One Day, One Job » e-commerce

Invodo

Willy Franzen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:53:59 +0000

Video is an amazing sales tool. It’s able to show you exactly what you’re buying and how it works. The only thing better is an in-person demonstration, and those are far too expensive for most products. Now that online video capabilities are pretty much ubiquitous, we’re seeing more and more companies adopt video as part of their sales process. More and more product pages have an embedded video along with all of the stuff you normally expect to find on an e-commerce site. Invodo is the company that is often behind these videos. They’re a three year old company based in Austin, TX, and they offer “a full-service eCommerce video solution that drives conversion for retailers, consideration for manufacturers, and satisfaction for consumers.” They work with more than 2,500 manufacturers and retailers including Sony, New Balance, Toys “R” Us, and plenty more major brands.

Video That Sells

If you want to take a look at the type of video that Invodo offers, all you have to do is check out their home page. It’s loaded with samples of work that they’ve done. Invodo offers a full solution for their clients. This includes content production, a platform for delivery, and a network for distribution. Surprisingly they don’t seem to have a video about themselves—you’d think that would be a key part of their sales process. They also don’t have a video about their Careers, but they’re a small company so that’s understandable. Their Jobs page only shows one position right now, and it’s for an Enterprise Salesperson. The position seems perfectly suited to a new grad, and it seems to be more Sales & Marketing than just Sales. To apply send your cover letter and résumé to careers@invodo.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Has video influenced your purchasing decisions?

Thumbtack

Willy Franzen — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:00:01 +0000

I’m sure that many of you use Craigslist to find job opportunities. As much as it can be a great resource for job seekers, I have to say that I find it weird that people looking for jobs and people looking for “casual encounters” are using the same website. There’s just something sketchy about Craigslist. That probably explains why many people are reluctant to use the site to find local service providers. Can you trust a plumber, tutor, masseuse, or pool guy if you find him or her on Craigslist. Maybe. But how will you know for sure? That’s where Thumbtack comes in. They’re a San Francisco based startup that is taking a page out of Angie’s List’s book (maybe they should have “list” in their name) by providing an online marketplace for local service providers, but they’re doing it for free. Free is great, but the real key feature on Thumbtack is the fact that they provide “twelve ways to verify the identity and reputation of every provider.” That way you don’t have to worry about your plumber getting his house calls and his casual encounters mixed up.

Thumbs Up for Thumbtack

I could keep doing my best to describe Thumbtack to you, but I might as well let them do it through their 90 second elevator pitch on YouTube (e-mail readers click through to watch).

Now that you have an idea of what Thumbtack is all about, let’s talk about their jobs. They don’t have much posted on their Jobs page, but their co-founder Jonathan Swanson did send me a note about an unlisted position that they’re hiring for.

Exciting Early-Stage Web Startup Seeks Community Manager

Compensation: Salary + Equity + Meals

We’re looking for an energetic, upbeat person to serve as Thumbtack’s Community Manager. Your main responsibilities will include managing the Thumbtack office (paying bills, coordinating meals, etc) and managing customer service (answering calls and emails, directing our outsourced team, etc). Responsibilities can grow for talented individuals. Must be extremely organized, friendly, and hard working.
Thumbtack is a well-funded, energetic, young start up located in San Francisco. We have a great office with views of the Bay and a private chef schooled at Le Cordon Bleu cooks most of our meals at the office.

For more information about us, please check out thumbtack [dot] com. In your email, please tell us why you’re interested in working at a startup. careers [at] thumbtack [dot] com.

The company sounds pretty cool, so give them a look. Maybe you’ll be enjoying meals cooked by their private chef next year.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Thumbtack?

Kate Spade

Willy Franzen — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:49:41 +0000

I can’t remember whether it was late in my middle school years or early in my high school years, but there were certainly a couple of years in the late 90s when Kate Spade was as hot as could be. Whether it was a wallet, calendar, or other accessories from the New York based fashion designer, the girls in my classes went crazy for them. At that point in my life, I wasn’t the most fashion conscious kid, so I probably thought Five Star binders were still cool. Despite my ignorance of fashion back then, even I knew what Kate Spade was. Since Kate Brosnahan started her line in 1993, her company has grown exceptionally. Hallmarked by “utility, wit and playful sophistication,” Kate Spade’s offering includes handbags, shoes, accesories, clothing, jewelry, baby items, fragrance, glasses, and even paper. The company now runs 46 retail shops and continues to be a huge name in the fashion industry.

Are You Playfully Sophisticated?

Despite my use of capitalization in this post, Kate Spade is a brand that seems allergic to capital letters. It’s a big part of their branding, and it’s widely recognizable. Since fashion is all about branding, it’s no surprise that most people wouldn’t notice that Kate Spade was purchased by Liz Claiborne in 2009. It appears that Kate Spade continues to run itself separately, and that becomes even more evident when you look at Kate Spade’s Jobs page. They have quite a few opportunities available, and a number of them seem perfectly suited to new grads. There are a ton of retail positions, but we’re just going to focus on the corporate positions like E-commerce Coordinator, Assistant Buyer, and International Marketing Assistant. You can apply for these positions directly from the job postings, so give them look and see if they fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any Kate Spade?

ideeli

Willy Franzen — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:55:14 +0000

I guess it’s a little awkward when you find a company that immediately makes you think of a very similar, more successful company. In this case, when I came across ideeli, I immediately thought of Gilt Groupe (which we covered a while back). Both are New York City based startups that offer online sample sales that give shoppers the opportunity to buy luxury goods—mostly clothing and accessories—at serious discounts. According to Wikipedia a sample sale is “used by retail businesses in order to discard excess merchandise.” That’s exactly what these companies do, but they’ve moved the entire process online (which is way more efficient). Both sites require invites to get in on the deals, so if you want to try ideeli click here and if you want to try Gilt Groupe click here. Although I haven’t made any purchases on either of these sites, my girlfriend Amy loves this way of shopping. There’s the element of surprise, because you never know what you’re going to find, yet you still get to enjoy the ease of shopping online.

Your ideel Job

Although Gilt Groupe really has staked a claim to this market, it’s big enough and growing fast enough that there’s room for a lot of competition. You wouldn’t think that selling luxury goods during a recession—even at heavy discounts—would be good business, but it is. One way that ideeli has tweaked their business model to stand out is that they offer a subscription service that gives shoppers first dibs on all sales. It’s a pretty creative idea, and it gives them a steady revenue stream (with almost no additional cost) that can balance out the ebbs and flows of e-commerce. ideeli received $3.8 million in investment back in December of ‘07 and they seem to be doing pretty well. I guess that’s why they have a number of job openings. Right now they have opportunities for a Rails Developer and a Studio Coordinator, so check out their Jobs page and apply online if you’re interested.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

If you want an ideeli invite, click here.

LightWedge

Willy Franzen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:29:21 +0000

The other night I wanted to read a book before bed, but I had moved the lamp from my bedroom into my living room because our hard to reach light fixture’s lights burnt out. It took all of 30 seconds to move the lamp back to my bedroom, but it was a pain in the butt. If only I had a LightWedge—a product made by the company of the same name that will illuminate your book for you. It’s a stupid simple idea that beats the heck out of wearing a headlamp in bed. Oh yeah, and the Newton, MA based company is making a ton of money. Inc. magazine recently came out with their list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the US, and Lightwedge came in at #1,609. That may not sound great, but when you see that they increased from $3.9 million in revenue in 2005 to $11.6 million last year, you have to be impressed. I always say that the best way to job search during a recession is to look for the companies that are growing, and there’s no better way to find those than Inc. magazine’s list.

Illuminate Your Job Search

One of the key contributors to LightWedge’s growth was getting featured on Oprah, but that doesn’t come without having developed a great product. LightWedge continues to expand on their business of developing illumination devices. One of their smartest plays is the Harry Potter LUMOS Book Light, which is currently backordered. It really is a perfect tie-in. Obviously I’m impressed by LightWedge, which is why I think you should check out their Jobs page. Right now they have a number of job openings that seem like possibilities for new grads. These include Web Site Customer Service Representative, Sales/Marketing Account Manager, Web Design Engineer, and Sales Analyst. Some of these jobs require prior work experience or in-depth knowledge of certain areas, but they’re all worth looking at. You can apply for any of these jobs by sending a cover letter and résumé to work@lightwedge.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried the LightWedge?

Lucky Brand

Willy Franzen — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:49:56 +0000

Next March I’m going to regret not saving this one for my St. Patrick’s Day holiday themed post, but today we’re going to take a look at Lucky Brand. They’re a clothing manufacturer and retailer that is “rooted in rock ‘n ‘roll with a signature sense of humor.” Their About page will tell you that they stand for “independent thinking, individual style and a feeling as authentic as love” and that they’re known for “great-fitting, vintage-inspired jeans;” however, I think it’s much simpler than that. One of their founders came up with the idea to put the phrase “Lucky You” behind the flies of every pair of pants that they made. It was an instant point of differentiation, and I think that it has a lot to do with why Lucky Brand is going strong 19 years after they started. It really is pure, politically incorrect genius. Lucky you…

Get Lucky

The best way to get a feel for Lucky Brand is to check out their clothes online or visit one of their retail stores. If you don’t get what the brand is about, you’re not going to get a job with them. I think that’s true of any brand, but it’s especially pertinent in industries like apparel where brand is everything. So, what about jobs at Lucky Brand? They have a ton of Store Management opportunities at their retail stores. This may not be exactly what you had in mind post-graduation (or maybe it is), but it kind of offers the opportunity to run your own business—at least that’s what the job description makes it sound like. They have openings for Retail Management in Ala Moana, HI; Miami, FL; Monterey, CA; Pittsburgh, PA; Tampa, FL; San Jose, CA; San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; Waikiki, HI; Westlake, OH; Los Angeles, CA; Manhattan, NY; Las Vegas, NV; El Paso, TX; Aurora, IL; Chicago, IL; Pleasant Prairie; WI; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; Bridgewater, NJ; Elizabeth, NJ; Seattle, WA; Wrentham, MA; Peabody, MA; Boston, MA; Houston, TX; Studio City, CA; St. Louis, MO; and quite a few more locations (although those jobs were posted in March and earlier). You can find all of those job postings on Lucky Brand’s Jobs site.

You also have the option of submitting a résumé for general consideration for corporate jobs in Vernon, CA. I think that this might be worthwhile because of what Lucky Brand has to say about their Internship Program:

The Lucky Brand Fall 2009 Internship Program is intended to help acclimate Junior and Senior level university/college students to our company culture, build on their creativity, and allow them the best opportunity to get to know Lucky Brand. This program is designed to identify, develop and potentially hire top entry level talent.

If they’re looking to hire top entry level talent, then why don’t they have any entry level jobs posted outside of retail? Maybe it’s just a season thing, or maybe they mostly like hiring past interns, but it’s worth investigating. Lucky Brand offers internships in Design, Human Resources, Wholesale Sales & Planning, Accessory Jewelry Design, Accessory Design, eCommerce, and Marketing, so those are areas where they might also have entry level jobs.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you consider yourself lucky?

Vann’s

Willy Franzen — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:18:38 +0000

If you thought that we were going to be talking about skater shoes today, they you might be a little disappointed, but I think you’ll enjoy hearing about Vann’s with two n’s and an apostrophe. They are a Missoula, MT based electronics and appliances retailer that does most of its business online. Now, you may think that Missoula, MT (the setting of A River Runs Through It—my favorite book and movie) is a strange place to locate a major e-commerce outlet, but there’s a good story behind why Vann’s is located where it is. It all started with Pete Vann aka “Montana’s Last Great Cowboy.” He was the grandfather of the Pete Vann who founded Vann’s. After a family history of cowboying, ranching, and farming, Pete Vann took a job keeping an appliance store clean. It doesn’t sound like much, but within 11 years Pete owned the store that he used to keep clean. In 1996 he decided to give up some of his ownership to share it with the employees who helped him build the business to what it is today.

Become a Part of the Vann’s Story

The Vann’s story is pretty cool, but what brought them to my attention was the hiring process that they’re using to find a Community Manager. We’ll get to that in a second, but first I want to mention two more things that impressed me about Vann’s. First is their devotion to customer service. They make it very obvious on their website that they’re customer focused, and beyond that, a quick Internet search will turn up lots of great customer reviews. Second, they’re an Inc. 5000 company, which means that they’re experiencing fantastic growth. Those are both great signs for prospective employees. Now, let’s talk about this Community Manager position. It’s not definitively entry level, but that doesn’t matter. If you follow the instructions and are what they’re looking for, then you’ve got a shot. You’ll have until Friday, August 28, 2009 to flex your social media muscles and show why you’re best for the job.

Additionally, Vann’s has a more standard Jobs page that includes positions like Product Advisor (also see here and here), Java Developer, and Sales Consultant. Vann’s also has locations in Helena, Kalispell, Bozeman, Helena, Billings and Hamilton. Vann’s looks like an awesome place to work, and that Montana location really pays off for people who love the outdoors and want a great career in a less urban setting.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever bought anything from Vann’s?

Wize

Willy Franzen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:48:09 +0000

Buying a product online is easy when you know which specific brand and model you want, but finding the microwave with the largest capacity or an LCD TV that swivels isn’t always so easy. There’s so much information out there on products, that finding specific details that are important to you (but not everyone else) can be frustrating. Wize is a San Mateo, CA based startup that is trying to make online comparison shopping more intelligent. If you’re buying on price, you already have plenty of product search engines that will make your decision easy for you, but who’s going to tell you which washing machine is most water efficient? That’s what Wize is all about. They’re scouring the Internet for all of the information that is buried in reviews and making it easily searchable so that you can choose the right product for you. It’s still in its early stages, but it seems like a pretty cool approach to e-commerce.

Be Wize

Comparison shopping, product reviews, and e-commerce are some of the most mature markets online. There are sites in the space that have been around since the 90s, so it’s surprising to see an upstart like Wize taking on the market. With that said, they seem to have taken a very different approach to assisting online shoppers, and they’re building a business in a space with a very easy path to monetization (affiliate marketing). I’m relatively impressed with the search product that they have so far, and they seem to have a decent amount of traffic according to Compete.com. They don’t have any job listings on their site, but they do have a couple positions posted on Startuply. One is definitely an internship, while the other is a job/internship. They’re looking for an entry level person to help them in Data Management / Marketing. It sounds like a pretty cool gig, and you can apply online, so get after it!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Wize?

ChannelAdvisor

Willy Franzen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:48:05 +0000

Now, I know that the name ChannelAdvisor sounds like some sort of new and improved tv guide that you can buy on the infomercials, but bear with me for a second and I’ll tell you what ChannelAdvisor is really about. The simple version is that they’re a Morrisville, NC based company that helps other companies sell online. The more complex story is that ChannelAdvisor “helps the world sell online with solutions for retailers to efficiently distribute their products across multiple online channels, drive shoppers to those products, and then convert those shoppers into customers.” That sounds good, but what does it really mean? Major retailers often have thousands of products. Their first e-commerce priority is to get their products listed on their own site, but after that they want to extend their reach to comparison shopping sites. There are tons of these comparison shopping sites, and they all have different data requirements for listing products. The retailer can try to do it on their own, or they can hire ChannelAdvisor to do it for them.

Don’t Change the Channel

ChannelAdvisor appears to be the best in breed when it comes to understanding online sales channels—just look at the list of respected brands on their customer list. Clearly they know what it takes to drive traffic and sales online. Unfortunately, the story on ChannelAdvisor isn’t all cupcakes and marshmallows. They did go through a round of layoffs last year while at the same time securing $20 million more in funding. The good news is that this resulted in their first operating profit in January. Now that things have settled down, it appears that ChannelAdvisor is hiring again. Their Jobs page shows 15 open positions, and a number of those seem suitable for new grads including Customer Support Analyst, Customer Support Engineer, Inside Sales Specialist (Surrey, UK), and Inside Sales Specialist. All of the jobs (except the one in UK) are in Morrisville, NC, and you can apply for them online.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about ChannelAdvisor?

Archie McPhee

Willy Franzen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:55:50 +0000

Let’s have a little fun today since it’s Friday! I’ve been waiting on a company to post jobs for well over a year. They still haven’t done it (which probably means that their jobs are awesome and get snatched up before they’re posted), so I’m going to force the issue and post about them anyway. The company is Archie McPhee, and they a novelty dealer based in Seattle that is about as off the wall as a company can get. Their offerings include Bacon Gumballs, Stylish Mustaches for Girls, Chicken Chuckers, and Rubber Chickens. That doesn’t even include their stupid products (like squirrel underpants) and their weirdest products (which also includes squirrel underpants along with a corn dog air freshener).

Enjoy the Novelty of an Entry Level Job

Despite all of the wacky products that Archie McPhee offers online, in their store, and by mail order, my favorite has to be the the Seth Godin, Marketing Guru Action Figure. Who wouldn’t want an action figure of their favorite marketing genius? Maybe they’ll make a job search guru action figure of me one day… yeah right! Anyway, if you haven’t already gotten a feel for what Archie McPhee is all about, then they’re probably not the right place for you. Although they don’t have any jobs posted, they do have a Jobs page that brags about how awesome of a place they are to work. It’s hard to tell what kind of jobs they might offer, but you might as well find out by reaching out to them at unicorn@mcphee.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite Archie McPhee product?

America’s Test Kitchen

Willy Franzen — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:34:44 +0000

I love cooking, but I didn’t always. I went into college barely knowing how to make myself a bowl of pasta, but when I lived off campus Sophomore year, I was left with little choice but to learn how to cook. I’ve never been one to follow recipes strictly, though. I always like trying something new and getting creative with my cooking. That’s exactly the philosophy behind America’s Test Kitchen. It’s a real kitchen (all 2,500 square feet of it) in Brookline, MA that is used to “to develop the absolute best recipes for all of your favorite foods.” They do this by testing recipes anywhere from 30-70 times until they not only get it right, but get it right to the point that it’s dead simple for the people who are consuming the products that America’s Test Kitchen puts out – magazines, cookbooks, DVDs, tv shows, and websites. To me it sounds like one of the coolest places in the world, so if there’s no post tomorrow, it’s because I quit in hopes of a career at America’s Test Kitchen (just kidding!).

Cooking Up Some Great Jobs

Although I’ve been familiar with the America’s Test Kitchen tv show and their Cook’s Illustrated magazine for a while, I never thought to look at their jobs. Luckily, a loyal reader pointed out that they have a ton of openings in a variety of areas. Of those jobs, we’ve picked a few that seem best suited for new or recent college grads. They include Assistant Test Cook, Junior Software Developer, eCommerce Marketing Coordinator, Production and Traffic Coordinator, Web Production Assistant, and Graphic Designer. Some of the jobs require a couple years of experience, but if you’ve been interning and participating in activities that give you real world experience, landing these jobs shouldn’t be a problem. The applications instructions vary a little bit depending on the position that you’re applying for, so head over to the America’s Test Kitchen Jobs page to get all of the details on these delicious jobs.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Hungry yet?

VistaPrint

Willy Franzen — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:46:26 +0000

When I started this business, I focused almost entirely on the web for networking – a LinkedIn connection or an e-mail address was all that I needed. However, my mom (who is also my graphic designer) had other ideas. Right after she designed my logo, she sent away to VistaPrint to get me business cards. Although I didn’t use them right away (I was glued to the computer screen and not talking to many people in real life), eventually they became a necessity. Those business cards also came with the one and only One Day, One Job t-shirt (a free gift from VistaPrint). They are the place to go for customized stuff (there’s no better way to put it). You can get business cards, pens, checks, banners, postcards, lawn signs, rubber stamps, mouse pads, magnets, and much much more. The best part about it is that you can do it all online and get a really great price. VistaPrint is definitely achieving their goal of “making high-quality graphic design and custom printing convenient and affordable for everyone.”

A New Vista for Your Career

The printing industry has been around forever, and it’s taken hundreds of years to begin its decline phase, but we’ve certainly reached it. That’s why it’s hard to believe that VistaPrint has built a $400 million printing business in less than 10 years. I guess that’s what happens when you own 90 percent of the online printing market (even if the market only makes up 1% of the total small business printing market). With such a rapidly growing business, it’s no surprise that VistaPrint continues to recruit top talent. Their Campus Recruiting page says that they focus on grads from Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, MIT, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, RIT, RPI, University of Waterloo, WPI, and Yale University. All of their events at those campuses occurred in the fall, but their site says that they will have future opportunities for Software Engineers, Quality Assurance Automation Engineers, Quality Assurance Engineers, Internet Software Quality Assurance Engineers, Marketing Associates/Analysts, and eCommerce Business Analysts. The jobs that are currently posted don’t seem to line up with their entry level opportunities, but you should still check them out to see if there’s anything that excites you. If not, you can submit a resume for general consideration. VistaPrint is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, but they also have offices in Lexington, MA, The Netherlands; Windsor, Ontario; Montego Bay, Jamaica; and Barcelona, Spain. I should also note that VistaPrint has a fantastic Careers site, that makes it really easy to find information about what it’s like to work for them. The only snag is that it’s not immediately clear how you should apply for entry level jobs.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used VistaPrint?

Priceline.com

Willy Franzen — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:39:36 +0000

My first introduction to William Shatner was watching Rescue 911. Little did I know that his body of work extended far beyond narrating a show about real life heroes. I imagine today’s children will have an equally narrow view of William Shatner’s career, as they’ll know him as “Priceline Negotiator.” (Can you read those words without hearing the corresponding tune? I can’t.) Anyway, the whole idea behind William Shatner’s newest role – besides his doing the commercials in return for stock – is that Priceline.com will negotiate the best deals on travel-related items like hotels, car rentals, and airline tickets. They also have a “name your own price” model that used to be the core of their business, but now Priceline has widened its focus to discount travel in general.

Entry Level Job Negotiator

Don’t you wish you had someone like William Shatner to negotiate your entry level job for you too? Ok, that’d be a little weird. Sometimes learning negotiating skills is better than having someone do the dirty work for you. I think that I’m glad that the way we find jobs online is different from the way that we find travel deals online. With that said, you can go to the same place for both if you’re interested in a job in travel or e-commerce. Priceline.com has a number of jobs that seem like they might be well suited to new or recent college grads. In their Grand Rapids, MI office there are jobs for a Japanese Translator and Customer Service Executives, while at their Norwalk, CT headquarters they’re looking for an Associate Regional Revenue Manager – Hotels. You can figure out how to apply from the job descriptions that I’ve just linked to. Priceline.com doesn’t have an About page, so there’s not a ton of information about who they are and what they’re about as a company, so you might want to do a little Googling to get more info.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Priceline.com to book your travel?

OMGPOP

Willy Franzen — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:25:47 +0000

So, when I first typed the name of today’s company into the title field in WordPress, I wrote OMGPOOP. Most companies probably wouldn’t be very happy that I made that mistake, but I feel like NYC based OMGPOP wouldn’t mind so much. They seem to have a penchant for the ridiculous. I mean, they just changed their name from ImInLikeWithYou.com to OMGPOP. Since you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, we should probably start from the top. OMGPOP “is a place to hang out, play free online multiplayer games, chat, and make friends.” They’re very different from other online gaming sites, although it’s hard to describe how. You really need to check them out to get a feel for what they’re all about. When you land on their home page, you’ll see this: “Why hang out with your friends in person when you can do it on the internet? No need to wear clothes that way. Seriously, this is bigger than unicorns and wrestling put together.” That about sums it up.

OMGJOBS

So, you’re probably thinking that I’m nuts for talking about real jobs with a company called OMGPOP. Well, they just secured $5 million in funding, which means that they are for real (and so are their jobs). They don’t have a traditional jobs page, but they just posted 3 awesome opportunities on their blog. They’re looking for a Community Manager / Director of Social Media, a SEO Guru, and an E-commerce / Virtual Goods Manager. These aren’t typical entry level jobs, but if you have a background in any of those areas, these are opportunities that you need to take a look at – especially if you’re interested in social gaming. How you apply should vary depending on the position that you apply for, but you can apply for all positions with an e-mail to jobs@omgpop.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you played games on OMGPOP?

TRUSTe

Willy Franzen — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:44:46 +0000

Trust is important in online interactions. When someone e-mails you and tells you that they have $7.4 million dollars in a foreign bank account and that they will give you half if you help them transfer it, you hopefully don’t trust him or her. When I tell you about a really cool company that is hiring lots of new college grads, I hope that you trust my word and give the company a look (but I also hope that continue to do more research on your own). And when you give a company personal information, you want to be able to trust that they’ll keep it private. TRUSTe is a company that verifies and certifies that companies adhere to specific best practices when it comes to online privacy. TRUSTe was founded as a non-profit and remained as such for 11 years, but this summer they made the decision to take investment and become a for-profit. It’s an interesting choice that was probably necessary for TRUSTe to grow its reach.

TRUSTe Jobs

TRUSTe makes money through the seals that it offers to website owners. They currently have six offerings: Web Privacy Seal, Email Privacy Seal, EU Safe Harbor Seal, International Services, Children’s Privacy Seal, and Japan Privacy Seal. You’ve almost certainly seen their seals on websites that you’ve visited, and hopefully they allowed you to be at ease with submitting personal information. Obviously TRUSTe isn’t just about giving companies a logo to slap on their site. It’s all about what that logo means and what companies have to do to be able to use that logo.

We find the certification business model to be an interesting one, and TRUSTe must have some major plans to grow considering that they gave up their non-profit status. They only have four job openings posted on their Jobs page, but two of them can be considered entry level. If you’re fascinated by online privacy, the Compliance Analyst job is something that you should get excited about. It looks like a perfect opportunity for a new grad who loves the Internet and wants to learn more about e-commerce. If you’re interested in applying, send your cover letter and resume to compliancecareers@truste.org. There’s also a Marketing Web Designer position that looks pretty interesting. If you’re a HTML and CSS whiz, but want to learn more about the marketing side of things, this job is perfect. You can apply by sending your cover letter, resume, and portfolio to marketingjobs@truste.org. Although they don’t say it on their jobs page, TRUSTe is located in San Francisco, CA, so we’ll assume that the jobs are too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think when you see a TRUSTe seal?

Bazaarvoice

Willy Franzen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:12:25 +0000

Shopping is supposed to be social. When you were a teenager, you probably liked to hit the mall with friends. Now, you probably lie in bed late at night surfing web sites looking for cool stuff to buy. It’s just not the same. You need social proof to back up your buying decisions. You want to hear what other people think. You want reviews, stories, and answers to questions that you may have about a product or service. Bazaarvoice is a software as a service provider that promotes social commerce by connecting customers to each other. They get their name from the word “bazaar, ” which “symbolizes the beginning of commerce – the initial marketplaces… lively centers of town, buzzing with neighbors, friends and merchants all sharing opinions and building a vibrant community.” That’s what Bazaarvoice is trying to recreate online for their clients.

Bazaar Entry Level Jobs

Bazaarvoice has a number of platforms that they use to promote social commerce. These include Ratings & Reviews, Ask & Answer, Stories, SyndicateVoice, BrandVoice, and the SearchVoice Microsite. Take a look at each of these – you’ll get a much better idea of how a company that uses Bazaarvoice has a huge advantage when it comes to getting consumers engaged online. They have an amazing client list, so if you want to see Bazaarvoice’s software in action, just visiting one of their clients’ sites.

In the interest of full disclosure, Bazaarvoice is offering a referral bonus for all of their jobs and we’d be happy to receive a check from them. With that said, we think that they have some great product offerings, an amazing careers site, cool corporate culture, and jobs that look really exciting – that’s why we’re featuring them. We’ve identified a ton of jobs that look well suited for new college grads on Bazaarvoice’s Jobs site (which is seriously one of the top 10 of companies that we’ve featured). Before you look at the specific jobs, you should check out all of the media that they offer – YouTube videos, Flickr photos, a blog, and lots of text on what it’s like to work for them. They’ve been voted one of Austin’s Best Places to Work, and the image that they put forward on their site certainly backs that up.

Bazaarvoice has all kinds of jobs for people with all types of academic and experiential backgrounds. Not all of the jobs listed below are explicitly entry-level, but they all seem within reason for smart, high performing new college grads. Bazaarvoice is based in Austin, TX, and that’s where most of their jobs are located. These include:

Business Analyst
Client Marketing Analyst
Front End Web Developer
Online Community Manager
Operations Database Analyst
Training Team Lead
Web Support Engineer
Software Developer
Web Designer
Associate Product Manager
Market Development Associate
Content Analyst (Work from Home)
Content Analyst Foreign Language (Work from Home)

Bazaarvoice also has a number of international job opportunities that seem to be entry-level.

Implementation Project Manager (London, UK)
Online Community Manager (London, UK)
Market Development Associate (London, UK)
Market Development Associate (EU – Germany, Netherlands, France)

To apply for a job at Bazaarvoice, all you need to do is click the links above and apply through their website. They’re doing a ton of hiring, so they must be experiencing some serious growth. Check them out if you want to be part of making commerce social again.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Bazaarvoice’s services? Would you like to see more e-commerce sites hire them?b

Groove Commerce

Willy Franzen — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:28:27 +0000

A few weeks ago, I was in Montreal and met with Ben Yoskovitz, the CEO of Standout Jobs. He’s a great guy to chat with, and he’s built a product that I think is fantastic – a hosted Career site solution for companies to use in their online recruiting. Ben recently tweeted on Twitter about a company called Groove Commerce that is a Standout Jobs customer, and apparently an all around awesome place to work. They’re hiring, so we checked them out. We liked what we saw (how could we not like their online Career presence when they use Standout Jobs?), so now we’re going to tell you a little bit about Groove Commerce. By the way, if you’re interested in How I Used Twitter to Get Meetings with 3 CEOs and a VP of Recruiting in 2 Weeks check out my guest blog post on The Talent Buzz. If the post gets enough visitors, I’ll win an iPod Touch, which I promise to give away in some sort of contest to a One Day, One Job reader.

Groove Your Business

Transitioning to eCommerce can be tough for many business owners. Although the basic premises behind marketing and sales remain the same in all arenas, the implementation of those concepts is completely different online. Groove Commerce helps business with the implementation. They offer services such as Site Design and Development, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click Advertising Management, Shopping Feed Optimization, and Web Analytics Consulting that help eCommerce companies achieve their goal of making sales online.

Jobs You Can Groove On

If you’re dying to get into the field of e-commerce and online marketing, or you just love building great websites, Groove Commerce might be a great place for you to start working after you graduate. They only appear to have 6 employees right now, but they’re looking to add 3 more team members (and an intern). Groove Commerce is looking to hire a Front End Developer, a Rockstar Web Designer, and an Asp.Net Developer. All of these jobs appear to be perfect for new grads who have the necessary technical skills. The Asp.Net position offers the opportunity to start part-time for a Junior/Senior/Grad Student who can work 20 hours per week. We’re not sure if they’d consider this for the other positions, but it might be worth asking.

Like I said in the first paragraph, Groove Commerce’s Jobs site is powered by Standout Jobs, and it offers nearly everything that you could want from a company’s Careers site. There are job listings, team bios, links to blog posts, lists of perks, an easy way to apply for jobs online, and a lot more. Best of all, it looks great and is easy to navigate. If you want to work somewhere where nerf guns and Rock Band are an every day part of office life, and Baltimore, MD is a place that you wouldn’t mind living, an entry-level job with Groove Commerce could be the start of something great for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Groove Commerce’s Careers site?

Orvis

Willy Franzen — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:00:56 +0000

If you consider going fishing after work and being in bed by 10 a night well spent, then working at Orvis will be perfect for you. Ditto if you enjoy helping your co-workers train their dogs on your lunch break. How do I know? I spent the summers after my sophomore and junior years as an intern in the Human Resources Department. Why did I pick Orvis? Because I am a life long fly fisherman and I love their products.

Distinctive Country Living

Orvis has been around since 1856, which apparently makes them the oldest continuously operating catalog company in the country. They have an extremely rich history, which is still a significant factor in the way the company operates today. You should be familiar with this history because it will help you write an impressive cover letter and interview well. The single best resource on Orvis’ history is The Orvis Story, but that costs money, and if you get an internship, then you can use Orvis’ generous 50% employee discount to buy it. So what about web resources on Orvis’ history? There’s this page on the history of Orvis, a timeline of Orvis’ accomplishment, and a very detailed Wikipedia entry on Orvis.

Orvis’ storied history is based on sporting traditions (mostly hunting and fishing), and with that has come their modern focus on distinctive country living. As much as they are known for their fly fishing equipment, Orvis is not just a sporting company; however, their product selection is targeted at people who enjoy the sporting life. Orvis also puts a huge emphasis on environmental conservation, so they are constantly involved with projects that protect the resources, like cold water fisheries, that drive their business.

Drop Them a Line

Orvis doesn’t have an entry-level hiring program by any means, but they are certainly an employer that is friendly to young people (as long as those young people enjoy the outdoors). A few positions that we identified as being well suited for a new college grad are: Web Liquidations Merchandise Specialist, Application Developer / Analyst Merchandising Systems, and Web Developer. It appears that Orvis would prefer candidates with experience for these positions, but there’s no reason that you can’t impress them enough to get hired.

Beyond their regular job listings, Orvis also lists positions at Orvis Endorsed Operations on their Job Openings Page. These aren’t actually Orvis jobs, but they do offer the opportunity to work for an amazing resort at a big name destination. A lot of these jobs are as fishing guides, but a few are in hospitality management as well.

What Vermont Has to Offer

Orvis’ corporate office is in Sunderland, VT on the edge of a 377-acre natural black bear habitat. The office is absolutely beautiful and fits perfectly with both the surroundings and Orvis’ mission. There’s a small gym on-site, hiking trails, a casting pond, and a cafe with great food. With that said, it’s in the middle of nowhere – the Orvis office doesn’t even have a zip code. The Manchester area of Vermont is not the most happening place. Yes, they have outlet shopping, but beyond that it’s all about the outdoors. Restaurants are closed by 9, and gas stations close by 10. So if you’re out fishing after that, you’re not going to find anything to eat except what’s in the refrigerator.

Orvis also has a service center in Roanoke, VA and retail locations across the United States; however, the jobs that best suite new college grads will be mostly located in Vermont. Like I’ve said, Orvis isn’t for the city slickers, but for the right people it’s a dream come true. If you’d like to know more about working at Orvis, feel free to contact me by leaving a comment. I’ll be more than happy to answer any of your questions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Looking for an internship at Orvis?

Etsy

Willy Franzen — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:33:07 +0000

It wasn’t all that long ago when most people were afraid to buy things online. As the general public has become more comfortable with doing transactions on the net, the need for businesses to go online has obviously continued to increase. It’s easy for a large, well-known business to put together a website and start an e-commerce venture, but the transition has been much more difficult for small businesses like those that sell handmade crafts. With no brand recognition and limited resources to build a good looking website, it’s hard for mom and pops to win the trust of online consumers. For this reason, many have relied on eBay as a way to sell their wares. Unfortunately, eBay has become a hot bed for scams while continuing to raise their fees. Luckily for craft lovers, Etsy has stepped in as “a place to buy and sell all things handmade.”

eBay bad. Etsy good.

There’s not much that you need to know about Etsy that you can’t figure out by perusing their site. In fact, the best way to get to know what they’re about is to visit some of the shops that have been set up by Etsy’s 100,000+ users. The emphasis at Etsy is on community, so it makes sense that they are attracting users who were previously burned by eBay. One of our favorite Etsy features is the Alchemy section that allows users to request a certain handmade item at a specific cost. So, let’s say I want a hat with a paper mâché trout going through it like an arrow for my Dad’s birthday in July. I can offer $45 as my ideal price, and Etsy users can bid on my proposed project. It may not be turning iron into gold, but it certainly allows turning gold into paper mâché trout hats.

Handmade Recruiting

Etsy has extended the sense of community that they have created into their corporate culture as well. Etsy’s Jobs page is exactly what a company’s online recruiting presence should be. It’s warm, personal, and gives the reader a good sense of what working for Etsy is like. Larger employers might argue that it’s easy to do this when you’re a relatively small startup, but once you reach a certain size it’s impossible to maintain. We think that’s just an excuse not to try. In a way, Etsy’s Jobs page makes Etsy seem more like a club for like-minded individuals than a place to work, and that’s how we think it should be. They’re currently accepting membership (job) applications for two positions that appear to be entry-level: User Interface Designer and PHP Engineer. The job descriptions are well written, and the UI listing includes a puzzle. The PHP job is in their Brooklyn, NY office, and the UI job can be in Brooklyn or their Bay Area, CA office.

There’s an exceptional amount of information about Etsy on their website, so be sure to use the links below as a jumping off point. Even if you’re not interested in Etsy’s jobs, take a look. You should find the way that they do online recruiting to be interesting and refreshing. If you think that you’d like working for Etsy, you can contact them at work@etsy.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Want to find out about more great entry-level jobs at cool companies like Etsy? You will if you subscribe.

Standard Style Boutique

Amy Gordon — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:00:18 +0000

Here at One Day, One Job we like to feature jobs at companies that we use and respect. I came across Standard Style a couple of years ago when I was shopping for a friend’s birthday present, and I have been a loyal customer ever since. Standard Style is a boutique, online and off, that is trying to meld traditional mid-western values with the latest fashions. What is great about Standard Style is their top-notch customer service and their extensive collection of high fashion clothes and jewelry (that often go on sale). Even greater for you is that they appear to be hiring!

Values? Fashion? Huh?

We used to think that the groups “places that are known for barbecue” and “places that are known for good fashion” were mutually exclusive. Standard Style has changed our opinion, as they’ve focused on “selling West Coast and New York City ideas of fashion to a city where jeans are widely acceptable at high-end restaurants.” Where are they doing this? Kansas City, of course. Matt and Emily Baldwin founded Standard Style after they moved back to Kansas from California, and so far it’s working out pretty well with them. Their Christian faith plays a strong role in how they run their business, which is perfect for their target market – mid-western moms.

“Matching religious ideals with high fashion might seem paradoxical,” but the excessive use of sex in advertising can be a turn off to many. That’s why Standard Style’s marketing efforts are toned down, and they focus on working with suppliers who are a little less provocative than your average fashion designer. It’s definitely a different tack, but you can’t argue with a successful business.

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

Just kidding. All of Standard Style’s jobs are in Kansas (ok, we think they might have some in Kansas City, MO). Standard Style’s Careers page offers a lot of hope for job searchers, but we’re not sure how many opportunities are actually current, since they don’t list individual positions. They say that they’re looking for people in: Administrative Services, Advertising, Buying, Sales & Customer Service, Distribution/Warehouse, Finance/Accounting, Human Resource, Information Technology, Marketing/Sales/Public Relations, Merchandising, Product Management, Research Analyst, and Store/Retail. Either they’re doing an amazing amount of hiring, or they’ve taken an “always looking” approach.

We used our usual research methods to see if we could dig up any more information on what kind of jobs Standard Style has or what it’s like to work there, but we came up empty-handed. We don’t know for sure that they’re hiring at the entry-level, but they should be. They’re trendy enough to attract the top young talent, and they’re certainly in the right industry. We can’t make any promises, but we think that you probably have a good shot if you send your cover letter and resume to Employment@standardstyle.com with your area of interest clearly identified. There’s not much else to go on, but we’re sure they’d be happy to answer questions through e-mail as well.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you know something about working at Standard Style that we couldn’t find? Share it in the comments.

Bag Borrow or Steal

Willy Franzen — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:00:13 +0000

At the beginning of the month, we wrote about entry-level jobs at Netflix, today we’re going to talk about a company that has adopted the same business model, but is radically different in what they rent. Bag Borrow or Steal is a subscription service that enables you to “borrow” designer handbags and jewelry. There’s no need to spend big bucks on an item that you’ll use six times a year, when you can instead borrow (read: rent) six different designer items that will ensure that you’re always looking trendy. Now you can be like those movie stars who wear OPA (other people’s accessories) for big events like the Oscars (which we didn’t watch last night).

Some of you are probably asking, “how do I sign up?” While others are thinking that this company must be run by crazy people. There isn’t yet a consensus on whether Bag Borrow or Steal will have staying power, but it seems like things are going in the right direction – especially considering the fact that they closed a round of $15 million in venture capital last Summer. We love the creativity of this idea, and see a ton of opportunity for growth in many areas – adding customers, expanding their product offerings, and improving efficiency in their supply chain in particular. With the capital that they’ve secured and the potential for business expansion, Bag Borrow or Steal should be adding a lot of jobs in the near future. As of now, they only have a couple openings on their careers page.

The two current entry-level openings at Bag Borrow or Steal are both web related. One is as a Junior Web Developer and the other is as a Web Designer. The Junior Web Developer is listed under IT, while the Web Designer is listed under Marketing, which seems a little strange to us, since there is a lot of overlap in the necessary skills. We’re just guessing, but maybe it’s a telling distinction. Maybe, the web designer will have more interaction with the marketing team; however, the job description for the web designer almost looks more like it belongs in IT than the web development position. It’s a bit perplexing.

We’ll also note that we’re a little disappointed that Bag Borrow Steal doesn’t have more job openings that are directly relevant to what their business is about. They clearly have a huge advantage when it comes to hiring people for fashion/trend related positions. Then again, maybe that’s why there are no openings. If you’re looking for a job that is more related to the handbags than the website, keep watching or give cold calling a try.

Note: On April 25th we revisited entry-level jobs at Bag Borrow or Steal.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What other markets can be adapted to the Netflix model? Tell us in the comments… or keep the idea for yourself and get millions of dollars from VCs.

ProFlowers

Willy Franzen — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:00:54 +0000

We want our readers to be our Valentines this year, so the next three days are going to be devoted to jobs that have something to do with Valentine’s Day. We love our devoted readers (as does Better World Books), and we want to know that you love us too! Show us by becoming a Facebook Fan, subscribing by RSS, or signing up for our daily e-mails. We hope that our posts over the next three days don’t just give you great ideas for your job search, but also help you come up with last minute ideas to let that special someone know that you love them. And for those of you who just can’t stand Valentine’s day, why not browse through our archives of entry-level jobs to see what you’ve missed.

I first learned about ProFlowers during my freshman year of college. I didn’t have a Valentine, but I wanted to send my mom flowers to let her know that although I had moved away, I hadn’t forgotten about her. During my junior year, I finally got a girlfriend and realized that I was in the awkward situation of having to do Valentine’s Day only a month into my new relationship. I really liked this girl, so I wanted to do my best to impress her. I had an exam and an essay due on the 15th, but that wasn’t going to stop me from executing my plan for a perfect first meaningful Valentine’s Day. The only easy part was picking out an arrangement from ProFlowers and having them delivered directly to her dorm room. I barely got everything I had to do done as the day flew by, and my chronically over-punctual self had to delay picking my new girlfriend up for our date by half an hour.

In the end, everything went smoothly on Valentine’s Day, except I almost missed a delivery that my Mom had arranged for me. I had not yet told her that I had a new girlfriend, and she thought that sending me a big foam cooler full of steaks would be the best answer to a lonely Valentine’s Day (see, sending your Mom flowers pays off). Guys, get familiar with ProFlowers. It pays off. Girls, steaks make a great gift for guys, and ProFlowers has a sister company called Uptown Prime that will ship steaks anywhere (I’ve never had them, so I can’t vouch for the quality). There are also two other sister companies: Cherry Moon Farms and Secret Spoon. All four of these companies fly under the flag of their parent company, Provide-commerce

Now that we’ve given everyone some great last-minute gift ideas, let’s get down to business. ProFlowers currently has two entry-level job openings. One is as a Logistics Analyst, and the other is as a Merchandising Product Data Analyst. We were pretty pleased with the descriptions for all of Provide-Commerce/Proflower’s Job Openings; they get right to the point and tell you what you will be doing and what types of skills and qualifications are necessary. There’s a fine line between jargon and being descriptive, and ProFlowers remains descriptive throughout.

Beyond a simple, but helpful careers site, there were two other things we found during our research that we liked about ProFlowers. First, they were named the #1 Employer in San Diego between 100 and 499 employees for 2006 by San Diego Magazine. As if being located in San Diego isn’t a big enough benefit, they’re also the best employer for their size and they encourage you to wear flip flops to work. Second, ProFlowers has built their own ProFlowers recruitment social network using Ning (a company we’ve already featured). This shows that they’re engaged with candidates, and clearly see the future of recruiting. We wouldn’t be surprised if they’re the kind of company that has someone stop in and join the conversation about their entry-level jobs.

ProFlowers is a great example of how you can build great job search ideas from your day to day needs. You need to get your new girlfriend something for Valentine’s Day. As you think about that “problem,” keep your need for a job after graduation in the back of your mind. Trying to solve one problem can often lead to the solution of another problem. It doesn’t need to be flowers, but that’s just one thought. Keep thinking, and let us know what you come up with.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Another way you can show us you love us is by leaving a comment. All you need to do is fill out a quick form and tell us you love us. You can also tell us about your Valentine’s Day plans. They might even give us an idea for a new company to feature.

Netflix

Willy Franzen — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:00:48 +0000

Whether you hit the multiplex with your friends, had them over to watch a rental, or sat alone and watched in your room as you languished through your awkward stage (everyone has one), Friday nights in Middle School always seemed to revolve around movies. To get a rental, you’d have to beg your Mom to take you to Blockbuster. Then you’d have to lobby her on why you were mature enough to rent an R-rated movie, despite the fact that you just made it to legal age for a PG-13. Those days are long gone, and not just because you’re an adult now. Now, you either wait a couple days for the mailman to deliver your movie or you sit for 10 minutes while you download it. Netflix has ruined those cherished moments of arguing with your mother about movie rentals and late fees, but I think we can all agree to forgive them.

If your love of movies has persisted beyond your Middle School years, Netflix is the perfect place to begin your career. Not only do they look like a fun place to work, but they also have done a fantastic job of marketing their employment brand online. In fact, their list of 8 great reasons to work for Netflix made it to the top page of reddit. If you don’t know what reddit is, Wikipedia says it’s “a social news website where users can post links to content on the web. Other users may then vote the posted links up or down, causing them to appear more or less prominently on the Reddit home page.” Reddit users aren’t the easiest crowd to please, so it’s actually quite an impressive feat for a corporate careers page to get so much attention from them.

We sifted through Netflix’s 4 pages of job openings to find you the positions that we think are most suitable for a new college grad. There were 4 jobs that really stood out: Indie Films Content Buyer (this sounds so cool!), Replications Manager, Operations Coordinator, Site Content Coordinator – Electronic Delivery – all of these positions are located in Beverly Hills, CA. There is a lot of depth in Netflix’s job descriptions, but they could stand to be written in a livelier style. Netflix brags about being a “flat” organization in which people at all levels of the organization work on both high and low level tasks. That could be good or bad depending on your point of view. Typically a flat organization means opportunities to advance quickly for someone who is coming in at the entry-level.

Netflix also has a General Application for people who don’t see a position that suits their interests. Give that a try if you don’t see anything you like in their job listings. Or you could just sit at home and try to win $1 million from Netflix by building them a better movie recommendation algorithm.

Note: On April 24th we revisited entry-level jobs at Netflix.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think Netflix’s business model can continue? Or will movie rental by download completely take over in the next few years?

woot!

Willy Franzen — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:00:11 +0000

When I was a kid in elementary school, our teacher asked us to have a book at our desk to read during short periods of downtime. If a lesson finished a little early and she couldn’t think of something to do with a class of fourth graders, we picked up our books and started reading. Most kids had fun story books to read, but for some reason (probably because it was already in my desk and I didn’t feel like finding another book) my book was a pocket dictionary. While other kids were reading about the adventures of some imaginary character, I was looking up words to craft my comebacks when I was inevitably made fun of. I wish the word w00t had existed back then, not because it would have been particularly useful in my fourth grade reading level verbal counterattacks, but because I think my classmates would have realized that reading a dictionary can’t be all bad if you can find words like w00t.

w00t, alternately spelled woot or woot! and never capitalized, was selected as the 2007 Word of the Year by Merriam-Webster. Beyond being a great word, woot! is also an online retailer that sells only one item each day – just like we only post one job a day, and Merriam-Webster has a word of the day. Speaking of fun things to do on the Merriam-Webster website, try typing in curse words, clicking on the little speaker icon, and listening to the computer generated voice say the bad word as it is meant to be pronounced. Sorry, I’ll focus. So, woot! is a business based entirely on selling one item a day (typically the items are refurbished, overstock, or just need to be liquidated), which is actually a fascinating concept. Back in 2004, the New York Times wrote an article on woot! because of woot!’s amazing ability to sell out of an item in hours, when it would take a traditional retailer months to get rid of the same item. Basically, woot! sells crap at a great price in a fun way, and it works.

Speaking of crap. woot! occasionally sells what is called a “bag of crap,” although it may be identified as a boring office career, bodacious orange cooler, or bandolier of carrots – you get the idea. A bag of crap can be ordered for 3 bucks + 5 bucks for shipping. That gets you one bag, three craps. Often, the bag of crap has the most worthless items you could possibly imagine an inventory liquidator sending you; however, the rare bag of crap will contain some insane item like a huge television or a Nintendo Wii. Obviously, the bags of crap sell out in minutes and bring woot!’s server to a fast, painless death – like being run over, backed up over, and then run over again. Bags of crap are often found during woot! offs, when woot! decides to sell more than one item per day and lists a new item instantly after the previous item sells out.

As weird as woot! may sound, it’s become really popular. They have shirt.woot, wine.woot, and sellout.woot as offshoots of the original woot!. In fact, woot! has become more of a community than an online retailer. Yes, there are woot! fanatics, and they’ve created a woot! Wikipedia entry that can give you the complete rundown on the woot! culture.

So, obviously there’s a reason that we’re talking about woot!. They’re hiring. They reminded us in a recent blog post, and that little announcement in our RSS reader was enough to get us to give them a look. woot! as a company has a great sense of humor, so if you’re not funny, get funny, or don’t apply. They also don’t seem like the hand-holding type, so if you want to be coddled through the application process (or when you buy an item online), woot! is not the right company for you. They are pretty clear that customer service isn’t their strongpoint, and we’ll make the guess that HR isn’t either. With that said, their job descriptions (and product descriptions) are funnier than that kid that you went to middle school with who was convinced he was going to become a comedian, but has since fallen off the face of the Earth. It’s definitely worth a look, if only for entertainment purposes. woot! wants local candidates only for their positions, but if you’re open to living in Dallas, Texas, then give it a go anyways. Open positions include Accounting/Administrative/Executive Assistant, Programmer (St. Louis, MO or Dallas, TX), Shirt.woot Production Admin, Member Services Representative, and a Wholesale Sales Representative (Inside Sales Rep). It’s amazing what a little humor does for a job description.

Now go find a way to work the word “w00t” into your resume. We’d prefer it in the exclamatory sense, but prior work experience will suffice.

Note: On April 24th we revisited entry-level jobs at woot!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

woot! We just felt like saying it one more time.

Amazon.com

Willy Franzen — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:00:25 +0000

Hopefully you’re not stealing wireless while waiting in line at Best Buy to read this post, when you could be doing all your Black Friday shopping on Amazon.com in the comfort of your own bed. If you don’t get your Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, Kindle, or another Black Friday Deal, maybe you’ll get moving on finding a job and adding to your bank account rather than subtracting from it. Since employers haven’t taken to the Black Friday concept (can you say 20% higher salary if you take a job that you applied for on Black Friday?), we figured we’d write about jobs from the ultimate holiday shopping company.

Amazon.com is one of those smart companies that realizes that hiring college graduates is different from hiring people who have already had jobs. Their Careers Site links directly to their University Recruiting Page. From there, they have separate sections for Technical Careers and Business Careers. Technical Careers include Software Development Engineer Positions in: High-Transaction Systems, Algorithms, Testing, Tool Development, User Interface Development, and Merchant Integration. Business Careers have a wider range of positions, which include jobs such as Area Manger and Financial Analyst.

Since we’re pretty sure that you know what Amazon.com does and how well they do it, we won’t waste your time rehashing their story. Head over to their Careers Site and start researching for yourself. It’s one of the most comprehensive and easily navigable jobs sites we’ve seen. Once you’ve spent some time being responsible for the day, reward yourself and buy yourself something nice. It’s Black Friday!

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Heard anything about working at Amazon.com? Want to share a great Black Friday deal with other One Day, One Job readers? Leave a comment.