One Day, One Job » merchandising

Know Your Meme

Willy Franzen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:00:22 +0000

Today’s post came from a reader recommendation (thanks Derek!), which is awesome because I was on the company’s site a few days ago and never would have imagined that they offer jobs (or even considered them a company as opposed to a website). The reason that I was on the site was that I was reading the story of Epic Beard Man (it is tagged NSFW), which is another one of those ridiculous things that has become popular on the Internet. The term that many use to describe these phenomena is meme. Know Your Meme is a website that organizes all of the world’s memes. Let’s say that you’re looking for the story behind Rickroll because you have no idea why people think it’s so funny. Know Your Meme, which is based in New York City, will not only explain the meme to you, but it will also detail the history of how the meme became popular and how it evolved. To some Know Your Meme may seem frivolous, but in many ways it’s the Historical Society of the Interwebs.

Know Your Job

If you’re still not sure what a meme is, then use Know Your Meme’s Random Meme Generator. Try it a few times and you should get the hang of it. You may recognize some famous memes from the Weezer Pork And Beans video, the South Park episode Meet the Internet Stars, or that Super Bowl commercial that had some Internet stars in it. My favorite meme of all time has to be Numa Numa guy. Yes, this may all seem idiotic, but Know Your Meme is building a business off of Internet celebrities. In addition to the advertising angle, they are also selling meme merchandise. It must be working, because Know Your Meme is hiring. If you check out their Jobs page, you’ll see that they’re looking for a Rails Developer and a Junior Web Developer. I know that most of you aren’t developers (so far the survey results are telling me that I cover too many technical jobs—even if that’s where the action is in this economy), so you should take note that Know Your Meme’s internships are in Community Management, Merchandise, Research, and Writing. These are all areas where Know Your Meme might be hiring in the future, and if you push them enough, they might even be hiring right now. You just need to reach out to them at forthelulz@knowyourmeme.com with “any resumes, writing samples, portfolios in the body of the email or linked to file-hosting sites.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite meme?

Elie Tahari

Willy Franzen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:54:47 +0000

I’m probably more fashion conscious than the average guy, but not remarkably so. I have a few brands that I really like wearing—Bonobos and lululemon athletica for example—and most of the rest of the stuff that I buy I get from Gilt Groupe, which is always introducing me to new brands. I figure that it’s important for me to stay up on fashion to some extent because so many of you are interested in jobs in the fashion industry. I recently noticed that one brand that I’ve seen on Gilt Groupe before, Elie Tahari, has a number of job openings available. Elie Tahari is both the name of a designer and “a privately held global lifestyle brand with a presence in more than forty countries.” The company is headquartered in New York and serves both men and women who are “looking for fashion and value in luxury ready-to-wear.”

Jobs Are In Fashion

The story of Elie Tahari is extremely cool. According to Wikipedia he came to the United States from Israel in 1971 to work as an electrician. He spent his first years here as a transient, and eventually ended up working in a boutique clothing store. This inspired him to start designing “women’s fashion inspired by the new york city nightclub scene.” That seems to have worked out pretty well for him considering the fact that he’s built a $500 million business. To get a feel for what the line is all about, you should head over to ElieTahari.com. Getting the scoop on their jobs won’t be so simple. They do have a Careers section on their website, but it is woefully outdated. A quick Google search for “Elie Tahari jobs” is your best bet, as it turns up Monster.com results like Planning Assistant, Assistant Colorist, and a true entry level job—Assistant Technical Designer. There’s also a HotJobs posting for a Fit Model, and you can always use Elie Tahari’s Careers site to submit a résumé.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you wear Elie Tahari?

Mona Lisa Style

Willy Franzen — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:56:32 +0000

I don’t know a lot about how the fashion industry works, but I do know that buyers are the people who make the decisions about which items end up in stores and on websites. Mona Lisa Style is a New York City based startup that wants to help buyers “master the art of merchandising” through technology. While most industries have moved a large portion of their business online, the fashion industry is lagging behind. According to Mona Lisa Style’s Blog the way that many major companies place orders for clothing is by writing an order on a piece of paper and faxing it. All of the organization and tracking of orders is also done over the phone and on paper. Mona Lisa Style realizes how stupid this is, and they want to change it. They want to make buying as easy as online shopping.

The Art of Merchandising

As far as I can tell, Mona Lisa Style is really early as startups come. They’re self-funded, have 3 employees, and don’t even have a Chief Technology Officer / Lead Developer yet (they’re looking for one). That is a big red flag, since software as a service business typically need really strong technical talent. Still, I’m impressed with the concept behind Mona Lisa Style. They’ll certainly have an enormous challenge pushing an industry that is dragging its feet into the digital age, but if they can do it, they stand to reap huge rewards. If you love the risk and want to work towards changing the way that the fashion industry works, then you should check out Mona Lisa Style’s job postings on Startuply. Maybe they’ll join the ranks of big name NYC fashion startups like Gilt Groupe and Bonobos. Right now they’re looking for a CTO and a Fashion Sales Representative. If you’re interested, you can reach out to them at careers@monalisastyle.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Mona Lisa Style’s chances?

Burberry

Willy Franzen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:22:55 +0000

It’s funny how well respected brands that have been around forever will get swept up in a fad. Some, like Abercrombie & Fitch, will make it part of a new identity, while others like Burberry will enjoy the popularity but maintain their core image. Burberry is a British company that has been making quality garments since 1856, but they became especially trendy in the early 2000s, if I remember correctly. While most brands are recognized for their logo or a specific product, Burberry is known for their plaid. In fact, unless you’re a tartan freak, “Burberry Check” is probably the only plaid that you recognize by name. Over their 150 years Burberry has moved more towards luxury goods than outdoor garments, which is best evidenced by their new ad campaigns with Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame.

Check Out Burberry

Although Burberry is a British based company, they happen to have a significant presence in the United States. That means that they also have quite a few job opportunities on this side of the pond. Their Careers page doesn’t offer much information about what it’s like to work for them, but you can get a listing of job openings here in the US. You should be sure to check out jobs at their New York office like Account Specialist, Allocator, Assistant Buyer, Assistant Buyer – Outlets, Planning Analyst, and Planning Analyst – Wholesale. There are also a number of retail and in-store positions in places like Chicago, Boston, Beverly Hills, Palo Alto, Scottsdale, and other cities with high end retail stores, but we’ve focused on their corporate positions. Additionally, there are positions with Burberry in the United Kingdom (obviously), elsewhere in Europe, and in Asia. You can apply for any of these jobs online directly from the job descriptions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of when you see the “Burberry Check?”

POM Wonderful

Willy Franzen — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:42:55 +0000

For a long time fruit juices other than orange juice (and prune juice) were largely the domain of young children. I’m not sure why this was, but I still to this day feel like a kid when I drink juice. Over the past few years we’ve seen juice gain in popularity – not grape or apple juice, but more exotic juices like pomegranate, cherry, and acai. POM Wonderful has been one of the companies that profited the most from the upswing in adult juice consumption. Maybe it’s all of the health benefits of the pomegranate that is convincing adults to hit the juice. It’s hard to not like something that improves cardiovascular and prostate health while also improving erectile function. Not to mention that pomegranates are loaded with antioxidants. With those health benefits and great marketing, POM Wonderful is primed for continued success – they’re the largest producer of pomegranates in the United States.

Wonderful Entry Level Jobs

How could you not want to work for a company with “Wonderful” in its name? They make delicious juices, they have clever packaging, and creative ads. They also have jobs all over the world, although their entry level opportunities seem to be restricted to West Los Angeles, CA. Right now there are two jobs available that look like they might be good ways for new college grads to get a foot in the door at POM Wonderful. These jobs are Administrative Assistant and Administrative Sales & Merchandising Coordinator. You can find the full descriptions by visiting POM Wonderful’s Careers page, and you can apply online directly from the job postings. Sounds wonderful, huh?

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you drink POM?

TOMS Shoes

Willy Franzen — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:47:20 +0000

I hate shoes. Ok, that’s not really true, but after spending a week in Aruba over the holidays, it was a sad realization for me when I had to put my sneakers back on for the trip home to Chicago. I appreciate that I have boots that keep my feet warm and dry, slippers that are extremely comfortable, and basketball shoes that give me enough ankle support to prevent a sprain, but I still prefer the feeling of sand between my toes. I’m lucky. It’s a luxury to be able to enjoy the feeling of being shoeless. There are a lot of children who don’t know what it’s like to have a good pair of shoes to protect their feet. TOMS Shoes is a Santa Monica, CA based company that is trying to change that. They’re a shoe company, but they’re more than that. For every pair of shoes that TOMS Shoes sells, they give a pair of shoes to a child in need. So far, they’ve given over 200,000 pairs of shoes to children in places like Argentina, Ethiopia, and South Africa via “Shoe Drops.” They say that “changing life begins with a single step…” and we have to agree.

Try These Jobs on for Size

Getting a job also begins with a single step, which is why we’re going to take a look at entry level jobs with TOMS Shoes. I first heard about TOMS Shoes from a reader who is currently interning with them. Here’s the note that she sent us:

Hey guys, great website! I’m about to start interning for this company called
TOMS Shoes (tomsshoes.com), they have a great internship program (a friend
interned for them last summer) and are ALWAYS hiring.

Internships aren’t paid, but they provide intern housing 2 blocks from Venice
Beach, compensation for gas, AND a $100 biweekly stipend. Internships are
available in pretty much all departments, I’m working in their finance
department.

Hope it helps!

That definitely caught my attention, as did the feature in Inc. Magazine’s List of America’s Coolest Internships. A cool internship program usually means that an employer is a great place for new grads to look for an entry level job, so I started looking. Despite the fact that TOMS Shoes offers internships in Marketing/Events, Special Projects, Copy Writing, Graphic Design, Web/IT, and Film (and apparently Finance too), they don’t seem to be nearly aggressive when it comes to making full-time hires. That’s probably because they have something like 25 full-time employees and 16 interns. What TOMS Shoes does offer is a little bit confusing. Most of their Jobs page is devoted to internships; however, there is one section called Paid In-Store Sales Part & Full-time (we can’t link to it because they’re using frames). It sounds like these are Merchandising/Sales jobs, since the e-mail address that you should send a cover letter and resume to is merchandisingjobs@tomsshoes.com. There’s no additional information, and there’s nothing on how to get a corporate job at TOMS Shoes. Maybe you have to go through the internship program? There was a Campus Programs Recruiter position posted a while back, but we can’t find the posting now. Let us know if you have the scoop on how to land an entry level job with TOMS Shoes.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own a pair of TOMS Shoes?

Williams-Sonoma

Willy Franzen — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:40:04 +0000

Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I have cooking on my mind. I’m trying to make sure that I have everything that I need, because Thanksgiving Day always comes with some essential ingredient or cooking implement missing. A run to the store for an ingredient usually isn’t a problem, but a meat thermometer or baster can be a little tougher to find. That’s why you might want to make a day before Thanksgiving stop by Williams-Sonoma, and while you’re at it, you might want to think about what kind of jobs they offer. In case you’re not familiar with Williams-Sonoma, they’re “the premier specialty retailer of home furnishings in the United States.” Their brands include Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PB Teen, Williams-Sonoma Home, and West Elm, and they “cover every room in the house: from the kitchen to the living room, bedroom, home office, and even the hall closet.” Williams-Sonoma, the brand, is best known for kitchen wares, which is why I associate them with Thanksgiving.

Furnish Your Home and Your Career

Finding great companies to work for is all about having an “always looking” mentality, so use the holidays and everything that goes with them for idea generation. Williams-Sonoma popped into my head while I was thinking about cooking, so I checked to see if they have jobs for new grads. They do! Williams-Sonoma is based out of San Francisco, and their Careers site is easy enough to navigate. I just sorted through their Corporate jobs (if you want to work in retail, you can search for those on your own), and found four jobs that might be considered entry level. Unfortunately William-Sonoma’s Careers site doesn’t allow us to link directly to jobs, so you’ll have to look out for these titles: Associate Ecommerce Analyst, Direct Marketing; Statistical Modeling Analyst, Direct Marketing; Associate Website Merchandiser – PBTeen; and Packaging Designer. All of these jobs look really cool, and it should be easy to apply for them online. If you don’t see anything that interests you, Williams-Sonoma also accepts resumes for unlisted positions, so don’t be afraid to try “cold calling.” We’ve also seen some mention of campus recruiting by Williams-Sonoma; however, it seems to be mostly targeted towards MBA students.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How are you using the holidays to generate job search ideas?

Tiny Prints

Willy Franzen — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:22:36 +0000

I don’t recall having any friends in college who sent out their own holiday cards, but if you’re planning on sending out cards, you better get on it. Christmas is 31 days away. My family always tried to send out Christmas cards, but it usually resulted in a fight between my sister and me over which picture to use – if we could even get along long enough for a picture to be taken (yes, we were both in college at this point). With my sister’s and my being difficult and my mom’s procrastinating ability, Christmas cards almost inevitably became New Year’s cards, which typically arrived well after New Year’s. I’m not sure that Mountain View, CA based Tiny Prints could have helped with conflict resolution between my sister and me, but they can make it ridiculously easy to produce a beautiful holiday card.

What’s So Tiny About Them?

Tiny Prints is an interesting name for a Stationery 2.0 company that makes normal sized stationery. The reasoning behind the name, I think, is that they started out by targeting the birth announcement market. That’s why they’ve hired designers who “have created birth announcements and related baby stationery for many celebrity parents, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Gwen Stefani, Jaime Pressly, Reese Witherspoon, Debra Messing, Maria Shriver, Adam Sandler, Al Roker, Charles Schwab and Harry Connick Jr.” As a company based in Silicon Valley, Tiny Prints has been influenced significantly by technology, which is why we’re excited about them. Although the cards that they produce are top notch, it’s not what makes Tiny Prints stand out. It’s their simple web-based interface for creating custom stationery that is game changing. Seriously. Go try it out.

Once you take a look at Tiny Prints’ Jobs page, you’ll really start to appreciate how much technology is behind what they do. They don’t seem to have a lot to say about what it’s like working for them – all they offer is a list of their job openings with links to descriptions. The job descriptions aren’t as clear as we’d like them to be, so it’s hard to determine which jobs can be considered entry level, but we’ve done our best to identify them for you. The most likely fits for new grads include Office Manager, Web Application Developer, Data Production Specialist, and Production QA, while jobs like Merchandising Account Manager, Product Manager, Website Programmer, User Interaction Designer, and Customer Order Processor should be considered stretches. All of the jobs appear to be located in Mountain View, CA, and how you apply will vary depending on the position, so look at the descriptions carefully.

Beyond the jobs that we’ve mentioned, we’ve also noticed that Tiny Prints has mentioned that they hire very young designers. We haven’t found any mention of how designers can score their jobs, but you might want to contact Tiny Prints directly if you dream of being a stationery designer.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you send out holiday cards?

Live Nation

Willy Franzen — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:15:18 +0000

Artists and record labels are starting to realize that live music is a great way to stay profitable. Although the digital download business is seeing amazing growth, the idea that people should pay for songs has pretty much gone out the window. If you can fill up a venue with adoring fans (who paid an arm and a leg for tickets) and sell them t-shirts, posters, and whatever else people buy at concerts, you can still make a lot of money. If this trend continues Live Nation should be primed for success, they have the “most live concerts, music venues and festivals in the world and the most comprehensive concert search engine on the web.”

Entry Level Jobs at Live Nation

If you love live music, a job with Live Nation might be something worth thinking about. Their website, LiveNation.com, is targeted towards becoming the world’s largest concert search engine, and they also own and operate the House of Blues, “a home for live music and southern-inspired cuisine.” It seems that they’re trying to cover all of the bases when it comes to making it easy for fans to see their favorite artists in real life. They make searching for concert tickets simple and they provide in-depth information about artists and venues. Beyond that they also run House of Blues which hosts a ton of live music events.

Live Nation’s Jobs site won’t allow us to link to specific job postings, so we’ll tell you which job titles to search for and you’ll have to use their search function to find the jobs. You’ll have to list all jobs, and then scan the jobs for the titles that we mention. Live Nation is apparently headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, but the jobs that we’ve found are located everywhere but LA. The only clear cut entry level position is as a Field Management and Team Development Coordinator (New York, NY), but you may want to take a look at Account Manager (Charlottesville, VA), Accountant (Bala Cynwyd, PA), Assistant Merchandise Manager (Fort Worth, TX), and Sales Manager (Dallas, TX) because the experience requirements are minimal. There are also a lot of hourly jobs at House of Blues locations, but we won’t go into detail about those. You can apply for jobs with Live Nation on their website.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How often do you go to see live music?

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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FreshDirect

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:17:52 +0000

Some people love grocery shopping, some people hate it, and most people don’t have time for it. If your college campus was anywhere near a Wegmans, then you probably made time for the supermarket; however, once you start working a full-time, entry-level job in a city with no Wegmans, grocery shopping will likely become an imposition. That’s where FreshDirect steps in. They deliver fresh, affordable food to your doorstep quickly.

How Do They Do It?

Ordering groceries online isn’t a new idea, but doing it right is. There have been quite a few grocery companies that have offered online ordering, but most have missed the mark in one way or another. FreshDirect has mastered “just in time” production to get their customers the freshest food and the best prices. Grocery stores are expensive to run and middlemen hike up prices. FreshDirect avoids both of these costs by controlling the entire distribution process. They have a huge refrigerated facility, where they store and prepare food that is “made to order.” FreshDirect only operates in the New York City area right now, but they’re rapidly expanding.

Fresh Jobs

FreshDirect’s Jobs page shows quite a few openings, many of which appear to be entry-level. It’s hard to tell, since FreshDirect chooses not to fill in the experience box on many of the postings. The only job that is explicitly described as geared towards new college grads is as a FreshDirect Experience Analyst; however, these jobs also require little or no previous work experience: Merchandising Analyst, Purchasing Assistant, Purchasing Assistant, Produce, Operations Analyst – Plant Operations, Analyst, Quality Assurance, Logistics Analyst, and Junior HR Generalist, Plant Operations. The descriptions for each listing are quite detailed, so you should be able to tell which jobs will best fit your experience and education. All of FreshDirect’s jobs are located in Long Island City, NY, which is actually a neighborhood in the borough of Queens, not its own city. There’s not much more information available about what it’s like working for FreshDirect, but there is a photo tour of their plant.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you get your groceries delivered? By FreshDirect? How do you like it?

Orvis

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

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

Distinctive Country Living

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

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

Drop Them a Line

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

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

What Vermont Has to Offer

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Looking for an internship at Orvis?

ProFlowers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

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

Under Armour

Willy Franzen — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:00:43 +0000

You know the feeling – it’s hot, wet, sticky and feels like it weighs about 6 lbs. So you change shirts during practice. Twice. That’s three shirts in one practice. You practice 5 days a week. That’s a lot of laundry. How would you like to work for a company founded out of a strong disdain for wet t-shirts (no, not the kind you might find on Spring Break)? Kevin Plank started Under Armour in 1995 with the idea of making better t-shirts to wear under his uniform while he played for the University of Maryland Football Team. With a great product and a little luck, Under Armour has become an essential piece of an athlete’s wardrobe in what was seemingly a saturated market.

Under Armour is known for their tagline “We must protect this house!” As the fastest growing sports brand in the world, their house is getting bigger and harder to protect every day (they keep adding new product lines and entering new markets). That’s why Under Armour is constantly working to build a stronger team. Under Armour’s job postings put a strong emphasis on making history and finding new ways to do things. If you love sports and you love apparel, take a look at these positions that might be right for a recent college graduate.

Some job listings on Under Armour’s site, such as those for Product Line Management, don’t mention required experience, but we’re going to guess that they aren’t going to put kids who are fresh out of college in charge of entire product lines. The listings are certainly a little unclear, so if anybody from Under Armour reads this, can you leave a comment and confirm that these positions require significant experience?

Also, Under Armour has a separate web page for their “Rookie Program,” which is another name for their internship offerings. They really should extend this idea to entry-level hiring so that is easier for applicants to determine which jobs are appropriate to apply for.

If you hate wet t-shirts as much as Kevin Plank does, give Under Armour’s career opportunities a look.

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Heard anything about jobs at Under Armour? Enjoying our daily posts? Have suggestions on how we could do a better job? Want to tell us what kind of jobs you want to see featured on One Day, One Job? Leave a comment.