One Day, One Job » nationwide

Mars

Willy Franzen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:02:10 +0000

Tomorrow is Halloween, which means that we need to talk about candy today. We’ve already looked at companies like Jelly Belly, The Hershey Company, Charles Chocolates, Vosges, and Just Born Quality Confections. We’ve also discussed jobs at Mars & Co., which is a consulting firm, and not to be confused with Mars, the CPG and candy company. You probably know them best for M&M’s, Snickers, Dove, Milky Way, Twix, and Mars bar; however, they’re also behind Pedigree, Whiskas, Uncle Ben’s, and quite a few other brands. For your sake I hope you only run into the good stuff and not Whiskas or Pedigree during your trick-or-treating. While headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars has locations all across the world. They’re a huge company with a ton of international business, which makes for a great place to gain some experience.

Take a Trip to Mars

It all started in 1911 with butter cream candies in a kitchen in Tacoma, WA. Frank C. Mars and his wife started selling these candies, and now you’d be hard pressed to find a person who has never tasted one of his company’s confections. If you’d like to be part of this true American success story, then you need to check out Mars’ Careers page. They offer a lot of information about their company and what it’s like to work for them, and they even have a separate section for students. It seems that most of the information that they provide is on International careers, but they have a job search function that will let you find what you’re looking for. And since you’re in the trick-or-treating mood, I’m going to leave that up to you—but just so you know, they have job opportunities in areas including Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Logisitcs, Manufacturing, Marketing, Purchasing, Research & Development, & Sales.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite candy from Mars?

Best Shot Foundation

Willy Franzen — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:56:19 +0000

Some of the most fun that I had during college was playing in a charity dodgeball tournament. My team was doing really well until we ran into a team of future NHL players, pitchers from the baseball team, and some former softball players (they threw underhand, and they threw hard) in the semifinals. That match was pretty ugly, but even when you lose at dodgeball, you have fun. We’ve seen dodgeball gaining more and more popularity, and with that trend we’ve seen more and more non-profits using dodgeball to raise funds. Best Shot Foundation is a Washington, DC based non-profit that is doing just this. They’re an organization that is focused on bringing attention to the fact “that pneumonia kills more young children than any other disease,” and then doing something about it.

Give It Your Best Shot

Even here in America pneumonia can be a major problem for people—especially those whose immune systems are compromised in some way. However, across the world it’s a much bigger problem. According to UNICEF:

Pneumonia kills more children than any other illness—more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. Over 2 million children die from pneumonia each year, accounting for almost 1 in 5 under-five deaths worldwide. Yet, little attention is paid to this disease.

That’s a startling statistic. Best Shot Foundation is focused on fixing this problem by focusing on “the belief that increased public commitment will drive increased health resource allocation.” They’re getting things started by organizing dodgeball tournaments at college campuses across the country. I love the idea, and I think that you should help. Since Best Shot Foundation is a startup non-profit, they don’t appear to have any full-time, permanent jobs right now, but they are hiring 16 Regional Tournament Organizers to take on the challenge of running these tournaments. Since finding a job is so tough now, this is a perfect stopgap position to gain some experience for your résumé and show off your skills and abilities. And it could turn into something permanent if Best Shot Foundation continues to grow. You need to do more than just send a résumé to apply, so check out all of the requirements in the job description before applying.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever played in a dodgeball tournament?

U.S. Department of Labor

Willy Franzen — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:02:13 +0000

Having graduated from Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, I spent a lot of time learning about work, employment, and labor issues during my undergraduate days. While most people think that Labor Day is all about the end of summer (sorry!) and not being able to wear white anymore, my school ensured that I was made more aware of the history of Labor Day. Oddly enough, ILR didn’t give us the day off from classes, but they did excuse us from classes if we went to a big Labor Day celebration with speakers from major unions. If that sounds like something that would interest you, then maybe you’ll want to check out jobs with the U.S. Department of Labor. There isn’t a more suitable employer to feature on Labor Day than our Federal Government’s Cabinet department responsible for promoting “the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States.”

A Labor of Love

Maybe I’m unique in being fascinated by the world of work, but I think that the issues surrounding employment and labor are going to continue to play a huge role in our economic (and quite possibly cultural) history. The Federal Government has built itself a significant role in these issues through the Department of Labor, and with nearly 20,000 employees I don’t think the DOL is going anywhere in the near future. The scope of what the DOL does for our country’s workers includes:

improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements.

This creates all kinds of cool jobs for people who are interested in employment issues. From Statistician to Industrial Hygienist, the range of positions at the Department of Labor is extremely wide. Since you most likely have the day off, you’ll get the pleasure of browsing through the DOL’s Job openings yourself, since there are too many for me to list here. Before you do that, though, you may want to check out the DOL’s Reference Guide for College Students entitled Starting Your Career at the U.S. Department of Labor. It’s not flashy, but it will walk you through the process of getting a job at the DOL.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How are you celebrating Labor Day?

WWE (formerly WWF)

Willy Franzen — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:28:55 +0000

Yesterday I was amused by a friend’s Facebook status that said: “just had a revelation: Obama sounds like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.” I instantly imagined Barack Obama shirtless, yelling into a microphone, “Do you smellllllllllll what Barack is cooking?” Apparently SNL had a similar idea. That got me thinking about WWE (formerly the WWF), where The Rock first became famous. I was never a huge fan of professional wrestling, but I must admit to having watched on occasion. My little sister, on the other hand, was a huge fan. At about six years old she decided to be Hulk Hogan for Halloween. It was priceless. Back then they were the WWF, but a spate with World Wide Fund for Nature in 2000 resulted in a lawsuit and eventually a name change. WWE is located in Stamford, CT, just 20 minutes or so from my home town, and is a billion dollar business. Unfortunately, they haven’t been immune to layoffs, but they seem to have some great job opportunities right now.

Body Slam Your Way into a New Job

One thing that surprised me when I started doing research on World Wrestling Entertainment was the fact that they aim for a PG rating with all of their content. They put a huge emphasis on being family friendly because kids are such a huge part of their fan base. This philosophy runs throughout WWE’s five business units: Live and Televised Entertainment, Consumer Products, Digital Media, WWE Studios, and Sales & Sponsorships. If you’ve always loved professional wrestling and think that a career with WWE would be action packed, then you need to check out WWE’s Careers site. There are a bunch of job openings that can be considered entry level including Business Analyst (Stamford, CT), Live Event Marketing Rep (based anywhere in the U.S.), Motion Graphic Designer (Stamford, CT), On-Air Talent (Stamford, CT), and Writer Assistant (Stamford, CT). You can apply for all of these jobs online, so start practicing your body slams and elbow drops.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Who is/was your favorite wrestler?

Girl Scouts of the USA

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

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

Scouting Out the Job Market

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Were you ever a Girl Scout?

CB Richard Ellis

Willy Franzen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:55:21 +0000

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

Be with CBRE

CB Richard Ellis is a huge company. Not only are they world’s revenue leader in commercial real estate, but they also happen to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 employees and 300 offices. That makes finding an entry level job with them a little bit intimidating. It’s hard to know where to start, especially when they don’t have anything tailored to recent grads on their site. They do have a Career Paths section on their site, but it only allows you to self-select as Experience Professional or MBA. Neither of those pages offers much information that would be helpful to a recent grad. This means that we’re going to have to dive into the dreaded job search function to find entry level jobs at CBRE.

Unfortunately, CBRE’s job search function doesn’t let us link to specific jobs, and there are 200+ jobs to wade through. CBRE does have jobs all across the country, so getting ultra-specific with your query still should turn up a few results that might interest you. CBRE’s job areas include Administrative/Operations, Business Development, Client Services, Commercial Real Estate, Executive Management, Facilities Management, Finance/Accounting, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing/PR/Communications, Project Management, Property Management, Purchasing/Procurement, Research Management, Risk Management, Sales/Brokerage, Technology, and Transaction Management, so there really is something for nearly everyone. There’s also the position that my friend told me about: Marketing Coordinator (.doc file) in Woodbury, NY. You can apply for this specific position by sending your cover letter and résumé to joscelyn.wippern@cbre.com. For other positions you can apply online through CBRE’s Applicant Tracking System, or you can apply through e-mail to cbreresume@cbre.com. If you still have questions about the CBRE hiring process you can check out their Careers FAQ.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about CBRE?

National Park Service

Willy Franzen — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:37:02 +0000

Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays—not only because it signifies the start of summer, but also because I love small town patriotism. My hometown always has a fantastic parade that is often accompanied by a fighter jet fly over. Now, today’s employer may not immediately make you think of Memorial Day like last year’s did (it was Weber-Stephen, the manufacturer of my favorite charcoal grills), but you’ll realize pretty quickly why the National Park Service is a great choice for today. Not only are some of the parks that they manage great places to celebrate the Memorial Day weekend outdoors, but they’re also responsible for quite a few memorials including The Marine Corps War Memorial, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Korean War Veterans Memorial, and The World War II Memorial. Memorial Day is really about our fallen heroes, and the National Park Service is constantly working to honor them by maintaining and managing our memorials.

Celebrate Memorial Day All Year Long

If you love Memorial Day as much as I do, then a job with the National Park Service might be something worth thinking about. Whether you love the outdoors and want to be at Yosemite, love history and want to be at Lincoln’s Boyhood Home, or love our country and want to be at one of the memorials, you’ll have plenty of options. The NPS is constantly working to preserve “unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.” So, how do you land a job with them? You can start at the NPS Jobs page (it has some awesome photos from the 70s), but that will dump you into USAJobs.gov—use this link so that you only see jobs posted from the NPS. There are 163 jobs posted right now, and many of them are entry level, so we’re not going to wade through all of them for you, but you should know that the NPS typically hires in the following areas: Administration, Health and Safety, Archeology, History, Architecture, Human Resources, Biological Sciences, Landscape Architecture, Community Planning, Maintenance and Facility Management, Concessions, Natural Resources, Contracting, Park Police, Cultural Resources, Park Ranger (Protection), Engineering, Park Ranger (Interpretation), Financial Management, Park Site Interpretation, Firefighting, Physical Sciences, and Fire Management. That should help you direct your search on the USAJobs.gov site a little better. Applying for government jobs can be tricky, so be sure to pay very close attention to the details before you send in your application.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite National Park/

American Lung Association

Willy Franzen — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:46:00 +0000

Yesterday I got some bad news. A good friend and one of the best people in the fly fishing community was diagnosed with lung cancer a few months ago. It’s not a pretty picture, but if anyone can beat it, it’s him. Since he’s been on my mind since yesterday, I thought it would only be appropriate to take a look at the American Lung Association today. They’re a nationwide non-profit organization that aims to “save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease.” Whether it’s a lifelong smoker who is facing a life and death situation or a kid who is growing up with asthma (like me), the American Lung Association is there to help – mostly “through research, education and advocacy.”

Breathe Easy with These Jobs

Another reason that I decided to feature the American Lung Association is that a reader e-mailed me to rave about her internship with the organization. That’s always a good sign! The American Lung Association has locations all across the country – there are local chapters and regional offices as well. I’m not sure if you can approach them individually about jobs, but I do know that the American Lung Association’s Jobs page includes jobs in a variety of locations. Right now the entry level pickings are kind of slim. There are positions in Accounting and Software Development/IT, but they’re probably a little too advanced for a new grad. There are also a couple of volunteer positions (one in Customer Service Coordination and one in Administrative Coordination) that you might want to consider. I don’t normally recommend that, but after hearing about a Found Your Career student who volunteered his way into a contract job, I think it might be worth trying. How you apply depends on which position you’re going for, so head over to the American Lung Association’s to get all of the details. And remember, it’s pretty easy to track down contact info for people at the organization, so you may want to go that route to find information about more entry level opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about the American Lung Association?

Scottrade

Willy Franzen — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:58:44 +0000

After I graduated from college, I decided to take a responsible approach to my personal finances (I wish I had taken the same approach to my job search, but I didn’t, which is why I’m here teaching you how not to be a loser like I was). It took me a while to get my act together, but once I did I started investing in the stock market through Scottrade, an online discount brokerage company that is headquartered in St. Louis, MO. (And before I go on with more information about Scottrade’s jobs, I need to give Ramit Sethi’s book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, a plug because it just came out and is the best personal finance resource for young people that I’ve come across.) So, Scottrade allows me to buy and sell stocks at 7 bucks a pop. They also have a solid web interface that gives you access to all kinds of information, and they have 399 branches with helpful employees to answer you questions and get your accounts opened. If you’re interested in opening an account with Scottrade, let me know at willy@onedayonejob.com and I can give you a link that gets us both free trades. If you’re interested in working for Scottrade, keep reading, duh!

Trade Up to an Entry Level Job with Scottrade

Now, you may be thinking, “Ummm… Willy, the stock market sucks right now, why would I want to get involved with that business?” There are quite a few reasons. First of all, Scottrade is growing at an excellent rate, which is why they were included in the Inc. 5000. Second of all, they’re not one of these big banks that is on the edge of failure. They’re a discount brokerage that focuses on customer satisfaction, not playing with money in risky ways. Third of all, they’ve been named one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. Oh yeah, and the 4th reason is that they are hiring at the entry level. They do some college recruiting, but they also post plenty of positions on their Jobs site.

Jobs at Scottrade’s St. Louis headquarters that might interest new grads include IT Web Architect, Business Analyst, Business Analyst Specialist, and quite a few more – especially in the IT/Software Development Areas. Additionally Scottrade has jobs at its brokerages across the country. The Stockbroker position seems most appropriate for new grads, and you can do it almost anywhere – St. Louis, MO; Richmond, VA; Miami, FL; Oakland, CA; Greenville, SC; Albany, NY; Aventura, FL; Bloomington, IL; Boca Raton, FL; Castro Valley, CA; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Lafayette, LA; Midvale, UT; Ocala, FL; Parsippany, NJ; Redding, CA; San Antonio, TX; Santa Rosa, CA; Scottsdale, AZ; St. Cloud, MN; Yoba Linda, CA; Redding, CA, and probably a lot more places in the future.

You can apply for all of the jobs online on Scottrade’s Jobs site.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you invest? Do you use Scottrade?

Battelle Memorial Institute

Willy Franzen — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:55:03 +0000

We’re always on the look out for different kinds of non-profit jobs to feature on weekends, and today we’ve certainly found some. Battelle Memorial Institute is a Columbus, OH based organization that looks very much like a business – their tagline is even “the business of innovation” – but they are actually “organized for charitable, scientific, and educational purposes.” They have 5 main areas of focus – Energy, Health & Life Sciences, National Security & Defense, Laboratory Management, and Community & Education – which means that they do all kinds of things to further their vision of building “long-term relationships with their clients by anticipating their needs and delivering economically and socially valuable science and technology.”

A Battelle You Can Win

The Battelle Memorial Institute is named for Ohio industrialist Gordon Battelle. He “did not live to see his vision realized, but believed in it so strongly that others continue to make it a reality” through the gifts taht he left in his will. It all started with “a few machine shops and foundries,” but Battelle now “oversees 20,000 staff members and conducts $3.9 billion in annual research and development.” They work with all kinds of clients including federeral, state, and local government agencies; large corporations; private sector customers; and other partners. It’s still hard to put a finger on exactly what they do, but taking a look at their job listings will give you a more specific idea of the types of projects that they work on. You can search their jobs here, and you’ll notice that they have 127 open positions as of today. Since there are so many jobs and they are so background specific, we’re going to leave finding the jobs up to you today. Their job listings should be pretty easy to scan, and they vary widely in location. Battelle is hiring in locations all across the country, and you can apply for the jobs online.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about Battelle?

lululemon athletica

Willy Franzen — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:57:32 +0000

When I graduated from college a semester early and started thinking about looking for a job (thinking about doing something and doing something are very different, by the way), I quickly became overwhelmed by my lack of time commitments and lack of a plan. I was suffering from too much freedom, so my first response to join a gym and to commit to keeping my body strong while I figured out what I was going to do with my brain. It was a great idea, and I strongly recommend a gym membership for all job seekers. (I also strongly recommend that all first-time job seekers take our online job search training course). Anyway, I always try to join a relatively expensive gym, but not for the obvious reason. I don’t care about all of the frivolities. I just know that if I’m paying $10 a month for a gym, I’m a lot less likely to go – I need to feel invested. With expensive gyms come lots of people in expensive, designer workout outfits. That’s where I learned about lululemon athletica, a Vancouver, British Columbia based manufacturer and retailer of “yoga-inspired athletic apparel.” Everyone at my gym is wearing lululemon, and the retail stores around here are packed, so it’s no big surprise that they’re hiring.

Find a Job That Fits Like Yoga Pants

I didn’t realize how big lululemon athletica is until I started doing some research. They’re publicly traded on NASDAQ (although their stock has tumbled big time over the past year), and they have 260 jobs (many with multiple openings) posted on their Careers site right now. Most of the jobs are based out of lululemon athletica’s retail stores and fall under three titles – Educator, Community Leader, and Key Leader. Beyond these titles other jobs include Video/Motion Designer, Seamstress, Quality Assurance Technician, and Distribution Industrial Engineer. You can find all of lululemon athletica’s job postings here, and you can apply online for any of the positions. The retail positions are located all across North America and beyond, while the corporate positions are all in Vancouver, BC. lululemon athletica has a great website that is filled with information, so the links below will give you a ton of insight into what it’s like to work for lululemon.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any lululemon?

American Heart Association

Willy Franzen — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:06:17 +0000

If your sweetheart is out of a job this Valentine’s Day, then give him or her a gift that shows that you really care. Chocolates, flowers, and jewelry only bring temporary satisfaction, but there’s nothing more satisfying (besides a relationship with you, of course) than a job that you love. Enroll your sweetheart in Found Your Career (our online job search training course) today.

So far my Valentine’s Day related posts have been mostly about consumerism (ProFlowers, OpenTable, eHarmony, Tiffany & Co, and Vosges); however, since Valentine’s Day fell on a weekend this year, I had to find a Cupid approved non-profit. Since today is all about hearts, I thought that it’d be fitting to talk about jobs with American Heart Association. In case it’s not obvious, they’re a non-profit organization devoted to cardiovascular health. Their mission is to “build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.” It’s a simple mission, but it’s not an easy one. Since Valentine’s Day is really about the people whom we love, it’s fitting that we’re talking about an organization that is working to make sure that our loved ones are around and healthy for as long as possible.

Follow Your Heart to a New Job

American Heart Association has locations all across the country and a wide variety of job offerings. The job search function on their website is very easy to use, and it shows that they currently have 66 job openings. They are by no means all entry level, but there appear to be plenty of opportunities for new college grads. Administrative and Development seem to be popular areas for them right now, but there are other jobs as well. Make sure that you don’t overlook the positions with “Director” in the title. Usually jobs like those require significant experience, but the sampling that I looked at typically required 2+ years of experience, which might include some of you. There are literally jobs in ever state, so take a look and apply through their online process. If you have any questions about how to apply, check their FAQ.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Who’s your valentine?

NOAA

Willy Franzen — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:13:00 +0000

Happy Groundhog Day! Unfortunately, it looks like we’re headed for 6 more weeks of winter according to Punxsutawney Phil. That really aggravates me, so I think that I’m done trusting the rodent for my weather prediction. Last year we recommended that you consider working for the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, but this year we want you to actually be able to predict the weather. That’s why we want you to take a look at entry level jobs with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. NOAA is a government agency “that enriches life through science,” which makes them almost the exact opposite of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. NOAA’s responsibilities range from “daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring to fisheries management, coastal restoration and supporting marine commerce.” In fact, “NOAA’s products and services support economic vitality and affect more than one-third of America’s gross domestic product.”

From the Bottom of the Sea to the Surface of the Sun

NOAA has a great video that does a nice job of telling their story, so we thought we’d spare you some reading and embed it below. (If you’re reading via e-mail or RSS, you might need to click through to view the video).

classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"> autoplay="false" controller="false"
pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">

So what about entry level jobs with NOAA? You can find all kinds of information about working at NOAA on their Careers page. Unfortunately their Recruitment Events Calendar hasn’t been updated lately, but you can still check out their Career Fields and What NOAA Has to Offer pages. What you’re really looking for though – NOAA’s Jobs, you can find on USAJobs.gov. Right now they have 63 jobs posted in fields ranging from Computer Science to Fisheries Biology and from Program Specialist to Service Hydrologist. They list jobs by salary grade, which makes identifying entry level opportunities pretty easy. The jobs are located all across the country, so location depends on what’s available. You can apply online directly from the job listings on the USAJobs.gov site, so if you love earth sciences, there are probably some jobs for you. Beyond the USAJobs.gov site, there’s also a Student Opportunities page that links to Fellowships that may interest new grads.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think Punxsutawney Phil was right?

United States Secret Service

Willy Franzen — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:54:33 +0000

Yesterday was a holiday for a lot of people, and I’m going to guess that not a lot is going to get done today because everyone will be watching the inauguration. Many of you will probably try to use holidays and events as a way to put off your daily job searching, but here at One Day, One Job we try to make the most out of these situations by using them to generate ideas. Yesterday we look at jobs at The King Center, and today we’re going to check out jobs with the United States Secret Service. Why? Because today is a big day for the Secret Service. Managing security at an event like the Presidential Inauguration is a daunting task, but the Secret Service is at their best for events like this. That’s why we instantly thought of them when we tried to come up with some Inauguration related jobs.

It’s No Secret That the Secret Service Is Hiring

Although you probably know that the Secret Service is entrusted with protecting the President and other government leaders, you may not know that they have a dual mission:

The mission of the United States Secret Service is to safeguard the nation’s financial infrastructure and payment systems to preserve the integrity of the economy, and to protect national leaders, visiting heads of state and government, designated sites and National Special Security Events.

In fact, the Secret Service was actually created in 1865 to suppress counterfeit currency. It wasn’t until 1902 when the Secret Service took on the task of full-time protection of the President with 2 (yes, 2) full-time operatives. Since then, the Protection Mission has grown quite a bit. That’s why it’s no big surprise that the United States Secret Service is hiring.

The Secret Service’s Jobs page does a nice job of outlining the types of jobs that they offer. These include Special Agent, Uniformed Division Officer, Professional & Administrative, Technical, Administrative Support & Clerical, Technical Security, and Cooperative Education Employment Opportunity. These aren’t job opening – just the types of jobs that are typically available. To see the job openings at the Secret Service, you have to head over to the USAJobs site. There are currently 21 openings, and quite a few of them look they might interest new grads. The Secret Service also offers Career Fairs for their Field Offices and Temporary Employment for students who are working their way through school. There are opportunities in Washington, DC and all across the country, so do some research and see if a life in the Secret Service is something that you’d be interested in.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you watching the Inauguration?

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Willy Franzen — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:42:58 +0000

If there’s ever a time to be a Bank Examiner, it is right now. What probably would have been considered a boring job just a couple of years ago is now action packed. What is a Bank Examiner? It’s the entry level position at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. What’s the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency? It’s a bureau of the the U.S. Department of the Treasury that was chartered in 1863 to ensure a safe and sound national banking system for all Americans. How do they do that? They have a nationwide staff that “conducts on-site reviews of national banks and provides sustained supervision of bank operations. The agency issues rules, legal interpretations, and corporate decisions concerning banking, bank investments, bank community development activities, and other aspects of bank operations.” I think that it’s pretty obvious that the OCC has become a lot busier in the past couple of years. That’s why now is a great time to check out their entry level hiring program.

Are You Down with OCC?

There’s a lot to learn about OCC before you apply for a job, so you should probably spend a couple of hours on OCC.Treas.gov, if you’re serious about applying. If you’re not quite so serious yet, but you’re intrigued about what an entry level Bank Examiner does, then you should watch the OCC’s Careers Video. It’s a nice introduction to what the OCC does and what it’s like to work for them. After watching that, you should check out their Bank Examiner Careers page. This goes into great detail about the specific position that they typically hire new grads for. The jobs require a degree in “accounting, banking, business administration, commercial or banking law, economics, finance, marketing, or closely-related field from an accredited U.S. institution” or extremely relevant prior work experience. The OCC is based out of Washington, DC; however, they have locations all across the country and often require travel (30-80%) because Bank Examiners are often working in Community Banks. The pay is great, with a starting salary of $47,000, and the benefits are top-notch. It’s no big surprise that the OCC was ranked the 4th Best Place to Work in the Federal Government. The OCC already did some recruiting back in September, but they being recruiting again in February. Keep your eye on the Bank Examiner Careers page to see when they open up applications.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think that we have a safe and sound national banking system right now?

Starwood

Willy Franzen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:42:12 +0000

Having a girlfriend who is a consultant, I’m often subjected to hours of consultant-speak. It’s not really English, as it consists mostly of acronyms. One thing consultants seem to talk about a lot, even though they don’t have an acronym for it, is the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card. It’s apparently by far the best credit card for the consulting lifestyle (especially when you work for a firm that almost exclusively puts you up in Starwood hotels). Since I’ve been hearing the Starwood name a lot, and I’ve had a few people recommend their Jobs to me, I thought it was time to take a look at what kind of entry level jobs are available with one of the world’s largest hotel and leisure companies. In case you’re not familiar with the Starwood brand, they’re the company behind Sheraton, Four Points, aloft, W Hotels, Le Meridien, The Luxury Collection, Element, Westin, and St. Regis. All of them are nice places to stay, and a few of them are about as trendy as you can get when it comes to hotels – check out aloft.

Be a Star at Starwood

Starwood gets hospitality. They also get entry level recruiting. They make it dead simple for college students and new grads to figure out how to land a job with them. They have a College Recruiting page that outlines the 4 ways of getting a job with Starwood. You can go through Campus Recruiting or apply online, and you can apply for their Management Training Program or opt for Direct Placement. The Management Training Program seems to be geared towards students who are graduating from hospitality programs, but that’s not explicitly stated as far as I can tell. The program lasts 6-18 months and concludes with placement as an Assistant Manager or Manager in the hotel where the trainee trained. Applications for the Management Training Program haven’t been opened yet, but they say that you will be able to apply online in early 2009. If you go to one of the schools on this list, you’re better off talking to your Career Services office about when Starwood will be on campus than waiting for the online application to be posted.

If the Management Training Program isn’t for you, there’s another option. You can check out Starwood’s Career Paths and apply for Direct Placement. You have to go through a general job search function where you can narrow down from the 1,650 jobs posted by location, hotel, or job title. This is the one area where Starwood’s Careers site stumbles a bit. The job search function isn’t very good. Unless you enter specific criteria, you’re going to be inundated with results that are going to be hard to scan. Still, if you want a job in a posh hotel in an exotic location, that’s the best way to find one.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you stayed at any Starwood Hotels?

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Willy Franzen — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:48:43 +0000

We’ll be announcing the winner of the HP Magic Giveaway later today on the blog, so be sure to come back to see who won. Now that the contest is over, I’m digging out from under the the 1,000+ e-mails that I’ve received relating to this contest. I’ve come across a number of requests for me to feature certain companies, so I’m going to oblige our fans and start by focusing on PricewaterhouseCoopers and their entry level jobs today. In case you’re not familiar with PwC, you should know that they “provide industry-focused assurance, tax, and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for clients and their stakeholders.” In other words they work with the biggest companies (seriously) in the world to keep things running smoothly on the back end. In fact, PricewaterhouseCoopers is the third largest privately owned organization in the US, so it makes sense that other large companies trust them. PwC is one of the Big Four (auditors), which means that they’re doing a lot better than the Big Three (auto manufacturers). That doesn’t mean that they’re not feeling the recession, but they still seem to have a very active recruiting presence. For more info on how they’re doing as a company, check out their Global Annual Review for 2008.

PwC Knows How to Tell a Story

One of the cool things about PwC is how important their people are to their bottom line. They have more than 155,000 employees, but it’s not the numbers that makes their people so important. PwC is in the business of offering services, and that means that almost all of their revenue comes directly from labor – not from selling products. This means that instead of investing significant resources into product development, PricewaterhouseCoopers puts it into recruiting. This becomes quite obvious when you take a look at PwC.tv – PwC’s Campus Recruiting Site. PwC doesn’t have the most fascinating story, but they sure know how to tell it.

PwC.tv is unlike any recruiting site that I’ve seen before. It relies almost entirely on video to present PwC’s recruiting message. It might be too much (especially the music when you land on the site), but you have to love the effort. PwC.tv is broken up into 4 channels – Stories, features, and profiles; Surveillance cam: A look inside; Learning annex: Covering current business issues; and Corporate Responsibility. It flows well, but I’d love to see them offer a much more basic introduction. Most students who end up working for PwC are probably already familiar with them (it’s the nature of recruiting in the industry), but I still think that an intro video would be a nice segue into these high information videos.

Much of the information that would be appropriate for an intro can be found in PwC 411, which is a glorified About page for Campus Recruiting. It lays out everything that you could ever want to know about working at PwC, and it’s exactly what we think every Corporate Careers site should have. So what about the jobs? You’re not going to get specific job listings like you do on most sites, because that’s now how PwC recruits. Unlike Ernst & Young, who doesn’t allow online applications, PwC does take online applications. PwC’s entry level jobs are in Assurance, Tax, or Advisory, so you pick your area of interest and go through their web based application process. The other option is to go through campus recruiting, which is probably easily accessible because they visit so many campuses. PwC has locations all over the world, so they’ll find the right job and location for you in their selection process.

There’s a ton more info about PwC on their site, but we have limited space, so we’re going to leave the rest of the research up to you. Since PwC is so huge, we’ve only focused on their US based campus recruiting site, but if you want to check out other types of opportunities in other locations, you can start at their main Careers site.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about entry level jobs at PwC?

HP

Willy Franzen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:53:59 +0000

In case you haven’t already noticed, we announced the beginning of our part of the HP Magic Giveaway contest today. HP has given us $6,000 worth of their products to give away, and we’re giving them all away to one lucky winner. We thought that it would be cool to take a look at HP’s entry level jobs on the same day that the contest launches, but we had an internal debate over whether we should label it a sponsored post or include it with the rest of our posts. The contest is all about paying it forward, and since we haven’t received any compensation from HP for the contest (nor have we had any communication with HP’s HR department either), we thought that we’d send some goodwill back their way by featuring their jobs. Sorry to muddy up the post with this, but I wanted to make sure that we’re staying transparent.

I’m a Mac guy, so when I think about HP, I think about Hewlett-Packard and the clunky PCs that they used to make. Things have changed. They now mostly go by the name HP, and their computers are anything but stodgy. I have an office full of their products (until I have to send them to one of you), and I’m extremely impressed by how innovative they are. Their “technology solutions,” as they like to call them, really stand out from the crowd. I’m also impressed with HP’s approach to social media and buzz marketing. They understand that old media is dying and that they need to find a new way to market their products. What’s better than giving out products to bloggers to review and then having those bloggers giveaway the products during the holiday season? The success of the promotion is yet to be determined, but you have to like the prospect of working for a company that is willing to make a huge investment in trying something new.

Are HP’s Jobs as Magical as Their Products?

HP’s story is their products. If you want to know more about HP, all that you need to do is to head over to HP.com. It’s a consumer focused site, not a corporate site (if you want that, go here), so it’s going to give you a great feel for the direction that HP is moving their business without all of the corporate jargon. If you like what you see, then you should head over to HP’s Jobs site to see if they have any opportunities that are well suited to your background.

As forward thinking as HP seems to be with their products, they don’t seem to have the same attitude towards their recruiting. Their Jobs site is relatively generic, and so is their section for Students and Graduates. They do have a page that provides a list of typical jobs at HP, but it only offers a short blurb about each career path. The main point of HP’s Students and Graduates page is to direct you towards their Job and Internship listings on the right hand side of the page. Unfortunately, both of these links lead to job search pages that deliver no results no matter which query you enter. To actually find Graduate Jobs and Internships with HP, you need to use HP’s main job search page and then used the advanced search function to select Graduate Jobs or Internships. There were 358 results for Graduate Jobs when we checked. These include jobs like IT Infrastructure Consultant, Hardware Engineer, Software Designer, Packaging Engineer, and many more. I recommend that you narrow your search down by using more search criteria to find something that better suits you, since many of the jobs listed are not based in the US. You can apply for these jobs online directly from the job listings that show up in the search results. HP does have another page for US based campus recruitment, but it doesn’t really add too much more information.

So what’s our key takeaway when it comes to entry level jobs with HP? There are a lot of them, but HP’s online recruitment process isn’t very easy to navigate. They need to fix some links so that people don’t think that there aren’t any jobs available, and they need to get some of the people who worked on the HP Magic Giveaway to help them with their recruitment marketing and employment branding.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Don’t forget to enter our HP Magic Giveaway contest.

Ernst & Young

Willy Franzen — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:34:14 +0000

Happy Black Friday! May you not get in a fist fight over a discounted video game system or flat screen tv. Today is the official start of the holiday shopping season, and legend has it that it is also the first day of the year that major retailers “go into the black.” For those of you not familiar with accounting terminology, that means that they finally become profitable. Whether or not this is true depends on the retailer, but you have to wonder why a store wouldn’t just open up for November and December and sit dormant the rest of the year if it’s really that bad. Anyway, last year we talked about a major Black Friday retailer, Amazon.com, and their jobs, and today we’re going to go the other way and look at a major accounting firm, Ernst & Young. They might not be the first company that you think of on Black Friday, but you can be sure that they spend a lot of time analyzing the results. And, of course, they do a ton of entry level hiring.

Get a Job and Put Yourself into the Black

Ernst & Young is one of the biggest entry level employers in the world, and even they’re cutting back a little due to economic concerns. Still, between interns and full-time hires they’re looking to hire 5,000 students through college recruiting. That’s astounding. Ernst & Young has a fantastic Careers site with a specific section for students. It’s full of information, so you won’t have trouble researching Ernst & Young. Beyond their own Careers site, EY has also invested a lot of time in making the most of Facebook and Twitter. They really couldn’t do a much better job of keeping job seekers well informed, that’s why we encourage you to go to their site to learn more.

One thing that you won’t notice on Ernst & Young’s Careers Site for Students is job listings. That’s because they don’t have them. A few months ago I had a phone conversation with Dan Black (what a fitting name for today), EY’s Director of Campus Recruiting, and I told him that I couldn’t find the job listings on EY’s Students site. He told me that this was by design. Ernst & Young has specific academic requirements for incoming accountants, so they almost exclusively hire through on-campus recruiting at school’s that offer the type of education that EY is looking for.

Ernst & Young has locations in almost every state and in countries all across the world. If you want to see if they have a location near where you’d like to live, use their interactive map to check. So what should you do to get a job with Ernst & Young if you can’t apply online? The recommended plan of action is to go to your Career Services office and ask about when EY will be on campus. If that doesn’t work for you, you may want to try reaching out to EY’s college recruiting team through Twitter or Facebook. Now go shopping and help the economy, but save some money for our soon to be released job search training course.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What did you buy today to help retailers go into the black?

Department of Veterans Affairs

Willy Franzen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:52:48 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve featured any entry level government jobs, and with today’s being Veteran’s Day, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take a look at what kind of jobs you can get at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Before you get in to job searching mode, though, go thank a veteran. If your grandfather served in World War II, give him a call and say thank you. Or if one of your buddies has served or is serving in Iraq, shoot him or her an e-mail stating your appreciation. And if any of you job searchers out there happen to be veterans, thank you from the One Day, One Job team. Now let’s get into what the VA is all about. There are 25 million veterans currently living in the United States and 70 million people who are “potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members or survivors of veterans.” The VA is responsible for providing top-flight patient care and administering veterans’ benefits. Our vets have risked their lives to earn the services offered by the VA, so it’s important that the VA has a talented staff that is committed to providing top-flight “customer” service.

Thank a Vet by Working at the VA

If you remember any of our previous posts about jobs with the Federal Government (e.g. the US Forest Service), you’ll know that finding jobs with them isn’t as easy as it should be. That’s ok, because we’ll guide you through the process. You should probably start by checking out the VA’s page on Types of Careers. It has info on every type of job that they offer, and even includes some videos that show “A Day in the Life.” In fact, this area of the site is pretty simple to navigate, so you shouldn’t find it too hard to get a sense of what types of jobs might interest you – categories include Health Care, Business / Administration, Legal, Engineering / Architecture / Technical Support, and Specialized Skilled Occupations / Trades. The hard part is actually navigating through the job listings. For most jobs with the VA, you need to use the USAJOBS site to search for openings. (The exception is if you’re looking for jobs with the Veterans’ Health Administration.) From the USAJOBS site you can search by Agency, Occupation, Keyword, or Location. If you have found some positions that interest you on the Types of Careers page, then you can search for those jobs. If you haven’t, you might want to try using the keyword “entry.” It’s worked for us in the past, but it’s not 100% at finding entry level jobs. You can also try sorting the search results by salary and start from the bottom, which is almost certain to lead to jobs that require no experience. There are hundreds of jobs in locations all across the country, so we’re not going to list specific opportunities, but we will warn you that once you find jobs that look interesting and click on the links to their descriptions, be sure to notice the second row of tabs on the page. That’s where you can find all kinds of detailed information about the jobs and how to apply.

The VA does work in cities big and small, so there’s a strong likelihood that they have jobs near where you live. The application processes for all of these jobs are pretty intense, because that’s how the government likes to do things, so be sure to follow the instructions carefully.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you thanked a veteran today?

Levy Restaurants

Willy Franzen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:50:27 +0000

Yesterday I told you how my move to Chicago has extended my baseball watching season, but I’m not sure that I mentioned that I have tickets to today’s Cubs game! I’m pretty excited about it, although I’m not excited about the fact that it might get into the 40s tonight during the game. October baseball is not for fair weather fans – the types who might prefer a catered event at the stadium to a real baseball game. Whether you’re a fair weather fan, an insanely devoted fan who just wants to be as close to your team’s stadium as possible at all time, or even if you just enjoy fine dining, a job with Levy Restaurants might be something worth thinking about. They’re a company that is all about hospitality and dining experience, and they happen to do catering/events at some pretty amazing venues – Wrigley and U.S. Cellular Field included.

The Levy Difference

A caterer doesn’t get the right to cater at top flight sports venues with out offering a fantastic experience. Levy Restaurants attributes their success to what they call “The Levy Difference.” There happens to be a video on their website with the same name, so we’re going to recommend that you watch that before you dig deeper into internships with Levy Restaurants.

Now that you’ve watched the movie, let’s take a look at Levy Restaurants’ entry level job offerings. Their job descriptions don’t offer a lot of detail, but we’re pretty sure that a number of their jobs can be considered entry level. If you look at all of their current job openings, you’ll see quite a few Assistant Director of Operations positions (Conseco Field House – Indianapolis, IN; Live Nokia Theater – Los Angeles, CA; Qwest Field – Seattle, WA; Sprint Center – Kansas City, MO; and STAPLES Center – Los Angeles, CA). Any job title that includes “assistant” has a pretty good chance of being a well suited to new college grads. There are also an Accounting position at Lambeau Field (Green Bay, WI) and a Marketing Coordinator position at Chase Field (Phonenix, AZ) that may be worth looking at. Finally, there are a number of jobs as Sous Chef (many locations). These require significant culinary knowledge, but may be considered entry level for you if you just graduated from culinary school. Levy Restaurants is based out of Chicago, IL, but has locations all across the country, so be sure to check out their list of venues to see where they might be hiring in the future. They don’t provide an HR contact or an e-mail address, so the only way to find out more information about jobs with Levy Restaurants is to apply online directly from the job descriptions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever experienced the Levy Difference? What’s it like?

Edible Arrangements

Willy Franzen — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:09:51 +0000

Back in February, I told you all about ProFlowers and how I use them for all of my flower sending needs. Flowers are great. They’re beautiful, they smell good, and they make people happy. Still, I can’t get over the fact that they’re kind of useless (as Brad Paisley would say, I’m still a guy). You pay a lot of money to send them to someone, then the flowers sit around in a vase for a week until they’re thrown away. I’d much rather be sent something that I can use or, better yet, eat. That’s why I love Edible Arrangements. They allow you to send beautiful “bouquets” of delicious fruit – chocolate covered if you like. Whenever I’ve sent an Edible Arrangement to someone, I’ve been told that it was the best gift basket that the person has ever received. Not only are the arrangements tasty, but they provide healthy snacks for at least a few days (chocolate covered pieces not withstanding). Take a look at their arrangements, and see what I’m talking about.

Deliciously Entry-Level

Edible Arrangements is one of those companies that makes you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” They’ve taken a really simple concept, and built a franchising business on it. It all started with one store in my home state of Connecticut, and has taken off since. Last year Edible Arrangements was named the 139th fastest growing company in the country by Inc. Magazine, and this year they were named the 49th best franchise by Entrepreneur magazine. There are now 857 Edible Arrangements stores across the world, and they’re continuing to grow.

Edible Arrangement’s corporate office is located in Wallingford, CT, and they have a number of job openings that might be well suited to new college grads. Their Corporate Jobs page includes listings for a Creative Chef in the Product Development department, Franchise Trainers, and Customer Care Representatives. The Chef position looks to be, by far, the most interesting opportunity, but it also requires a strong culinary background. There are also jobs for Franchise Sales Consultants; they don’t seem to be intended for new college grads, but it may be worth applying for if you’re really interested.

Finally, there are all kinds of jobs at Edible Arrangements franchise stores. They have locations all across the country, but the jobs aren’t mostly the types that are geared towards new college grads. Still, you might want to take a look at Edible Arrangement’s Franchise Store Jobs page.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever given or received an Edible Arrangement? Did you love it?

Phantom Fireworks

Willy Franzen — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:30:34 +0000

Happy 4th of July! You know we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk about fireworks, so we’re going to take a look at Phantom Fireworks and what kind of job opportunities they have. The fireworks industry is a tough one to be in, because those silly things called laws always seem to get in the way. For instance, my home state of Connecticut recently confiscated half a million dollars’ worth of fireworks from B.J. Alan Company (Phantom Fireworks’ parent company) because the amount of pyrotechnic mixture in the fireworks exceeded the state regulations of 100 grams per item. Talk about raining on someone’s parade – er – fireworks show.

Ooooohhhhh, Ahhhhhhhhhhh

To be honest, most of the job opportunities currently offered by Phantom Fireworks aren’t going to launch (pun intended) your entry-level career, but who else were we going to feature on the 4th? Your college degree probably isn’t going to be put to its best use as a Tent Operator or Cashier, so maybe you should try submitting a resume for an unlisted position. Phantom’s corporate office is in Youngstown, OH and resumes and cover letters can be sent to dmayne@fireworks.com. There is a listing for an Executive Secretary which maybe worth a look for some of you, but we’re hoping that a reader with a background in chemical engineering takes charge and convinces Phantom to hire him or her for a product development job or something cool like that. There have to be some really interesting jobs in the fireworks industry, but, unfortunately, we couldn’t find any listed online for the 4th.

Now go blow some stuff up… if it’s legal in your state. I will be playing with sparklers that contain less than 100 grams of pyrotechnic mixture.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have a happy and safe Independence Day – especially if you’re playing with fireworks.

The Landers Group

Willy Franzen — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:13:07 +0000

One Day, One Job is about helping college students find great entry-level jobs. We’ve always taken this literally by featuring companies that look like great places to work (we can’t ever be 100% on this, but we do our best). Well, a big part of finding a great first job is avoiding the not so great (or really awful) jobs that are out there, so, today, we are going to look at a company called The Landers Group, which has been identified as a scam by people online and in the media. As it gets later in the post-graduation job hunting season, many new grads become desperate. It makes them easy prey for employment scams like those peddled by The Landers Group.

I’m Smart, I Don’t Fall for Scams

Yeah, that’s what suckers say. How do we know that smart people fall for these scams? We’ve seen it happen. One of my friends is a freshman at an Ivy League school. He was torn between getting a summer job or an internship, so he was looking at all kinds of options. He told me that he had landed an interview with a really cool sports marketing company. Being a reader of One Day, One Internship, he knew to contact us with questions on how to research a potential employer. He had already scheduled an interview with the company for when he returned home, but he sent us the name of the company (The Landers Group) so that we could tell him a little bit more about it. Within seconds we found a number of Google results that indicated he was in for a learning experience (but not the kind you want to get out of your internship). Our friend is a smart kid. He’s proactive and trying to get a Summer internship even though he’s only a freshman. He was about to get burned.

Why You’ll Fall For It

We’ve never had firsthand experience with The Landers Group or any other company that follows similar business practices, but we’ve found enough evidence through our research to indicate that any time spent in contact with one of these companies is wasted. You will usually find these jobs listed on major job boards with titles like “Sports and Entertainment Marketing – Entry Level Positions.” The job description will go into great detail about all of the wonderful things that await those who apply – excellent pay, travel opportunities, learning experiences, and quick advancement. Take a look at all of The Landers Group’s Job Postings on CareerBuilder. They’ll also brag about their amazing client list. From their website:

One by one The Landers Group has added every major sports team in Southern California to its portfolio. No other advertising and marketing firm in the area can make the same claim… Our unparalleled portfolio includes the Los Angeles Dodgers, the LA Clippers, the LA Kings, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, MLS’ Chivas USA, the UCLA Bruins, and also clients such as Crowne Plaza Resorts, Disneyland, and Sea World. Our unique grass-roots marketing approach has given our clients a valuable edge in the marketplace and it places them front and center in the public eye!

Since it seems that Sports and Entertainment Marketing are extremely popular fields with college students, these job listings must get viewed thousands of times. Many of those who read the job descriptions get excited and apply. We don’t have a reference to back this up, but we’re going to guess that everyone who applies gets an interview.

The “Interview” Process

It’s relatively likely that your “interview” with The Landers Group might be your first ever job interview. Whether you realize that something’s fishy depends on how perceptive you are. We’ve heard that their secretary will not refer to the company by name, probably because they operate under multiple names and don’t want you to realize it. Your first interview will most likely be informational, where they’ll continue the pitch that they started in the job posting. Any questions about what the company actually does or what their entry-level jobs are like will probably get a vague response. You’re also likely to hear, “You’ll have to see it to believe it.” Since scammers usually don’t turn away people, we’re going to guess that you’ll get asked back for a second interview too.

The second interview is where you’ll really get to see The Landers Group in action. You will be tagging along with one of the company’s employees. The story usually goes that you end up in a sketchy car with a sketchy person going to a sketchy neighborhood. Once you get there, you find out what The Landers Group does. They sell coupons door to door. Remember that amazing client list? That’s whose coupons you will be selling. You’ll be given one side of the street, and the employee will take the other. You’ll essentially spend the day working for free. How do we know? We’ve found stories from people who have done it like this and this. If you’re lucky, you’ll just end up having wasted a day. If you’re not, you may end up stranded many miles from home or having had a gun pointed at you and with mud all over your only suit.

How to Avoid Getting Burned

Now that you’ve read about The Landers Group, you will hopefully know to avoid these scams. If you’re not sure whether an employer is legitimate, use what we’ve taught you to do some employer research. Our articles How to Use Google to Find a Job and Turning the Tables: Digging Dirt on Employers are both excellent resources that will teach you what to need to know. Often, finding out the truth is as easy as doing a Google search with the company name and the word scam – here are the results for “The Landers Group scam.” Also, remember that these companies use major job boards as their main recruiting tool. Don’t think that because something is listed on Monster, Yahoo! HotJobs, or CareerBuilder it is legitimate – anyone can pay to post their jobs on these sites.

Don’t forget that The Landers Group operates under a variety of names. There are also many other companies that use similar business practices to recruit unsuspecting college students into bum jobs. The stories are often different, but the end result is usually the same. Although The Landers Group is focused quite heavily on selling an actual product, some of these companies are even skeezier. Instead of selling, you’ll be doing their bidding by recruiting more suckers to work for you recruiting more suckers. In general these types of operations are known as Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) operations, and they should be avoided unless you are completely comfortable with what you’re getting into. Here’s a post from the Consumerist on other operations that are using tactics similar to those of The Landers Group.

A List of Companies Known to Have Similar Practices

The Landers Group
Kelly Advertising
Granton Marketing
DS Max
After Five Marketing Group
Dalton Management
Innovage

This is by no means a comprehensive list. If you know of other companies that should be added, please leave a comment with the company’s name and a reference or personal story telling us why they should be included.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

This was obviously a different kind of post for us. What do you think? Leave a comment. We love to hear feedback.

Sun Microsystems

Willy Franzen — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:06:58 +0000

So what? I’ve become a mild Twitter addict. I keep finding internships by scanning tweets and following the links in them, but, unfortunately, I can’t say the same about entry-level jobs. The term entry-level is reserved mostly for job postings, while the word internship is near universal – so it’s used conversationally (like on Twitter). Yesterday, I found a link to a post by a Sun Microsystems employee who is looking for two interns. Her post led us to Sun’s main Careers site, which truly impressed us – especially because of the way that they present their entry-level job offerings.

The Sun Also Rises

You’ve probably heard of Sun Microsystems, but I’ll bet that you’re not quite sure what they do. It’s actually quite likely that you’re using their technology right now, and you don’t even know it. Their About page says that Sun provides “software, systems, services, and microelectronics that power everything from consumer electronics, to developer tools and the world’s most powerful datacenters.” They’re a huge company, with 33,350 employees worldwide and a ranking of 187 on the Fortune 500. They’re certainly a technology company at heart, but because of their size, their entry-level job offerings extend well beyond technical positions.

Looking for Bright New Grads

It’s pretty cool to find a big company with a blogger who posts about the company’s jobs, since it’s usually smaller startups that use social media for recruiting. Our first impression was to be totally impressed with Sun, but we were doubly impressed when we visited their main Careers site. It is by far the most usable Jobs site that we have come across yet. They have a Student Employment Zone, a Recruiting Blog, and the best job search feature that we’ve ever seen on a corporate site. All you have to do is check a box, and all of their jobs for new grads (all 167 of them) appear. Check another box and you only get entry-level jobs that are located abroad (none available right now). There’s no need for us to list specific entry-level jobs at Sun Microsystems, since should have no problem finding something that interests you – they even organize their search results by department. They are so easy to navigate!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Looking for internships at Sun Microsystems? We’ve got you covered.

Wilderness Inquiry

Willy Franzen — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:13:12 +0000

We’ve had enough of these desk jobs! Spring is here, and we’re itching to get outside to start enjoying the improving weather. I, for one, need to get outdoors often to be happy, and I know that there are plenty of people out there who share the same feeling. In fact, many people find it hard to be their most productive when they’re inside. Unfortunately, career options become a lot more limited (especially in terms of advancement opportunities) when sitting at a desk isn’t involved. Since we love jobs that offer different types of work experiences, today, we’re going to look at a non-profit called Wilderness Inquiry, which, as an employer, is about as good as it gets for our outdoorsy readers.

No Fluorescent Lighting Here

Wilderness Inquiry is about “making high-quality outdoor experiences accessible for everyone, including those who do not typically get out and enjoy the wilderness.” That’s it. We love it when a company or organization can break down what they do in one sentence. The focus of Wilderness Inquiry trips (and they offer over 200 multi-day trips to locations around the world) is typically hiking or canoeing. Many outdoor programs choose to segregate people by their experience or ability, but Wilderness Inquiry thinks that ensuring that all participants have a good attitude is the only requirement for putting together a great trip for everyone. When you look at Wilderness Inquiry’s website, you realize that they are serious about inclusion; in fact, Wilderness Inquiry is especially adept at making the great outdoors more accessible to people with disabilities.

Inquire Within

Whether you are just looking for a job for the summer after your graduate, or you’d like to make a career out of helping to make the outdoors more accessible to all, Wilderness Inquiry has some great job opportunities. Part-time / Temporary jobs include Pack-in Coordinator and Food Coordinator. You can also join the Trail Staff, which appears to be a more permanent position. If you’d like to work in an office, but still get outside often, the Program Director – Youth Training job might be right for you. You’ll definitely need some prior work experience, but it seems like the kind of thing that an exceptional new college grad (who possibly worked as a camp counselor or organized college outdoor programs) can do. There’s also the option of applying for other, unlisted, General Full Time positions. There is an online application that appears to be the same for all of the positions, so go ahead and fill it out if you don’t want to be cooped up in your first job after college.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you been on a Wilderness Inquiry trip? Tell us about it in the comments.

American Express

Willy Franzen — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:00:26 +0000

I love American Express. When my girlfriend ran over my iPod Nano (ok, I dropped it on the ground behind her tire and didn’t know it, my bad) their Purchase Protection Plan covered it. When my money was running a little short during the holidays, I won a 25% off Amazon.com coupon through their MyWishlist Promotion. It made buying gifts a lot easier. When my Mother and Grandmother went to visit my Aunt, AMEX provided a free companion ticket. It was 2 for the price of 1. There’s no credit / charge card company that treats its customers as well as American Express does.

They also treat their employees well. They’ve won more top employer awards than we care to list. Their products and services are unparalleled, they’re passionate about their business, and they always seem to put customers first. They have an amazing brand, which is the 15th most valuable in the world. Yes, their brand alone is worth more than $20 billion. This all translates into an extremely strong employment brand.

The Fun Begins

Unfortunately, American Express’ Careers website is a prime example of failure of the last mile; in fact, it’s an absolute disaster that diminishes the employment brand that AMEX has worked so hard to build. When you first get to American Express’ Careers Home Page, it looks ok. It’s titled “Staffing_Careers Home_US,” which is completely accurate, but neither welcoming nor user-friendly. This may not be a huge issue, but if you’re using Google in your job search, you’ll realize that when these titles show up in the search results, it makes it hard to find what you’re looking for. This may be a small nit to pick, but it’s representative of deeper problems that you will find as you navigate deeper into the AMEX Careers site – especially on their Campus Recruiting section (hey, at least they have one).

We appreciate that American Express has decided to provide visitors with a plethora of career related information, but they’ve done it in a fashion that cluttered, inconsistent, and difficult to navigate. We don’t want to rant too much, so we’re just going to highlight the areas that will offer you the most value. You can get started at either the Campus Recruitment Process page or the US Campus Recruitment page, unless, of course, you’re looking to work in Europe or Asia-Pacific (by the way, our international student readers will be happy to know that AMEX does offer visa sponsorship for many positions). Individuals with graduate degrees will want to look at the Global Leadership Express program. You’ll also want to read the Get To Know Us page to get a better understanding of the businesses that American Express operates.

You’ll probably find that these pages don’t really have the information that you’re looking for. For instance, the Campus Recruitment Process page talks mainly about internships. Even the pages with good information have poor navigation and formatting that make the content hard to absorb. It seems like American Express does a much better job of on-campus recruiting, and that online recruiting just doesn’t matter to them. You can end up wasting hours wandering around American Express’ Careers site, when all you’re trying to do is find job listings for college students.

So How Do I Find an Entry-Level Job at American Express?

Despite the lack of organization on American Express’ career site, it becomes pretty clear that entry-level hiring is a big part of what they do. Hiring occurs in 8 Functional Areas (American Express Interactive, Marketing, Customer Care, Risk & Information Management, Finance, Strategic Planning Group, Human Resources, and Technologies) and Four Business Units (Global Consumer & Small Business Services (GCSS), Global Business-to-Business, Finance, and Support Functions). Or at least that’s what they tell you. When you actually start searching for jobs on their site, you’ll see that jobs are actually organized by job function, which partially overlaps with the Functional Areas. Did we forget to mention that the only way to find a job on American Express’ site is to use their job search function?

Depending on how you navigate to AMEX’s job search function, you may get the impression that you can search specifically for entry-level jobs (especially if you came from this page). From what we can tell, you can’t. If you add the words “campus” or “entry level” to your search, you will find some appropriate jobs, but you’ll probably miss out on a lot of others. Your search will definitely be more productive if you can narrow it down using keywords related to the Functional Area that you’d like to work in, but who knows if such a tactic will even yield accurate results. It seems like the only way to find AMEX’s jobs for new college graduates is to wade through all their job listings, or to search your college’s job posting site for American Express listings. We wish we could go through all 566 jobs that are currently posted and pick out the ones that look suitable for new college grads, but we’ve banged our head against the wall enough tonight.

Why We Whine

Like I said in the first paragraph, I love American Express. I also hate sounding like a complainer, but it’s unacceptable for a company of American Express’ stature to completely ignore usability on their careers site. Just because the strength of their brand brings them more applicants than they’ll ever need doesn’t mean that they should overlook the opportunity to use the power of the Internet as a recruiting tool. One Day, One Job is about helping you find meaningful work after you graduate college, but it’s also about improving the way companies present their career opportunities online. If great companies like American Express can’t get it right, then who can?

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

If you have found any tricks to navigating the American Express Careers website, please share them in the comments section.

Easter Seals

Willy Franzen — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:00:32 +0000

We’re going to keep it short today, because we have an Easter Egg Hunt to attend to. As we search for the golden egg, you can go hunting for that perfect entry-level job. One place to look is an obvious choice for today, Easter Seals, which is a non-profit organization that “provides exceptional services to ensure that people living with autism and other disabilities have equal opportunities to live, learn, work and play.” Started as the National Society for Crippled Children, Easter Seals is an organization that has adapted to the changing needs of people with disabilities over time. The one constant has been a focus on resurrection and new life for the people whom Easter Seals helps.

Easter Seals offers jobs in five categories: Camping and Recreation, Professional, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Speech-Language Pathology. Each category has job listings from local Easter Seals offices, and many of these jobs are entry-level and geared towards new grads. Not all jobs with Easter Seals are listed online, so you may want to check with your local office to find more opportunities.

We’ll be back with full-length posts tomorrow. We hope you’re excited for more in-depth information on the best entry-level jobs for new college grads.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Still looking for that “golden egg” of a job, check out our archive of entry-level jobs.

United States Golf Association

Willy Franzen — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:00:57 +0000

When you think of non-profit organizations and their missions, you typically think about groups that are feeding the hungry, saving the planet, or promoting education. There are myriad non-profit organizations that aren’t dealing with such serious issues, but they still deserve attention during your job search. One example is the United States Golf Association. As golf’s national governing body, the USGA is constantly focused on anything that is “for the good of the game,” whether it be running tournaments, writing the rules of Golf, or supporting other golf related programs.

The USGA’s main entry-level job offering for new college graduates is a two-year Fellowship Program that is aimed at getting young people started in a career in golf. The USGA website has all kinds of information on the fellowships, including job descriptions and profiles of current and past fellows. Unfortunately the application deadline for the USGA Fellowship was in January. If you love golf, it’s something that you should watch for next year. Until then, you can hang at the driving range and the practice greens. If you’re already a scratch golfer and looking for a job right away after you graduate (it’s actually ok to apply if you can’t break 100), there are current openings for a Rules of Golf Associate and Volunteer & Player Services Liaison, 2009 U.S. Open Championship. There are a few other jobs listed on the USGA’s Careers page, so be sure to take a look at all of the current openings.

We’ll be back to normal length posts on Monday. We had a great Spring Break, and we hope you did too – even if you spent it job hunting.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your handicap?

NASA

Willy Franzen — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:00:21 +0000

Typically young children are quite realistic about their career aspirations. They want to be firefighters, policemen, and teachers – professions that are in constant, steady demand. The more ambitious children might want a job as a doctor or veterinarian – still steady, but requiring a significant investment in education. It almost seems that as children we’re more realistic about life and careers than we are when we reach adulthood – except those kids who wanted to be astronauts. Since the beginning of the space program, there have only been 321 astronauts selected. Ever. There’s no surefire (or easy) way to become an astronaut – pilots, schoolteachers, doctors, scientist, and engineers have all been astronauts – but if selection as an astronaut is one of your life goals, you need to start preparing now. If you’re not ready for the commitment that it takes to be an astronaut, there are still plenty of entry-level jobs at NASA that will enable you to have a meaningful impact on the space program and NASA’s other endeavors.

NASA is a large government agency with many entry-level jobs, so instead of identifying each job opening, we’re going to guide you through how to their jobs website and help you find the information that you need before you decide to apply for a job. Usually, we complain that companies shortchange job searchers in terms of career related information on their website, but with NASA the problem is one of too much information. Maybe it’s a test to weed out candidates who can’t deal with navigating through complex situations, but we were a bit overwhelmed by NASA’s jobs site. Before you jump in and start looking around the site, you might want to read NASA’s Applicant Guide. It’s audaciously long, but it covers everything you need to know to get a job at NASA. If we left you to navigate the site, it would probably take you quite a while to find the guide, but we think it’s important to reward our loyal readers with shortcuts straight to meaningful content (if you like shortcuts, subscribe to One Day, One Job).

If you read our post about entry-level jobs at the US Forest Service, then you’re aware of the fact that all jobs with the United States government are posted on USAjobs.gov. Since NASA does not accept applications for unspecified positions, you must go through this site and search specifically for NASA jobs. We couldn’t find any information on an application process tailored specifically to entry-level candidates (probably because there isn’t one); however, there is a guide for college students who are seeking employment. There are also lists of occupation types, applicable entry-level pay ranges, and NASA locations to help you determine which jobs you should apply for. NASA also offers a FAQ for students. Like we said, there’s a ton of information.

In addition to NASA’s jobs site, there are a few other sites that are worth mentioning. First is NASA People, which is a site that appears to be targeted towards current NASA employees. It covers almost any question that you could have about what it’s like to work at NASA, so serious job searchers should spend some time browsing this site. Second is the annual ranking of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, which ranks NASA at fourth. This gives in-depth statistics about what kinds of people are more likely to be happy working at NASA (most employees), and what types of people are less likely to be happy at NASA. It also breaks down the rankings into a number of factors that may or may not be important to you.

Finally, there is this Wired article that details the struggles that NASA is having connecting with young people. The problem is pretty obvious. The space race to put the first man on the moon created an amazing amount of interest in NASA for our parents’ generation, but we have been given technology like the Internet to explore the world that we live in. Many young people don’t see the point in exploring space, when there is so much to discover right at our fingertips. The article includes a presentation that was given to NASA management by some of NASA’s younger employees on how to improve engagement with Generation-Y/Millennials/whatever you want to call us by emphasizing NASA’s continued relevance to the issues that concern our generation. Even people who are not interested in jobs at NASA would do well to read this article as it brings up a lot of important questions about NASA, science, and the workplace. The Wired article ends by pointing to OpenNASA.com, which is a blog by NASA employees. It’s excellent, and as authentic of a resource as you’ll find on what working at NASA is like – especially for someone who is not far removed from college. Although the blog is unofficial, it’s the type of resource that every company could use to improve their recruiting practices.

If you want an entry-level job at NASA, you’ve got a lot of research to do. Get moving!

Note: On April 25th we revisited entry-level jobs at NASA.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Want an internship at NASA? They have a lot of them, and we’re talking about them at One Day, One Internship.