One Day, One Job » quality assurance

DivX

Willy Franzen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:55:36 +0000

We’ve looked at plenty of Internet video companies in the past, but we haven’t spent too much time looking at companies that provide the underlying technology that drives Internet video. DivX is a San Diego, CA based company that develops and licenses video codecs. Codec is short for compressor-decompressor, which is essentially technology that allows you to more efficiently transfer data. In DivX’s case they provide a codec that allows high definition video to be compressed without sacrificing quality on the other end. They’re a big part of why Internet video finally works so well. Transmitting uncompressed video over the Internet takes a huge amount of bandwidth, but using a DivX codec significantly decreases the amount of bandwidth necessary to transmit your favorite time wasting video.

Decoding Your Job Search

If you’re going to end up working for DivX, chances are that you know more about video codecs than I do (please forgive me if my explanation above wasn’t up to snuff). While most consumers aren’t familiar with the DivX brand, they most likely use the company’s technology often. Whether it’s on the computer, the tv, or your phone, there’s a really good chance that DivX’s technology makes it possible for you to watch video. Since DivX isn’t typically selling you a product, they have to make most of their money through licensing this technology to third parties. DivX is very much a technology company, so that’s where most of their jobs are. Right now they have 25 open positions, and a few seem suitable for new grads including QA Tester (San Diego, CA), Integration Tester (Malvern, PA), Field Applications Engineer (San Diego, CA), Embedded Engineer – Software Development (Malvern, PA), and Certification Engineer (Malvern, PA). You can apply online for any of these positions, and if you’re interested in working internationally (Germany, Russia, or China), you should check out the rest of DivX’s job postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Had you heard of DivX before?

Berry Plastics

Willy Franzen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:39:49 +0000

A couple of days ago the blogosphere exploded (pun intended) with news about bomb proof wallpaper. The story originally came from Popular Science with a video of a wrecking ball trying to knock down a brick wall that has been reinforced with the X-Flex Blast Protection System (the video is included below). I always love news stories like this one, because it puts the spotlight on a company that you never would have otherwise. In this case it’s Berry Plastics, an Evansville, IN based plastics company. Their products range from agricultural films to plastic bottles and from drink cups to trash bags. There’s a good chance that you have dozens of items in your house/dorm/apartment that were manufactured by Berry Plastics—you just don’t know it because most people don’t care who manufactured their shampoo bottles.

Bomb Proof Your Job Search

I’m pretty sure consumers will be much more brand conscious when it comes to buying bomb proof wallpaper. Obviously the military is talking about using the X-Flex Blast Protection System, and I can also imagine the product’s being used in areas where hurricanes or tornadoes are prevalent. You’ll see why in the video below (subscribers should click through to view):

For me the obvious question whenever I find an interesting company like Berry Plastics is are they hiring? Considering that Berry Plastics has more than 13,000 employees (most of them in a manufacturing setting), I’d have to imagine that they’re always hiring at some level. Unfortunately Berry Plastics has the worst Applicant Tracking System that I’ve ever seen. It uses a Java applet, and it’s absolutely unusable. It doesn’t really make sense, since they have a pretty informative Careers page. Since I can’t get the read on specific positions, we’ll have to go by the fact that Berry Plastics says that they typically offer positions in the following areas: Accounting, Administration, Automation, Customer Service, Engineering, Graphic Arts, Human Resources, Information Technology, Production (Molding, Printing, Machine Operator, Material Handling), Maintenance, Management, Marketing, Materials Management, Purchasing, Quality Assurance, Sales, and Tool Room.

There’s no word on college recruiting, but you’d have to imagine that an Engineering focused company of 13,000 does at least some entry level hiring. You should also note that one of the benefits listed on their Careers page is “Fun.” I guess your best bet is to apply through their online application form, or if you’re really going to go for you could print your résumé on Berry Plastics’ bomb proof wallpaper and send it to them. They’d have to hire you because they wouldn’t be able to destroy your résumé.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you going to use bomb proof wallpaper?

Scripps Networks

Willy Franzen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:39:04 +0000

If you haven’t checked out our post on Personal Finance and the Job Search, do that now. We’ve just added a special one day offer to get our job search training course Found Your Career for free.

Exactly a month ago we featured Charm City Cakes of Food Network fame, even though they’re not hiring. It was my birthday (so today is my 1/12 birthday!), and I wanted to talk about what to do when a company has zero interest in hiring anyone. If that post didn’t work for you, we have another way to get closer to the Ace of Cakes—working for Scripps Networks. They’re the parent company behind tv networks that include HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living, and GAC. Unlike Charm City Cakes, Scripps Networks is openly hiring, and a number of their positions seem perfect for new college grads. If your tv is often tuned into one of those stations, then you need to see what Scripps Networks has to offer.

Get a Job in Lifestyle Media

Scripps Networks is all about lifestyle media. You probably could have gathered that yourself from their logo, or from the list of their TV networks. They are a part of the much larger E.W. Scripps Company, which operates in all types of media—newspapers, television, licensing, and spelling bees. Additionally, Scripps Networks is investing a lot in expanding into online media, which obviously makes a lot of sense. While I’ve heard a lot about declining ad sales on television, it seems that Scripps Networks must be doing well. They have a ton of jobs posted, and although their job search function is a bit messed up, you can just click search without entering anything and browse through the openings. You’ll find positions like Ad Sales Assistant (3 positions all in New York City), Ad Sales Marketing Coordinator (NYC), Ad Sales Planner (NYC), SEO/SEM Analyst (Los Angeles), International Business Analyst (NYC), Closed Caption Formatter (Knoxville, TN), Office Coordinator (NYC), Online Marketing Specialist (London, UK), Program Planning Assistant (NYC), Public Relations Coordinator (NYC), Quality Assurance Analyst (Knoxville, TN), and Sales Coordinator (NYC). Lots of jobs, so head over to Scripps Networks’ job search page and start browsing—you can apply online.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which is your favorite of Scripps Networks’ channels?

Brightcove

Willy Franzen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:45:33 +0000

It took long enough, but Internet video is everywhere. Yes, we had online video 10 years ago, but now it actually looks good—and works. The main reason for this is that end users (you and me) finally have technology in their homes that can handle playing online video. This means high speed Internet connections and computers with enough processing power to not crash when a website uses a Flash video player. The issue for content creators is that delivering video still poses some challenges. Sure, I was able to produce an online job search training course that relied heavily on video with little trouble, but I wasn’t delivering video to thousands or even millions of people (I wish I had the problem). As your use base increases, the challenge of delivering video increase exponentially. Moreover, managing video content in an organized fashion is a completely different challenge than organizing text and images. Brightcove is a Cambridge, MA based company that provides an online video platform for many of the worlds biggest brands.

Are You Bright Enough?

I’ve probably said this before about other companies, but I’m not sure that I’ve seen a client list as impressive as Brightcove’s customer list. It includes names like The New York Times, Discovery Channel, Sony Music, U.S. Army, and Ticketmaster, so you know that Brightcove isn’t just some flash in the pan startup. They have top flight clients who are paying lots of money for the Brightcove platform. With that said, it will be interesting to see how online video delivery develops in the next 5 to 10 years and how Brightcove adapts to those changes. If you want to be a part of the future of online video, then you need to check out Brightcove’s Job listings. Most of their current openings are either experienced or internship positions, but there are a couple of jobs that seem suitable for new grads. These include Customer Solutions Specialist and Part-Time Training Operations Assistant. Brightcove also has a listing for applicants who can’t find a job posting that fits them. Whether you are looking for something in Software/Web Development, User Experience, Quality Assurance, Marketing, Sales, or Business Development, it’s probably worth reaching out to Brightcove to see if they might have something for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you seen websites that use Brightcove to deliver video?

Slide

Willy Franzen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:39:03 +0000

It looks like Yahoo! Finance has taken a page out of my book and used Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list to highlight some companies that are hiring. I found the link on Twitter, and was pleased to see that I had already featured a number of the companies. One that I haven’t yet featured (and don’t remember hearing about before) is Slide. They’re a San Francisco based startup that claims to be “the world’s leading social entertainment company.” I think that’s a bit of a stretch, but they do make social networks more fun for hundreds of millions of people. Their 40 Under 40 CEO is Max Levchin, who co-founded PayPal (which was sold for $1.5 billion to eBay). He is apparently well on his way to having built another billion dollar company, considering the fact that Slide was valued at $550 million last time that they took money.

Slide into a New Job

The basic premise behind slide is that social networks are better when you can bring outside content in—whether it’s sharing something that you’ve made like a slideshow or using an application that allows you to throw sheep. People want customization, yet they don’t have the web development skills to do it on their own. They need help, and that’s where Slide comes in. Monetizing social network traffic isn’t necessarily easy, but Slide seems to be heading in the right direction when it comes to turning their massive traffic into revenue. Not only do their investors believe in them, but so do advertisers like Starbucks, Sunkist, Activision, AT&T Wireless, Discovery Channel, Estee Lauder, McDonald’s, Lionsgate Films, Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures. I guess 5 million sheep thrown a day is worth more than I thought it was. Slide is very clearly growing, and as I mentioned in the opening of this post, they’re hiring. Their Jobs page shows more than a dozen open positions, and a bunch of those are suitable for new grads. These include Product Manager, Community Manager, Flash Animator/Illustrator, Flash Social Game Engineer, Graphic Designer, Junior QA Engineer, Linux Server Engineer, OO Javascript/Front-end Engineer, Python Web Developer, and Community Support Representative. You can apply online directly from these links, so give Slide a look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Slide?

ExactTarget

Willy Franzen — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:53:54 +0000

I think that e-mail is still the king of social media. We have all of these fancy social networking accounts, but they all send their notifications to our inboxes. If you want someone’s attention, e-mail is the way to go (assuming your message doesn’t look like spam). Heck, you’re probably reading this in your e-mail. That’s why e-mail marketing continues to be a rapidly growing industry. We’ve already taken a look at jobs with Constant Contact, Aweber, and e-Dialog, and now we’re going to look at an industrial strength e-mail marketing company, ExactTarget. They’re based in Indianapolis, and since 2000 they’ve been focused on “providing the most powerful on-demand software for email communications and finding the best and brightest marketers on the planet to revolutionize the way people think about email.”

Target Your Job Search Exactly

ExactTarget offers a wide array of e-mail Products, Services, and Solutions that are used by clients like CarMax, Expedia, The Home Depot, and other huge brands. If you’d like to join ExactTarget at the forefront of e-mail marketing, then you should check out their entry level Catapult Rotational Program. Here’s an introductory video on the program (e-mail readers click through to watch):

If you like what you just saw, then there are two tracks that you can take. The ExactTarget Business Track will allow you to gain experience across departments like Marketing, Accounting, Solutions Consulting (SolCon), Account Management, Deliverability Services, Strategic Services, Training, SMB/Renewals, Partnerships, Human Resources, and Sales, while the ExactTarget Technical Track will have you working in Solutions Consulting (SolCon), Customer Support, Integration, Product, Quality Assurance, Deliverability Services, Training, Implementation, Design and Deployment. You may be able to meet up with ExactTarget recruiters on your campus, but if they’re not recruiting at your school you can get the run down on how to apply for the program here. ExactTarget has done a fantastic job with their entry level recruiting program, and I bet that reflects how much they value young talent.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of the Catapult Rotational Program?

Adify

Willy Franzen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:10:16 +0000

I finally got around to reading a review copy of Sramana Mitra’s Entrepreneur Journeys
over the weekend, and it offered a pleasant surprise. Beyond providing an inside look at the lives of more than a dozen entrepreneurs, it also provided me with a number of ideas for companies to write about here. Today, we’re going to take a look at Adify. They’re a San Bruno, CA based company that helps media companies build vertical ad networks by combining “advanced ad serving and targeting technology together with an invaluable layer of expert human judgment and monitoring.” In other words, they make it technologically easy for content companies to monetize their websites.

Jobify

What Adify does may seem a little complex if you’re not familiar with the online advertising industry, but it’s actually pretty simple. Say that you have one of the most popular websites on fly fishing, and you want to sell advertising targeted to fly fishermen. Unfortunately, there’s no ad network that does the specifically, so you need to use a large ad network like Google’s that doesn’t really understand the audience as well as you do. With Adify, you can create your own ad network so that not only your site’s ad inventory can be sold, but you can also get other similar sites to join your network and sell their ad inventory. Adify provides the back end technology for all of this, while you can focus on content and selling advertising. It’s pretty cool. Right now Adify has a bunch of jobs posted, and a couple seem like they might be well suited for new grads. If you head over to their Jobs page, you should be sure to check out the QA Engineer, UI Engineer, Solutions Engineer, and Platform Solutions Associate. You can apply for any of the jobs by sending a cover letter and resume to jobs@adify.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Wolfram Research

Willy Franzen — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:49:42 +0000

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.

Join a Powerhouse

From what I can tell, Wolfram is about as academic as a company can get. They use their expertise in computer science to create amazing tools that help smart people do their jobs and research better. Yet, Wolfram’s ambitions go beyond that. This Wolfram|Alpha thing seems to be a well received attempt at going mainstream, and it’s only in its early stages. You have to love a company that is constantly working to make people smarter and more effective, which is why you should consider jobs with Wolfram Research. They don’t have specific job openings listed, but they are constantly looking for people in the following areas:

Algorithm Development
Software Engineering
Financial Engineering
Image and Signal Processing
Control Systems
Geospatial Information Systems
Instrument Control
Experimental Data Analysis
Statistics
User Interface Development
Applications Development
Software Quality Assurance
Technical Support
Technical Marketing
Business Development
Project Management
International Business Development
Special Projects
Mathematica Programming
Information Technology
Customer Relations
Educational Outreach
Technical Writing
Sales
Scientific Business Development
Technology Licensing

There’s a single online application form for all of these positions, and it’s really in-depth. So, if Wolfram Research already has you fascinated and “you’re clear-thinking, pragmatic, and energetic about getting things done well,” then go ahead and apply ASAP. Additionally, Wolfram Research has some Science and Technology R&D Fellowships that you may want to check out. Beyond Wolfram’s headquarters in Champaign, IL, they also have locations in Boston, MA; Oxford, United Kingdom; Paris, France; and Tokyo, Japan.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Wolfram|Alpha’s capabilities?

VistaPrint

Willy Franzen — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:46:26 +0000

When I started this business, I focused almost entirely on the web for networking – a LinkedIn connection or an e-mail address was all that I needed. However, my mom (who is also my graphic designer) had other ideas. Right after she designed my logo, she sent away to VistaPrint to get me business cards. Although I didn’t use them right away (I was glued to the computer screen and not talking to many people in real life), eventually they became a necessity. Those business cards also came with the one and only One Day, One Job t-shirt (a free gift from VistaPrint). They are the place to go for customized stuff (there’s no better way to put it). You can get business cards, pens, checks, banners, postcards, lawn signs, rubber stamps, mouse pads, magnets, and much much more. The best part about it is that you can do it all online and get a really great price. VistaPrint is definitely achieving their goal of “making high-quality graphic design and custom printing convenient and affordable for everyone.”

A New Vista for Your Career

The printing industry has been around forever, and it’s taken hundreds of years to begin its decline phase, but we’ve certainly reached it. That’s why it’s hard to believe that VistaPrint has built a $400 million printing business in less than 10 years. I guess that’s what happens when you own 90 percent of the online printing market (even if the market only makes up 1% of the total small business printing market). With such a rapidly growing business, it’s no surprise that VistaPrint continues to recruit top talent. Their Campus Recruiting page says that they focus on grads from Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, MIT, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, RIT, RPI, University of Waterloo, WPI, and Yale University. All of their events at those campuses occurred in the fall, but their site says that they will have future opportunities for Software Engineers, Quality Assurance Automation Engineers, Quality Assurance Engineers, Internet Software Quality Assurance Engineers, Marketing Associates/Analysts, and eCommerce Business Analysts. The jobs that are currently posted don’t seem to line up with their entry level opportunities, but you should still check them out to see if there’s anything that excites you. If not, you can submit a resume for general consideration. VistaPrint is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, but they also have offices in Lexington, MA, The Netherlands; Windsor, Ontario; Montego Bay, Jamaica; and Barcelona, Spain. I should also note that VistaPrint has a fantastic Careers site, that makes it really easy to find information about what it’s like to work for them. The only snag is that it’s not immediately clear how you should apply for entry level jobs.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used VistaPrint?

TokBox

Willy Franzen — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:33:36 +0000

Remember The Jetsons? They were my first indication of what the future would look like – flying cars and video phones were my favorites. Apparently we aren’t much closer to flying cars, but video phones are here – sort of. We’ve had the technology for quite a while, and many of you have probably used video chat at some point, but it hasn’t caught on quite like the creators of The Jetsons thought it would. I’m sure that you can come up with a number of reasons why, but I think the big thing holding us back from more video communications is the lack of a common platform. If I want to call someone, I can pretty safely assume that they have a phone that I can call. If I want to video chat with someone, I need to make sure that they not only have the right hardware but also that they have software that is compatible with mine. TokBox is a San Francisco based startup that is using the common platform of the web browser to enable video chatting. When you want to video chat, you just go to TokBox and they’ll give you a link. You send that link to a friend, they click it, and assuming that both of you have webcams and fast enough connections, you’ll be video chatting in no time.

Let’s Tok About Jobs

I first came across TokBox when I got an e-mail from a PR firm about their internships program. Yes, that’s right. They hired a PR firm to promote their internship program. That’s a big sign that they value their talent, but it’s obviously about more than their internships. They’re using their web based video chat platform to accept internship applications, which means that all the people who don’t get the internship are going to give the TokBox product a test drive. They’re not doing the same for their jobs, but TokBox’s Jobs page does show a number of opportunities that I think my interest you (especially if you have a background in Software Development). Right now they’re looking for a Software Engineer – Rich Internet Application (Flex), Software Engineer – Web Services and Application Infrastructure, and a QA Tester. They do want people with significant Software Development experience for these jobs, but I’m sure there are quite a few new grads who will fit the bill. You can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to jobs@tokbox.com. And if you have any questions, you can use the links on TokBox’s Team page to video chat with their employees instantly. How cool is that?

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried TokBox?

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Willy Franzen — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:08:43 +0000

I always say that when it comes to ad agencies, marketing companies, and PR firms, the best way to evaluate the company is to check out their client list and look at the work that the company has done. It’s not going to tell you everything that you need to know, but it’ll give you a solid idea whether or not the company is a place that you might want to work. If you want to work with big brands who are willing to take big risks with their advertising campaigns, then Crispin Porter + Bogusky might be the place for you. The Subservient Chicken is one of their more successful campaigns that started out virally, while the Microsoft campaign with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld was one of their well-publicized flops. CP+B is headquartered in Miami, FL, while they also have major locations in Boulder, CO; Los Angeles, CA; and London, UK. Their client list sits at the bottom of every page on their website – probably because it is so impressive.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky = A Job for You?

The brands that Crispin Porter + Bogusky have worked with are unparalleled, so if that’s what gets you excited, keep reading. Here’s what CP+B has to say about what they do:

We’re a factory. A factory that makes advertising and branded creative content. But there is no assemly line. All the work is custom desgined and assembled by hand. We don’t have the luxury of knowing the product we build today will be exactly like the product we built yesterday. To be successful, we have to apporach every single day like it will be our defining moment. Because that’s reality.

They’re clearly a company that knows how to tell stories – their own and their clients’. My only issue with Crispin Porter + Bogusky is that their site is in all Flash, so it’s impossible for me to link to all of the interesting things on their website. They might want to work on that. So how can you land a job at CP+B? You can start by checking out their Employment page. It consists of a list of areas that they typically hire for – Creative, Integrated Production, Interactive Creative, Interactive Development, Content Management, Cultural and Business Insights, Productions Solutions, Creative Content Distribution, and Factory Support – with e-mail addresses to apply to. There are no specific job descriptions or anything like that. There is, however, an online version of Crispin Porter + Bougsky’s Employee Handbook, which will give you an inside peek at what it’s like to work for them. You should note that Crispin Porter + Bogusky recently laid off 6% of their staff, so getting a job may not be easy. There is hope though, because they have a 4 jobs posted on TechCrunch’s Job Board. Maybe they’ll be replacing the people that they laid off with cheaper entry level talent.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s work?

Mozilla

Willy Franzen — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:53:19 +0000

I remember the days of browser wars. It was Netscape vs. Internet Explorer, and it was ugly – the Internet that is. Back then it was all about whether or not your browser displayed pages properly, and people were passionately in favor of one browser or the other (or maybe some weird 3rd option). Now it’s all a lot simpler (unless you’re still using Internet Explorer) – your browser probably displays most sites just fine, and you’re more worried about speed and bells and whistles. That’s where Mozilla shines with their Firefox browser. They’re absolutely dominant with web savvy users (except with me – I still use Safari), and they are constantly making their products better. The Mozilla Corporation is a Mountain View, CA based wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit, while the Corporation calls itself a “public benefit organization.” That means that they are “dedicated not to making money but to improving the way people everywhere experience the Internet” – even if by definition they’re still a for profit.

Browse Mozilla’s Jobs

Not too long ago it seemed that the browser wars were over. Microsoft had come out on top, and they had even decided that there was no need to keep working on building a better web browser. Out of nowhere an open source project started gaining traction. Internet Explorer is still an industry behemoth, but Mozilla’s Firefox continues to grow and can now claim 15% of the world market share. That means that there’s still a lot of room to grow, and with Mozilla’s focus on user experience, you can be sure that Firefox will continue eating away at Internet Explorer’s user base.

One of the coolest things about working at a company like Mozilla is how many people they reach. Most of my daily work is done on the web, and my web browser is almost like my office. Most of our computing needs are moving to the web, and Mozilla is doing everything in its power to make that experience as enjoyable as possible. So, how can you become a part of Mozilla and their awesome projects? You can start by checking out their Careers page. It’s really well done, and includes information on the company, the team, life at Mozilla, first person experiences, and – obviously – job listings. Their jobs are posted in a number of sections that include College Recruiting, Engineering, Engineering Operations, Finance, Labs, Legal, Marketing, Quality Assurance, and User Experience. We obviously want to take a look at College Recruiting which includes jobs like Firefox Engineer, Platform Engineer, and Web Developer. Don’t just focus on those jobs though, there’s the chance that some of the other jobs might be suitable for some entry level candidates too. You can apply online (through your web browser, obviously), so get to it.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which web browser do you use?

Meetup

Willy Franzen — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:22:48 +0000

One thing the Internet has done for us that doesn’t get talked about a lot is that it has made it so much easier to organize real-life events. You can send a meeting request, create an event on Facebook, organize a Tweetup, or a Meetup. It’s amazing that phone calls and invitations are nearly obsolete when it comes to organizing an event. With that said, there’s still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to online tools to getting people together. That’s what Meetup, which is based in New York City, is all about. They provide a place for people to organize meetups and to share them with the rest of the world. Whether you want to join The Chicago English as a Second Language Meetup Group or The NYC Cranium Meetup Group, you can do so with the help of Meetup.

Meetup with a New Job

Meetup is a pretty simple idea – make it easy for people with similar interests to find each other. It’s put well in The Meetup Manifesto:

Let’s be fearless. Let’s exercise our human right of assembly. Let’s exploit it big-time. Let’s use the Internet to get people off the Internet. Let’s bring back the handshake. The verbal debate. The smile. You know, some good ol’ face-to-face, eye-to-eye contact. When people get together amazing things happen. They advocate, argue, learn, laugh and share. Let’s be a group. Let’s be a real group. Groups have a history of making history. People unite, motivate, activate and mobilize. Groups give us the power to face a health crisis, start a political movement, pursue a passion, launch a business, and turn strangers into friends. To be bigger than ourselves. Let’s step away from our screens for a moment. Do without the PC, the TV and the phone. People are more powerful than pixels. A real group can beat up a virtual group any day of the week. Let’s find the others. The ones that want the same thing. Let’s meet in real time, in real places, and make a real difference.

Let’s Meetup.

Meetup’s business model is also simple. They charge Meetup organizers a monthly subscription fee to use the site. Meetup has been around since 2001, and they moved to this revenue model in 2005. They’re still around, and they’re still hiring, so it must be working. Current entry level opportunities at Meetup include Software Engineer, User Interface Engineers, Quality Assurance Engineers, and Bilingual Customer Service Specialists. You can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to jobs@meetup.com, but be sure to check out the individual job descriptions first.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever been to an event organized on Meetup?

Rubicon Project

Willy Franzen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:53:40 +0000

As far as I can tell, now is not a good time to be in Advertising. When the economy slows down, ad sales usually take a hit. I know that first hand, which is why we’ve moved towards offering useful products – like job seeker training – instead of selling ads to employers (remember: all of our daily posts are editorial). With that said, online advertising is still the future, and with the struggles that many publishers are facing, now is a perfect time for innovation. That’s what Rubicon Project is all about. They’re a Los Angeles, CA based startup that is “on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry.” This means optimizing unfilled ad space through software. With 300+ ad networks to choose from, publishers just can’t possibly evaluate every ad network’s offers on their own. Rubicon Project can – in a matter of seconds – and then server the most profitable ad immediately.

Past the Point of No Return

According to Wikipedia “‘Crossing the Rubicon’ is a popular idiom meaning to pass a point of no return.” If you take a job with Rubicon Project, you will be past the point of no return towards a successful career in the advertising industry. To get a better sense of what Rubicon Project does, you should check out this video overview and then the rest of Rubicon Project’s videos. After that you can head over to Rubicon Project’s Jobs page. They have quite a few openings, and not all of them require a technical background. Opportunities that might appeal to new grads include Quality Assurance / Technical Support Engineer, Software Engineer, GUI Designer/Developer, Database Administrator, Stats Coordinator, Associate – Ad Network Alliances, Publisher Operations Coordinator/Analyst, Publisher Strategist, and Yield Management Specialist.

Rubicon Project has some interesting application questions because they get so many resumes. They include:

1. What are your three favorite restaurants in Los Angeles?
2. What’s one product (or gadget) you couldn’t live without and why?
3. What’s your idea of a fun night out?
4. How would you describe yourself?
5. Describe an innovative and original advertising idea.
6. What are your favorite websites?
7. And why not include an interesting bit of trivia about yourself.

You can send your answers to these questions to jobs@rubiconproject.com along with a cover letter and resume.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you noticed trouble finding jobs in Advertising lately?

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?

Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Willy Franzen — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:21:05 +0000

I love writing these holiday posts. It’s always fun to think of holiday related jobs, and since today is President’s Day, I had a lot of options. I could have looked at car dealerships or retailers that celebrate with a President’s Day sale, but I wanted to feature some jobs that honor our past presidents. Since Washington and Lincoln are all over our money, we’re going to check out jobs with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re responsible for printing all of our paper money, but that’s not all that they do. The BEP is also the country’s largest producer of security documents, which includes “U.S. passports, materials for Homeland Security, military identification cards, and Immigration and Naturalization Certificates.” They don’t produce our coinage – that’s the United States Mint, but they do have the coolest domain name in the government – MoneyFactory.gov – even though it kind of sounds like a get rich quick scheme’s web site. And last but not least, they must be pretty busy because the current low interest rates mean that the government is printing a lot of new money.

Jobs in the Money

If you don’t believe the saying that “money can’t make you happy,” then you might be well suited for a job with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. You’re probably not going to get rich with a job in the Federal government, but you’ll certainly be surrounded by cold, hard cash. The BEP looks like a fascinating place to work, and they have quite a few job offerings that might interest new college grads. They have two locations – Washington, DC and Fort Worth, TX – but they only have job openings in DC right now. The BEP’s job listings are some of the most confusing that I’ve ever read, so it’s really hard to tell what the experience requirements are for each job. With that said, I think that you might want to check out jobs like Quality Assurance Specialist, Human Resources Specialist (Employee & Labor Relations), Management Assistant, Chemist, Picture Engraver (Banknote) Apprentice, and Research Chemist. It’s hard to say whether all of these jobs are entry level, but give them a good look if you’re intrigued by the titles. You should also note that the BEP has some Special Hiring Programs. These include the Outstanding Scholar Program, which “exempts qualified applicants from normal competitive hiring procedures who have obtained Superior Academic Achievement,” and a Merit Promotions Program. The application instructions for jobs with the BEP are at the end of each job posting, and they’re onerous to say the least, but if you want to be surrounded by money, there’s no better option.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite bill produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing?

Oodle

Willy Franzen — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:41:31 +0000

It’s pretty easy to tell when a startup gets a new round of funding. If you look at startup job boards like Startuply on a daily basis, you’ll notice that all of a sudden there are a ton of new job listings from a single company. A quick Google search will usually confirm that the company just closed a new round of venture capital. That seems to be the case with Oodle. News recently broke that they scored $5.6 million in funding from existing investors to get working on social classified ads through a deal with Facebook. The resulting action is that they have 8 new jobs posted on Startuply, yet they haven’t even updated their own Jobs page. I realize that this post is a little backwards, I usually introduce the company and then talk about the jobs, but I think that it’s important to understand that if you hear that a company just secured funding, you should check to see if they’re hiring immediately.

Oodles of Jobs

Oodle is based in San Mateo, CA and they’re in the classified ad business. They have a seemingly unstoppable competitor in Craigslist, but luckily for Oodle the market seems to be growing. More and more people need to sell their stuff during hard economic times, and classified ads are usually less of a headache than something like eBay. If Oodle can figure out what Facebook couldn’t and build Facebook’s Marketplace feature into a reliable way to buy and sell stuff among the people that you know, we might even be talking about Oodle as a potential Craigslist killer. That’s still pretty far down the road though, they need to spend the $5.6 million that they have burning a hole in their pocket first. That means hiring. Their Jobs page shows 4 job listings – Senior Product Manager: Partners; Software Engineer, Perl (Content Team); Software Engineer, Perl (Reporting Systems); and Software Engineer, Web Applications and Systems, while Startuply shows 8 – Web Designer, Senior Marketing Manager, Desktop Support Engineer, QA Automation Engineer, Web Software Developer, Senior Engineer, Product Manager/Sr. Product Manager, and Director/Sr. Manager of Reporting and Analytics. There’s clearly some overlap here, but it’s hard to say how many positions they’re actually hiring for. Either way, the jobs that appear most likely to be entry level are in Design, Software Development, Web Development, and Quality Assurance. You can apply for them by sending a cover letter and resume to jobs@oodle.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Oodle?

Positive Energy

Willy Franzen — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:59:42 +0000

How much energy do you use every day? I’m not talking about Calories, although I’d be surprised if you knew that, I’d be shocked if you could tell me how much energy you consume on a given day. You might know how much you spend (and that might be more important), but as energy becomes a bigger and bigger issue, you need to be an informed “consumer.” Everybody needs a little Positive Energy, right? Well Positive Energy is an Arlington, VA based company that is working to “engage the 300 million Americans who are in the dark about their energy use through a combination of cutting edge technology, analytic direct marketing, behavioral science and world-class design.” Sounds pretty cool to me.

Positive Energy for Your Job Search

Positive Energy is a relatively new company, but it looks like they’re already well on their way to offering products and solutions that are going to change the way that we think about energy. Their approach is different from other companies and organizations with similar goals because Positive Energy relies on four areas of expertise: Behavioral Science, Direct Marketing Analytics, Measurement and Verification, and Private Industry Engagement. This must be working for them, because they have quite a few job openings available on their Jobs page. Jobs that might interest new or recent college grads include Implementation Engineer, QA Engineer, Account Executive, and Business Analyst. The job descriptions are relatively in-depth and can be found at the bottom of Positive Energy’s Jobs page. To apply for any of these jobs, you can send a cover letter and resume to jobs@positiveenergyusa.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Positive Energy’s approach?

Activision

Willy Franzen — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:41:54 +0000

As we noted when we featured Blizzard’s entry level jobs, video game sales tend to do really well when unemployment is high. This is one of those times that you’re probably thinking about buying a Wii/Xbox 360/PS3 and forgoing the job search for the comfort of your parents’ basement. As much fun as it might be for the first 6 months, that’s not the answer. That’s why Jason Seiden and I are announcing our 21 day online job search training course today. It’s called Found Your Career, and it’s open for enrollment. We’re offering an introductory price to the first 100 students to sign up, so get in before the price goes up. It’s a great way to put all of that video gaming energy to good use (and it’s much more affordable). Another way to put that energy to use is by considering jobs with Santa Monica, CA based Activision, the company that is behind Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and many more games. Video games are hot now, but now’s not the time to hone your expert level skills on Guitar Hero, it’s time to hone your job search approach by developing new skills and focusing on industries that are still growing in tough times.

Entry Level Job Hero

You’ll know that “You Rock!” when you get hired. Until then, you’re playing a game called Entry Level Job Hero. If I was to go any further with this metaphor (that people who have never played Guitar Hero won’t get), I’d say that the current level/song is “Activision.” Anyway, Activision makes extremely popular video games, and video games in general are really popular right now. It’s no big surprise that they have close to 70 job listings (including internships) posted. You can find out plenty about the company on their About and Investor Relations pages. You may notice that the company is now known as Activision | Blizzard because the two companies have joined forces, but since they both generally operate separately, we’re featuring their jobs separately. Activision does have a University Relations page; however, it only has information on internships. That means that you’re going to have to browse through Activision’s job listings to get the scoop on entry level jobs. We also can’t link to the specific job listings because of the way Activision’s Applicant Tracking System is set up. When you’re browsing the listings, keep an eye open for job titles like Web Application Developer, User Interface Artist, Staffing Assistant, Software Engineer, QA Tester (ok, fine, this job actually requires video game expertise – get practicing), Network Programmer, Inventory Analyst, Junior Publicist, and quite a few more (unfortunately they pulled the Bullshot Artist job). Most of the jobs are located in Santa Monica, CA, but they also have locations all across the country and the world. You can apply for the jobs on Activision’s website, so start researching and get at it.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you going to enroll in Found Your Career?

Lithium

Willy Franzen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:41:05 +0000

Social media. Social media. Social media. If you’ve been spending much time on the web lately (or listening to me), then you probably keep hearing how social media is the next big thing. The only hitch is that social media isn’t new. The Internet has been social almost from its beginning – we just have new tools to make the interactions happen more easily. A lot of people will say that the next step in the growth of social media is corporate adoption. That’s why we see cutting edge companies hiring for positions like “Community Manager.” Well, what if I told you that there’s a company called Lithium that has been helping companies adopt social media for more than 10 years? You might be surprised by that, but when you start to think of social media as more than blogs, Twitter, and Facebook and start to include chat rooms, forums, and other “Web 1.0″ technology, it’s not hard to imagine that the principled behind corporate adoption of social media have actually had some time to mature. Lithium is based out of Emeryville, CA, and they build “successful communities on-demand.”

Lithium Helps You Communicate

The story of Lithium is pretty interesting. The company actually spun out of Gamers.com when the founders realized that they had developed some pretty powerful online communications tools. Their first project was to develop and launch a forum for Dell, and since then they’ve worked with a host of impressive clients. These names include “Cingular, Comcast, Sprint, Nintendo, Symantec, and lots more.” Forums were the start, but Lithium has continued to develop a repertoire of community solutions that includes “RSS feeds, polls, integrated search, private messaging and more to interactive chat and blogs.” It’s all about empowering customers through improved communication.

I was all ready to start browsing through Lithium’s Jobs page (they have quite a few openings), when I noticed a small link to Lithium’s College Recruiting page. I decided to ignore the job listings, because Lithium says that they recruit new grads for three positions – Software Engineer, Quality Assurance Engineer, and Product Analyst. The first two jobs are pretty similar to what you’d expect at technical startups, but the Product Analyst job looks awesome for those of you who don’t have technical skills. Lithium’s Careers page isn’t loaded with information, but it should tell you everything you need to know to make a decision on applying. Lithium certainly looks like a fun place to work. If you want to apply, send a cover letter and resume to jobs@lithium.com with “College Recruiting” and the position that you’re applying for in the subject line.

By the way, Lithium is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. I’m not sure what that says about the company.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used one of Lithium’s products on another site?

Blackbaud

Willy Franzen — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:21:49 +0000

We’ve just had another weekend of looking at excellent entry level jobs at non-profits, so it makes sense that we’re going to look at jobs with a company that serves non-profits today. Blackbaud is a technology solutions provider for non-profit organizations that specializes in “fundraising, relationship management, financial management, education administration, website management, direct, marketing, ticketing, prospect research, consulting, and training.” That’s a lot to do, but Blackbaud is a big company – they have over 22,000 non-profit customers and almost 2,000 employees. They seem to growing at a good rate, and they even have locations in 5 countries.

A For-Profit for Non-Profits

What I think is the coolest thing about Blackbaud is that although they are a for-profit company, their products and services are enabling tens of thousands of non-profits to do better work. They provide services for non-profits that serve all kinds of areas – education, religion, arts, environment, healthcare, animal welfare, and more. They’re a great place for you to become familiar with the non-profit world and to get a broad view of how many people there are out there trying to make this world a better place. If this sounds like something that you want to be a part of, then you need to look no further than Blackbaud’s Careers page for information on how to join them. The site does a great job of conveying who they are, as it starts with a video compilation of interviews with employees about what they have to say about working at Blackbaud. From there you can navigate to Blackbaud’s Campus Recruiting page, which is a bit short on information, but gives you all of the basics that you need. They’ve already gone through a serious campus recruiting schedule, so now you’ll have to rely on their website to find their jobs. They have two areas that you’ll want to look for these jobs – College Recruiting and Entry-level jobs. I’m not sure why they separate these two, but they seem like they should be classified together. Current opportunities for new grads at Blackbaud include Web Developer (Indianapolis, IN), Java Programmer (Indianapolis, IN), Quality Assurance Analyst (Charleston, SC), Junior Software Designer (Charleston, SC) and Customer Support Analyst (Charelston, SC). This should be everything suitable for new college grads, but you can always look at Blackbaud’s general job listings if you don’t see anything that speaks to you. To apply for a job with Blackbaud, you can submit your resume online directly from the specific job listings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Ever heard of Blackbaud before? What have you heard?

myYearbook

Willy Franzen — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:39:12 +0000

When I was a senior in high school (2002), I thought that my class was cutting edge to include a CD with our yearbook. Then I was greeted by “The Class of 2006 Website,” a site very much like Facebook (before there was a Facebook) for my incoming Freshman class at Cornell. Finally, Facebook arrived on the scene in 2004, and the idea of a yearbook was forever changed. At least it was for college students. Facebook didn’t open up to high schoolers until September of 2005, and in that time both MySpace and myYearbook had already started tapping the high school social networking market. You may not have heard of myYearbook, but you should have. They have the 14th most pageviews of any site on the Internet, surpassing both Amazon.com and Wikipedia. What makes this more impressive is that New Hope, PA based myYearbook was founded by a 15 year old and a 16 year old brother and sister during their Spring Break.

Were You Voted Most Likely to Get a Job with myYearbook?

myYearbook has done an impressive job of targeting the high school market, and I’m surprised that I just realized how big they are. They’ve gained a considerable amount of venture capital funding ($13 million) beyond the initial $250k investment that came from the founders’ big brother, who is now the CEO. With a growing user base and cash to spend, it’s no surprise that myYearbook is hiring. They have four job openings posted on CareerBuilder right now, yet they don’t even have a Jobs section on their site. Three of these jobs look well suited to new college grads – Senior Sales Planner (only requires 1 year of experience), PHP Web Developer, and QA Analyst / Application Tester. The jobs look pretty cool, and it would be hard to believe that myYearbook wouldn’t be a fun company to work for. The added bonus is that they’re a social networking company that isn’t based in Silicon Valley – they’re in New Hope, PA. To apply for a job with myYearbook, you’ll have to go through the job postings on CareerBuilder.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used myYearbook? What do you think?

Jennie-O

Willy Franzen — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:21:12 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for reading and helping to make the first year of One Day, One Job a great success. Last year we told you about jobs at Plimoth Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg, which are still a great option if you want to be reminded of Thanksgiving every day when you’re at work, but this year we’re going to take the easy way out and talk about turkey. I was first introduced to Jennie-O when I tried some of their turkey bacon. It’s good, if you haven’t had real bacon in a while. Since my Thanksgiving cooking philosophy is that bacon makes everything better (especially when it’s put on top of the turkey and doused in maple syrup, seriously, try it), I’ll let Jennie-O provide the turkey, but I’m getting the bacon somewhere else. In the three or four years that I’ve been familiar with the Jennie-O brand, I’ve noticed that they’ve revved up their branding efforts. You’ve probably seen some of their tv commercials, which are pretty funny, but you may have overlooked the fact that they’re working hard to expand recognition of their employment brand with college students.

Gobble, Gobble. Jobble, Jobble.

Ok, so Jennie-O’s Career page has a corny headline – “It’s everything you’ve wished for” with a picture of a wishbone. Whatever, it works for them, and it’s pretty witty. Their whole Careers site is top notch, so we can’t hold one pun against them. Not only do they have all kinds of information about what it’s like to work for Jennie-O, but they also have a section specifically for college students. It includes a calendar of recruiting events (which have already happened) and other general information. One unique feature is an image that shows which entry level jobs and internships at Jennie-O match up with which college majors. You should find this extremely helpful, although it doesn’t seem like Jennie-O lists specific job openings. It appears that instead they just take applications and then figure it out from there. They do provide a list of jobs that they offer throughout the company and a map with company locations (in Minnesota and Wisconsin), but the Application page asks you to fill out an application form and e-mail it to them. That’s it.

Jennie-O typically offers entry level jobs in Accounting, Human Resources, Industrial Engineering, Information Technology, Live Production, Maintenance Engineering, Production Management, Product Marketing, and Quality Assurance with jobs titles like Associate Live Production Supervisor, Associate Applications Analyst, Associate Maintenance Engineer, Associate Product Manager, Associate Technical Analyst, Industrial Engineer, Production Manager, Quality Assurance Supervisor, and Staff Accountant, so you can use these as a guideline when deciding whether or not you want to apply.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever tried maple bacon wrapped turkey?

TeleNav

Willy Franzen — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:46:26 +0000

I have a first generation iPhone, and despite the fact that it uses cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots instead of GPS for location, I have still become entirely dependent on using my phone to find my way. It’s blatantly obvious that the cell phone is the convergence point for all kinds of technology – cameras, video cameras, computers, GPS devices, voice recorders, address books, and video games now exist in one device. The next step is tying location awareness into all of these functions, and that’s what Sunnyvale, CA based TeleNav is all about. They were the “first to launch a GPS navigation and mobile workforce management service on a cell phone in North America,” and they’re also the “fastest growing company in Silicon Valley” according to Deloitte. They’re partnered with “every significant wireless carrier and device manufacturer,” and they’re primed to make the most of the GPS chips that are now found in most phones.

Find Your Way to TeleNav

Right now, TeleNav’s focus is on their GPS Navigator software. It looks great, and when it comes out for the iPhone 3G (as has been rumored), it might just push me to make an upgrade. As great as TeleNav’s software looks, working for them looks even better. They’ve won a litany of awards, which you can find out more about on their About page, including being named one of the Best Places to Work in the Bay Area for 2007. The TeleNav Blog is one of the better corporate blogs that we’ve seen, and it seems like it gives a great insight to what life is like at TeleNav. Maybe that’s because it includes a Flickr stream.

So how can you, a new or soon to be college graduate, get a job at TeleNav? There’s no clear cut path for entry level hires, as they don’t seem to be hitting the campus recruiting trail; however, there are a number of jobs listed on their Jobs page that look like they might be worth considering. Current opportunities at their Sunnyvale, CA office include Inside Sales Representative, another Inside Sales Representative job, Marketing Associate (Kirkland, WA), QA Engineer, Software Engineer (J2Me), Software Engineer (Web), and Backend Software Engineer (QA). You can apply through the application forms at the bottom of each of the job descriptions that we just listed.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you have GPS on your phone?

Tiny Prints

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

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

What’s So Tiny About Them?

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

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you send out holiday cards?

Rackspace

Willy Franzen — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:47:37 +0000

You may not think of it this way, but every time that you visit a website, you’re downloading files from someone else’s computer (server). The server that One Day, One Job is hosted on is shared with quite a few different sites (including One Day, One Internship). Even though there are thousands of people coming to our sites every day, they’re only downloading text and images, so it barely puts a strain on our server. Facebook, on the other hand, has millions of people on their site who are doing hardware intensive things like uploading photos and searching huge databases. They need thousands of their own servers to handle all of the activity. Somewhere between the server needs of One Day, One Job and Facebook is a middle ground where many businesses find themselves. They have major server needs, but they don’t need to do it all by themselves. That’s where Rackspace comes in, they are an “IT hosting company that delivers enterprise-class web infrastructure and hosting services to businesses of all sizes.”

There’s Space for You at Rackspace

There are a lot of companies that do what Rackspace does, but very few who do it as well as they do. Hosting is an easy business when everything is going right, but it’s when things go wrong that they really get tested. That’s why uptime and support are two of the most important factors in deciding which hosting company to choose. Rackspace has a Fanatical Support Promise, which is exactly the kind of customer service philosophy that you should want to see in a company that you choose to work for.

So what about working at Rackspace? It sounds pretty awesome. They have a laidback work culture, excellent benefits, and most importantly happy employees. The whole RackspaceCareers.com site is impressive, as it does a fantastic job of telling the company’s story. Where it does fall short, though, is on the Student Careers page – it looks nice and has a lot of information, but you’ll notice that their slick looking Campus Recruiting Calendar is empty and their Student Job Listings page is blank. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any jobs for you. If you actually go to their Job Listings and select “Entry” as job level, you’ll find what you’re looking for. Open positions at the entry level currently include Lead Generation Specialist, Business Development Associate, Datacenter Operations Technician, Mailtrust Lead Generation, and Quality Assurance Engineer (part-time). All of the jobs are located in San Antonio, TX except the Datacenter Operations Technician position, which is located in Herndon, VA. Rackspace does have an RSS feed of their job openings, so you can use that to see if they post any new jobs, and you can apply online if you’re excited about the positions that we just mentioned.

Rackspace does a really nice job with most of their Career site, but the job listings section is kind of disappointing. They just kind of stuffed their Applicant Tracking System inside of a really nice looking careers site. It’s like the opposite of putting lipstick on a pig. Still, Rackspace is a company that is worth a good long look – they’re #32 on Fortune’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For and they also have a seemingly awesome training and development program called Rackspace U. Finally, if you’re in the San Antonio, TX area this coming weekend, you should check out Rackspace’s Career Fair for IT and Sales positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of RackspaceCareers.com?

CME Group

Willy Franzen — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:30:42 +0000

One of my favorite movies is Trading Places. I was introduced to the movie by my Econ 101 professor when he played a clip in class, and it still amazes me how much fun it is to learn about the world of high finance and commodities markets from Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. These days it seems that entire markets are as volatile as the concentrated frozen orange juice market was in the movie, but that just makes things more interesting. Trying to play the markets right now might be fun, but there aren’t a ton of companies in the financial industry hiring right now, and you don’t need that stress anyway. If you’d still like a front row view of the daily excitement that is capitalism, then you should consider a job with the CME Group, “a combined entity formed by the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).” Instead of playing the market, you can be the market.

Encouraging Capitalism

My one complaint about CME Group’s website is that their About page doesn’t do a very good job of describing what they actually do. We had to do a little digging to make sure that we were accurately portraying the CME Group’s business, so we went to Wikipedia and the Chicago Tribune for answers (and you should too). First and foremost, CME Group is a financial exchange. They allow trading of financial instruments such as interest rates, equities, currencies, and commodities. This was originally done with the “open outcry method,” which is the complete madness that you’ve probably seen portrayed in movies (like Trading Places). This method is in the process of being replaced by CME Globex, which is CME Group’s proprietary electronic trading platform. With that change has come a new focus on technology as a key driver of CME Group’s business.

Working in the Pits? Wearing Funny Clothes? Waving Your Hands Like a Lunatic?

Traditionally traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have worked in the “pits,” worn funny looking jackets to identify their roles, and used intricate hand signals to communicate. All of these traditions are, sadly, on their way out, as CME Group has moved most of their trading to an online system. If you’ve always wanted to wear a funny jacket to work, you’re going to have to look for a job as a popcorn salesman, but if you want to learn more about how markets work, CME Group is the place for you.

The CME Group’s Careers site and Job Listings are both top notch. They’re easy to navigate, user-friendly, and information rich. That’s why we weren’t surprised to read that CME Group has been named the 2007 Winner of the Best and Brightest Places to Work for in Chicago and one of the Best Places to Work in IT for a third straight year. We easily found a number of entry level or near entry level opportunities on their site, including Exchange Fee Analyst, General Investigator, Market Reporter (part-time), Business Systems Analyst, Business Analyst, Data Editor – Credit Market Analysis (New York, NY), and Quality Assurance Tester. This is just a sampling of the types of jobs that CME Group has to offer. All of the jobs are based out of Chicago unless otherwise noted, and you can find out how to apply by visiting the individual job descriptions (some have an online application and others require e-mail).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

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Chumby

Willy Franzen — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:39:36 +0000

Despite what you might think from looking at the logo to the right, Chumby is not the first cousin of Gumby. Chumby is a startup that makes a real-life product that bears the same name. Their product is an “internet radio, digital picture frame, alarm clock, and more.” The “and more” includes news, social networking, weather, and games. It’s a dead simple Internet device that seems perfect for your bedside or the breakfast table. I’ve never actually tried a Chumby, but the reviews are glowing. At the very least it’s a cool niche product, and there’s certainly the potential for a Chumby to replace the alarm clock.

If You’re Not a Dumby, Work for Chumby

Whether you already have a Chumby in your dorm room,or this is the first that you’ve heard of it, you should take a deeper look at Chumby the company. While most startups these days are busy putting out web-based products and services, Chumby has a real life product that you can hold in your hand and buy at a store. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing in this economy is for you to determine, but a job at Chumby could be a great way to start your life after college. They’re backed by some major venture capital firms, and they’ve built partnerships with some amazing content providers.

Chumby is located in San Diego, CA, and they have a number of jobs that seem like good fits for new college grads. These include Flash Developer, Software QA Engineer, and possibly (with some previous work experience) Administrative Assistant. To apply for one of these jobs you can send a cover letter and resume to jsuttles@chumby.com. Chumby’s website doesn’t offer too much insight on what it’s like to work for Chumby, but you may be able to gain some insight from this blog post by one of the people who is working on Chumby.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you ever buy a Chumby for your dorm room or apartment?

Garmin

Willy Franzen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:43:43 +0000

Ok, it may be politically incorrect to celebrate Columbus Day, but it’s just about the only holiday that I had off in college. Maybe it just happened to be a convenient weekend for Fall Break, but I still can’t believe that I didn’t have class on Columbus Day, but did have class on Labor Day (when I went to a School of Industrial and Labor Relations). Anyway, Christopher Columbus wasn’t much of a navigator. He had no idea where he was going, and he tried to take the long way around the world. Still, his ineptitude was the reason that he “discovered” the Americas. Had Garmin been around in the 1490s, Columbus never would have ended up where he did. Then again, the existence of a company built on GPS technology would have changed a lot of things for famous explorers five centuries ago. (Much like the existence of iPods – like the one we’re giving away – would have changed the world for musicians back then.)

Find Your Way to Garmin

Since Garmin started in 1989, their goal has been to “create navigation and communication devices that can enrich their customers’ lives.” GPS has certainly enriched my life, and I’m sure it’s done the same for you. Getting lost is a thing of the past, right? Ok, maybe not yet, but we’re getting there. I can say with certainty that with a GPS system I never would have started my first drive home from college during Columbus Day Weekend by driving for 45 minutes in the wrong direction. Garmin keeps improving their navigation devices, and they rely heavily on new grads to help them do it.

Garmin has a great recruiting site for college students called GarminU, although it’s easy to miss when you visit their Careers site. It’s just a little link on the left side of the page, but it’s well worth visiting. It includes behind the scenes videos with Garmin’s entry level employees, interview preparation tips, internship testimonials, and info on why you should pick Garmin. There’s also a link to Garmin’s campus recruiting schedule. You should definitely check that before applying for a job online, since campus recruiting is usually a much more effective way to make your first contact.

If Garmin isn’t visiting your campus, or if you’ve already missed them, then you’ll have to browse Garmin’s online job listings to find the right opportunity for you. They don’t have specific listings just for entry level opportunities, but we’ve identified which jobs that we think will be good fits for new grads. The listings are easy enough to browse, but we can’t link specifically to the jobs. We’ll list the titles, but you’ll have to search for them yourselves. Most of Garmin’s job opportunities are at their Olathe, KS headquarters. These include Cartography Technician, Web Content Writer, Web/Interface Designer, Test Software Engineer, General Accountant, Component Engineer, Software Engineer – Development Tools, and Software Engineer. There are also opportunities in San Francisco, CA (Software Engineer – Web Services and Web Developer); Minneapolis, MN (Software Engineer – Information Services and Web Software Developer); Salem, OR (Aircraft Systems Engineer); Tempe, AZ (Software Quality Engineer – Applications); and Los Angeles, CA (Software Quality Engineer – Automotive OEM). Garmin accepts online applications, so you’ll have to find the jobs that interest you and apply from there.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do any of you have any embarrassing travel experiences that would have been prevented by having a Garmin GPS unit? Please share in the comments.

Veson Nautical

Willy Franzen — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:44:40 +0000

Did you know that the invention of the portable clock was mainly driven by the need for ships to measure longitude? I bet that you didn’t. I did because I was forced to read a book called Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time during the summer before my Sophomore year of high school. For most of nautical history, one of the most challenging problems facing mariners was figuring out where they were at a given moment. Now companies like Veson Nautical provide software solutions that “allow users to manage and share information efficiently across Chartering, Operations, Trading, and Accounting departments—streamlining workflow, cutting costs, and optimizing profits.” If Christopher Columbus had software to optimize profits, he certainly never would have “discovered” America.

Hack Your Way Aboard

If you’re the type who gets seasick, don’t be scared by the “nautical” in Veson Nautical’s name – they’re a software company. That doesn’t mean that they don’t know the shipping industry like a ferry operator knows his course though. They’ve been in the business for nearly 30 years, and they’ve refocused on software as it has become increasingly essential to maritime operations. Veson Nautical is based out of Boston, MA (though they have offices in Athens, Rotterdam and Singapore) and they’re currently looking to hire some top notch software developers. The two positions that seem to be best suited to new college grads are Software Developer and Software QA Engineer. These are really cool opportunities because they merge one of the world’s oldest industries (shipping) with one of its newest (software development). Whether you’ve always loved boats or have been fascinated by nautical history, if you have software skills then a job at Veson Nautical is for you. All you need to do to apply is to send a cover letter and resume to hr@veson.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you read Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time ? What’d you think?