by Willy Franzen on October 19, 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.
Bite Communicationstouts a “fearless and boundless” approach to B2B and B2C communications. They have seven offices worldwide—three of which are in the U.S., including Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. “Public relations” and “media relations” used to be synonymous, but no longer at Bite Communications. They recognize different clients have different challenges that require different approaches. Starting your career at a progressive agency is the best way to go—you’ll end up a more rounded professional and thus be more marketable. As a full-service agency, Bite Communications offers everything from strategic counsel to new media programs to influencer relations—and everything in between. Some client names you might recognize include Sun Microsystems and Vonage.
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Tagged as:
account management,
California,
communications,
entry-level jobs,
public relations
by Willy Franzen on October 16, 2009
Social networking is a new thing, right? Not at all. Social networks have been around almost as long as the Internet. They’ve just become way more mainstream in recent years. Take Redwood City, CA based Care2 for example. They’re an online social network that aims “to help people make the world a better place,” and they’ve been doing it since 1998. That’s impressive, not only because it means that they were early to social networking, but also because it means that they survived the dot com bust of the early 2000s. “Making the world a better place” used to be strictly the territory of non-profits, but now we’re seeing more and more companies like Care2 that are choosing to be B Corporations. That means that they can do good and build a profitable businesses at the same time. That’s exactly what Care2 is doing with their “more than 50 employees, 11 million members, 400 nonprofit partners and hundreds of responsible advertisers making a difference.”
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blogging,
California,
editorial,
entry-level jobs,
journalism,
software development,
web development,
writing
by Willy Franzen on October 15, 2009
Once you start interviewing for jobs, you realize how important it is to stay well informed. Whether it’s staying up on the industry that you want to work in or just keeping up with current events, you need to be able to speak (somewhat) intelligently about a wide range of topics. Chit chat and small talk play a big part in the impression that you make, so don’t try to use the fact that you “live in a bubble” at college to explain away your ignorance. Instead, you should subscribe to the The Daily Beast. It’s a cheat sheet for current events that covers a wide array of topics. Some would call it a news aggregator, but they like calling what they do “curating.” The site was created by Tina Brown, who was formerly the editor at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. The Daily Beast, which is based out of New York City, launched just over a year ago, and has been able to garner a huge amount of traffic pretty quickly. I guess it might have something to do with their IAC backing.
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advertising,
analyst,
analytics,
California,
design,
editorial,
entry-level jobs,
journalism,
marketing,
New York,
sales,
social media,
software development,
video,
web development
by Willy Franzen on October 14, 2009
I remember being in middle school and deciding that I wanted a drum set. I already had a snare drum, but I knew that a full set would be much cooler. My mom bought me a copy of the Bargain News, a local paper full of classified ads, and helped me pore over the listings in search of a drum set. That’s certainly a relic of the past, but classified ads are far from dead. They’ve just moved online. You’re probably most familiar with Craigslist, and maybe you’ve considered using Facebook Marketplace or something like that. What you probably didn’t realize is that there is still a huge business behind classified ads. Take Chicago based Classified Ventures for instance. They’re another Inc. 5000 company, and they’ve increased their revenue from $146.7 million to $297.5 million over the past three years. They’ve done this with four distinct businesses: Apartments.com, Cars.com, HomeGain.com, and HomeFinder.com. You’ve probably noticed at least one of those sites before, which is exactly what they’re looking for.
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account management,
accounting,
advertising,
California,
design,
entry-level jobs,
Illinois,
product management,
sales,
software development,
Texas,
web development
by Willy Franzen on October 13, 2009
I’ve never found a use for start pages and portals. Until Safari came out with a feature that allowed me to view a dozen of my most visited sties at a glance, I just set a blank page as my home page. However, I realize that many people have very different web browsing habits, and a lot of people find start pages really useful. One company that is trying to update the start page by making it social is ZooLoo. They’re a Phoenix, AZ based startup that, despite an unfortunate name that sounds like a bathroom at a wildlife park, is trying to own the market for customizable start pages. They’re competing with behemoths like Google and Facebook to be your home page, but they do have an advantage in that they’re laser focused on start pages and only start pages. They think if they can own that market, they can deliver lots of relevant advertising and make lots of money.
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Arizona,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
public relations,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
web development
by Willy Franzen on October 12, 2009
In my day… Columbus Day was a real holiday. Now there’s a huge portion of the population that doesn’t even get the day off. Yes, I understand that Christopher Columbus was a bit overrated as a historical hero (and a lot of the things that we learned about him in grade school were inaccurate), but I’m still amazed that he had the guts and the persistence to make a voyage across the Atlantic happen. Now we’ll barely take a walk down the street without a GPS enabled device in our pocket. Navigation and exploration have a long history, but I’m not sure how much more advancement is possible. Facet Technology would disagree. They’re an Eden Prairie, MN based software and services company that is changing what state of the art means when it comes to the Transportation, Mapping and Food Processing Industries. They’re another Inc. 5000 company with 110.4% three-year growth, and I think they’re going to shoot up the rankings over the next few years.
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Tagged as:
cartography,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
gps,
holiday,
information technology,
Minnesota,
software development
by Willy Franzen on October 11, 2009
Some of the most fun that I had during college was playing in a charity dodgeball tournament. My team was doing really well until we ran into a team of future NHL players, pitchers from the baseball team, and some former softball players (they threw underhand, and they threw hard) in the semifinals. That match was pretty ugly, but even when you lose at dodgeball, you have fun. We’ve seen dodgeball gaining more and more popularity, and with that trend we’ve seen more and more non-profits using dodgeball to raise funds. Best Shot Foundation is a Washington, DC based non-profit that is doing just this. They’re an organization that is focused on bringing attention to the fact “that pneumonia kills more young children than any other disease,” and then doing something about it.
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advocacy,
entry-level jobs,
events,
nationwide,
non-profit,
outreach,
sports,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on October 10, 2009
My parents are in town for the weekend, and I’ve been thinking of fun things to do with them around Chicago. One place that came to mind is Shedd Aquarium. I don’t think that we’ll end up getting a chance to make it there this weekend, but it was certainly a good thought. And once I thought about it, I realized that they’re probably hiring. Shedd Aquarium is much like other aquariums now, but it really stood out when it was opened in the 1930s. The aquarium was founded by John G. Shedd, retired president of Marshall Field & Company, and financed by him with $3 million in gifts. The goal was to bring Chicago up to par with other “cosmopolitan” cities that had aquariums, and by the end of the project Chicago’s aquarium “housed the greatest variety of sea life under one roof.” It also happened to be “the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater collection,” which meant that they had to ship millions of gallons of seawater from Florida on trains to provide a proper habitat for the sea life.
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administrative,
advertising,
animals,
aquarium,
development,
entry-level jobs,
Illinois,
marketing,
media,
non-profit,
zoology
by Willy Franzen on October 9, 2009
One essential part of the job search that is rarely mentioned is working out. You won’t often read about it career advice books or have your college’s career counselor advise you to get a gym membership, but I think that it’s extremely important. The self-discipline required to stay in good shape is the same that is required to land a job. Beyond that, the gym provides a good break from job searching and can even be a decent place to do some networking. But what if you’re a professional athlete? Going to the gym has a completely different meaning in relation to your job search—it’s absolutely essential. The problem is that most gyms don’t cater to athletes. They cater to people who are trying to lose a few pounds, socialize, or watch tv while “working out.” Athletes’ Performance is a different kind of gym. They aim “to provide the finest methods, specialists and facilities seamlessly integrated to efficiently and ethically enhance [their] athletes’ performance.”
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Tagged as:
entry-level jobs,
fitness,
nutrition,
physical therapy,
sales,
sports,
Texas
by Willy Franzen on October 8, 2009
We all know that news is changing, and jobs in journalism aren’t what they used to be. We’re in the middle of a major transitional stage that is going to determine how news is delivered for years to come. Blogs are becoming more and more reputable, and one of the companies that best exemplifies that trend is The Huffington Post. They’re a New York City based news website and blog network with an admittedly liberal slant (traditional newspapers would never position themselves in that way—even if they have the same biases). The site was launched in 2005, and since then it has grown to a $100 million valuation. While newspapers are dropping like flies, new fortunes are being made by blogging moguls. This is an exciting time to be involved in media, and it presents a ton of really exciting opportunities for new grads to grab a place in journalism’s future.
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blogging,
editorial,
entry-level jobs,
journalism,
New York,
newspaper,
virtual
by Willy Franzen on October 7, 2009
One of the more effective ways that I’ve found to teach online job search tactics is to use screencasting. I do a number of screencasts in Found Your Career, and they seem to work really well when walking people through how to use sites like Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook for job search. TechSmith is an Okemos, MI based company that is “the world’s #1 provider of screen capture and screen recording software for the individual and professional user.” They’ve been in the business since 1987—which is an insanely long time for a company in their industry, and they’ve actually been doing screen capture for most of that time. I’ve never used any of their products, but I’ve heard from a number of people who rave about Camtasia, TechSmith’s main screen recording software.
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design,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
Michigan,
quality engineer,
software development,
user experience,
web development
by Willy Franzen on October 6, 2009
Today’s my birthday. I’m 25. If you want to get me a present, you can buy me something on my Amazon Wishlist
. If you don’t, then you can still check out today’s post on how to try to get a job with a company that is absolutely not hiring. As I was thinking of a birthday themed company to feature, Charm City Cakes came to mind. They’re the Baltimore, MD based bakery that is featured on the Food Network’s Ace of Cakes. Unfortunately, they’re not making my birthday cake (if they were it would probably be a giant trout cake), but they are the best of the best when it comes to birthday—or any other celebration’s—cakes. You have to love any company that is truly at the top of it’s industry—especially when they’re head and shoulders above the competition like Charm City Cakes is.
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entry-level jobs,
food,
holiday,
Maryland
by Willy Franzen on October 5, 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.
A full-service firm rooted in traditional public relations, MMI Public Relations integrates “emerging” public relations technologies such as social media, when appropriate, to achieve the best results for their clients. This small agency is located in Raleigh, NC and headed by highly sought-after speaker Patty Briguglio. It’s not surprising to me that she speaks both on public relations and business in general. Half the fun of being at a small agency is the entrepreneurial environment! However, the small agency/entrepreneurial environment may cause you to question stability during these tough economic times. Well, MMI-PR has won the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s Pinnacle Award for Steady Growth and Profitability in 2007, 2008 and 2009—and been named to the Triangle Business Journal’s Best Places To Work list. No need to worry!
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communications,
entry-level jobs,
North Carolina,
public relations
by Willy Franzen on October 4, 2009
You’ve probably heard the term “heirloom,” in reference to fruits or vegetables. For the longest time I had no idea what it meant, but eventually I asked someone and the gist of the definition is “any garden plant that has a history of being passed down within a family, just like pieces of heirloom jewelry or furniture.” More often than not the plants are passed down in the form of seeds. Heirloom breeds of plants are important not only for sentimental reasons, but also because they provide genetic diversity. By maintaining old breeds of plants with their unique resistance to disease and pests, we are able to ensure the security of our food supply. Seed Savers Exchange is a Decorah, IA based non-profit that “saves and shares the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage, forming a living legacy that can be passed down through generations.”
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Tagged as:
botany,
conservation,
entry-level jobs,
farming,
green,
horticulture,
Iowa,
organic
by Willy Franzen on October 3, 2009
Often people don’t realize what services are available to them. I see this all the time with college students and Career Services offices—the students complain about a lack of help even though they’ve never stepped foot in the office. Another example is students who are having trouble paying for college yet have never applied for the thousands of dollars of scholarships that are available to them. This same thing happens all the time in the world of government programs—people endure hardship because they don’t know that there are programs intended just for them. We often hear that there’s a need for more programs to help the poor, yet programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit are significantly underutilized. Ladder Up is a Chicago based non-profit organization that has “returned $183 million to 100,000 hardworking families” by providing “free, real world financial solutions that maximize earnings and savings.” Whether it’s helping their clients claim a tax credit that they didn’t know about or walking a future college student through the financial aid process, Ladder Up helps people make the most of what’s available to them.
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Tagged as:
accounting,
entry-level jobs,
finance,
Illinois,
non-profit,
outreach,
program development
by Willy Franzen on October 2, 2009
I think that e-mail is still the king of social media. We have all of these fancy social networking accounts, but they all send their notifications to our inboxes. If you want someone’s attention, e-mail is the way to go (assuming your message doesn’t look like spam). Heck, you’re probably reading this in your e-mail. That’s why e-mail marketing continues to be a rapidly growing industry. We’ve already taken a look at jobs with Constant Contact, Aweber, and e-Dialog, and now we’re going to look at an industrial strength e-mail marketing company, ExactTarget. They’re based in Indianapolis, and since 2000 they’ve been focused on “providing the most powerful on-demand software for email communications and finding the best and brightest marketers on the planet to revolutionize the way people think about email.”
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account management,
accounting,
business development,
consulting,
design,
entry-level jobs,
human resources,
Indiana,
marketing,
product development,
product management,
quality assurance,
quality engineer,
rotation program,
sales,
software development,
strategy,
training
by Willy Franzen on October 1, 2009
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.
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administrative,
apparel,
e-commerce,
entry-level jobs,
fashion,
New York,
retail,
software development,
web development
by Willy Franzen on September 30, 2009
When’s the last time you bought a music CD? For me it has to have been something like 5 years ago. Oddly enough, in the glory days of online file sharing when Napster and then AudioGalaxy were around, I was buying lots of CDs. Not anymore. Now that downloading songs is kind of risky (unless your Dad is a good defense lawyer), a lot of people have moved to listening to music through web apps. Some use YouTube. Others use Pandora or Last.fm. Then there’s Grooveshark. They’re a Gainesville, FL company that was started by University of Florida students, and they let you listen to music online for free. They still have some intellectual property issues to work out, and their business model could use some refining, but they’ve grown to 40 employees and their user bases is trending nicely upwards. If you want to be part of a startup that could change the way the music industry works, this might be the place.
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Tagged as:
entry-level jobs,
Florida,
music,
software development,
web development
by Willy Franzen on September 29, 2009
I think that I’ve mentioned before that my first experience with video chat was was with CU-SeeMe in an Internet cafe in the mid 90s. Back then the potential for social interaction over online video seemed pretty promising, but the potential for business uses (not that I thought about that when I was 13) was even greater. Real-time video has been slower to take hold on both the social and business fronts than I expected, but now that the quality is so good, we’re seeing more and more businesses embrace video conferencing. Tandberg is a company that is at the forefront of this movement. They have dual headquarters in Oslo, Norway and New York City, and they are both “the market share leader and the fastest growing company in the video conferencing industry.” Their 30% annualized revenue growth for the past 10 years may not be Inc. 5000 material, but it’s still hugely impressive.
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account management,
communications,
customer service,
entry-level jobs,
information technology,
international,
marketing,
New York,
sales,
social media,
telecommunications,
training,
video,
Virginia
by Willy Franzen on September 28, 2009
We’ve already taken a look at Kiva, a San Francisco based microfinance non-profit, but today we’re going to take a look at Kiva Systems, a Woburn, MA based logistics and robotics company. They were ranked #6 on the Inc. 5000 this year by growing from $204,000 in revenue in 2005 to $21.4 million in revenue in 2008. That’s 10,399.0%, which is just insane. Their growth is coming from the online shopping revolution, even though they’re not an e-commerce company. This is due to the fact that their automated order fulfillment systems are huge efficiency boosters for warehouse operations. It’s hard to imagine how a Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System works, but once you see the video below, you’ll totally get it—and you will be amazed.
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customer service,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
logistics,
manufacturing,
Massachusetts,
robotics,
software development,
supply chain
by Willy Franzen on September 27, 2009
Libraries used to be their own little kingdoms of knowledge. If you needed to research something, you’d go to the library and hope that they had what you were looking for. If they didn’t, you were out of luck. The Internet has changed everything. Now we live in a world where our libraries are interconnected and information resources can be shared instantly between institutions. And even there is a resource that can’t be shared electronically, you can track it down instantly. A big reason that this is possible is Dublin, OH based Online Computer Library Center. They started in 1967 as “a regional computer system for 54 Ohio colleges;” however, they have since grown to serving “more than 71,000 libraries of all types in the U.S. and 112 countries and territories around the world.” They’re better known as the OCLC, and they’ve very much an Information Technology focused non-profit.
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entry-level jobs,
information technology,
library,
non-profit,
Ohio,
software development,
training,
Washington DC,
web development
by Willy Franzen on September 26, 2009
I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the plight of “Generation Y” and the bad rap that “we” get, but I think most of it is bunk. Complaining isn’t going to get “us” anywhere. Working hard and taking action will. There’s one exception though, and that’s with the political process where complaining is the preferred way of taking action. Right now we live in an era where older people have mortgaged our country’s future for their own benefit. Yes, they have literally amassed huge amounts of debt to pay for all of things that they want. We live in a Democracy, and there are more of them than us, so they get what they want. And when the bill arrives, they’ll have left the table—to put it nicely. This is a real generational issue, unlike the generational issues that “Gen-Y experts” are constantly talking about. Young People First is a Washington, DC based non-profit startup that is attacking this issue with fervor. They’re sick of “how much lip service was being paid to young voters, yet how little real inclusion in the political process they were offered,” and so am I. Young People First doesn’t have any jobs posted right now (they do have internships), but I’m so impressed with their ideas that I hope some of you smart readers will find a way to work with them anyway.
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advocacy,
entry-level jobs,
non-profit,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on September 25, 2009
We’ve featured a lot of startups here at One Day, One Job, but never one with as good of a sense of humor as Rooftop Media. They’re a San Francisco based company that is entirely focused on comedy. Yes, they were able to secure $2.5 million in venture capital solely on their sense of humor. Ok, they actually have a well thought out business model too, but I’d like to think that instead of pitching decks (slides) to VCs, they just did a little standup routine and that was that. The main concept behind Rooftop Media is providing a platform for middle tier comedians—professionals whom you’ve probably never heard of. They have a destination comedy video site called RooftopComedy.com, while also working with media and advertisers. For media they “create custom comedy programming for broadcast, web, mobile and print channels hungry for unique, compelling content,” and for advertisers they “create powerful, branded entertainment and integrated marketing programs on behalf of our advertising clients.” They’ve worked with impressive names like Microsoft, Purina Mills, Virgin America, Fast Company, and more.
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administrative,
California,
design,
entry-level jobs,
events,
marketing,
video,
web development
by Willy Franzen on September 24, 2009
Now, I’m not a rocket scientist, but there’s a chance that you are—or want to be. If that’s the case, then you need to check out Ball Aerospace. And even if your pursuit of rocket science ended with building model rockets as a kid, you still might want to take a look. I first came across Ball Aerospace while reading an article about the 20-foot tall, 130 pound rocket that their interns launched 4,000 feet into the sky. That puts my childhood rocket launches to shame—which it should considering the fact that Ball Aerospace “is a leader in design, development and manufacture of innovative aerospace systems.” They develop things like “spacecraft, instruments and sensors, RF and microwave technologies, data exploitation solutions and a variety of advanced aerospace technologies and products that enable exciting missions,” so a 20-foot tall rocket is child’s—er—intern’s play for Ball Aerospace, which is located in Boulder, CO; Dayton, OH; and Albuquerque, NM.
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aerospace,
Colorado,
defense,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
New Mexico,
Ohio,
science
by Willy Franzen on September 23, 2009
While many of the companies that I’ve found from the Inc. 5000 have had excellent entry level job opportunities, there have also been plenty of companies that either didn’t have jobs suitable for new college grads or didn’t even have a Careers page. I thought that I’d take today to remind you that those companies aren’t necessarily out of reach. You can always try cold calling companies that you find fascinating. One perfect example is Liberty Tire Recycling. They’re a Pittsburgh, PA based company that does all kinds of cool things with used tires. Since used tires are pretty much garbage to most people, Liberty Tire Recycling is able to get them on the cheap and use their processing techniques to do all kinds of cool things. That explains why their revenue has grown from $35.5 million to $110.6 million over the past 3 years. I have no idea if that means that they’re hiring, but they’re still worth considering.
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entry-level jobs,
green,
manufacturing,
Pennsylvania
by Willy Franzen on September 22, 2009
We’re just getting into the thick of campus recruiting season now, and that means that the most ambitious college seniors should be in full job search mode (so get to that career fair ASAP!). I know that it seems kind of ridiculous, but there are a lot of companies that are done with their hiring for next year by early January. These are usually some of the most selective companies out there, so if you’re looking or a prestigious job, you better get moving. Altman Vilandrie & Company is one of those companies that is already recruiting. They’re a Boston based boutique consulting firm that “focuses exclusively on the communications, media, and related technology and investor sectors.” As they put it, they’re “a unique, pure play communications and media strategy consulting group.” They won’t have the broad range of clients of a larger firm, but the projects that they work on are still going to be quite variable.
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consulting,
entry-level jobs,
Massachusetts,
telecommunications
by Willy Franzen on September 21, 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.
When public relations agency Weber Shandwick won a gold medal during PRWeek’s 2009 Global Agency Report Card, Global Agency of the Year by The Holmes Report, and Large Agency of the Year by PR News, I was certainly not surprised. It’s always exciting to be at a “cutting edge” agency that’s making headlines not only for its clients but also itself. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but working at a global PR agency provides an opportunity you’d be hard-pressed to find elsewhere—the ability to collaborate with individuals from and possibly travel to other countries. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a big traveler, but that doesn’t mean culture—and PR—in other countries doesn’t fascinate me!
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Tagged as:
communications,
entry-level jobs,
New York,
public relations
by Willy Franzen on September 20, 2009
When it comes down to it, most of the problems in our world have some sort of economic root. Unfortunately, people rarely see economics as the solution. One non-profit organization that is an exception is Washington, DC based Green America (formerly Co-op America). Their “mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.” I like their approach. They’re not trying to force their ideals on people by regulation or intellectual intimidation. Instead, they’re working towards a building a powerful new economy that not only holds to their ideals, but also works efficiently. They may still be imposing their ideas, but they’re doing it purely with economic power.
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administrative,
advocacy,
entry-level jobs,
green,
non-profit,
Washington DC
is the funniest, most in-your-face career guide on the market.