would be appropriate for a new college grad, but we’ll go out on a limb and say that VP of Engineering, Release Project/Program Manager, and Director of Content are in no way entry level. The other jobs certainly have potential. You can apply by sending a cover letter and a resume in word or pdf format to jobs@goodguide.com. GoodGuide is another startup that makes it impossible to find a physical address on their website, but we were able to determine that they’re based in San Francisco, CA (big surprise, another startup in Northern California).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of GoodGuide? Will you use their product ratings to make purchasing decisions?

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

Burt’s Bees

Willy Franzen — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:41:21 +0000

It always seems like you never have Chapstik – er, lip balm – when you really need it. Even Napoleon Dynamite was plagued by that little tube’s ability to disappear from his pocket and end up sitting on his desk at home. Some will argue that they never use lip balm because it just makes the problem of chapped lips worse, but I know for a fact that those people give in as soon as their “lips hurt real bad.” As life saving as lip balm can be at the right time, you’d still never expect it to allow a guy who lived in a turkey coop to be the face of a billion dollar business. Yes, Burt’s Bees was sold last year to Clorox for just shy of a billion dollars.

From Rags to… Rags

Apparently the whole story is quite contentious, as Burt of Burt’s Bees was bought out for just a few hundred thousand dollars by his then lover and business partner. She eventually sold the business for a much larger sum. Burt now has about $4 million to his name, but still chooses to live in a turkey coop with no electricity or running water; however, he has expanded the coop. The whole story is worth a read, and can be found at the NY Times. So, how did this cottage enterprise in Maine turn into a billion dollar business located in Durham, NC? Organic and all-natural products got hot. People will pay more for their lip balm (or cream, or shampoo, or soap) if it’s produced in an environmentally sound way with ingredients that are organic or all-natural. This is what Burt’s Bees is all about, although it stands to be determined whether consumers will still trust the authenticity of the company, now that it’s owned and operated by a bleach company.

Organic Chemistry (Not the Kind That Breaks Pre-Meds)

Although most of the jobs at Burt’s Bees require a moderate amount of experience, there are a couple that might be good fits for a college chemist. Burt’s Bees is looking for an Industrial Chemist and a Junior Quality Control Chemist. The first position appears to be more entry-level than the second, but both are worth a look. Although our chemistry knowledge is limited, we can imagine that spending a few years as a chemist with an all-natural / organic products company will open the doors for many future opportunities. The market for such products is only going to grow, and having a background in working with natural ingredients seems be something that you’ll be able to leverage quite nicely down the road.

Burt’s Bees’ Careers page is really simple, and the job descriptions are really clear about what they’re looking for. We love that! We also like their Working at Burt’s Bees page, although they’ve overlooked the fact that they should probably link to it from the Careers page. We can’t speak to whether the culture at Burt’s has changed since the company was acquired, but we imagine that it’s in Clorox’s best interest to do whatever it takes to maintain the brand’s authenticity. That should start with treating their people the same way they were treated when it was just Burt’s Bees.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Burt’s Bees
Jobs at Burt’s Bees
Working at Burt’s Bees
About Burt’s Bees
The History of Burt’s Bees (No mention of Clorox…)
The Culture of Burt’s Bees
Burt’s Bees’ Leadership Team
Research & Development at Burt’s Bees

Now where’s my lip balm…