One Day, One Job » Michigan

Organic

Willy Franzen — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:04:24 +0000

I hope the title of today’s post didn’t make you hungry, because we’re not talking about jobs in organic food. Organic is a San Francisco based interactive marketing agency with a brand that has gained a lot of keyword competition over the past 16 years. Yes, people were eating organic back in 1994, but the word wasn’t nearly as common as it is today. Doing research on Organic is tough because the organic search results (excuse my SEO pun) have all kinds of other stuff in them (at least they own Organic.com). Either Google needs to get inside my head to discern my intent, or Organic is going to have to hope that artificial packaged, processed foods go back in vogue. Ok, enough of my ripping on their name—Organic was ranked by AdWeek as the #1 interactive agency in 2007. That fits in perfectly with my impression of Organic from browsing their website and looking at their work. In fact, I’m blown away by how good Organic’s website is. It’s easy to use, it’s full of information, and it’s gorgeously designed. Their corporate mantra is “Exceptional Experience,” and they certainly live up to it.

Live Organic

I’ve found that interactive agencies sometimes go too far with their websites. They get too fancy and end up making an unusable piece of garbage. The way Organic has built their website shows that they’re good at what they do. Beyond San Francisco Organic also has locations in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Toronto. The company’s clients include Bank of America, Jeep, Nike, Guitar Center, and plenty more. I could tell you more about Organic, but you’re much better off visiting their website, because it does a great job of telling their story. Organic even does a great job with their Careers site—they even make a usually crappy applicant tracking system look good. The interesting thing about Organic is that most of their 40 job openings are at pretty Senior levels. Their only real entry level job is Interactive Strategist (San Francisco). You might also want to check out Contributor Mktg Intelligence (Detroit), Associate Producer (San Francisco), Associate Delivery Management (San Francisco), and Recruiter (Toronto), but they all require some prior experience. You can apply online for any of these positions, and you can also submit a résumé for general consideration (this might be the best tactic, as they do list college recruiting as one of their sources). Finally, Organic seems to allow new grads in their paid internship program, so that might be another option.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Organic’s name?

TechSmith

Willy Franzen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:49:20 +0000

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.

ScreenCast Your Way to a New Job

Although Michigan got some bad news last night with the Tigers’ loss, you have to like seeing tech companies that are doing their best to revitalize the state’s economy. TechSmith is doing just that. Although they may appear to be a small software company, they actually have about 200 employees and are hiring more. In fact, they even do on campus recruiting at a few select schools. Most of their entry level jobs seem to be geared toward people with a tech background; however, some of their internships are a little less techie—that may mean non-tech jobs will be available in the future. Of the jobs posted on TechSmith’s site, the following appear to be suitable for new grads: Mac Developer, Software Engineer, Software Test Engineer, User Experience Designer, and Web 2.0 Developer. They go into a lot of detail about what they’re looking for, so read the job descriptions carefully. You can apply online; however, if I were apply for a job at TechSmith, I’d probably find a way to get them to watch a screencast of why they should hire me. That’s just me, though.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used TechSmith’s software?

College Hunks Hauling Junk

Willy Franzen — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:52:17 +0000

Today is the last day to enter our Maghound Your Way to a New Job contest. With so few entries so far, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll win a one-year subscription to an awesome new magazine subscription service (3 monthly magazines for free!).

I’m still on my Inc. 5000 kick, and today we’re looking at a company whose name immediately caught my eye. They’re called College Hunks Hauling Junk, and that’s exactly what they are. Omar Soliman wanted to make some money during the summer, so he borrowed his mom’s cargo van to start hauling away people’s junk. He then entered his business plan in the Rothschild Entrepreneurship Competition and won the $10,000 first prize. He realized that he had a business that he could grow, and now College Hunks Hauling Junk is doing $2.9 million in revenue. Guess that’s why Omar and his co-founder Nick were named (also by Inc.) as Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30. College Hunks Hauling Junk is headquartered in Tampa, FL, but through expansion and franchising they now operate in Anne Arundel, MD; Baltimore/Howard County, MD; Chicago, IL; Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; Indianapolis, IN; Little Rock, AR; Los Angeles, CA; Louisville, KY; Orange County, CA; Orlando, FL; Phoenix, AZ; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Richmond, VA; San Francisco/San Jose, CA; Tampa Bay, FL; and Washington, DC Metro.

Are You Hunky Enough?

College Hunks Hauling Junk certainly has a provocative name, but that’s part of their success. Finding someone to haul away your junk isn’t that hard, but it’s really easy to go with the brand you recognize. College Hunks Hauling Junk is all about grabbing attention so that they’re the company that you choose when you need to get rid of some junk. It doesn’t hurt that they can call themselves green, as they recycle 60% of the junk that they collect. Now, College Hunks Hauling Junk obviously has plenty of jobs available. If you want to get in the business of hauling junk to pay your way through college, they can help, but they’re also a growing company with growing needs. They have a bunch of corporate job postings that consist solely of titles. Since they’re a college startup, it’s hard to say how much experience they’re looking for with each position, but you’ll have to apply to find out. The posted job titles include Truck Captain/ Wingman, VP – Franchise Development, Client Loyalty Associate (Inside Sales Rep), Operations Manager, VP – Marketing, VP – Public Relations, VP – Finance, VP – Business Development, and VP – Information Technology.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used College Hunks Hauling Junk?

Priceline.com

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

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

Entry Level Job Negotiator

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Priceline.com to book your travel?

U.S. Census Bureau

Willy Franzen — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:48:34 +0000

Every 10 years our country does a census to collect demographic data about our populous to drive public policy decisions. It’s an extremely big deal, and it temporarily creates 1.4 million jobs (according to government figures). But those aren’t typically the types of jobs that we talk about here, at least not the ones that send you door to door asking how many people live at a given residence. Luckily, the U.S. Census Bureau does a lot more than its once every ten years nationwide census. They are “the leading source of quality data about the nation’s people and economy,” so you’d be amazed by all of the things that they track. For instance, much of the economic data that you have been hearing about in the news lately – as in “Stocks plunge on weakened Monthly Retail Sales” – comes from the U.S. Census Bureau. If you’re fascinated by data or just love counting things, there aren’t many places that offer a more interesting work experience that the Census Bureau.

Everyone Counts at the U.S. Census Bureau

Ok, I’d like to go on about the cool things that the Census Bureau does, but we don’t really have time. Navigating the Census Bureau’s job offerings is kind of a hassle, so I want to make sure that you can find what you’re looking for. On their main Jobs page they have links to four sections – Headquarters Opportunities, 2010 Census Taker Opportunities, Regional Office Opportunities, and Student and Research Opportunities. You may be tempted to check out the Student Opportunities, but you actually want to check out either the Headquarters or Regional Office Opportunities. If you check out the Headquarters Opportunities, you’ll find job listings like Statistician / Analyst, Mathematical Statistician, Information Technology Specialist, Geographer, and Cartographer. These links will take you to more specific listings where you’ll find a link titled “How to Apply.” If you click that, you’ll find even more information and another link to the specific job descriptions on USAJobs.gov. You can also skip ahead and just search all of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 90 current openings. If you decide to check out the Regional Office Opportunities, you’ll just have to select a region, and you’ll be shown a list of opportunities. It’s a lot simpler.

As for locations:

The U.S. Census Bureau headquarters is located in Suitland, Maryland, just outside the District of Columbia.

The National Processing Center (NPC) is located in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The NPC also has two call centers located in Hagerstown, Maryland and Tucson, Arizona.

The Census Bureau has 12 Regional Offices located in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Seattle.

The Census Bureau has a ton of jobs, and there are a lot more coming. Many of these offer extremely interesting entry level work, but you’re going to have to show off your data parsing abilities to find and apply for the jobs – they don’t make the process easy at all.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you excited for the 2010 Census?

Condé Nast

Willy Franzen — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:47:33 +0000

I know that despite the fact that I keep ripping on the traditional media – the old guard – I keep featuring their jobs here. I’m not being a hypocrite. I promise. I know that taking entry level jobs with companies that might not be around in 5 years isn’t the best decision, but if anyone can save the old media, it’s you. The new media has been created by the masses and has originated from young people with new ideas, which is just what these media behemoths need to survive. Of course these companies probably don’t realize how much they need you yet, but they do. Well, if you’re going to get a job in old media – like the magazine industry – you might as well go with the best. Condé Nast has a list of brands that is rivaled by few and includes Vogue, W, style.com, Glamour, Allure, Self, Teen Vogue, GQ, Details, men.style.com, Architectural Digest, Brides, Modern, Bride, Elegant Bride, Brides.com, Lucky, Domino, Cookie, Golf Digest, Golf World, Vanity Fair, Gourmet, Bon Appétit, epicurious.com, Condé Nast Traveler, concierge.com, Wired, Wired.com, Condé Nast Portfolio, Portfolio.com, WWD, FN, and The New Yorker. There’s still a lot of uncertainty in the industry, but those are still great names to be associated with.

Keep Reading for Condé Nast Jobs

There’s not a lot more that I can say about Condé Nast. They’re one of the most respected names in the media, but they’re facing struggles just like everybody else in the industry. With that said, they’re still doing some hiring. Their Careers site provides a lot of information on what it’s like to work for them, and their Job Listings show 18 openings. Of those opening a few appear to be suitable for new college grads, although it’s hard to know for sure because Condé Nast’s job postings are so paltry. We can’t link to their job postings because of the Applicant Tracking System that they use, but you should look out for job titles that include Sales Assistant (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit), Promotion Copywriter (New York), Promotion Coordinator (New York), Online Marketing Data Entry Temp (New York), and Executive Assistant (New York). You can apply for all of these jobs online from the job postings that you find using their search function.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What is your favorite Condé Nast publication?

Compendia Bioscience

Willy Franzen — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:44:32 +0000

It’s not big surprise that jobs are constantly in the news these days. That’s part of the reason Jason Seiden and I launched our course. People need help finding and landing jobs. People in the news have picked up on the need, and now it’s newsworthy if a company is hiring. Take this article from mlive.com’s Michigan Business Innovation Blog – it’s about who’s hiring in Ann Arbor. That’s obviously of interest to me, since so many of you are at both University of Michigan and Michigan State (as well as other great Michigan schools). There were some pretty interesting names on that list, and one that stood out to me was Compendia Bioscience. They’re Biotech meets Software, and they’re also part of the future of Michigan.

Curing Cancer

There are a lot of people in this world whose lives have been ravaged by cancer. In turn, there are a lot of people who have made it their life goals to cure cancer. Although we haven’t come up with an outright cure yet, it’s amazing how much progress we’ve made in treating many types of cancer. When I think about curing cancer, I always think about medical doctors. That’s shortsighted of me, because there are all kind of people working on beating cancer that haven’t been to medical school. That’s what Compendia Bioscience is all about. Their mission is to “Harness the global collection of genomic data to change the practice of medicine.” Yes, they have MDs on their staff, but they’re using the power of software to help those on the frontlines of oncology. It’s kind of hard to believe that with the same skillset you could work at a Web 2.0 startup that allows you turn your friends into virtual zombies or you could be working towards a cure for cancer. Don’t get me wrong, I love Web 2.0 startups, but sometimes you need to aim for a higher calling. Right now Compendia has job openings in Bioinformatics Analytics, Project Management, and Software Development. It’s hard for me to say which of these jobs are best suited for new grads, but I’m sure you can gain a better idea by looking at the job descriptions on Compendia’s Jobs page. To apply for any of the jobs, send a cover letter and resume to careers2009@compendiabio.com. Here’s a little more information from Compendia’s MPowered Entrepreneurship Fair profile.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about Compendia Bioscience?

Enliven Software

Willy Franzen — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:45:35 +0000

You may have noticed that we occasionally run sponsored posts from companies who want to draw more attention to their jobs. We haven’t done that lately because we have more exciting things to tell you about like the job search training course that we’re working on, our partnership with VisualCV to help you build a killer online resume, and our soon to be announced contest where we’re giving away $6,000+ in HP and Microsoft products. When we do run sponsored posts, it’s always a pain in the butt to get paid. We have to fill out all kinds of forms and jump through lots of hoops to get a check sent. It’s quite annoying. Enliven Software is a startup based out of East Lansing, Michigan that makes the billing process a lot easier for small and medium sized companies. They’re aiming to be the “leading provider of secure, paperless electronic invoicing, online payables and electronic payment solutions.” Our Accounting function isn’t quite advanced enough to need their software yet, but I hope one day that I’ll be able to do all of my invoicing, billing, and getting paid online.

Enliven Your Career

Not to take anything away from what Enliven does, but one of the most exciting things about Enliven Software is their location. They’re based in East Lansing, Michigan, not too far from Michigan State University. We have a ton of readers from MSU, so we’re happy to bring them something local for once. We’re also happy to be featuring a company that is the future of Michigan’s economy. It’s painfully obvious that the auto industry still has a lot of change coming, and tech startups like Enliven Software hold a lot of potential for taking Michigan in a new direction. They’re already doing their best to bring more jobs to the state, and they’re also creating plenty of jobs themselves.

Right now Enliven Software’s Jobs page shows a number of opportunities that might be interesting to new college grads. Available jobs include Software Engineer, Account Executive, and Telesales Specialist. The job descriptions are quite detailed, and they sound great. You can apply for these jobs by sending a cover letter and resume in as a Microsoft Word doc or an ASCII-text file to careers@enlivensoftware.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Where do you think Michigan’s economy is headed?

Major League Baseball

Willy Franzen — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:51:01 +0000

I never thought that moving to Chicago would prolong the baseball season for me. Living in the New York City area gave me 13 straight years of October baseball, and now that I’ve left, both Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium will remain empty for the rest of the fall before they eventually face demolition. It’s lucky for me that I’m now living in a new city that happens to have two teams that are still in it. I get a 14th straight year of local baseball in October! Playoff baseball is by far the most exciting baseball of the year, but it also means that season will soon be over. Those of you who are baseball fans know how long the winter seems when there is only hot stove chatter to keep you entertained while you wait for pitchers and catchers to report to Spring Training. While you’re still excited about baseball, you should start thinking about how you can land a job with Major League Baseball. Jobs with the MLB are in hot demand, so it’s a smart move to get familiar with their hiring process as soon as you can.

Take Me Out to an Entry Level Job

As far as we can tell, there are 2 ways to get jobs in Major League Baseball – there are jobs with MLB.com and jobs with specific MLB teams. There also seem to be jobs directly with the league (I have a friend on Facebook who is a member of the Major League Baseball network), but I’m not sure how you can go about finding them online. Here’s a rundown of the two types of jobs that we’ve found and how you can apply for them.

MLB.com Jobs

MLB.com is part of MLB Advanced Media, which is a separate arm of Major League Baseball. They run all 30 team websites and allegedly have editorial independence from the league. Their focus is entirely on multimedia and production, but they offer all kinds of jobs. Right now, the only openings that may be suited to new college grads (and are still a stretch) are in Database Marketing and Marketing Production. MLB.com offers internships in Finance, Marketing, Club Marketing, E-Commerce, Legal, Technology, Sponsorship, Design, and Public Relations, so there are a number of areas in which jobs with MLB.com can pop up periodically. These jobs are located in New York City, and you can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to jlc@mlb.com.

Jobs with MLB Teams

There’s a separate site where you can search for jobs with all of the Major League Baseball teams. This is where the MLB follows the lead of other major sports leagues do and uses TeamWorkOnline to post their jobs. Right now there are listings from most of the teams (although only some are entry level), but this will probably change over time, as different teams have different hiring schedules. If you’re waiting to hear about jobs with a specific team, you can sign up for Job Notification e-mails or you can subscribe to the MLB Teams Jobs RSS Feed. There is an online application process for jobs with MLB teams, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to navigate.

The TeamWorkOnline site also lists some jobs with MLB Networks, so it’s possible that this is where they post opportunities with the league as they become available. We’re not sure about this, but we can’t find anywhere else that MLB jobs are posted. If you know anything about Major League Baseball’s hiring process, we’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Who do you think is going to win the World Series?

Alcoa

Willy Franzen — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:39:04 +0000

This is a sponsored post. We’ve worked directly with Alcoa to bring you the inside scoop on their top entry-level career opportunities.

My introduction to Alcoa came through the Baseball Express catalog. I was a high school baseball player, and I spent hours poring over the pages dreaming about saving up enough to buy a brand new baseball bat made out of cutting edge materials. The catalog’s copy had me convinced that a bat made from Alcoa’s latest alloy was the key to hitting home runs. Had I spent more time in the batting cage, and less time researching my baseball bat purchase, maybe I would have done more than played Club Baseball in college for a year. Then again, the bat that I finally chose did hit the ball a lot farther than the bats that I had used in previous years. Since you probably had better things to do in high school than read baseball catalogs from cover to cover, you may not be familiar with Alcoa, but you should know that producing aluminum for baseball bats is just a tiny sliver of what they do. It is, however, an excellent example of how Alcoa seems to have a hand in almost everything.

What Does Alcoa Do?

In one word: aluminum. Alcoa’s major cash cow is their Global Flat Rolled Products business, which “offers the widest variety of aluminum plate and sheet in the world.” If you’re using a product made out of aluminum, there’s a good chance that it started out at Alcoa’s Global Flat Rolled Products. Just think of all the cool things that are made from aluminum – baseball bats, beer and soda cans, airplanes, consumer electronics – we could keep going. If you really want to see some of the coolest things that have been made out of aluminum, you should check out Alcoa’s blog posts from the Consumer Electronics Show. The possibilities with aluminum as a material are seemingly endless, and that’s why Alcoa has branched out over the years into an a amazingly diverse array of businesses that include Defense, Plastics, Energy, Recycling, Propulsion, HVAC, and many more. They’re blogging about their work in Recycling and Aerospace, so check those blogs out for a unique look inside Alcoa.

When it comes to researching Alcoa, you could spend weeks learning about the entire company – it’s huge. They have 97,000 employees who work in 34 countries. Your best bet is to focus on the divisions that interest you the most, and learn about them and their specific entry-level opportunities. You may never have considered a job at a major industrial corporation, but you should look closely at Alcoa. It’s likely that they’ll exceed your expectations. For example Alcoa has recently been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies and one of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies. They also send their employees on Earth Watch trips and invite them to blog about their experiences. Pretty cool, huh?

What Can I Do at Alcoa?

Alcoa is a major entry-level employer, and they typically add about 175 new college graduates to their ranks every year. The positions that they hire for are as diverse as the businesses that they operate in, and they have locations all across the country – there’s something for everyone. They’ve worked with us to identify the positions that One Day, One Job readers will be most interested in, and you will find those listed below. They’ve also provided a link directly into their applicant tracking system for students who can’t find a job listing that is well suited for them. If you don’t find anything below, use this link to submit your cover letter and resume for consideration by Alcoa’s college recruiting team. If you look like a good fit, they’ll work with you to find the right position in the company.

We know that Alcoa has a very strong internship program, so we asked the folks at Alcoa what kind of jobs their interns who stay with the company usually take after they graduate from college. We were told that last year’s intern class went into areas like Legal, Electrical Engineering, Plastics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, and Finance. We were also told that Alcoa counts internships, volunteer work, and other similar activities as years of experience. That means that even if a job listing says that 3 years of experience is required, you shouldn’t be afraid to apply.

Here are Alcoa’s entry-level jobs for new college graduates with the most recently posted listed first:

ABS Technician (Continuous Improvement/Lean Production/Manufacturing) – Global Primary Products – Point Comfort, TX
Communications Specialist – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Warrick, IN
Associate Buyer – Alcoa Corporate – Springdale, AR
Capital Council Commodity Analyst – Alcoa Wireless Services – Pittsburgh, PA
NDT Level III – Aerospace Automotive and Commercial Transportation (Howmet Castings) – LaPorte, IN
Business Analyst I (HRMS) – Alcoa Corporate – Pittsburgh, PA
Product Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – LaPorte, IN
Safety Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
EHS Professional – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Massena, NY
Tooling/Product Engineer – Aerospace Automotive and Commercial Transportation – Flexible Location
Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
Metallurgical Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Winsted, CT
Electrical Engineer – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Alcoa, TN
Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
Mechanical Engineer – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Warrick, IN
Metallurgical Engineer – Global Rolled Prod & Hard Alloy Ext – Warrick, IN
Safety Specialist – Global Primary Products – Wenatchee, WA
Cost Accountant – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
Facilities Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – LaPorte, IN
Reliability Engineer (Power Distribution) – Global Primary Products – Wenatchee, WA
Sr. Accountant – Engineered Products & Solutions – Torrance, CA
Product Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
Project Specialist – Aerospace Automotive and Commercial Transportation (Howmet Castings) – Whitehall, MI
Process Engineer – Global Primary Products – Rockdale, TX
Facilities Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
Senior Treasury Analyst (Global Leasing) – Alcoa Corporate – Pittsburgh, PA
Safety Coordinator – Engineered Products & Solutions – Hernando, MS
EHS Engineer (EHS-RD) – Alcoa Technical Center – Alcoa Center, PA
Mechanical Engineering Technician – Engineered Products & Solutions – Cleveland, OH
Marketing Analyst – Engineered Products & Solutions – Nashville, TN
Jr. Business Analyst – Engineered Products & Solutions – Simi Valley, CA
Project Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Eastman, GA
Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Eastman, GA
Facilities Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Whitehall, MI
Environmental Engineer – Global Primary Products – Wenatchee, WA
Engineered Products & Solutions – Global Primary Products – Nashville, TN
Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
Manufacturing Engineer – Sapa (Alcoa Extrusions) – Morris, IL
Production Planner – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
Process Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – LaPorte, IN
Plant Sales Representative – Engineered Products & Solutions – Dover, NJ
Manufacturing Engineer – Engineered Products & Solutions – Hampton, VA

If you see something that catches your eye, just click the link, read the description, and apply. They’ll know that you came from One Day, One Job. If you’re intrigued by these jobs, but don’t see anything in your desired field or location, you can still send your resume and cover letter to Alcoa through this online form or you can use their search function to find newly listed opportunities. You may also want to look at Alcoa’s GREA Acquiring Talent Program, which is a Leadership Development Program and has a separate application process.

Thanks to Alcoa for working with us to bring you these excellent entry-level job opportunities. Now go get researching!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Alcoa.com
Careers at Alcoa
About Alcoa
Working at Alcoa
Profiles of Employees at Alcoa
Why Alcoa?
Alcoa’s Career Opportunities for Students (Mostly Internship Related)
Alcoa’s Businesses
Alcoa’s Vision and Values
Alcoa’s Annual Report

What’s your favorite product that’s made out of aluminum? Leave a comment.

Menlo Innovations

Willy Franzen — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:30:55 +0000

A company’s home page should make it instantly clear what the company is about. For many companies this is not the case. There’s all kinds of fluff that fails to give potential customers a proper brand introduction. Menlo Innovations doesn’t make this mistake. Their home page introduces a problem: “In 2004, the U.S. wasted over $55 billion on failed and poorly run software projects.” Then it identifies the cause: “These failures can be traced to a lack of understanding of the business issues being addressed and the wrong implementation methodologies being used.” Finally the home page poses their solution:

Menlo Innovations applies High-Tech Anthropology® to help our clients fully understand their business problems and opportunities. If the solution requires software, Menlo either develops the software within our Menlo Software Factory or The Menlo Institute trains your staff to use proven methodologies to develop the software themselves.

It’s clear. It’s concise, and it gets to the point. There’s no misunderstanding about what The Menlo Institute does.

A Seriously Cool Place to Work

We first came across Menlo Innovations when we were reading about 10 Seeeeeriously Cool Workplaces. We were impressed by their “software factory” setup, so we just had to check and see if they have any entry-level opportunities. What we found is that Menlo Innovation’s job postings are almost as cool and unique as their office space (which you can get a tour of). Menlo’s current openings include a short, entertaining description and then a list of “Recommended Reading.” We’ve never seen anything like it before, but being book nuts, we love it.

Menlo Innovations appears to have two types of job opportunities listed on their site, all of which are located in Ann Arbor, MI. First, there are specific job listings. Menlo is looking for a Project Manager / Camp Counselor / Customer Service Representative, a User Experience Designer / High Tech Anthropologist® / Empath, a Software developer / Perpetual Student / Mentor, and a Quality Assurance Specialist / Experiment Designer / Enabler. Second, Menlo is also always looking to hear from talented Software Developers, Business Analysts, Project Managers, and Quality Assurance Pros to work on a contract basis. Menlo’s Careers page includes a note that says, “At this time Menlo is only accepting resumes for contract positions.” We’re not sure if this also applies to the specific jobs that they have listed, but it doesn’t matter, you just want to get your foot in the door of their exceptionally cool office.

There’s no mention of required experience in any of the job descriptions, and it seems like Menlo Innovations is the type of place that focuses on talent over experience. It’s hard to tell which of these jobs are best suited for someone who is considered entry-level, but if you’re a new college grad who has the talent, we’ll bet that Menlo Innovations will give you a shot. You can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to Carol Sheridan, Software Factory Floor Manager at careers@menloinnovations.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Trivia Fact: Menlo Innovations is so named as a hat tip to Thomas Edison.

Brunswick

Willy Franzen — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:18:33 +0000

Bowling, billiards, and boating – sounds more like plans for retirement than what you’ll be doing after you graduate, right? Not if you end up working for Brunswick. They’re a company that has been in a lot of businesses since John Brunswick started the Cincinnati Carriage Making Company in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854. They’ve added and dropped many product lines, even over the last 10 or 15 years, but recently they’ve settled on marine engines, pleasure boats, fitness equipment, bowling, and billiards. These groups of products aren’t necessarily related, but they’ve proved to be the most profitable for Brunswick over the years.

Not Quite Early Retirement

Brunswick may be in the business of producing great leisure products, but that it’s all fun and games. Brunswick has to work hard to be the best in the industries that they have stuck with, and they’re looking for lots of college students to help keep up the tradition. The Brunswick website is very easy to navigate, so you should have no problem finding all the relevant information that you need for your job search.

The first thing that you might notice when you look at Brunswick’s Careers page is their Financial Leadership Development Program. It’s a rotational program for new college grads who have a background in accounting, finance, business administration or other quantitative fields of study. Participants get to work in General Accounting and Reporting, Manufacturing and Product Cost Accounting, Financial Planning and Analysis, Financial Information Systems, Treasury, and Audit and Corporate Governance. Assignments can be at Brunswick Bowling & Billiards (Lake Forest, IL; Bristol, WI; Muskegon, MI), Brunswick Corporate (Lake Forest, IL); Brunswick Boat Group (Knoxville, TN; New Bern, NC; Lowell, MI; and Various Florida Locations), Life Fitness (Chicago, IL); Mercury Marine (Fond du Lac, WI; Charleston, SC; Stillwater, OK), Sea Ray (Knoxville, TN and Various Florida Locations), and US Marine (Seattle, WA). The online application for the Financial Leadership Development Program doesn’t seem to be working, so we recommend that you send your cover letter, resume, and transcript to:

Brunswick Corporation
Attn: Human Resources – FLDP
1 North Field Court
Lake Forest, Illinois 60045

That’s the first option for new grads at Brunswick, and it offers quite a bit of variety, but there are more entry-level jobs available for those who don’t have the Finance background.

More Options for New Grads at Brunswick

The rest of Brunswick’s job opportunities for new grads can be found by searching their Open Salaried Positions. If you leave the search box blank, you’ll get a listing of all current job opportunities. From here you can browse the listings that include job title, location, and brand. Any job that doesn’t have “Senior,” “Supervisor,” or “Manager” in its title has a high likelihood of being a good fit for entry-level candidates, so take a look and see what you come up with. The jobs tend to be in the same locations and with the same brands that we mentioned when talking about the Financial Leadership Development Program; however, most of the jobs are for grads with a background in Engineering. There are a few exceptions, so students with all backgrounds who are interested in Brunswick’s core businesses should take a look at what’s available.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of Brunswick’s brands is your favorite?

NHL Teams

Willy Franzen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:47:20 +0000

Considering that it’s July, you probably don’t have hockey on your mind right now, unless, of course, you’re sweltering in a room without air conditioning dreaming of the cool air inside the rink. The offseason is a time for National Hockey League Teams to address their needs, and that isn’t only about the personnel who wear ice skates. It looks to us like summer is a big hiring time with NHL teams, so while most people are focused on baseball and the Olympics, you should get back into that hockey mindset and try to find a job with an NHL Team.

Entry-Level Jobs with the NHL Teams

We’re going to keep the description to a minimum today, because there are so many jobs in so many fields from so many teams. There’s no way that we can generalize about these opportunities, so what we did was we ran through all of the jobs offered by the NHL and its teams and identified all of the positions that look appropriate for new college grads. The NHL’s Jobs site is built on the same job board software that we talked about when we covered the NFL’s entry-level jobs. We generally like it. It’s easy to navigate, and you can apply for the jobs easily online. When we covered the NFL’s jobs, we organized everything by team, but with the NHL we did it by field. Occasionally the league includes its jobs as well as jobs with other closely related organizations, but for the most part you will find entry-level jobs with NHL teams below.

The quality of job descriptions on these openings varies based on which team wrote them, but for the most part the NHL teams do a good job of identifying exactly what they’re looking for in candidates. Summer looks like a great time to get a job with the NHL, so get out of the penalty box and start researching.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

I was just reading some articles about some hockey players from Cornell who graduated (or didn’t) with me and how much they’re making in their “entry-level jobs.” I think that they made the right choice.

Yelp

Willy Franzen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:18:42 +0000

My Dad and I are now 2 days into our weeklong fishing trip. The first day was spent driving from Fairfield, CT to Ann Arbor, MI, where we stopped to spend the night. We ended up grabbing a late dinner at a pizza place that wasn’t very good. Pizza should always be at the very least very good, so that was quite a disappointment – especially considering Ann Arbor is a college town with an amazing number of restaurants. Had I been smart enough to pull up Yelp.com on my phone (they have a mobile site), I would have seen that our choice of a restaurant only had 3.5 stars on 3 ratings, and that 2 of the high ratings were for convenience or low price. Lesson learned. Luckily we redeemed ourselves with an awesome brunch at a place one of my Dad’s high school buddies recommended – it has 4.5 stars and is ranked the 2nd best Ann Arbor restaurant on Yelp.

Yelp Me Find a Place to Eat

Yelp isn’t just about food, it’s about local reviews (and the people who post the reviews). As Russell Simmons (no, not that one, their CTO) says, “We built this site expecting to find all these really cool local business, and what we really found were these really cool local people.” Maybe some of Ann Arbor’s really cool local people could have helped us find a motel room that was a bit more affordable than the jacuzzi suite, as it was the “only room left in town” because of something about a NASCAR weekend – our motel choice has 2.5 stars on Yelp. Yelp could have made our stay in Ann Arbor a lot nicer, and it certainly has the ability to be a great tool in any traveler’s repertoire.

Here’s the Yelp documentary below (here’s a link). E-mail and RSS feed readers will need to click through, and if it doesn’t work, we’re sorry. This is the only format Yelp offered the video in.

Working at Yelp

Considering how fun Yelp’s product is, working for them has to be pretty cool too. They’re a growing company, and that means entry-level hiring. Yelp’s Jobs page lists these positions in their San Francisco office: Account Executive (Local Sales), Product Manager (Tools and Support Infrastructure), Software Engineer, and Desktop Support Technician. There are also looking for Marketing Assistants (aka “Scouts”) in Cincinnati, Detroit, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham or St. Louis. These are part-time, hourly jobs, but they look pretty cool – might even be a good fit for a current college student. The e-mail addresses that you should send a resume and cover letter to are different for each job, so be sure to check out Yelp’s fantastic jobs page for those details. You may also want to take a look at the Yelp Blog or Flickr account for a deeper look at what it’s like to work at Yelp.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

When could Yelp have saved you from a not so great restaurant? Tell us about it.

Armstrong White

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:32:05 +0000

People don’t typically associate technology and innovation with Detroit and the auto industry. Whether it’s deserved or not, American car manufacturers have a pretty weak reputation these days. It’s unfortunate because the decline of the Big Three has seriously hurt the entire Michigan economy. That’s why you see these commercials with Jeff Daniels that try to sell businesses on a Michigan location. Armstrong White is exactly the type of company that is going to bring jobs back to Michigan. They have built a business in Bloomfield Hills, MI that directly serves the auto industry, but is also high tech and extremely innovative. No, they haven’t developed some sort of alternative energy technology. They specialize “in rendering reality out of automotive 2D and 3D assets and digital landscapes for print, broadcast and interactive mediums.”

Did You Draw Cars As a Kid?

If you were one of those kids who was always drawing cars, then working at Armstrong White will probably be your dream job. They take technical drawings and renderings from the automotive manufacturers whom they work with and turn them into lifelike images and videos. They have a lot of work displayed on their home page, so take a look at that to get a better sense of exactly what Armstrong White is all about. The work is so impressive that we couldn’t pick just a few to link to, you need to look at their entire portfolio.

Although most of what Armstrong White does is extremely artistic and technical (read: way over our heads), there’s not much more that we can say to explain their business. We do recommend that you take a look at this interview with Eric Bruneau, who is an Executive Vice President / Creative Director at Armstrong White as well as a four time Academy Award nominee. You might also want to take a look at Armstrong White’s YouTube channel. If you want to get a sense of what kinds of people work for Armstrong White, you can check out their employee profiles, which include pictures and some biographical data about their employees.

Armstrong White has a number of job openings, which they list both on their Jobs page and on Twitter. It’s hard to tell which jobs are entry-level, since we’re not familiar with the jargon, so we’re going to mention all the jobs that don’t list any experience requirements. Armstrong White is looking for a full-time Retoucher and for a freelance Geometry Prep, Environment Artist, and Flash Programmer. They also include that they’re always interested in Animators, Compositors, Lighters, Modelers, Retouchers, and Riggers. If that’s you, don’t be afraid to give them a cold call, or maybe it’s a lukewarm call since they said they’re “always interested.”

To apply for a job at Armstrong White, you’re going to need to include a cover letter, resume, and portfolio or reel. You can send that (and any other inquiries) to jobs@armstrong-white.com or

Armstrong White
ATTN: Mark DeRidder
800 W. Long Lake Rd. #100
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of the things in Armstrong White’s portfolio impresses you the most? Tell us in the comments.

Mina Group

Willy Franzen — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:33:20 +0000

Most CEOs have resumes that include business school, many of years of experience, and boring lists of financial accomplishments. How would you like to work for a company where the CEO’s proudest accomplishments are his being named Bon Appetit Chef of the Year and International Food and Beverage Forum Restauranteur of the Year? Michael Mina of the Mina Group is just that CEO – Chef Executive Officer (sorry, that is a horrible pun). Making deals, like any CEO should, Mina formed a partnership with Andre Agassi, the tennis star, in 2002 that has resulted in the launch of a line of high end concept restaurants.

Say Goodbye to Ramen (at Least Cooking It)

The Mina Group manages restaurants in California, Nevada, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, and Arizona. Here’s a full list of the restaurants with menus, photo galleries, chef profiles, and reservation information. We do know that they participate in on-campus recruiting at at least one school with a Hospitality Management program. Beyond that, their About page says that they are always looking to hire restaurant managers, chefs, line-cooks, sommeliers, servers, bartenders, hosts, and any other people who are seeking employment in a restaurant related position.

Individual positions are not listed on the Mina Group website, or anywhere else on the web (there’s one or two exceptions), so the best way to go about finding a job is to ask for one. Send an e-mail to hr@minagroup.net with a cover letter describing your qualifications and what type of position you’re looking for and a resume.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you know what positions are best for new college grads who want to work at the Mina Group? Leave a comment and let us know.

Moosejaw

Willy Franzen — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:00:39 +0000

We love companies that take something ordinary and create a unique value proposition for customers by creating a meaningful brand identity (uh, are we getting too jargon-y?). Moosejaw is a retailer of outdoor gear. You can buy what they sell at a lot of stores, through a lot of catalogs, or from a lot of online retailers, but Moosejaw still has an insanely loyal customer following. Every day they get rave reviews and customer photo submissions. Maybe it’s because Moosejaw has really good looking models, or maybe it’s the fact that Moosejaw offers homework help and dating advice to their customers. We’re not really sure what it is, but they’ve got their niche figured out.

We’ve been watching Moosejaw for a while, hoping that they’d eventually post some entry-level jobs on their website, since a search for “Moosejaw jobs” typically turns up opportunities in the the town of the same name in Saskatchewan. Moosejaw has finally listed a couple jobs that sound about right for a new college grad, so we thought it was time to let you know about them. The Moosejaw Jobs page says they’re currently looking to hire Assistant Managers for their Chicago store and an IT Assistant in their Madison Hills, MI headquarters. If you’re applying for the Assistant Manger position, you should probably have 2+ years of retail experience, which is the kind of experience that a lot of new college grads probably already have. The job descriptions are short, but entertaining and honest at the same time. The owner of Moosejaw’s mom even says that Moosejaw is a great place to work!

We hope Moosejaw will list more entry-level jobs in the future, so keep visiting their Jobs page for updates. We’d be especially excited to see jobs more closely tied to their marketing and online retailing, since that is what Moosejaw appears to be so good at. We think that the best way to get to know Moosejaw and how they do business is to take a look around their website. Since career related information beyond simple job listings is hard to find, the links below are focused on getting you familiar with the irreverency that has made Moosejaw so popular. We can’t promise it, but we get the feeling that Moosejaw is a really fun place to work.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

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National Wildlife Federation

Willy Franzen — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:00:59 +0000

The One Day, One Job team is partaking in the tradition of Spring Break (even if some of us aren’t in college anymore), so our posts are going to be on the shorter side for the next week or so. We figure, time off from school should give you plenty of time to do the research yourselves, right? Our compromise is that we’re going to give you more links, and less commentary. How’s that? I’m enjoying the wildlife of Puerto Rico, which includes ospreys, tarpon, egrets, iguanas (invasive, but still cool to look at), and a lot more, so it’s appropriate that today’s entry-level jobs come from the National Wildlife Federation.

The NWF is a non-profit organization that aims to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future. They’re a little light on entry-level jobs right now, but there are a couple of openings that should interest new college graduates. There’s a position as an Online Media Coordinator, Green Hour – Affiliate & Regional Strategies as well as a job as an Online Grassroots Coordinator – Conservation Programs. Both are located in the National Wildlife Federation’s Reston, VA office. You can also search for job openings at the NWF; however, most of the other listings require at least 5 or more years of experience. If you want to try cold calling, you might want to try the NWF’s local offices.

That’s it for today, visit the links below to continue your research on the National Wildlife Federation.

Note: On April 27th we revisited entry-level jobs at the National Wildlife Federation.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite wild animal? Leave a comment and tell us.

Ithaka

Willy Franzen — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:00:54 +0000

One amazing thing about the college experience is how much more tech savvy you become in just a few short years. It’s hard to imagine getting through college without the help of tools such as the Internet that were developed by universities and government entities for research purposes. Although technological innovation still occurs at institutions of higher learning, there is a clear lack of integration, standardization, and collaboration between these institutions when it comes to information technology infrastructure. While for-profit companies often have the business-driven incentive to standardize technology, non-profit educational institutions typically overlook the power of a shared infrastructure.

Ithaka is a non-profit organization (NPO) that promotes information technology innovation, standardization, and collaboration in higher education. By supporting non-profit entrepreneurial initiatives, while also working with established institutions, Ithaka is able to offer support to institutions of higher education through its three main activities: Research, Strategic Services, and Administrative Support Services. Each of these branches of Ithaka develops relevant best practices that aid institutions in creating sustainable models for information technology infrastructure.

Ithaka also pursues its mission of innovation through hands on support of non-profit, entrepreneurial start-ups. Ithaka is currently working closely with two affiliates: JSTOR (an online archive of scholarly journals) and ARTstor (a digital repository of images related to art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences). Ithaka is also incubating three offshoot projects: Aluka (a digital library of scholarly resources related to the developing world), NITLE (an organization advancing liberal arts education in the digital age), and Portico (a project focused on building a sustainable electronic archiving model).

If you have a deep interest in information technology, higher education, and consulting, Ithaka might be a great place for you to begin your career. Ithaka’s Strategic Services branch is currently looking to hire an Analyst. This branch offers consulting services such as Market Analysis, Business Model Development, and Evaluation of New Ventures to non-profit educational organizations. This is a clear-cut entry-level position for someone who desires the work experience of for-profit consulting, but is devoted to furthering the cause of innovation in higher education.

The Strategic Services Analyst position has a salary starting in the high 40’s with excellent benefits. It is located in Ithaka’s New York City office (other locations are Princeton, NJ and Ann Arbor, MI). If you would like to apply, send a resume and cover letter to Meredith Quinn at SSAnalyst@ithaka.org by November 30.

Note: On April 26th we revisited entry-level jobs at Ithaka.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s the word on Ithaka? Tell us in the comments.

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