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Flat World Knowledge

Willy Franzen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:53:35 +0000

Today’s post comes with a big announcement. I’m writing a book! A textbook on Career Development to be precise. The best part of that news is that the textbook is going to be available online for free because I’m working with an awesome publisher named Flat World Knowledge. They’re a Nyack, NY based startup that is aiming to revolutionize the textbook industry. I’m sure many have you have been forced into spending thousands of dollars over the course of your college career on textbooks (and how many of them remained in their shrink wrap?). Flat World Knowledge is building a business by providing you with better, more affordable options. Textbooks from Flat World can be read online for free. You can pay to print a chapter (or the whole book) at home. You can buy a softcover copy in black and white—or color. You can even get an audio book version. When my book comes out, you can read it however you want to read it—and you’ll never be forced to pay an arm and a leg for it.

Navigating a Flat World

Here’s a quick video introduction to Flat World Knowledge:

I’m sure that there has been plenty of outcry on your campus about how expensive textbooks are, and you’ve probably noticed that the mainstream media is starting to pick up on this story. Flat World is tackling this problem head on by making a bet that they can sell more textbooks at a lower price. It may seem crazy for a publisher to give away full textbooks for free, but Flat World knows that a lot of students can’t bear to read an entire textbook online. Some students will want to pay for hard copies of the book, and that will leave enough profit for Flat World. They’ve raised $8 million in funding to get started, but hopefully a certain Career Development text will be so popular that they won’t need to take on any more money in the future.

Now, I do have a vested interest in the success of Flat World Knowledge, but that’s because I believe that they’re doing something great for students. If you’d like to have a vested interest in Flat World, then you should check out their Jobs page. The positions that they have posted are for more experienced individuals, but Flat World does have this posted on their Jobs page: “If you are a product manager, salesperson, web marketing guru, or acquisitions editor who feels passionate about our business, send a resume and tell us a bit about yourself to jobs@flatworldknowledge.com.” There’s no guarantee that they’ll have a position for you, but they’re growing quickly… so you might just get the chance to work with me.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Will you read my book?

Seed Media Group

Willy Franzen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:50:00 +0000

The magazine business is dying, right? A lot of people seem to think so, and for the most part I agree with them; however, we seem to be seeing a new breed of magazines cropping up. They’re web integrated, extremely well designed, and laser focused on a specific audience. They still sell advertising, but they offer advertisers access to a well-defined audience that general interest magazines can’t compete with. The company behind one of these magazines (Seed Magazine) is Seed Media Group. They’re based out of New York City, and they are a media and technology company built on the premise that science is culture. They’ve been offering a new take on science since 2005, and it seems to be working with them.

Seeding Your Career

Beyond Seed Magazine, Seed Media Group also runs ScienceBlogs.com. It’s a substantial web property, and it falls right in line with Seed Media Group’s belief that:

Science is transforming our global culture and conversation unlike ever before, shaping markets, informing policy, inspiring the arts and deepening our understanding of who we are, where we come from and where we’re heading.

It’s hard to say whether Seed Media Group and similar companies will be able to save the magazine industry, or if their success is just a temporary thing, but you have to like the fact that they’re more focused on a topic than the specific type of media that they deliver to their readers. If you’re intrigued by Seed Media Group, I recommend that you check out their websites listed below and pick up a copy of the magazine. That way you can get to know them and better understand if they might be somewhere you want to work. According to their company LinkedIn profile, they’re growing into a pretty sizable company. Although their Jobs page currently has just intern positions, they do encourage you to send a cover letter and résumé to careers@seedmediagroup.com for unlisted positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read Seed Magazine or ScienceBlogs.com?

College Prowler

Willy Franzen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:00:10 +0000

Back when I was looking at colleges, I had to rely on traditional guidebooks to get relevant information like average SAT scores, whether freshmen are allowed to have cars, and what the food is like. Finding solid information online was pretty much out of the question, and none of the guidebooks that I looked at seemed to have a good read on what the campus was really like. Then along came College Prowler in 2002 (after I was already at Cornell, which turned out great). They’re a Pittsburgh, PA based company that aims “to be the most accurate, complete, and honest resource on colleges and universities across the United States.” Although those are their words, I think that a more accurate description of what they do (also in their words) is:

No university affiliations. No half-truths. No out-of-touch authors who haven’t been in school for decades. A class project turned company, College Prowler produces guidebooks that are written by actual college students and covers the things students really want to know.

College Prowler’s guides are what college guidebooks should have always been. Unfortunately, it took a long time for anyone to realize how big the need for “real” information was. Along with guidebooks, College Prowler has also built an awesome web resource to help high school students make informed college choices. The best part is that they’ve recently made all of their online content free.

Prowling for Jobs

The business side of College Prowler is an interesting story, as I recently learned in an Inc. Magazine article. The short of it is that College Prowler is doing a fantastic job of helping students make the right college decisions, but they’re not nearly as successful at monetizing the attention that they’re getting (I can sympathize completely). As publishing has become less necessary with user-generated content sites like Unigo.com delivering free content, College Prowler has had to reevaluate its strategy. They still have a great brand and a great idea, but there’s a reason that they’re an Inc. Magazine Case Study and not a member of the Inc. 5000. If you’re up for a challenge and want to help make a cool company become significantly profitable, you should check out College Prowler’s Jobs page. Although they only have specific internship positions posted, they do say that they “typically hire in sales, marketing, editing, and web development.” If you have skills in any of those areas, reach out to Mark Tressler at tressler@collegeprowler.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

CollegeProwler.com
Jobs at College Prowler
About College Prowler
CollegeJolt.com (College Prowler’s Blog)
College Prowler in the News

Did you use any College Prowler guides?

SNY

Willy Franzen — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:03:12 +0000

Last week we took a look at jobs with the YES Network, which was fun for me because I’m a huge Yankees fan. On the day that post went up, I got a direct message on Twitter from Charlie O’Donnell that said, “No SNY?” Since my buddy Charlie is a big Mets fan and the CEO of a very cool career related startup called Path 101, I had to give SNY a look—even if Interleague play, a Subway World Series, and Mets fans’ jumping on the Red Sox bandwagon has soured me on the team from Flushing. Still, the Mets are a big deal, they have a beautiful brand new stadium, and they even have their own TV network. SNY is “a 24/7 regional sports and entertainment television network that features up to 125 regular season New York Mets telecasts.” It’s available “in New York, Connecticut, most of New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania,” and it’s also “the official year-round television home of the New York Jets.”

Say Yes to SNY

Whether you’re a Mets fan, a Jets fan, or a Yankees fan who just wants to get into the world of sports broadcast journalism, SNY might be a great place to get your start. They’re relatively new to the scene (2006), but as long as they have the rights to broadcast the Mets games, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with in New York sports. To get an idea of what kind of job offerings SNY has you can head over to their Jobs page. The first think you’ll notice is that most of the jobs are freelance. If you’re not familiar with the television industry, that may sound scary, but it’s often how things work with tv networks. The available positions that appear to be most suitable for a new grad are Freelance Production Assistant and Multimedia Part-Time Avid Editor—all of the other job postings seem to be severely outdated. The online application process seems to be really confusing, so you may want to try networking your way into the job if you can.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you a Mets fan?

Girl Scouts of the USA

Willy Franzen — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:30:12 +0000

Last night I enjoyed one of my favorite Summer treats—a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Now, this wasn’t just any Blizzard. This was a Tagalong Blizzard. If you’re not familiar with Tagalongs, then you’re missing out. They are my favorite Girl Scout cookie. And that brings me to the Girl Scouts of the USA, which is a New York City non-profit organization that you probably know best for pushing cookies. Obviously, the cookies have little to do with what the Girl Scouts of the USA are all about, but the funds raised from selling the cookies enable the organization to continue to pursue its mission of being “the world’s preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls—all girls—where, in an accepting and nurturing environment, girls build character and skills for success in the real world.”

Scouting Out the Job Market

Since the Girl Scouts of the USA started in Savannah, GA in 1912, they have touched the lives of more than 50 million women and have sold billions of boxes of cookies. Those are some unbelievable numbers! Whether you are a Girl Scout alum or just someone who has enjoyed the cookies, a career with the Girl Scouts is definitely worth considering. They have quite a few jobs at their New York City headquarters, and they also have job listings for their regional chapters on their Careers site. Some positions at the corporate headquarters include Associate Web Producer, Web Developer, Writer/Editor, and Web Designer/Programmer. I’ll leave checking out the positions with the local chapters and regional offices up to you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Were you ever a Girl Scout?

Sterling Publishing

Willy Franzen — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:47:50 +0000

Who knew that Barnes & Noble owned a publisher? I certainly didn’t, but it makes a lot of sense. If you own the sales channel, you might as well start creating your own product too. That’s why Barnes & Noble acquired New York City’s Sterling Publishing a few years back. It’s allowed them to squeeze more profit out of their dominance in retail book sales. It seems to me that the scope of the types of books that Sterling publishes is expanding, but their main focuses are in puzzles, photograpy, crafts, gardening, and do-it-yourself. If you really want to take a close look at what types of books Sterling Publishing puts out, you can see a list of their imprints with descriptions on the Sterling Publishing About page.

A Sterling Start

Sterling Publishing’s mission is “to publish high-quality books that educate, entertain, and enrich the lives of [their] readers.” I’m not sure that differs much from any other publisher, yet they say that they stand out because they “have the reach of the major publishers yet the passion & creativity of an independent press.” You’ll have to take a closer look at Sterling and the books that they publish to get a feel for whether they’ll be the right place for you. If you do think that you’ll be a good fit, then you should head over to Sterling’s Careers page. They don’t have specific job listings, but they mention that their “learning and development programs begin at the entry level and continue through to senior management.” They also have a quote from Meaghan F. in the Publicity Department about how easy it is to get a good start at Sterling Publishing:

I started at Sterling as an Intern during my senior year of college. I ended up getting a full-time job out of that experience and years later I still learn something every day as a Children’s Publicist. The opportunity for growth at Sterling is tremendous.

It’s hard to say what specific entry level positions Sterling may be hiring for, but I would guess that they are similar to the jobs that you’d find at other publishers. The easiest way to find out is to submit salary requirements, cover letter, and resume to hr@sterlingpublishing.com. I know that they are located in New York City, but I think that they might also have a location in Asheville, NC with job opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite book published by Sterling Publishing?

Public Library of Science

Willy Franzen — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:07:27 +0000

Most scientific literature isn’t what I’d call an easy read, so I wouldn’t be surprised if most of you aren’t beating down the doors to get your hands on the newest research papers. Unless you are a big consumer of research literature, then you probably don’t care much about the openness of scientific and medical publishing, but you should. Open sharing of information can significantly promote innovation, and who can argue against wanting more advances in science and medicine? The Public Library of Science is all about open sharing, as they are a San Francisco, CA based “nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature a public resource.” They were founded in 2000, and since then they’ve been pushing for scientific and medical journals that “are immediately available online, with no charges for access and no restrictions on subsequent redistribution or use.”

Open Up Your Job Search

The Public Library of Science has three main goals that are hard to argue against:

Open the doors to the world’s library of scientific knowledge by giving any scientist, physician, patient, or student – anywhere in the world – unlimited access to the latest scientific research.
Facilitate research, informed medical practice, and education by making it possible to freely search the full text of every published article to locate specific ideas, methods, experimental results, and observations.
Enable scientists, librarians, publishers, and entrepreneurs to develop innovative ways to explore and use the world’s treasury of scientific ideas and discoveries.

If you love science and think the open source movement is one of the coolest recent social movements, then a job at the Public Library of Science would be a perfect fit for you. You can check out all of their available opportunities on their Jobs page; however, none of the jobs currently posted are explicitly entry level. Depending on what kind of things you’ve done up to this point, the Production Editor and Agile Quality Engineer positions might be worth checking out. You can apply for a job at the Public Library of Science by sending a resume and cover letter to jobs@plos.org with the job title as the subject line.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of the Public Library of Science’s push for openness?

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Willy Franzen — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:12:07 +0000

Once you get your undergraduate degree, you have a choice. You can continue with higher education, or you can get a job. You can start making money, or you can keep spending money. If you’re having trouble deciding between those two options, don’t worry. There’s a way to get a job without leaving the world of higher ed. That’s because The Chronicle of Higher Education, which is based in Washington, D.C., is hiring. As they put it, they are “the No. 1 source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators.” Apparently 80,000 academics and 350,000 people in total subscribe to The Chronicle of Higher Education, while their website gets 12 million monthly pageviews. They were even “ranked in the top 10 of most credible news sources by Erdos & Morgan.” Clearly, The Chronicle is the place to go for information about higher education.

Chronicle Your Success

If you love the world of higher ed, but you’re not quite ready to invest in another degree to hang on your wall, then you might want to look into writing for The Chronicle of Higher Education. If you start browsing The Chronicle’s website looking for jobs, don’t be confused by the link to their Careers section on the left hand sidebar—it’s not what you’re looking for. A big part of The Chronicle’s business is posting ads for jobs in higher education, so that’s why that link is so prominent. To find jobs with the Chronicle, you need to use their Help page, or you could just use the following link to go directly to their Jobs page. They have 3 openings right now, but only one seems suitable for new or recent grads. It’s for a Community Colleges Reporter, and it does require “at least 2 years of writing/editing experience.” It may not be explicitly entry level, but I’m sure that some of you have built up a journalistic resume that will put you into consideration for this job. To apply, send a resume, cover letter, and 5 clips to ccsearch@chronicle.com and use “Job Applicant” as the subject line.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read The Chronicle of Higher Education?

Graywolf Press

Willy Franzen — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:13:14 +0000

Although the book publishing industry isn’t struggling like the newspaper publishing industry is, I still wonder what the future holds for publishing. Maybe Graywolf Press has it right—they’re a non-profit publishing house based in Saint Paul, MN. (I hear that the New York Times is now non profit too. badum-CHING!.) Now, I can’t find a mission statement for Graywolf Press, but I’m going to guess that it has something to do with advancing the art of the written word. Unlike Island Press, a non-profit publisher and “provider of the best new ideas in environmentalism” whose internships we featured on One Day, One Internship, Graywolf Press doesn’t seem to have a common theme that ties together the books that they publish. The most that I could find was that Graywolf Press focuses on “introducing and promoting the most exciting and creative writers of our times.”

Howl to Get a Job

To get an idea of the kind of stuff that Graywolf Press does publish, you should check out their website and browse through all of their books. Graywolf started by “working out of a space provided by Copper Canyon Press in Port Townsend, Washington” and moved on to a “print shack” in their founders backyard. They’ve expanded quite a bit in the 35 years since they were founded, and that means you won’t be working in a shack if you land a job with them. Right now there’s only one job posted on their Jobs page, but it’s perfect for new grads. They’re looking for an Editorial Assistant to join their 9 person office. If you’re intrigued by this position, “send a cover letter, resume, and a one-page report on a contemporary novel to jobs@graywolfpress.org.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you read any books published by Graywolf Press?

Aplia

Willy Franzen — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:45:32 +0000

Part of my daily routine is reading Greg Mankiw’s Economics Blog. When I saw his post announcing that the text book that he wrote will now be accompanied by an interactive learning tool, I was intrigued. I quickly read the Washington Post article that Dr. Mankiw linked to in the announcement to learn more about Aplia, the company that developed this educational tool. It turns out that Aplia, which is based in Belmont, CA, was developed by a Stanford economist named Paul Romer who was very successful in developing a theory to explain why different economies grow at different rates, but not so successful at engaging students. Since Dr. Romer is clearly a problem solver at heart, he developed a product (and company) called Applia that “offers high-quality, auto-graded assignments” and is “dedicated to improving learning by increasing student effort and engagement.”

Aplia for a Job

Paul Romer took $10 million in venture capital to spur the growth of the company, and he eventually sold out in 2007 to Cengage, a textbook publisher. Aplia is now “used by more than 1,000,000 students at over 950 institutions,” so I’ll wager that Cengage is pretty happy to have a successful interactive tool to bring some life to their slowly dying textbook business. Now, the real reason that I got so excited when I first heard about Aplia isn’t my interest in interactive educational tools (although I clearly have an interest there), it’s the fact that I thought they might have jobs. And they do. They still seem to operate separately from Cengage, so they have their own Jobs page (although it’s branded like it’s just for Cengage).

On that Jobs page, you’ll find quite a few jobs that appear to be suitable for new grads. We can’t link to the specific openings because of their crappy Applicant Tracking System, but you should be able to find their jobs easily. They have Content Writer positions in Accounting, US History, Psychology, Biology, and Economics that can be located in Belmont, CA; Boston, MA; or Cincinnati, OH. Additionally there are jobs for an Editorial Assistant, Flash Expert, and Customer Support Representative. The jobs look awesome, so give them a look and apply online if you’re interested.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did any of your courses use Aplia?

Howcast

Willy Franzen — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:46:23 +0000

When you don’t know how to do something (like find a job), what do you do? You probably head straight to Google and look for an online resource to tell you how to do what you want to do. It didn’t used to be that easy. You’d either have to ask someone, or buy a book (if you could figure out which book to buy), or figure it out yourself. Answering “how to” questions wasn’t easy, but now it is because of websites like New York City’s Howcast. Whether you head straight to Howcast or you find their answer to your question through Google, you’ll be delighted to find what they call “the best how to videos on the web.” Howcast covers nearly every topic you can imagine – from How to Adopt a Child to How to Psyche Out the Competition and – more relevant for our purposes – from How to Deal with a Smelly Coworker to How to Dress for a Job Interview. Each topic has both a video and a Wiki with written instructions, and the content is either user submitted or Howcast produced (it’s generally very high quality content). Oh yeah, and Howcast was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites of 2008. That’s pretty cool.

How Do I Get an Entry Level Job?

Howcast answers a lot of important questions, but they completely missed the boat on one. Why the heck don’t they have a howcast on how to get a job at Howcast? It would be an awesome employment branding move, and it would really liven up their Jobs page. Unfortunately, it looks like you’re going to have to figure out how to get a job with them the old fashioned way – by showing initiative. That means you should check out their job postings, and see what you like. You’ll probably be most interested in their Writer positions. They sound like awesome jobs, and although they’ll start out as full-time freelance positions, there’s potential to make the jobs permanent. The position sounds perfect for a new grad except for the “At least 5 years of experience editing” part at the end of the job description. The reason we’re still telling you about these jobs is that we saw them posted on an entry level job board, and there was no mention of the experience requirement there. You can apply by sending a cover letter and resume with a subject line of “Writer” to jobs+writer@howcast.com. Also, it appears that these positions are available in San Francisco as well as New York City. Additionally, there is a Manager of Search Engine Optimization & Research Analytics position that probably isn’t suitable for new grads, but it could be a good fit for the right recent grad. You can apply for this one by sending a resume with cover letter to jobs+seo@howcast.com. And if you do end up landing one of these jobs, your first order of business should be that How to Get a Job at Howcast video.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Howcast?

New York Magazine

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:05:35 +0000

These days a magazine’s website is absolutely essential to its success. Many are saying that there’s a day not too far off when most of the magazines that we know and love won’t be published in hard (soft?) copy and will only be found online. Things are changing, but some magazines seem better suited to weather the changes than others. New York Magazine is one of those that seems to be keeping up with where the industry is going. NYMag.com gets well over a million unique visitors per month, and that’s excluding the month that they published nude photos of Lindsey Lohan when their traffic increased by 2,000%. (No, we’re not going to link to them. You can find them yourself). New York Magazine “covers, analyzes, comments on and defines the news, culture, entertainment, lifestyle, fashion and personalities that drive New York City” on a weekly basis. Basically it’s everything New York.

Do You Love New York… Magazine?

If you want to work for New York Magazine, you should probably start reading. I can’t think of a better way to prepare for a job with a content publisher than knowing the content that they publish. You might also want to check out Wikipedia’s page on New York Magazine since New York Magazine, like most magazines, doesn’t provide much information about themselves on their website. One thing that seems to be unique about New York Magazine is that they’re not part of a huge media conglomerate (as far as I can tell). There are so many magazines that are owned by companies that publish dozens and dozens of magazines, but New York Magazine doesn’t appear to be one of them.

Once you’re familiar with what New York Magazine is all about, you can check out their Jobs page. Their listings are kind of sparse right now, but they do have freelance opportunities for Web/Interaction Designers and Copy Editors. These job postings may be a bit outdated, but they’re still posted, so it’s worth inquiring about them. At the very least it’s a chance to learn about other jobs that they might have available right now. The application details depend on which position you’re applying for, so head over to New York Magazine’s Jobs page for al of the details.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read New York Magazine?

Mashable

Willy Franzen — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:20:27 +0000

Our HP Magic Giveaway Contest has ended, and we will announce the winner some time tomorrow. That’s not the end of the excitement though, we have a fun 4 question quiz for you all to take to evaluate how you’re approaching your job search. And of course, we have another exciting entry level job for you today. If you love social networking and social media, then you probably already follow Mashable. It’s the “world’s largest blog focused exclusively on social networks.” They get 5 million pageviews a month, and they’re constantly breaking news on “all that’s new on the web.” They’ve even had a lot to add to the online job search. They’ve published articles like 70+ Tools for Job Hunting 2.0 and 9 Sites for Successful Job Interviews. They have seem to have missed one important site on both of those lists, but we’ll forgive them.

This Job Mashes

Journalism is changing before our eyes, and Mashable is a perfect example of how’ that’s happening. If you wanted in-depth information about a niche topic like social media, you used to have to subscribe to a magazine that would come out monthly, quarterly, or even semi-annually. Newspapers might occasionally give you something to chew on, but for the most part you’d be out of luck when it comes to getting the latest info on social networks. Now, you just subscribe to Mashable’s RSS feed, and that’s it.

So, Mashable is looking for a Day Time Social Media Blogger. They want someone who can write, meet deadlines, and is passionate about the web and social media – not necessarily in that order. If you’re going to apply, you better have a serious footprint on the web – participation in lots of social media sites and lots of Google results for your name. This job is full-time or part-time and can be located in New York City or virtually. To apply for this job with Mashable, send an e-mail to jobs@mashable.com with your “E-mail Address, Location/Time Zone, Links to 6 recent (past 4 months) writing samples, Resume or List of proof of about Criteria, and Social Media Links (Twitter, Facebook, etc).” I’m sure that the competition for this job will be fierce, so make sure that your application shows why you know more about social media than everyone else.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you a Mashable reader?

Angie’s List

Willy Franzen — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:34:02 +0000

If your college experience is anything like mine was, then your apartment probably has a giant mold blossom flowering into your living room from the ceiling below your bathroom. You’ve probably called the landlord half a dozen times, and he’s finally sent over his crew to take a look at the problem. They make the executive decision to hack off as much of the mold as they possibly can and then paint over it. Brilliant! You dream of one day owning your own place when you can hire a higher quality team to take care of such pressing issues. Finding a higher quality team isn’t as easy as it may seem. Whether you’re looking for a contractor, plumber, painter or electrician, it’s hard to know what you’re going to get – unless you use Angie’s List. I hadn’t heard of Angie or her List until a few months ago, but now her name seems to come up once a week. Angie’s List is a rapidly growing Indianapolis based company that allows consumers to post reviews of local service companies and healthcare providers online.

Are You on Angie’s List?

Unlike most “Web 2.0″ sites based on user-generated content, Angie’s list charges members a subscription fee to get access to the reviews. It’s a mature revenue model, which makes sense considering the fact that Angie’s List started with Angie’s collecting reviews door to door in 1995. Angie’s List has 650,000 subscribers who realize that a small monthly or annual fee will help them avoid making the expensive mistake of choosing the wrong service provider. With Angie’s List’s mature revenue model seems to be coming a lot of growth. Last month they announced that they are going to be expanding in Indianapolis, which will lead to something like 400 new jobs. That’s impressive considering the state of the economy, especially when it comes to construction related industries.

Since Angie’s List is growing so rapidly, now is a perfect time for you to get in. They have a ton of job opportunities, and many of them look well suited to new college grads. The job descriptions on Angie’s List’s Jobs page are short and not very detailed, but it looks like jobs including Data Verification Specialist, Member Services Representative – Inbound, Member Services Representative – Outbound, Member Services Representative – Written Correspondence, and Receptionist might be worth looking at if you’re interested in going into Customer Service. The more compelling job opportunities for new grads, though, are in Advertising Sales, Member Sales, Software Engineering, and possibly Copy Editing if you have some prior experience (i.e. college newspaper). All of the jobs are located in Indianapolis, IN, and you can apply by sending your cover letter and resume to jobs@angieslist.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used Angie’s List? What did you think?

Rodale

Willy Franzen — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:04:23 +0000

Considering that college is a time when you’re supposed to be working towards having a productive adulthood, a whole lot of self-destruction seems to be going on. It must be hard for the health nuts to fit in. If you prefer 8 glasses of water a day to keg stands, celery sticks to buffalo wings, and the Nintendo Wii to the Xbox, then you’ll be a lot more comfortable in an entry level job at Rodale than you will be at a frat party. Rodale is a “global media company with a heritage, mission, and authority dedicated to the health and wellness of the individual, community, and planet.” They publish magazines such as Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Organic Gardening, Prevention, and Runner’s World. They’re also the largest independent book publisher in the U.S.

Healthy in Mind, Body, and Career

Although traditional publishing isn’t the healthiest industry, health and wellness is an area that continues to do well. Rodale is in the right niche, and they’re not resting on their laurels – they’re building out a strong portfolio of branded web properties to ensure that they stay at the forefront of health and wellness media. They’re also keen on developing young talent, as you can see with their Internship program and the entry level jobs that they offer. Rodale currently has a number of job openings that appear to be well suited to new college grads. Although most of the jobs include some sort of previous work experience requirement, we think that most of you probably have done enough in college and internships to be ready for the jobs. Take a look at the job descriptions, and if you think that you have what it takes, don’t be afraid to apply even if you don’t fit their “requirements” exactly.

Right now, Rodale is looking for an Assistant Customer Marketing Manager (Emmaus, PA), an Assistant Market Editor for Women’s Health, (Emmaus, PA), an Online Marketing / Sales Development Manager for Runner’s World (New York, NY), an Online Video Producer (Emmaus, PA), and a Web Producer (Emmaus, PA). You can apply for all of these jobs online directly from their descriptions, or you can browse Rodale’s Job postings for more opportunities, if none of these get you excited.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read any of Rodale’s magazines? Which ones?

TechCrunch

Willy Franzen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:45:43 +0000

If you’ve been paying attention to what we’ve preaching here every day, you know that we think that in-depth employer research is the key to finding and landing great jobs. You also may have noticed that we routinely feature tech startups, and when we do, we usually encourage you to check out what TechCrunch has to say about them. TechCrunch is the blog when it comes to news and information about Internet products and companies. They’ve been around since 2005, and they’ve rapidly built themselves to be one of the top 3 blogs in the world according to Technorati. They also happen to have an RSS subscriber base of close to 1.3 million. That is an insane number. Despite all their success, or maybe because of it, TechCrunch has continued to break news stories and deliver quality content. They’re not resting on their laurels.

Do Your Crunches

TechCrunch has a number of businesses (or sites) that they’ve built out to add to their blog about startups. There’s CrunchGear – a blog about gadgets, MobileCrunch – a blog about mobile devices, TechCrunchIT – a blog about enterprise IT, and CrunchBase – a “free database of technology companies, people, and investors that anyone can edit” (check out One Day, One Job’s CrunchBase profile). There are a number of other projects that TechCrunch has going on, but we’ve mentioned the main ones. TechCrunch has a relatively small team to manage all of these sites, but they do occasionally add to the ranks. They typically hire people for specific sites instead of pulling them under the general TechCrunch umbrella.

Right now they have two (maybe three) openings that are perfect for entry level job seekers. They’re currently looking for a CrunchBase Research Analyst and a Full Time Writer. There’s also a “We’re Hiring” link on CrunchBase that links to a post from August in which they say that they’re looking to hire Ruby Developers. That’s 2.5 months old, so there’s a good chance that those positions are already filled. TechCrunch uses their job board, CrunchBoard, to post jobs, so you’ll have to wade through job listings from other companies if you want to keep on the lookout for jobs with TechCrunch. TechCrunch has a huge social media profile, and so does its founder Michael Arrington (like his Twitter account). If you can’t find all of the info that you want to about what it’s going to be like to work for TechCrunch, you’re not trying. The company is located in Atherton, CA, and to apply for jobs with them, you should follow the instructions found in the individual job postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

TechCrunch.com
Jobs at TechCrunch (and many other companies)
About TechCrunch
Contact TechCrunch
TechCrunch Info for Advertisers

Are you a TechCrunch reader? Do you use it to research companies that you might want to work for?

Shmoop

Willy Franzen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:49:53 +0000

Back when I was in high school (yes, part of that was in the 90s), I thought that I was really savvy when it came to using the Web to do better in my English classes. I found online, public-domain versions of many of the books that I was reading. The best part was that these were searchable, so if I needed to find a quote or a specific passage, all I had to do was remember a key word or two. It was fantastic. A lot has changed since then, and I don’t even know the extent of what academic resources are available online now. What I do know is that it’s not fair that today’s students have access to sites like Shmoop, when I couldn’t even dream of something like it. What is Shmoop? It’s hard for me to describe briefly, so maybe you should take the Tour de Shmoop.

To Shmoop or Not to Shmoop?

If you took the tour, you saw that Shmoop is like a really awesome online tutor. It won’t do the work for you, but it will make learning, writing, and understanding a lot easier. It’s too bad that you’re almost done with school, so Shmoop won’t do you much good; however, if you’re the kind of student who didn’t need Shmoop because your outlines were so comprehensive and your analysis was so on point, then you can do good for Shmoop. They need really smart people to help them improve their service and move out of beta. If you look at the listing of jobs at Shmoop, you’ll see that these aren’t the typical opportunities that you’ll see from a Silicon Valley startup. Ok, they have the standard openings for PHP and/or Python Rock Stars (in Sunnyvale, CA) to help them build the software side of their product, but they also need brilliant English, Literature, and History majors to help them build the content side. They also need Editors and Spanish language translators. These positions can be full or part-time, you can do them wherever you want (location flexible), and the hours will be at your discretion. Does it get better than that? Who would have thought that English and History majors could score jobs at a Silicon Valley startup?

Not sold yet? Here’s what Shmoop has to say about themselves: “We move quickly. We debate passionately. We obsess over grammar. We quiz each other on literature and history. We chow on Specialty’s cookies. We dream of better ways to make learning fun and relevant.” If you think Shmoop is a game changing educational tool and you want to be a part of it, then send a resume and cover letter to jobs@shmoop.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How much higher do you think your GPA would have been if Shmoop had been around when you were in high school?

Carnegie Hall

Willy Franzen — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:42:06 +0000

We’ve written about Andrew Carnegie’s generosity before – we discussed entry level jobs with the Carnegie Corporation of New York back in May. It’s just one of many non-profit organizations that bears Carnegie’s name. Another is Carnegie Hall, which Andrew Carnegie built because of his interest in music. It’s an architecturally beautiful building in the heart of Manhattan with a storied history and amazing acoustics. It’s also host to approximately 250 performances every year. Carnegie Hall is the “ultimate destination for music lovers across the world,” according to Sanford Weill, the Hall’s Chairman of the Board, and it’s hard to argue with him. Carnegie Hall is all about music at its best, and if you believe strongly in the importance of music, you should consider working at Carnegie Hall.

Get a Gig at Carnegie Hall

If you think about it, Andrew Carnegie is responsible for creating quite a few interesting entry level job opportunities. I bet he didn’t think about that when he donated all that money. His donations have certainly gone a long way. If you truly love music but don’t know how to turn that into a career path, you should consider a job at Carnegie Hall. It can provide you with great work experience in a setting that you’ll love. It can also provide the foundation for a great future. I have a friend who started working at Carnegie Hall after graduating from college, and now she’s working in investment banking. It certainly will open up new opportunities for you.

Carnegie Hall currently has three job listings that look well suited to new college grads. These are Associate Editor, Performance Manager, and Technical Analyst. The titles almost sound like higher level jobs, but the descriptions confirm for us that these jobs should be considered entry level. Carnegie Hall is located in New York City, and so are its jobs. You can apply for a job at Carnegie Hall by sending a cover letter and resume to hr@carnegiehall.org.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

National Public Radio

Willy Franzen — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:07:46 +0000

A child’s first sign of teenage (pre-teenage?) rebellion often begins at the radio dial. The parent’s up-to-this-point unchallenged decision of what to listen to while in the car is called into question, and all hell breaks loose. If there are multiple kids in the family (or even just in the car), the negotiation can quickly becom more heated than a multi-lateral peace process in a war-torn nation. The parent will fight hard to maintain his or her right to National Public Radio, but the kid will persist in his or her challenge to hear something that feeds a suddenly “eclectic” taste in music. Often the parents cede this battle in hopes of winning in the future (bad idea!), which results in the parent’s driving the kids around the mini-van listening to rap music that would be a lot more offensive if the parent knew what some of the words meant. Eventually the rebellious tykes will grow up and realize that they too want to be more cultured, and they slowly, but surely come around to listening to NPR. Or maybe some kids just never speak up. They like NPR from the start. Maybe those are the ones who end up taking entry-level jobs at NPR.

Working at NPR

If you don’t know, National Public Radio “is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming.” They’re non-profit too! Since most people who will end up working for NPR, probably listen to NPR, we’re going to jump right into the jobs. NPR offers something called a Kroc Fellowship, which was “established to identify and develop a new generation of extraordinary journalists for the public radio system.” Typically 3 fellows are selected each year, and they get “rigorous, hands-on training in every aspect of public radio journalism — writing, reporting, producing and editing, for both radio and the Web.” The fellowships start in August, but applications happen almost a year in advance, so this is something to look at for next year. Getting into this program is a long shot, but it is well worth a try if you want to be a journalist. Here are all the details.

NPR also offers regular, non-fellowship jobs for new college graduates. We ran over their list of available jobs to see what would be appropriate for our readers. Although the only clearly defined entry-level position at NPR is as a Staff Tax Accountant, we took a long, hard look at the job titles and descriptions and found quite a few opportunities that look to be well suited to new college grads. These include Marketing Manager; Consumer Products, Web Metrics Analyst, Business Development Analyst, Marketing Specialist, IT Staff Technologist, and Research Analyst. There are also a number of software/tech jobs that have experience requirements that would probably scare off most entry-level candidates, but might still be worth a look. You can find these and all of NPR’s current openings on the NPR Jobs page. NPR is located in Washington, DC, and so are all of the jobs we mentioned. Applying online looks to be straightforward, so get to it!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you listen to NPR?

Penguin Group

Willy Franzen — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:13:18 +0000

Since we’ve hit you with more technical jobs over the past few days, we figure that we owe it to those of you who aren’t programmers to cover some more traditional jobs. And what could be more traditional than working for a major publishing house in New York City? If that sounds like something that intrigues you, then you should take a look at the Penguin Group and their entry-level jobs. They don’t appear to have a distinct college hiring program like Random House’s Associates Program, but they do have plenty of jobs that require little or no previous work experience.

It’s All About Whom You’re Publishing

Although I read a lot of books, I’m not sure that I know too much about the publishing industry. To me it seems like whom you’re publishing is the most important thing. Well, Penguin Group has the whom covered. Their roster of authors includes Dorothy Allison, Nevada Barr, Saul Bellow, A. Scott Berg, Maeve Binchy, Harold Bloom, Sylvia Browne, Tom Clancy, Robin Cook, Patricia Cornwell, Catherine Coulter, Clive Cussler, Eric Jerome Dickey, Richard Paul Evans, Helen Fielding, Ken Follett, Sue Grafton, W. E. B. Griffin, Nick Hornby, the Dalai Lama, Spencer Johnson, Jan Karon, Anne Lamott, James McBride, Terry McMillan, Arthur Miller, Jacqueline Mitchard, Toni Morrison, Kathleen Norris, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert B. Parker, Nora Roberts, John Sandford, Carol Shields, John Steinbeck, Amy Tan, and Kurt Vonnegut. That’s impressive. If you haven’t quite advanced to those names yet, you should also know that they published The Little Engine That Could and the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.

March of the New College Grads

Penguin Group has a good mix of jobs that require little or no experience. You can find all of the jobs listed on their Job Opportunities page, which turns out to be quite difficult to find. The only way that we got to it was through their Contact page, which happens to be the first result when you Google “Penguin Group Jobs.” Job titles that require no prior work experience and are clearly entry-level include Human Resources Assistant, Junior Designer, and Subsidiary Rights Assistant. Jobs descriptions for titles such as Assistant Managing Editor, Print Shop Operator, and Online Content Coordinator say that 1 year of work experience is required. We’ll take that to mean that exceptional college students with significant internships experience will make great candidates. There are also a couple of other positions that require more previous work experience (2 to 3 years), but may be something that is worth looking at if you have a really strong resume (which reminds us to remind you to read our new post Résumé Your Facebook Addiction).

All of the jobs listed are located in New York, NY. You can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to to jobs@us.penguingroup.com. You can find out more about Penguin’s hiring process in this article. It’s from 2004, but it should still be helpful in figuring out how to land a job with Penguin.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have anything to say about Penguin Group? Leave a comment.

Zappos.com

Willy Franzen — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:21:35 +0000

Most people like shoes. They protect your feet, offer support, and keep you warm. Some people love shoes – love them to the point that their loved ones (not the shoes) are likely worried about them. Oddly enough, the people who deeply love shoes often seem most interested in shoes that barely protect their feet, offer little support, and provide little or no warmth. We don’t really get that. Zappos.com puts these people to shame. As a company they have a shoe obsession that is far worse than that of the most Sex and the City addicted, Daily Candy reading, New York City fashionista. Why do we say that? Because Zappos.com is obsessed with everything shoes, not just the shoes of some designer whose name you’re supposed to know.

A Shoe-in for Best Customer Service

If you asked someone at Zappos what they love more, shoes or customer service, they’d probably have a hard time coming up with an answer. That’s because the Zappos equation is something like Amazing Selection of Shoes + Unparalleled Customer Service = Profit. It seems to be working, as they’re on their way to selling $1 billion in shoes this year. That’s only 2.5% of the US shoe market, but they’ve done it in 9 years. Their growth rate is excellent, and that’s why they’re doing a ton of hiring, as you’ll soon see.

The fact that customers have a year to return any shoes that they purchased from Zappos (and get the shipping paid for) is impressive, but what really knocks our socks off is the way that Zappos trains their employees. Every new hire, no matter what they were hired for, spends 4 weeks in intense Customer Loyalty training answering phones in the Zappos call center. About a week into the training period Zappos offers their new hires an incentive – a $1,000 incentive – to quit. Yes, they bribe their newly recruited people to take their first week’s salary plus a cool $1,000 and run (hat tip to What Would Dad Say although it seems like he got a few things wrong judging from the Harvard Business Review article on Zappos’ HR practices that he linked to as the original source). Zappos figures that if someone values $1,000 now more than a future career at Zappos, they’re not the right type of person for the job. It may sound like an expensive proposition, but it’s a lot less expensive than hiring someone who is not fully committed to the company’s customer service principles.

Working at Zappos: Deal or No Deal?

Considering many people choose not to take the deal and stay with Zappos after the first week, it’s obvious that the company is offering a unique and exciting work experience. If you still need more convincing, you can read employee perspectives in the Inside Zappos Blog, look at photos and videos from Zappos’ Halloween 2007, watch Zappos YouTube videos, keep up with Zappos Employee Tweets on Twitter, follow the Zappos CEO’s Twitter account, or just look at cute pictures of the pets of Zappos customers.

Now that you’re totally convinced (if you’re not, the links at the end of the post will give you even more opportunities to research Zappos), here are the jobs at Zappos that we think might be considered entry-level or appropriate for a new college grad. In Henderson, NV you could get offered $1,000 to quit being a Financial Analytics Manager, Editing Assistant (labeled as Intern, but looks to be an entry-level job from the description), Front-End Developer, User Interface Designer, Web Content Strategist, Web Designer, Recruiting Assistant, Merchandise Planning Analyst, Merchandise Planning Coordinator, Merchandising Assistant – Clothing and Toys, Merchandising Assistant – Performance Bags, Merchandising Assistant – Private Label, Merchandising Assistant, Designer Footwear, Project Manager, Performance QA Engineer, QA Engineer, or a Software Engineer. In Shepherdsville, KY they’ll offer you $1,000 to quit being a Recruiting Assistant, Photographer Assistant, or Software Engineer. You can find more detailed information about each of these positions on Zappos’ Jobs page. Although their site is a bit cluttered looking, they do a great job of getting across information about each job. Our only complaint is that some of the items in the descriptions are a bit redundant, which can be confusing – especially in terms of what experience is required for each job.

Now go get researching so that you can say, “I turned down $1,000 to quit my new job after a week.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Zappos.com
Jobs at Zappos
About Zappos
Zappos Blogs
Zappos on Twitter
Zappos’ Core Values
Zappos on YouTube

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