by Willy Franzen on July 4, 2009

Last year we took a look at jobs with Phantom Fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July, but this year it’s a weekend, and that means non-profit entry level jobs. I decided to play things a little safer, so my first thought was The National Council on Fireworks Safety, but they don’t appear to have any jobs. That led me to the Itasca, IL based National Safety Council, which is also concerned with fireworks safety. Fireworks safety is just one small piece of what the National Safety Council does though, as their mission is to “educate and influence people to prevent accidental injury and death.” And that’s just want we want to do on July 4th.
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New York,
non-profit,
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by Willy Franzen on July 3, 2009

Since I’m going to have a non-profit for you tomorrow, let’s start celebrating the Fourth of July today. Now, I know that you probably have fireworks, the beach, hot dogs, and hamburgers on your mind, but let’s take a minute to appreciate the Declaration of Independence. It’s the best “I Quit” letter in the history of the world. It’s like that letter that you wrote to your parents when you were 14 and decided that you were moving out, except it isn’t completely nonsensical. The Declaration of Independence has a lot to do with why this country is so great, so I hope that you’ll take a minute to give it a read today. And where do you go if you want to read the Declaration of Independence? The National Archives, of course! You can see the original document in all its glory, or you can check out a more readable version. If you’re not familiar with what the National Archives is, basically they “are the nation’s record keeper.” They preserve and keep forever 1%-3% of our government’s documents for both legal and historical reasons.
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entry-level jobs,
government,
history,
holiday,
museum,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on July 2, 2009

I know just what you’re thinking right now! “I don’t get advertised to enough.” (If you’re really thinking that, why don’t you check out our job search prep course that will teach you how to get a job faster?) Ok, so that’s not really what you’re thinking, but it’s what the guys at Boston based Amp Idea are thinking. They think that online advertising has developed some amazing ideas, while outdoor advertising (and other similar mediums) have lost their effectiveness. They want to bridge that gap through things like Taxi Interactive Screens, Hotel Tourist GPS, Tabletop Restaurants, and Limo and Bus interactive devices. Over at One Day, One Internship we checked out a company called Captivate Network that is doing this kind of thing in elevators, so it seems as though there is a lot of room for growth in “digital advertising in the out of home space for business owners.”
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account management,
advertising,
entry-level jobs,
Massachusetts,
sales
by Willy Franzen on July 1, 2009

We all have at least one friend who “has a band.” He’s the one that sends you a Facebook Event invitation for his “gigs” every other week. He’s also still on MySpace (because it’s awesome for bands, of course). It may just so happen that you friend is actually is really good, but he’s still waiting for his big break. Regardless of your friend’s talent level, there’s a good chance that he’s struggling with marketing his band. (That’s why that big break hasn’t come yet.) Your friend may think that MySpace is advanced as band marketing gets, but it’s not. There’s a new game in town, and it’s called Topspin. They haven’t launched yet, but they’ve already put a lot of work into achieving their mission “to provide artists the tools they need to build successful businesses.”
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business development,
California,
entry-level jobs,
music,
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by Willy Franzen on June 29, 2009

This is a guest post by Heather R. Huhman. Heather is the media relations manager at a national health care professional association and entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com.
There have been some complaints in the Public Relations industry that agencies are not evolving quickly enough; however, Baltimore’s MGH, Inc. is never a subject of those complaints. While their Web site, and their entire agency, is currently “under construction,” they invite you to explore their “old” site for information—and by old they mean 2008. That’s how quickly they are willing to evolve.
But wait, there’s more. MGH was founded in 1995 by professionals who disagreed with the large agency mentality of overworking employees to the point of being burned out. Instead, MGH’s founders left their “comfortable jobs” to start an agency centered around retaining talented, happy employees. Today, they are 71 people strong.
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entry-level jobs,
marketing,
Maryland,
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by Willy Franzen on June 28, 2009

I’ve mentioned before that I’m on the board of advisors for a startup non-profit called National Coaching Fellows. During my time on the board, I’ve learned how challenging the non-profit world can be. Luckily, NCF has had the support of a “student-driven consulting corps for non-profits” to get through some of its growing pains. That consulting group is Chicago’s campusCATALYST, an organization that “seeks to direct the innovation, ingenuity, and problem solving skills of America’s future leaders towards community development by cultivating a rich academic and social entrepreneurship experience for college students and tangible solutions for nonprofits.” In other words, they take students from the University of Chicago and Northwestern and put them on consulting teams that help non-profits achieve their missions.
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consulting,
education,
entry-level jobs,
Illinois,
non-profit,
outreach,
program development
by Willy Franzen on June 27, 2009

Having grown up in Fairfield County, Connecticut, I took at least one school field trip to the New Canaan Nature Center. I think that I was pretty young, so I don’t remember the trip very well, but I do know that I always loved nature related field trips. If you’re not familiar with the idea of a nature center, it’s simply a “visitor center designed to educate people about nature and the environment.” At least that’s what Wikipedia has to say about the topic. New Canaan Nature Center certainly accomplishes that, as they have some pretty awesome facilities. In addition to a Visitor Center, they include a 4000 square-foot Greenhouse, an Education Building and Annex, an Apple Cider House, an Animal Care Building, an Herb Garden and Cottage, Two Observation Towers, Staff Residences, an Arboretum, a Wildflower Garden, and quite a bit more. It’s the perfect place for people to step out of suburban Fairfield County life and get a taste of the nature around them.
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animals,
Connecticut,
conservation,
education,
entry-level jobs,
green,
non-profit
by Willy Franzen on June 26, 2009

Considering the fact that I drove by a house in Michigan that was on sale for $12,500 just a few days ago, it’s pretty obvious that the real estate market still has some rebounding to do. There has been a lot of hurt in the industry over the past couple years, but maybe things are looking up. A friend who works at CB Richard Ellis let me know about a position that they’re trying to fill, and after I checked their Careers page I saw that they’re hiring for more than 200 positions. Considering the fact that they just went through a round of layoffs at the end of last year, I’d say all those job postings is probably a good sign for where the company (and maybe the economy?) is going. If you have heard of CB Richard Ellis before, you should know that they’re headquartered in Los Angeles and they’re “the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm (in terms of 2008 revenue).” Clearly $12,500 houses aren’t a problem for them.
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Texas,
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by Willy Franzen on June 25, 2009

When I moved to Chicago last year, just days before my 24th birthday, my parents decided that they wanted to treat me to a truly amazing Chicago experience to start off my life in the city right. They took me and my girlfriend to a dinner at Charlie Trotter’s, one of the finest restaurants in Chicago and the world. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the name, Trotter’s is usually found somewhere on Restaurant Magazine’s list of the Top 50 Restaurants in the World (although they seem to have dropped off the list this year).
When I dined at Charlie Trotter’s I chose the Grand Menu, which is an 8-course tasting menu. Although the menu is constantly changing, I had the pleasure of enjoying: Prince Edward Island Oysters with Sea Water & Pickled Daikon; Chilled Snow Lake Trout with Roe, Watercress & California Crayfish; Four Story Hill Farm Quail with Spring Onions, Chanterelle Mushrooms & Chorizo; Grilled Nantucket Bay Scallop with Boudin, Pig’s Tail & Fennel; Forty Eight Hour Braised Short Rib with Lobster Mushrooms & Fermented Black Garlic; Concord Grape Sorbet with Grape Leaf & Parsnip; Honey Crisp Apples with Cider Granite & Ginger Jelly; and Black Mission Figs with Shaved Fruit Cake, Marcona Almonds & Pedro Ximenez. It was an amazing meal that took food to a level that I didn’t know it could reach.
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entry-level jobs,
food,
hospitality management,
Illinois,
Nevada,
restaurants
by Willy Franzen on June 24, 2009

Jason Seiden and I often refer to the work that we’re doing with Found Your Career and other courses that we’re developing as career triage. It’s a practical, informal, and just-in-time approach that gives you what you need when you need it. I’m sure that Triage Consulting Group (which is based in both San Francisco and Atlanta) chose their name for a similar reason, although it might also have something to do with the fact that they’re “financial consultants to the healthcare industry.” The company was started to serve the needs of hospitals, and they do this through 10 services that drive 98% of their revenue: Payment Review, Workers’ Compensation Review, Contract Analyses and Negotiations, Litigation Support, Clinical Denials, Medicare Review, Revenue Cycle Consulting, Silent PPO Review, Capitation Risk Pool Audits, and Government Compliance Audits, including Medicaid and TRICARE.
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California,
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entry-level jobs,
finance,
Georiga,
health care
by Willy Franzen on June 23, 2009

When we were developing Found Your Career (our entry level job search prep course that we guarantee will help you get a job faster), we spent a lot of time figuring out how we were going to host all of the video content. Once your video hosting needs go beyond YouTube and the other free sites out there, things start getting a little complicated. Had we known about Ooyala, we might have tried using them to host our videos. They’re a Mountain View, CA based startup that provides “an end-to-end solution for content owners to transcode, manage, deliver, analyze, and monetize their video assets.”
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engineering,
entry-level jobs,
information technology,
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software development,
video,
web development
by Willy Franzen on June 22, 2009

All of the cool new websites are built on the Software as a Service model these days. How often do you actually go out and buy a box with software CDs/DVDs in it and install it on your computer? How often do you download something and install it on your computer? Probably not nearly as often as you use a website like Google Docs, Flickr, LinkedIn, or even Facebook. It makes so much more sense for the company to run the software and hold the data on their servers, while all that you have to do is login from an Internet enabled web browser. Project SaaSure is a San Francisco based startup that “was started on the premise that businesses need an easier, more cost-efective way to manage their web applications.”
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California,
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by Willy Franzen on June 21, 2009

Father’s Day is almost always a little bittersweet for me, as it marks the end of a week long fly fishing trip with my Dad to Northern Michigan. I hate for the trip to be over, but there’s no better way to celebrate the holiday than having spent a week with my Dad doing what we love—catching fish. Last year I searched high and low to bring you a post about the National Fatherhood Initiative, and this year it wasn’t easy to find another Dad related non-profit. Lucky for you, I came across the Fatherhood Educational Institute, which is based in Chicago. I know that I couldn’t have done half the things that I’ve done in my life without my Dad (like start this business), so it makes a lot of sense that the Fatherhood Educational Institute aims “to promote positive fatherhood involvement in povery stricken communities.” Great fathers are so important to the success of their children.
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education,
entry-level jobs,
holiday,
Illinois,
non-profit,
outreach
by Willy Franzen on June 20, 2009

As much as I should have a great appreciation for architecture because my father is an architect, but I must admit that I’m still not quite there yet. However, as a guy who occasionally builds websites, I fully appreciate “the practical problems of human interaction in the built environment.” That’s why I think that San Francisco based Public Architecture is a pretty cool non-profit. Their logo is their mission statement, and if the font is too small for you to read (ummm can we say problems of human interaction?), then here’s what they do: they put “the resources of architecture in the service of the public interest.” How do they do that? Through a method, a model, and motivation.
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administrative,
advocacy,
architecture,
California,
entry-level jobs,
non-profit,
operations
by Willy Franzen on June 19, 2009
by Willy Franzen on June 18, 2009

In my opinion one of the coolest features of the first generation iPhone was its ability to accurately give you your location despite its lacking a GPS chip. The technology is based on using Wi-Fi access points and cellular tower triangulation to determine your coordinates. Obviously a GPS chip is a better alternative (at least as long as you don’t have a roof blocking your satellite signal), but there are plenty of applications where Wi-Fi location comes in pretty handy. That’s why Boston based Skyhook Wireless is a growing company. They’re behind the technology that provides location to non-GPS equipped iPhones (as the New York Times covered quite well), and they’re also using their technology for geotagging, device recovery, social networking, and much more.
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engineering,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
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software development,
telephony,
web development
by Willy Franzen on June 17, 2009

Try 5 lessons from One Day, One Job’s Job Search Prep Course Found Your Career for free. It will help you get a job faster.
Nobody likes getting spam in their inbox, but a well-crafted, beautifully designed marketing message from one of your favorite brands isn’t always that bad—especially if it includes a special offer (kind of like the one above). We’ve already talked about Aweber and Constant Contact in terms of e-mail marketing, but today we’re going to talk about a company that does it on a much bigger scale. Burlington, MA based e-Dialog “is the proven provider of advanced e-mail marketing and database technologies, products, strategies, and services for permission-based e-mail marketers,” and they can back that up with a client list that includes the NFL, Nintendo, the NHL, OfficeMax, Harvard Business School Publishing, and many more serious brands.
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customer service,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
software development,
web development
by Willy Franzen on June 16, 2009

This week One Day, One Job is coming to you from the Northern woods of Michigan, which means that I have fly fishing on my mind. At least half my days up here are spent in waders—boots that go all the way up to your chest so that you can walk around in the river without getting wet—which gave me a great idea for a company to feature today. Newark, DE based W.L. Gore & Associates “is a leading manufacturer of thousands of advanced technology products for the electronics, industrial, fabrics and medical markets,” but they are most relevant to me (and probably to you too) as the company behind GORE-TEX®. If you’re not familiar with it, GORE-TEX® is a waterproof fabric that is breathable. That means that waders and rain jackets that are made out of GORE-TEX® not only keep you dry from the water on the outside, but they also keep you from drenching yourself with sweat on the inside.
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Delaware,
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entry-level jobs,
manufacturing,
operations,
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sales
by Willy Franzen on June 15, 2009

This is a guest post by Heather R. Huhman. Heather is the media relations manager at a national health care professional association and entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com.
“Leverage the power of traditional and digital media relations to elevate premium and emerging technology, health and science brands” – that’s what global public relations agency Racepoint Group works hard toward on a daily basis. While their worldwide headquarters is outside of Boston, Racepoint Group also has offices in San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; a European headquarters in London; and a global network of partners and affiliates spanning four continents.
Racepoint Group’s practice areas include corporate, crisis and issues management, employee relations, financial communications, government relations, marketing communications and public affairs, while their industry expertise includes technology, health and science, social commerce, mobile and energy. And while many agencies claim to be “award-winning,” Racepoint Group really means it. In 2008 alone, they won more than 20 industry awards.
Race to the Finish Line
If you want to be on the cutting edge of the public relations industry, definitely take a look at Racepoint Group. Each of their client campaigns reflect the increasing transformation of media from traditional print and broadcast channels to new digital spheres of influence – blogs, reputation aggregators, e-communities and social networks. And, they have their own proprietary tools to help execute and measure each one.
Racepoint Group is currently seeking an Account Coordinator in its Washington, DC office. Account Coordinators are critical team members who perform public relations tasks such as developing media lists, editorial calendars, speaking calendars, clip reports, briefing materials, draft press releases and press material development. To land this position, you’ll want to have several internships under your belt, strong writing and proofreading skills, and effective verbal and written communication skills.
Interested? Send your cover letter and résumé to HR@racepointgroup.com with the subject AC-Corp or submit your application online.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
Need help with your cover letter and résumé—or your entire job search? Heather offers low-cost coaching packages specifically for students and recent graduates seeking careers in public relations. Click here to learn more.
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by Willy Franzen on June 14, 2009

At some point during your job search, you’ve probably read at least one article about what to wear to a job interview . If you’ve already had an interview or two, you were probably stressed out about the decision: blue shirt or white shirt? or some other mundane detail like that. For a lot of people, what to wear to an interview is a much bigger issue. That’s where Dress for Success comes in. They are a New York City based non-profit that aims to “promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.” Every year Dress for Success and their affiliates across the world help more than 40,000 women become better prepared to land a job.
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communications,
development,
entry-level jobs,
New York,
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by Willy Franzen on June 13, 2009

There are countless celebrities who support charitable causes. There are many who throw their full support behind a single organization; however, few celebs are as personally invested in their charitable work as Michael J. Fox is. Why is he so invested? Because his life is on the line. He is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, “a degenerative disease of the brain that often impairs motor skills, speech, and other functions.” If you’ve seen Michael J. Fox on tv lately, you’ve seen what Parkinson’s does to the human body. It’s a tragic disease that will hopefully be cured due to the work of the New York City based Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. As an accomplished actor and someone who is living with Parkinson’s, Michael J. Fox is the perfect person to lead the fight against the disease.
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entry-level jobs,
grant writing,
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research
by Willy Franzen on June 12, 2009

Considering that I do this nearly every day, I see a lot of companies and a lot of jobs, but today I came across something that I’ve never seen before. It’s called Agency Nil, and it’s an full-service advertising agency, except it’s nothing like any ad agency that you’ve ever seen. They don’t have a physical location, they don’t have a salaried staff, and they don’t have set fees. It’s almost as they don’t exist (I think that’s where the “nil” comes in), but they do. As PSFK puts it, Agency Nil “hopes to channelize the skills of experienced but laid-off talents from the advertising industry, as well as that of graduate students from advertising programs – people who just can’t seem to lay their hands on that elusive job.” In other words, they’re trying to put the glut of available talent to good use. It’s brilliant.
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advertising,
arts,
copywriting,
design,
entry-level jobs,
innovation,
marketing,
product development,
social media,
virtual
by Willy Franzen on June 11, 2009

Since you’re looking for your first job, it’s probably a safe assumption that you are not familiar with “expensing” things. Hopefully you will be one day (soon). Many companies (especially consulting firms) allow their employees to pay for travel, lodging, and food, and then submit receipts to the company to get reimbursed. It can be pretty sweet if you’re getting $30 a night to spend on dinner, while racking up credit card points and frequent flier miles at no expense to you, but the downside is that submitting expense reports to get reimbursed is time consuming and quite annoying. Concur, a Redmond, WA based company that I learned about in Sramana Mitra’s Entrepreneur Journeys
, solves this problem through their “on-demand Employee Spend Management business services.” Put simply, they have a suite of solutions that enables companies to automate the expensing process.
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Australia,
Czech Republic,
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Minnesota,
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Washington
by Willy Franzen on June 10, 2009

A lot of people think inventing is easy. You see those guys like Billy Mays screaming on tv, and you think to yourself, “I could have thought of that.” Believe it or not, even those stupid infomercial products aren’t easy to come up with, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the world of invention. Inventing a new product is a long, arduous process that requires a ton of resources. Invention Machine is a Boston based software developer that “drives sustainable innovation by enabling global organizations to consistently generate breakthrough ideas that accelerate product development.” It’s hard for a non-inventor to understand how software can help the inventing process, but judging from the number of large corporations that are using Invention Machine’s software, there’s something there.
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entry-level jobs,
Germany,
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software development,
user experience
by Willy Franzen on June 9, 2009

Last week I told you about Sramana Mitra’s book Entrepreneur Journeys
and how it was loaded with cool companies that would be awesome to work for. One of those companies is HotChalk, an educational startup that provides online learning management systems for free. They enable teachers to bring their classrooms online in minutes without having to worry about administration approval or staying within a budget. HotChalk isn’t just tailored to teachers though; HotChalk also focuses on pleasing students, parents, school administrators, and tech coordinators. The simplicity of the whole thing has enabled HotChalk to gain a ton of marketshare—they have over 7 million monthly unique visitors and more than 375,000 teachers using the service. That’s what “free” will do for you.
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California,
education,
entry-level jobs,
New York,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
teaching,
web development
by Willy Franzen on June 8, 2009

This is a guest post by Heather R. Huhman. Heather is the media relations manager at a national health care professional association and entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com.
So much of media relations today is focused on “new” or “social” media, but The Rosen Group still recognizes the importance of “traditional” media. A full-service public relations firm with more than two decades experience building awareness for its clients, The Rosen Group has locations in New York City and Washington, DC. While The Rosen Group is a relatively small firm of 25 staff members, their client list is rather impressive, including PC Magazine, the American Wind Energy Association, Weight Watchers and many more.
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account management,
communications,
entry-level jobs,
green,
New York,
public relations,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on June 7, 2009

If there’s one criticism that I often hear about the non-profit world, it’s that they’re plagued by inefficiency. It’s certainly not true across the board, but taking the profit motives out of an organization can certainly create efficiency issues. Additionally, things like organizational structure, egos, and political agendas can disrupt for-profits and non-profits alike. Root Cause is a Cambridge, MA based non-profit strategy consulting service that “envisions a world in which the public, private, and nonprofit sectors work together to invest and re-invest in the most efficient, effective, and sustainable solutions to social problems.” In other words, they want to find the absolute best way to solve the world’s social problems, and then work with social innovators and social impact investors to make things happen.
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consulting,
entry-level jobs,
innovation,
Massachusetts,
non-profit,
research
by Willy Franzen on June 6, 2009

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.”
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California,
editing,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
medicine,
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publishing,
quality engineer,
research,
science
by Willy Franzen on June 5, 2009

I’ve done it. I’ve found the most ridiculous looking corporate website on the web. It has an animated moving background and multiple bouncing balloon/blimp logos that make it look like it’s straight out of the Imagination Land episode of South Park. It may be a little hokey, but it works for Niles, IL (right outside of Chicago) based The Bradford Group because they’re in the collectibles industry. Their customers aren’t concerned with flash and edginess, they’re all about sentimentality. When you’ve been doing direct marketing of collector plates, music boxes, and all kinds of commemorative items for 36 years, you probably know your audience. So, even though The Bradford Group’s web design leaves me laughing out loud, I’m not going to sell them short based on my taste as a non-collector. (And if you totally disagree with me and love the design, you can make it your computer’s background.)
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arts,
bilingual,
copywriting,
entry-level jobs,
Florida,
Illinois,
marketing,
product development