by Willy Franzen on September 11, 2009

When I was a freshman at Cornell, a bunch of my friends decided to form a group called the Red Revelers. We would go to sporting events and act rowdy. We had t-shirts and everything. I guess that’s why Revel Consulting caught my eye when I was browsing through the Inc. 5000 (expect to be hearing a lot about that list in the next few weeks—it’s my favorite resource for finding cool companies). They’re a Kirkland, WA based consulting firm that has expertise in Product Management, Program & Project Management, Change Management, Process Engineering, Sales and Marketing Management, Strategy Development & Measurement, and Cloud Computing. They’re also the 34th fastest growing private company in the United States. Beyond an awesome growth rate, they were also “named to the list of 100 Best Companies to Work For by Seattle Business magazine based on job satisfaction, work environment, and professional growth opportunities.”
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Tagged as:
consulting,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
product management,
project management,
sales,
strategy,
Washington
by Willy Franzen on August 31, 2009

In my younger days hats were a big deal. I wasn’t particularly image conscious, but when it came to hats, I was. I remember one summer college hats were in. You know—the simple white hats with horizontal lines and the college’s name. Getting them just dirty enough with the just the right bend was essential (heaven forbid if someone “doritoed” your favorite hat), and, of course, you had to pop off the button on top. The next summer they were out. It was all about fitted caps—just like major leaguers wear. I was suddenly aware of how big my head really was, as I had to buy a properly sized hat. Then it was different color hats or hats with Japanese lettering. At some point I stopped obsessing over my hats, but Buffalo, NY based New Era has continued to be THE hat manufacturer of choice for all of the cool kids.
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Tagged as:
apparel,
entry-level jobs,
fashion,
logistics,
New York,
project management
by Willy Franzen on July 19, 2009

As I tell you every weekend, the non-profit world can never get enough top notch talent. Part of the reason is that the careers aren’t nearly as lucrative as private sector careers, but another part of it is that there are a seemingly unlimited number of non-profit organizations out there. Taproot Foundation solves this problem in an interesting way. They act as a project management consulting service while linking top notch business professionals up with non-profit organizations in a volunteer capacity. They typically work with organizations in the areas of Arts, Education, Social Services, Environment, and Health on engagements in the areas of marketing, HR, IT, and strategy management. I’m always impressed by non-profit consulting services, and this appears to be a pretty cool twist on that model.
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California,
consulting,
development,
entry-level jobs,
human resources,
Illinois,
information technology,
marketing,
New York,
non-profit,
program development,
project management,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on June 26, 2009

Considering the fact that I drove by a house in Michigan that was on sale for $12,500 just a few days ago, it’s pretty obvious that the real estate market still has some rebounding to do. There has been a lot of hurt in the industry over the past couple years, but maybe things are looking up. A friend who works at CB Richard Ellis let me know about a position that they’re trying to fill, and after I checked their Careers page I saw that they’re hiring for more than 200 positions. Considering the fact that they just went through a round of layoffs at the end of last year, I’d say all those job postings is probably a good sign for where the company (and maybe the economy?) is going. If you have heard of CB Richard Ellis before, you should know that they’re headquartered in Los Angeles and they’re “the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm (in terms of 2008 revenue).” Clearly $12,500 houses aren’t a problem for them.
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accounting,
administrative,
business development,
California,
entry-level jobs,
finance,
human resources,
Illinois,
information technology,
law,
marketing,
nationwide,
New York,
operations,
project management,
real estate,
research,
Texas,
Washington
by Willy Franzen on May 19, 2009

If you’re an Internet geek like me, then you’ve probably noticed all of the buzz around Wolfram|Alpha. Some have dubbed it a “Google killer,” but as far as I can tell, they’re way off the mark. They’re wrong because Wolfram|Alpha isn’t a search engine – it’s a knowledge engine. The goal is “to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.” The concept is kind of hard to grasp until you try it, but once you see how it works, I think that you’ll be impressed. So, who is behind Wolfram|Alpha? Wolfram, of course! They’re based in Champaign, IL, and they’re “one of the world’s most respected software companies–as well as a powerhouse of scientific and technical innovation.” They’re the company behind Mathematica – a software package that excels in ” computation, modeling, simulation, visualization, development, documentation, and deployment.” I’ve never had the pleasure of using it, but I know math teachers who think it’s pretty awesome.
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business development,
customer service,
data,
education,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
finance,
France,
Illinois,
information technology,
international,
Japan,
Massachusetts,
math,
project management,
quality assurance,
quality engineer,
research,
sales,
science,
software development,
statistics,
United Kingdom,
user experience,
writing
by Willy Franzen on March 16, 2009

I’m an iPhone guy, so I tend to feel sorry for people who are constantly thumbing away on their BlackBerries. That’s just my being a smug Apple user though. I realize that a lot of people love their BlackBerries and for good reason. They’re pretty remarkable devices, and they’re perfectly tailored for business use. (Although not as perfectly tailored as my iPhone! Ok, I’m done.) That’s why Research In Motion, the company that makes BlackBerries, has a 16.6% share of the smartphone market. They seem to have hit a bit of a rough spot lately (at least their stock price makes it look like they have), but their market position is still very strong. That’s why it’s no surprise that they’re doing a good amount of entry level hiring; however, the real reason that I wanted to feature Research In Motion here is that they chose an unfortunate, yet inappropriately hilarious domain name for their Jobs site (it redirects now, but I think that you can figure it out).
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Canada,
communications,
design,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
finance,
Florida,
Germany,
information technology,
Kansas,
project management,
quality engineer,
safety,
software development,
telecommunications,
Texas
by Willy Franzen on March 8, 2009

Today my little sister is on her way back from a few months in Ethiopia teaching art at an orphanage for children who have lost their parents to AIDS. From what I’ve heard so far, she’s had an amazing impact, so I’m obviously overwhelmingly proud of her. It’s hard to imagine what life without a family is like, but there are millions of children all across the world who know all too well what it’s like. That’s why we’re taking a look at Kidsave today (not the organization that my sister was working with). They’re a Los Angeles, CA based non-profit that is aiming to “to ensure that no orphan or foster child is forgotten and that every child grows up in a family with love and hope for a successful future.” It all started when friends and business partners Terry Baugh and Randi Thompson, both adoptive parents, realized how tragic the stories of orphaned children really are. They started Kidsave in 1997, and since then they have helped “more than 2700 children [find] parents and lasting connections with adults.”
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California,
entry-level jobs,
non-profit,
outreach,
program development,
project management
by Willy Franzen on March 3, 2009

When NBC Universal and News Corp. announced a new online video venture, I rolled my eyes along with nearly everyone else who had an interest in online video. Large corporations had consistently proven that they just didn’t get it. They were too busy removing videos from YouTube and suing college kids for file sharing. That’s why I was really surprised when I started using – and loving – Hulu. The fact that I can watch new episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, reruns of Doogie Howser, M.D., and Speed 2: Cruise Control (ok, their movie selection is still a little week) all for free with limited commercial interruption is pretty awesome; in fact, I now watch Hulu more than I watch tv. It’s no wonder that Hulu, which is based out of Los Angeles, CA, is winning all kinds of awards now.
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account management,
advertising,
California,
China,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
international,
project management,
software development,
television,
video,
web development
by Willy Franzen on February 25, 2009

Do you like intersecting stripes? How about branding? If you like both, then Plaid is the perfect company for you. They’re a small Danbury, CT based agency that specializes in Design & Branding, Emerging Media, and TV. They’re media agnostic, which means that they love it all as long as they can be creative. Seriously. Just look at their portfolio – it gives a great overview of exactly what they do and what their style is. I’m extremely impressed by their work, especially by what they’ve done on their own website. It’s fun and does a great job of expressing their brand’s personality. They look like a lot of fun!
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advertising,
Connecticut,
design,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
production,
project management
by Willy Franzen on February 12, 2009

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.
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analyst,
biology,
biotechnology,
entry-level jobs,
Michigan,
project management,
software development
by Willy Franzen on February 6, 2009

My Dad is an architect, and he often likes to send me suggestions on which companies I should feature next. Sometimes he finds some pretty cool stuff, and a month or so ago he sent me a link to the Winter 2009 online issue of HQ Magazine, which features an article called “Top 20 Places to Work.” Usually such lists focus on a range of reasons for a place’s being great to work at, but HQ is an architectural publication, so this list is all about office space (not the movie). The section of the article on Epic Systems says: “Epic’s campus fits into idyllic pastures and farmland, providing serene, relaxing views from within. Outside are hiking trails, playing fields, a treehouse. Meeting rooms have working fireplaces to further the sense of calmness.” It sounds amazing. Epic systems is a Wisconsin based, privately held, employee owned healthcare software provider.
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accounting,
biology,
biotechnology,
botany,
consulting,
entry-level jobs,
health care,
human resources,
information technology,
project management,
software development,
Wisconsin,
writing
by Willy Franzen on February 4, 2009

Sometimes you can just tell that a company is cool by looking at their website. It’s something about the way that they carry themselves online. New York City based thehappycorp definitely sends out that vibe, although they’re almost too cool. To be honest, I don’t fully “get” them. Their home page has a lot going on, and there isn’t much more information about what they do beyond the note that they work to improve “gross national happiness through the invention, management, and maintenance of progressive brands and ideas.” Their LinkedIn gives a little more info on what they’re all about; it says that they’re an “interdisciplinary creative company, that excels at delivering design solutions that are digitally competent” while offering a “wide range of services that include innovation, web development, experiential, and influencer marketing.” Now it’s all a little more clear…
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design,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
New York,
production,
project management
by Willy Franzen on January 25, 2009

I’m sure that all of you learned the story of Helen Keller in elementary school, but just to refresh you she was a woman who overcame growing up both blind and deaf in the late 1800s to graduate from Radcliffe College magna cum laude. These days that would still be impressive, but it’s amazing that she did that when she did it. (She had a tutor spell textbooks letter by letter into her hand.) After graduating from college, Helen Keller made it her life’s work to help blind and deaf-blind people. She founded Helen Keller International in 1915, and it has been “devoted to fighting and treating preventable blindness and malnutrition” ever since.
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accounting,
Connecticut,
entry-level jobs,
international,
New York,
non-profit,
outreach,
project management
by Willy Franzen on January 12, 2009

Here at One Day, One Job, we’re big on storytelling. The reason that we feature a new company every day is that a lot of companies aren’t very good at telling their own stories, and even if they are, there’s a good chance that you’ve never heard their stories. Brooklyn, NY based MediaStorm is one of those companies that excels at telling its own story – probably because their “principal aim is to usher in the next generation of multimedia storytelling by publishing social documentary projects incorporating photojournalism, interactivity, animation, audio and video for distribution across multiple media.” They’ve worked on some amazing projects that include Intended Consequences, a chronicle of the lives of Rwandan women who “were subjected to massive sexual violence, perpetrated by members of the infamous Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe,” and The Marlboro Marine, the story of a marine whose photograph became famous and how “tried to return to his previous life but found his nights haunted by images of war and his life fractured by depression.” MediaStorm seems to deal with a lot of heavy topics, but they certainly have mastered multimedia storytelling.
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design,
entry-level jobs,
flash,
interactive media,
journalism,
media,
New York,
production,
project management,
video,
web development,
writing
by Willy Franzen on December 25, 2008

Somehow the Coca-Cola brand has been indelibly tied to the image of Santa Claus. In fact, there’s even an urban legend that the modern image of Santa Claus was created by The Coca-Cola Company. It’s not true, but the fact that many people believe it to be true speaks volumes about Coca-Cola’s branding prowess (dating all the way back to the 1930s). We considered a lot of Christmas themed companies to feature today, but we keep coming back to the image of St. Nick sipping on a glass bottle of Coke. Let’s see how you can find a job with Coke.
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administrative,
analyst,
Arkansas,
Belgium,
California,
entry-level jobs,
food,
France,
Georgia,
international,
marketing,
Maryland,
project management,
supply chain,
Texas
by Willy Franzen on December 13, 2008

I was just browsing the news this morning when I came across the story of how Bernard Madoff, a prominent Wall Street trader, allegedly admitted to defrauding investors in his hedge fund of $50 billion. It is an unbelievable amount of money, and it’s hard to believe that anyone would go through the effort and risk to steal that much money – I can’t even fathom what you would do with $50 billion in illegally acquired money. The most outrageous part of the story might be that Madoff has been released on $10 million bail. That’s peanuts for him. It’s .02% of what he allegedly stole. After reading this story I started browsing non-profits for today’s post, and I came across the Vera Institute of Justice. It’s a New York City based organization with locations in Washington, DC and New Orleans, and it was founded when “philanthropist Louis Schweitzer and magazine editor Herb Sturz recognized the injustice of a bail system in New York City that granted liberty based on income.” Today’s story about Madoff is a perfect example of this injustice.
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analyst,
entry-level jobs,
law,
New York,
non-profit,
project management,
research
by Willy Franzen on October 25, 2008

Did your Kindergarten class have a special name? Something beyond the teacher’s name? If it did, you probably don’t remember it, but kids at Harlem Success Academy are going to remember the names of their classes for a long time. Not only are their classes named by the colleges that their teachers went to, but the classes are identified by the year that they will be graduating from college (if my math is right, then this year’s Kindergarteners are the Class of 2025). I think that’s pretty inspirational, and that’s the point. Harlem Success Academy is a charter elementary school that is exactly what its name says it is.
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administrative,
analyst,
arts,
education,
entry-level jobs,
finance,
human resources,
information technology,
music,
New York,
non-profit,
project management,
recruiting,
speech language pathology,
sports,
teaching
by Willy Franzen on October 23, 2008

Two days ago we featured MediaVest, a company that says it builds brands. Today, we have another “brand builder” for you. Liggett Stashower is a Cleveland, OH based advertising agency. They were named by Crain’s as the coolest place to work in Cleveland, and this video certainly backs it up. Liggett Stashower wins awards for community service and gives college students scholarships. I also hear that they occasionally pull children from burning buildings and are weeks away from the cure for cancer. Seriously, though, as soon as I arrived on Liggett Stashower’s website, I was impressed by them. They’ve done a fantastic job building their own brand, so it makes sense that other companies should trust them to do the same for them. If you’re interested in marketing, advertising, public relations, or communications, this is a place that you want to work.
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advertising,
communications,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
Ohio,
project management,
public relations
by Willy Franzen on October 18, 2008

Surprise, surprise. We’ve selected yet another one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Small Workplaces to be featured on One Day, One Job. That’s three in a row for those of you who are counting. We can’t express enough how helpful lists like these can be to your job search. Almost as helpful as Rainforest Alliance is to saving the rainforest. They’re a non-profit organization that “works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.” How do they do this? By working directly with farmers, workers, business leaders, NGO’s, governments, scientists and local communities to change the way that they do agriculture to make land use more socially and environmentally responsible while maintaining its economic viability.
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accounting,
administrative,
agriculture,
Bolivia,
conservation,
Costa Rica,
entry-level jobs,
finance,
forestry,
green,
guatemala,
international,
New York,
Nicaragua,
project management,
web development
by Willy Franzen on October 3, 2008

Let’s be honest – the closest that you’ve ever come to a Rolls-Royce was when you were watching MTV Cribs and saw one in a rapper/athlete/actor’s garage. I’ve seen some college students with some really nice cars, but never a Rolls. With that said, you can finally get close to Rolls-Royce through the college recruiting process. In fact, your lack of familiarity with Rolls-Royce automobiles won’t even matter, because Rolls-Royce plc (the company that we’re talking about today) doesn’t even make cars anymore. That business was sold to BMW in 1998. Rolls-Royce focuses on four global markets – Civil Aerospace, Defense Aerospace, Marine, and Energy – and two vital teams – Services and Research & Development. Although that may not be consistent with the brand image that you’ve associated with Rolls-Royce for a long time, you’re going to have to get used to it – especially if Rolls-Royce sounds like a company that you’d want to work for.
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aerospace,
customer service,
defense,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
finance,
Germany,
human resources,
leadership development,
project management,
supply chain,
United Kingdom
by Willy Franzen on September 10, 2008

Shopping is supposed to be social. When you were a teenager, you probably liked to hit the mall with friends. Now, you probably lie in bed late at night surfing web sites looking for cool stuff to buy. It’s just not the same. You need social proof to back up your buying decisions. You want to hear what other people think. You want reviews, stories, and answers to questions that you may have about a product or service. Bazaarvoice is a software as a service provider that promotes social commerce by connecting customers to each other. They get their name from the word “bazaar, ” which “symbolizes the beginning of commerce – the initial marketplaces… lively centers of town, buzzing with neighbors, friends and merchants all sharing opinions and building a vibrant community.” That’s what Bazaarvoice is trying to recreate online for their clients.
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analyst,
bilingual,
business development,
communications,
customer service,
design,
e-commerce,
entry-level jobs,
France,
Germany,
international,
marketing,
Netherlands,
operations,
product management,
project management,
social media,
software development,
Texas,
training,
United Kingdom,
virtual,
web development
by Willy Franzen on August 22, 2008

Does job searching ever make you feel like a total idiot? You go to a company’s website. You look for their Careers page. You can’t find it. You look all over the place. You search Google. Finally, you find it. It doesn’t do you much good, though, because their job listings are difficult to navigate, the links that you bookmark don’t work when you try to come back, and you can’t figure out how to apply online for the jobs. This is a surprisingly common experience, and it’s representative of the complete ignorance to user experience that many companies and applicant tracking system providers show. Adaptive Path is a company that is all about user experience. They help other companies provide more usable products and services through consulting, training, workshops, and thought leadership. They also have a simple Jobs page that leaves no room for confusion (although it is a bit hard to find because they call it “Work with Us.”
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California,
design,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
project management,
research,
user experience
by Willy Franzen on August 14, 2008

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.
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analyst,
business development,
entry-level jobs,
innovation,
Michigan,
project management,
quality assurance,
software development,
user experience
by Willy Franzen on July 1, 2008

I’ve written before about how run down the house that I lived in during college was. It was in constant need of maintenance, which mostly consisted of quick fixes that would break within a week. The giant ball of mold that started growing out of the ceiling received a little more attention, but not much. The guys who did maintenance on our house were always nice (even if the landlord was a total jerk), but it made me a bit uneasy knowing that they had a key to my place – if you know what I mean. Since my roommates and I weren’t paying for the “maintenance,” we didn’t have any say in who was working in our house. If we did, we would have used a service like ReliableRemodeler.com, which connects quality contractors with homeowners.
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construction,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
Oregon,
project management
by Willy Franzen on June 30, 2008

The word “faction” usually insinuates dissension, discord, or disagreement. We hope that Faction Media media chose their name because they are dissenting from the norm in the marketing solutions that they offer their clients, not because of a factious office political climate. Faction Media’s focus is on “business-to-business digital marketing with measurable ROI.” They do so through services such as strategic planning, digital marketing, search engine marketing, interactive development, systems integration, analytics and insight, media buying and planning, and content development. They sound like an interesting company, and they are hiring at the entry-level, so let’s take a look.
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account management,
Colorado,
entry-level jobs,
marketing,
project management,
seo,
software development,
web development
by Willy Franzen on June 23, 2008

For some new grads it takes them a realization before they can get anything done in their job search. For some companies it takes Realization to help them get projects done and accomplish the goals that they set out to achieve. Realization provides their clients with execution management systems that help managers do 2 simple things:
1. Keep all work across all departments and across all levels of management tightly coordinated.
2. Exercise proactive control – stamp out small problems before they become big problems that require firefighting.
These may sound like things that companies should be able to take care of themselves, but clearly they can’t. Otherwise, Realization wouldn’t exist.
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California,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
operations,
project management,
software development
by Willy Franzen on June 17, 2008

We’ve said before that using magazine lists to find a job can be extremely helpful in terms of idea generation. Today we’re going to talk about the company that is behind two of the most helpful magazine lists for job searchers. The Great Place to Work Institute is responsible for compiling Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and HR Magazine’s Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America. After more than 20 years of research, the Institute has found that “trust between managers and employees is the primary defining characteristic of the best workplaces.” If you’re looking for a job where you can trust your manager, why not consider the company that is known for identifying great places to work?
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business development,
California,
Delaware,
entry-level jobs,
project management,
research,
software development
by Willy Franzen on June 6, 2008

I spent last summer building One Day, One Job – the site, the idea, and the business. A lot has changed since then, but I remember that the test post that remained on the home page through much of the site’s development was titled “Hello.” Today’s post will be a fitting replacement as it is also titled “Hello,” and it is about web development. Hello is a Culver City, CA based interactive design agency. They have an extremely impressive portfolio, and they also look to be hiring at the entry-level.
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California,
design,
entry-level jobs,
flash,
project management,
software development
by Willy Franzen on May 29, 2008

Most people like shoes. They protect your feet, offer support, and keep you warm. Some people love shoes – love them to the point that their loved ones (not the shoes) are likely worried about them. Oddly enough, the people who deeply love shoes often seem most interested in shoes that barely protect their feet, offer little support, and provide little or no warmth. We don’t really get that. Zappos.com puts these people to shame. As a company they have a shoe obsession that is far worse than that of the most Sex and the City addicted, Daily Candy reading, New York City fashionista. Why do we say that? Because Zappos.com is obsessed with everything shoes, not just the shoes of some designer whose name you’re supposed to know.
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analyst,
apparel,
design,
editing,
finance,
human resources,
Kentucky,
merchandising,
Nevada,
photography,
project management,
quality assurance,
software development,
user experience