One Day, One Job » Washington

Demand Media

Willy Franzen — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:39:28 +0000

I’m sure that you’ve heard a lot in the news about how traditional media companies are having trouble taking their business models online. You may be under the impression that making money from web content is near impossible, but there’s a dirty little secret: it’s not. While companies like the New York Times stick to editorial integrity and chasing Pulitzers, there are companies out there that craft their content with the sole purpose of making money. A perfect example is Santa Monica, CA based Demand Media. They’ve secured more than $355 million in venture capital funding, grown annual revenue to more than $200 million annually, and reached a valuation north of $1 billion all by taking an ROI based approach to content development. How does that work? Demand Media has developed an algorithm that helps them find profitable topics. By using data from Google AdWords, they’re able to estimate the demand for a given piece of content (example: an article and video on how to tie your shoes) along with the revenue that the yet to be developed piece of content could be expected to make given a certain number of pageviews.

Demand a Job

This may sound unsavory to some of the writers out there, but I’d imagine the business students are in awe. Demand Media delivers their content through a number of web properties, and some of these include eHow, Cracked, and Livestrong.com. In addition to distributing profitable content across their web properties, Demand Media also licenses some of the social media tools that they’ve developed internally to other businesses. One of the amazing things that I learned about Demand Media while researching them is that they publish approximately 4,000 articles and videos every day. Demand Media is YouTube’s largest contributor, and the number of pageviews that they’re driving across their network is staggering. They’re able to develop so much content through an army of freelancers who work through a site called Demand Studios. If you’re a Writer, Filmmaker, or Copy Editor, that’s the first option for getting a “job” (it’s only freelance, and the rates are kind of low) through Demand Media. Your second option is to check out Demand Media’s Corporate Job offerings. They have a number of positions that seem suitable for new grads including HR Coordinator (Bellevue, WA), QA Engineer (Austin, TX), Marketing Associate (Bellevue, WA), QA Engineer (Santa Monica, CA), Algorithm Scientist (Austin, TX – PhDs only), Account Manager (Bellevue, WA), and Web Developer/Graphic Designer (Austin, TX). You can apply online for any of these positions, but before you do, take an hour to learn more about Demand Media—there’s a ton of information available about them.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Demand Media’s business model?

ING Direct

Willy Franzen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:42:55 +0000

I’m a big proponent of making personal finance part of the job search. By managing your money wisely (even if you barely have any left), you’re creating a project for yourself that you can use to demonstrate to employers how you’ll be an effective employee. When I need information on personal finance, I always look to Ramit Sethi, the founder of a website called I Will Teach You To Be Rich and the author of a book by the same name (he also just launched a course on how to make money freelancing and he’s doing a free webinar tonight at 7 PM PST – affiliate links). One thing that he strongly recommends is using online banks that offer high interest rates and great easy to use features. One of these banks is ING Direct, which is headquartered in Wilmington, DE. While you may have noticed that most banks are on a real estate binge as they try to gain customers, ING Direct is doing the opposite. They operate almost entirely “in the cloud.” Since they “believe saving money should be as simple as having a cup of coffee,” they do have cafés in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Wilmington, Chicago, St. Cloud, and Honolulu where you can ” sip a latte, surf the Internet for free and talk to [them] about how [they] can help you Save Your Money.” And by keeping a low overhead, ING Direct is able to offer better interest rates and fewer fees, which gives them a huge advantage in winning over customers.

Saving Towards a Career

It may be hard to imagine not needing a brick and mortar bank, but ING Direct makes it work. They have a huge ATM network, they’ll write and mail your checks for you, and they make transferring money between accounts simple. It’s the way that you’ll expect to bank in the future, but ING Direct is doing it now. ING Direct is owned by ING, the Dutch financial institution, but it seems that they act quite independently—they’re not like other banks. This is where banking is headed, so ING Direct should be the place to be if you want to work in “retail” banking. To get started, you need to check out ING Direct’s Jobs page. You’ll see that in addition to their Wilmington, DE location, they also have offices in St. Cloud, MN; Los Angeles, CA; and Seattle, WA. There are dozens of positions posted, and quite a few of them appear suitable for new grads. Most of these positions fall into one of three categories: Sales, Analyst, or IT/Software Development; however, there are a few exceptions like Interactive Advertising Designer and Card Dispute Associate. Unfortunately, ING Direct’s applicant tracking system is kind of terrible, so it makes it impossible for me to link to specific positions. You’ll have to browse through the listings yourself, and apply through their submission form.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you have an ING Direct account?

Intellectual Ventures

Willy Franzen — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:30:53 +0000

One of the books that I’ve been reading lately is SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance. It’s a great follow-up to the original Freakonomics, and it once again shows how changing your mindset can lead you to all kinds of new ideas (this is a really important lesson for job seekers). One of the companies that is mentioned in the book is Intellectual Ventures, a Bellevue, WA based invention company. They’re all about ideas. Things like product design, product development, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and service all come later, and Intellectual Ventures doesn’t want anything thing to do with those processes. They just invent, invent, invent. The company isn’t tied to one specific area—they’re working on problems like stopping Malaria, preventing hurricanes, and counteracting negative effects from climate change should they ever happen.

An Intellectual Venture for Your Career

For Intellectual Ventures it’s all about owning the intellectual property. They want to come up with the ideas, make them work, and then let other companies do the rest. The business side will be about licensing the technology to the right people on a non-exclusive basis possibly including spin-off companies, but for now it’s all about building a technology portfolio. Intellectual Ventures has been actively inventing since 2003, and since then they’ve filed thousands of patents. These patent applications “span a broad range of areas including computer software and hardware, user interface design, semiconductors, biomedical devices, advanced medical procedures, digital imaging, nanotechnology, nuclear energy and advanced particle physics.” As you can probably tell from that list of topic area (and the company’s name), Intellectual Ventures is filled with extremely smart people. It was founded by two former C level Microsoft executives.

If you’ve always been fascinated by invention and you think that you have the intellect, then you should check out Intellectual Ventures’ Jobs page. They have 50 positions posted right now, and most require a high level of education and experience, but a few seem suitable for new grads. Whether or not a position is right for you will rely heavily on how relevant your background is, so it makes more sense to browse the listings yourself to see what fits. You should also note that Intellectual Ventures has satellite offices in Silicon Valley, Austin, Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore, Seoul, and Bangalore.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you read SuperFreakonomics yet?

Wizards of the Coast

Willy Franzen — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:56:03 +0000

When I was in 6th or 7th grade, I played a trading card game called Magic the Gathering. Being a baseball card collector, I was more interested in what the cards were worth than actually playing the game. I occasionally played with my friends, but when they lost interest, I went back to baseball cards. Many trading card games came after (I didn’t play any of them), but apparently Magic the Gathering was the first. I had long forgotten about Wizards of the Coast, the company that was behind Magic cards, when I came across their name again. I took a look, and was surprised to see that the Renton, WA based company has grown quite a bit over the past decade and was eventually purchased by Hasbro. Wizards of the Coast is still a gaming company—the world leader in hobby games—and their brands include Dungeons & Dragons, Duel Masters, Heroscape, Axis & Allies, and Star Wars in addition to Magic the Gathering.

Are You Wizard Enough?

It’s surprising that a company can have as much success as Wizards of the Coast while still staying seemingly under the radar, but that’s exactly why the company has been so successful. Instead of expanding outside of their niche market as they’ve grown, Wizards has stayed true to themselves and grown within their market. They have an insanely loyal following, which is why the competition for jobs at Wizards of the Coast can be extremely fierce. Their most sought after positions are in Game Design and Game Development, and right now they don’t have anything at the entry level in those areas. They do, however, have positions available for Freelance Online Flash Designers, a Sales Web Content Coordinator, and a Wizards Play Network Coordinator for Germany/Austria. You can see all of their Job postings here and you can submit a résumé for general consideration here. You’ll also want to be sure to look at the Wizards of the Coast Careers FAQ before applying.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you play Magic the Gathering or any other Wizards of the Coast games?

Cobalt

Willy Franzen — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:09:06 +0000

Check out this week’s sponsor, New York City Teaching Fellows. They’re seeking new grads with no prior teaching experience or background in education to help make a difference in NYC’s public schools.

When I last bought a car in 2001, the best way to go about it was to stop by dealerships to see what they had in their inventory. I remember using the Internet to some extent, but it wasn’t all that helpful. Although I haven’t purchased a car since, I’m pretty sure that the web is playing a much larger role in the car buying decision process these days. That’s why Cobalt, a Seattle based company, is doing so well. They’re in the business of automotive marketing, and they made the Inc. 5000 last year with 134.0% three-year revenue growth to $168.4 million. Cobalt works with both dealers and manufacturers to “increase their retailing effectiveness and profits.” The company has been around since 1995, and it consists of three key subsidiaries: Dealix, UsedCars.com, and IntegraLink.

Drive Your Career in the Right Direction

The big reason that Cobalt has been so successful is that they were ready for the transition to digital marketing from the start. A lot of people in the automotive industry weren’t ready for a change in their business model, but luckily they have Cobalt to rely on for marketing. More than two thirds of auto manufacturers and one half of dealers in the US use Cobalt’s services in some capacity. Cobalt is a lot like a fully-integrated marketing agency in terms of the areas in which they work, but their business doesn’t appear to be quite as client focused (for instance they run a UsedCars.com—a destination site). If you’re intrigued by what Cobalt does, then you’ll want to take a look at their Careers page. It goes into a lot of detail about what it’s like to work at Cobalt, and then it will direct you to take a look at their job postings. There are lots of opportunities for new or recent grads including: Data Normalization Clerk (Columbus, OH), Technical Customer Support (Columbus, OH), Website Technical Support (Lynnwood, WA), Online Marketing Specialist (Lynnwood, WA), Technical Inside Sales (Redwood City, CA), Operations Analyst – Inventory (Seattle, WA), UI Web Developer (Seattle, WA), Build and Release Engineer (Seattle, WA), and Sales Operations Specialist (Seattle, WA).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

When is the last time that you bought a car?

Uline

Willy Franzen — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:49:51 +0000

I love boring businesses. It may not seem like it considering the fact that I’m often featuring startups that are on the cutting edge of technology, but I really do appreciate when a company is able to take an extremely simple idea and make it profitable. Uline is a perfect example. They are a Waukegan, IL based company that considers itself “the leading distributor of shipping, industrial, and packing materials to businesses throughout North America.” It all started in 1980 when Liz and Dick Uihlein identified a need for a local shipping supplies distributer. They started the business in their basement with the H-101 carton sizer, and now they have a product line that fills a 452 page catalog. That’s a lot of growth, and I expect it to continue as e-commerce and the shipping that results from it keep expanding (I have about a dozen boxes in my apartment from various holiday season shipments). And if for some reason the shipping business does slow down, Uline can always reorganize as a producer of forts for children—I always loved playing in cardboard boxes.

Box It Up

Now, if you give Uline a closer look, there are some striking similarities between their business and our favorite fictional employer, Dunder Mifflin. They’re both customer service oriented companies that provide businesses with essential supplies; however, I’m going to make a wild guess that the similarities between Uline and Dunder Mifflin end there. Companies with dysfunctional leadership don’t have sustained growth, and Uline is growing so much that they broke ground on a new Pleasant Prairie, WI corporate headquarters last Fall. With that growth comes jobs, or American jobs as Uline likes to call them. If you take a look at Uline’s Jobs page, you’ll see that they have opportunities in Ontario, CA (that’s California, not Canada—I know it’s confusing); Toronto, Canada; Duluth, GA; Waukegan, IL; Tijuana, Mexico; Eagan, MN; Allentown, PA; Coppell, TX; and Seattle, WA. Positions that might be suitable for new or recent grads include Account Rep (Ontario, CA), Administrative Assistant (Toronto, CA), Customer Service Representative (Toronto, CA), Account Rep (Toronto, CA), Accounts Receivable Clerk (Toronto, CA), Account Rep (South Florida / Duluth, GA), Computer Operator / Help Line Technician (Waukegan, IL), .NET Web Developer (Waukegan, IL), Internet Marketing Associate (Waukegan, IL), Desktop Technician (Gurnee, IL), Account Rep (Eagan, MN), Account Rep (Iowa / Eagan, MN), Account Rep (NYC / Breinigsville, PA), Account Rep (Pittsburgh, PA / Breinigsville, PA), and Account Rep (Dallas – Ft. Worth, TX / Coppell, TX). You can apply online for any of these positions, just don’t try delivering yourself in a box to their corporate headquarters. That would be weird.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Uline?

National Endowment for Democracy

Willy Franzen — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:54:13 +0000

I have to say that democracy is a pretty darn good thing—even if it is the only government system that I’ve ever known. It certainly has its flaws, but I’m not sure that we’ve found a better way to ensure the freedom of a nation’s citizens yet. I don’t think that there is a lot of debate about whether spreading democracy is a good thing—most of the debate centers around what are appropriate ways to spread it. The National Endowment for Democracy is a Washington, DC based “private, non-profit, grant-making organization” that aims to “strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts.” They’re funded through “an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress through the Department of State;” however, they are not a government organization. They make grants to pro-Democracy groups across the world with the goal of helping democracy evolve naturally in a way that suits the nations culture and history.

Do You Support Democracy?

I guess you could get into a pretty heated debate about how you define democracy, but I like the NED’s definition:

Democracy involves the right of the people freely to determine their own destiny.

The exercise of this right requires a system that guarantees freedom of expression, belief and association, free and competitive elections, respect for the inalienable rights of individuals and minorities, free communications media, and the rule of law.

The NED has been around since the early 1980s, and since then they’ve suffered criticism from both sides of the political spectrum (I guess that means they’re pretty balanced). They have an extremely detailed history on their website that goes into great depth about how they work and what they’ve done in the past. The long and short of it is that they spend their time finding the right groups to distribute money to in support of democracy. If you’re intrigued by the NED, you should check out their Jobs page. Current openings that might be suitable for new grads include Publications Coordinator and Program Assistant for Middle East and North Africa. Application instructions vary slightly, so pay close attention the job descriptions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of the NED?

Revel Consulting

Willy Franzen — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:51:40 +0000

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.”

Revel in Consulting

The problem with consulting companies is that most people don’t know what they do. Sometimes even the consultants can’t tell you exactly what they do. Part of the reason for that is that consulting is a very flexible field—at least in terms of subject matter. It’s often more about the process than the specifics of the project. Revel Consulting seems to have a good mix of specific areas of expertise—Cloud Computing for example—and more general practice areas such as Program & Project Management. You can’t even take a look at Revel Consulting’s portfolio or client list, because consulting firms usually try to keep that stuff under wraps. What you can look at is the fact that they went from less than $400k in revenue to $13.2 million in revenue in just three years. That tells you that Revel is a place that you want to be. Revel’s Careers page has information on Culture, Consultant Experiences, and Campus Recruiting. The latter focuses mostly on internships, but that’s ok because Revel has one application form for all jobs. They’ll take a look at you and figure out where you’ll fit in best—no need to apply for a specific position.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Revel Consulting?

The FeedRoom

Willy Franzen — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:51:36 +0000

Having developed a product that relies on delivering video content, I know firsthand how difficult online video can be. Yes, any idiot can record something and upload it to YouTube for millions to watch, but it takes a significantly greater effort for a company to deliver an even slightly more professional video experience. New York City based The FeedRoom is a company that offers enterprise solutions for online streaming video and digital asset management. You may have seen their software at work on sites like PentagonChannel.mil and BestBuyTrueStories.com. It’s about 14 steps above publishing to YouTube, yet it’s nearly as easy to do for corporate clients who use The FeedRoom’s products, services, and solutions. If I had the budget for some serious enterprise software, I’d definitely The FeedRoom for Found Your Career.

Feed Your Career

Online video delivery is only going to continue to grow, and as expectations grow, YouTube isn’t going to cut it any more. The FeedRoom is primed for success as more companies decide that they need to get serious about video. The FeedRoom is already working with some serious names (The Pentagon!), and they seem to have the ease of use thing down. If you’re excited about the growth in the world of online video, then you might want to consider a job with The FeedRoom. Right now all of their opportunities require some pretty serious Software Development experience. They wouldn’t be defined as entry level, but if you’ve been hacking since you were a kid, you might have a shot. Those opportunities are in Westborough, MA; however, The FeedRoom also has offices in New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Additionally, The FeedRoom does have an internship program in Digital Media Technology, so they must have some interest in young talent. Take a look at what The FeedRoom is all about, and if you think that you’ll make a great addition, then send a cover letter and résumé to jobs@feedroom.com. They are always looking for people who “have a background in digital media, and are experienced in the areas of sales, software development, marketing, customer service or support, human resources or administration.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you impressed with The FeedRoom’s offerings?

Lucky Brand

Willy Franzen — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:49:56 +0000

Next March I’m going to regret not saving this one for my St. Patrick’s Day holiday themed post, but today we’re going to take a look at Lucky Brand. They’re a clothing manufacturer and retailer that is “rooted in rock ‘n ‘roll with a signature sense of humor.” Their About page will tell you that they stand for “independent thinking, individual style and a feeling as authentic as love” and that they’re known for “great-fitting, vintage-inspired jeans;” however, I think it’s much simpler than that. One of their founders came up with the idea to put the phrase “Lucky You” behind the flies of every pair of pants that they made. It was an instant point of differentiation, and I think that it has a lot to do with why Lucky Brand is going strong 19 years after they started. It really is pure, politically incorrect genius. Lucky you…

Get Lucky

The best way to get a feel for Lucky Brand is to check out their clothes online or visit one of their retail stores. If you don’t get what the brand is about, you’re not going to get a job with them. I think that’s true of any brand, but it’s especially pertinent in industries like apparel where brand is everything. So, what about jobs at Lucky Brand? They have a ton of Store Management opportunities at their retail stores. This may not be exactly what you had in mind post-graduation (or maybe it is), but it kind of offers the opportunity to run your own business—at least that’s what the job description makes it sound like. They have openings for Retail Management in Ala Moana, HI; Miami, FL; Monterey, CA; Pittsburgh, PA; Tampa, FL; San Jose, CA; San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; Waikiki, HI; Westlake, OH; Los Angeles, CA; Manhattan, NY; Las Vegas, NV; El Paso, TX; Aurora, IL; Chicago, IL; Pleasant Prairie; WI; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; Bridgewater, NJ; Elizabeth, NJ; Seattle, WA; Wrentham, MA; Peabody, MA; Boston, MA; Houston, TX; Studio City, CA; St. Louis, MO; and quite a few more locations (although those jobs were posted in March and earlier). You can find all of those job postings on Lucky Brand’s Jobs site.

You also have the option of submitting a résumé for general consideration for corporate jobs in Vernon, CA. I think that this might be worthwhile because of what Lucky Brand has to say about their Internship Program:

The Lucky Brand Fall 2009 Internship Program is intended to help acclimate Junior and Senior level university/college students to our company culture, build on their creativity, and allow them the best opportunity to get to know Lucky Brand. This program is designed to identify, develop and potentially hire top entry level talent.

If they’re looking to hire top entry level talent, then why don’t they have any entry level jobs posted outside of retail? Maybe it’s just a season thing, or maybe they mostly like hiring past interns, but it’s worth investigating. Lucky Brand offers internships in Design, Human Resources, Wholesale Sales & Planning, Accessory Jewelry Design, Accessory Design, eCommerce, and Marketing, so those are areas where they might also have entry level jobs.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you consider yourself lucky?

CB Richard Ellis

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

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

Be with CBRE

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about CBRE?

Archie McPhee

Willy Franzen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:55:50 +0000

Let’s have a little fun today since it’s Friday! I’ve been waiting on a company to post jobs for well over a year. They still haven’t done it (which probably means that their jobs are awesome and get snatched up before they’re posted), so I’m going to force the issue and post about them anyway. The company is Archie McPhee, and they a novelty dealer based in Seattle that is about as off the wall as a company can get. Their offerings include Bacon Gumballs, Stylish Mustaches for Girls, Chicken Chuckers, and Rubber Chickens. That doesn’t even include their stupid products (like squirrel underpants) and their weirdest products (which also includes squirrel underpants along with a corn dog air freshener).

Enjoy the Novelty of an Entry Level Job

Despite all of the wacky products that Archie McPhee offers online, in their store, and by mail order, my favorite has to be the the Seth Godin, Marketing Guru Action Figure. Who wouldn’t want an action figure of their favorite marketing genius? Maybe they’ll make a job search guru action figure of me one day… yeah right! Anyway, if you haven’t already gotten a feel for what Archie McPhee is all about, then they’re probably not the right place for you. Although they don’t have any jobs posted, they do have a Jobs page that brags about how awesome of a place they are to work. It’s hard to tell what kind of jobs they might offer, but you might as well find out by reaching out to them at unicorn@mcphee.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite Archie McPhee product?

Concur

Willy Franzen — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:15:31 +0000

Since you’re looking for your first job, it’s probably a safe assumption that you are not familiar with “expensing” things. Hopefully you will be one day (soon). Many companies (especially consulting firms) allow their employees to pay for travel, lodging, and food, and then submit receipts to the company to get reimbursed. It can be pretty sweet if you’re getting $30 a night to spend on dinner, while racking up credit card points and frequent flier miles at no expense to you, but the downside is that submitting expense reports to get reimbursed is time consuming and quite annoying. Concur, a Redmond, WA based company that I learned about in Sramana Mitra’s Entrepreneur Journeys, solves this problem through their “on-demand Employee Spend Management business services.” Put simply, they have a suite of solutions that enables companies to automate the expensing process.

Do You Concur?

Expense management is a complicated process that you’re probably not going to understand fully any time soon, but all you need to understand about Concur is that they make the process much simpler. Or as Concur puts it, their “unified approach to managing employee spend delivers a 360 degree view into all employee expenses, helping companies globally enforce policies and monitor vendor compliance, while delivering unprecedented control and valuable insight.”

The cool thing about how Concur started is that they fixed a problem that was bothering them. Concur’s current CEO, Steve Singh, was complaining to his business partner about how he had to file $150,000 in receipts a week before a project closed to make sure that he’d get reimbursed. From this complaint came Concur—a solution. The company has grown significantly since it was founded in 1993, and they seem to still be growing as they’re hiring now. They do have a College Recruiting Page, but it seems a bit out of date. Your best bet to get the scoop on jobs at Concur is to check out their main Careers page and then take a look at their specific job openings. The most suitable options for new grads are Records Maintenance Clerk (Redmond, WA), Market Development Representative (Prague, Czech Republic), Account Manager (Eden Prairie, MN), Collections Specialist (Sydney, Australia), Collections Specialist (Eden Prairie, MN), and Accountant – Internal Auditor (Redmond, WA). You can apply online directly from those job descriptions, so get at it!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever dealt with an onerous expensing process?

Bungie

Willy Franzen — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:50:56 +0000

It’s been almost 6 months since I first started talking about how the video game industry is a good place to find a job during a recession, yet I continue to be amazed by how aggressively some gaming companies are hiring. I don’t know if it’s a result of the fact that people buy video games when they’re unemployed or it’s that hard to find people to fill these jobs, but I’m shocked to see a company like Bungie with 21 job openings – many of which appear to be suitable for new grads. Now, Bungie and I go way back. I’ve been using Macs since the early 90s, and Bungie was one of the premier game creators for Macs. Although I was never a serious gamer, I definitely have fond memories of Bungie’s first huge success – Marathon. Then they hit it big with Halo. Microsoft bought them out, and they picked up shop and moved (all of their employees chose to follow the company) to Kirkland, WA.

Take a Bungie Jump

Bungie may have been bought out by the evil empire (they were the premier Mac game publisher), but they’ve remained true to their roots. Here’s the Bungie Creed:

Bungie is a studio built first and foremost on the strengths and abilities of its people. We use the best technology and the best talent in the industry, assembled together in the best place, to create compelling games, stories and worlds.

With all these pieces in place, Bungie can concentrate on its ultimate goal:

7 Steps to World Domination.

1. Start independent gaming software company.
2. Dominate Mac platform: Launch assault on Windows platform.
3. Announce killer gaming title.
4. Acquire strangely addictive Chinese food company.
5. Recover Ling Ling’s head.
6. Stage bloody coup of new parent company.
7. Take over World. Shoot enemies into sun with giant slingshot.

If you’re interested in world domination, then you need to check out Bungie’s Jobs page. Their job listings are easy enough to browse that I don’t need to repeat them for you, but I will tell you that most of the opportunities are in Art and Engineering/Software Development. There are also positions in Production, Design, and Testing. You can apply by sending resumes (along with demo reels, portfolios, sample code, and anything else that demonstrates your skills) to jobs@bungie.com, and you really should dive deep into their website. It’s one of the best corporate websites that I’ve seen, and it’s loaded with information that potential employees will find fascinating.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you ever play Marathon back in the day?

U.S. Census Bureau

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

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

Everyone Counts at the U.S. Census Bureau

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

As for locations:

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

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

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you excited for the 2010 Census?

Sambazon

Willy Franzen — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:55:37 +0000

I don’t know if you’ve heard of açaí, but apparently it’s all the rage these days. In fact the buzz has gotten so big that the newest Internet scam is to push açaí as celebrity-endorsed weight loss products. This is giving açaí, a berry that has “30x the antioxidants of red wine, and an essential fatty acid profile similar to olive oil,” a terrible reputation. I think that we all know that this berry isn’t going to solve all of your problems, but that doesn’t mean that you should miss out on “getting with the purple berry.” Sambazon is a company that does açaí right. They “promote sustainable management of the Brazilian Amazon by providing the highest quality whole food, organic, fair trade Açaí products to consumers.” In other words they make products like juices, smoothies, energy drinks, sorbets, and supplements (with no false promises of instant weight loss like the scammer/spammers). I think that I first heard about Sambazon over a year ago from the Inc 5000, but I’ve been waiting for them to post some jobs that I can feature here.

These Jobs Are the Berries

Finally, Sambazon has some jobs that I think that some of you might be interested in, but first you should get to know the company a little better. The best way to do that is to check out their blog. Lately Sambazon co-founder, Ed “Skanda” Nichols, has been doing a series called The Real Deal Açaí Blog Series to address all of the crap that has been going on in the açaí industry. Reading up on this series is probably the best way to get a feel for what the company is about and how they work. If you like what you see and want to be part of the Sambazon Team (which is actually for athletes sponsored by Sambazon), then you should check out Sambazon’s Jobs page, which is hidden in a tiny font on the sidebar of their Contact page. The jobs that they have aren’t exactly ideal for most new college grads, but they look pretty cool. Sambazon is looking for Part-Time Retail Sales Merchandisers/Demonstrators in Dallas/Ft. Worth; TX, Houston, TX; and Seattle, WA. These are sales jobs that require a lot of travel by car, but they’ll get your foot in the door of a company that is cool, exciting, and growing. The application instructions differ depending on which location you’re applying for, so check out the job postings to get all of the details. Also, if you think that you could add something to Sambazon team even though they don’t have a job posted for you, you can always try reaching out to them at jobs@sambazon.com

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever tried açaí?

SEOmoz

Willy Franzen — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:46:47 +0000

While I find most of the entry level jobs and companies that I feature here to be interesting, occasionally I come across one that almost makes me want to quit what I’m doing and go work for someone else. There are just some companies and jobs that stand out from the rest. SEOmoz is one of them. They’re a Seattle based search engine optimization company, but they’re more than that. Instead of just taking on consulting work like most SEO companies, they’ve made their name by becoming the place to go for search engine optimization education and tools. I’ve been an on and off member of SEOmoz’s Pro service, and I love it. I’ve learned most of my SEO knowledge from SEOmoz, and SEO has been one of the driving forces behind the growth of One Day, One Job and One Day, One Internship. I’ve even adopted SEOmoz’s business model of offering premium educational content (in the form of a job search training course).

Putting the Search in Job Search

If you don’t know much about SEO, SEOmoz is the place to learn. Their Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization is a great place to start. SEO is a growing field that isn’t being hit nearly as hard by the economic downturn. That’s because SEO is a relatively cheap way (compared to most other forms of marketing) to get people to your website. In fact, there are quite a few people who are making millions of dollars a year just based on their knowledge of SEO. If you don’t know anything about SEO, a job at SEOmoz probably isn’t in the cards for you right now, but I still recommend that you spend a couple of hours checking them out. Knowing a thing or two about how the search engines work can be really useful in nearly any job – or for personal branding during your job search.

If you do have some SEO expertise, then this job at SEOmoz is probably a dream come true. You can find the full description on their SEO Expert Wanted post. The requirements are pretty steep, but there should be quite a few of you who can fit the bill. The vibe that I get from SEOmoz is that they’re an awesome place to work and that they have a lot of fun. I also get a sense that their people develop very rapidly – mostly because working at SEOmoz is full of educational opportunities. I have nothing but good things to say about my experiences with SEOmoz, so check out the full job description and make sure that you read the application instructions carefully. Also, this is the kind of job where there’s a lot of room to make yourself stand out in the application process, so do it!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you familiar with SEO? Or is it a completely foreign subject to you?

The Omni Group

Willy Franzen — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:57:01 +0000

First of all, if you haven’t enrolled in Found Your Career (our job search training course) – yet, there couldn’t be a better time. The first group of students who signed up before the launch are already 1/3 of the way through the class and making a ton of progress. Since we have an automated content delivery system, you can start classes at any time. With the economy the way it is, you need every advantage that you’ve got. Speaking of the economy, remember the good old days when Software Development jobs were a dime a dozen? Those days are over. There are still a ton of jobs in the software industry, but I’ve noticed that even startups have cut back a lot over the past few months. One exception is companies that ride the coattails of Apple. If you’re developing software for Macs, or better yet, iPhones, then there’s a good chance that you’re doing pretty well. I mean, iFart is making its developer hundreds of thousands of dollars. One company that is certainly taking advantage of Apple’s surging popularity is The Omni Group, a Seattle, WA based software development house. They may not make farting applications, but they do create some pretty cool software.

OmniJobs

The Omni Group’s current software offerings include:

OmniWeb – Advanced web browsing that’s easy and fun
OmniGraffle – Diagramming worth a thousand words
OmniOutliner – Indispensable idea organization
OmniPlan – Project management made painless
OmniFocus – Personal productivity and peace of mind
OmniDazzle – Screen effects for presentations and more
OmniDiskSweeper – The simple, fast way to save disk space
OmniDictionary – A free client for dictionary servers
OmniObjectMeter – Memory optimization for Mac developers

Right now The Omni Group is looking for an iPhone and OS X coder. They’re pretty picky about whom they’ll hire, but since iPhone technology is so new, there’s no reason that a new college grad can’t be a perfect fit for this job. You can find out all the details on The Omni Group’s Jobs page, and you should also note that The Omni Group is always looking to hear from talented people – even if there isn’t a job posted that is relevant to their skills. So check out The Omni Group’s Team, and if you think that you have talents that might fit in well with what they already have, then let them know at resumes@omnigroup.com. Also, be sure to scroll to the bottom of their Jobs page. It talks about all of the perks of working at The Omni Group, and they sound pretty sweet.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use any of The Omni Group’s software?

Patagonia

Willy Franzen — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:46:45 +0000

You have to love it when a small company grows into something big. It’s hard to believe that some of today’s major corporations were started with a couple of people in a garage. What’s even more extraordinary is when a small company that gets big never loses sight of who they are. That’s the story of Patagonia, a company that started out making tools for climbers. They are now a “worldwide business that makes clothes for climbing – as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running.” You’ve probably heard of Patagonia, and there’s a good chance that you own something made by them, whether it’s a polar fleece, a windbreaker, or long underwear. With a winter like this one, Patagonia gear is especially necessary for avoiding frostbite. Despite advances in technology and amazing business growth, Patagonia continues to take the same approach to their business – their “product design demonstrates a bias for simplicity and utility” and their “values reflect those of a business started by a band of climbers and surfers, and the minimalist style they promoted.” Patagonia makes exceedingly cool products, and they are the definition of a cool place to work.

Take a Trip to Patagonia

Unlike most athletic apparel companies, Patagonia focuses on “the silent sports.” That tells you a lot about who they are. There is a company-wide “love of wild and beautiful places” that “demands participation in the fight to save them.” That’s why Patagonia donates time, services and at least 1% of sales to grassroots environmental organizations all across the world. Patagonia apparel is as much an identity as it is a functional piece of equipment. If you want to learn more about Patgonia’s values, you should check out their page on Corporate Social Responsibility and their Employee Internship Program, which allows employees to “leave their jobs for up to two months to work full-time for the environmental group of their choice” while still getting paid and retaining benefits.

So what about jobs? We wish that Patagonia had some cool entry level field testing or product design jobs, but there’s nothing like that available right now. What they do have are jobs like Graphic Production Artist, Java Developer / Solutions Architect, and X++ Programmer/Analyst at their headquarters in Ventura, CA. You can keep an eye on Patagonia’s Jobs RSS Feed to see if they post your dream job, and you can apply for their corporate jobs by sending a cover letter and resume to venturajobs@patagonia.com. Additionally, Patagonia has Sales Associate positions in San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Westport, CT; SoHo, NY; Denver, CO; Upper West Side, NY; Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Palo Alto, CA; and Chicago, IL.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Patagonia.com
Jobs at Patagonia
About Patagonia
Patagonia’s History
Field Reports from Patagonia
Patagonia on Corporate Social Responsibility
TheCleanestLine.com (Patagonia’s Blog)

Do you wear Patagonia?

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?

frog design

Willy Franzen — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:51:42 +0000

We’re big on innovation here. We don’t like talking about companies that are doing things the way that they’ve always done. They’re not only boring, but they’re also destined for failure. Look at the auto industry. You can blame the downfall of the Big 3 on a lot of things, but a lack of innovation has to be a big part of your argument. We’re trying to bring innovation to the way that you find jobs, and there are hundreds of startups out there that are defined by innovation. It’s all around us. frog design is a global innovation firm. They “work with the world’s leading companies, helping them create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences,” and they’ve been doing it for almost 40 years. They’ve worked with clients as vaired as Disney, GE, HP, Logitech, Microsoft, MTV, Seagate, Yahoo!, which goes to show you that they’re not easy to pigeonhole. frog design is based out of San Francisco, and they have offices (or as they call them, studios) in Austin, New York, San Jose, Seattle, Milan, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, and Shanghai

These Jobs Might Give You Warts

It seems that on most days the companies that we feature need a little help telling their story, so we do our research and try to make it easier for you to understand what exactly they do. That’s not the case today. Frog Design tells their story perfectly on their About page with the following image. That’s why we’re just reposting it.

I have nothing to add, except of course what kind of jobs at frog design might appeal to new college grads. Considering that they have a ton of internships, you might expect them to have some sort of college recruiting program, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Their Internships page actually says that they “occasionally have internship opportunities for entry-level,” but that’s in reference to internships. It seems like they might do all of the entry level hiring through internships, so you may want to check out our post about frog design’s internships on One Day, One Internship.

On the other hand, if you’ve developed some serious skills relevant to frog design’s core strengths, you might want to take a look at some of their “mid-level” jobs that could be attainable for top entry level candidates. Online Marketing Specialist / Web Developer (San Francisco), Digital Designer II (San Francisco), or Temp Model Maker (San Jose). These are probably stretches for new grads, so go read the Top 10 Reasons to Work at frog to get yourself amped up before you apply. Maybe you’ll just blow them away with your passion.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you love innovation as much as we do?

Decagon Devices

Willy Franzen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:49:52 +0000

I love the Wall Street Journal’s list of Top Small Workplaces 2008, but I wish it was longer. It always alerts me to companies that I never would have found no matter how hard I look every day. For instance, Decagon Devices is a “is a small manufacturer of biophysical instrumentation for food and consumer goods manufacturers, agronomic scientists and soils scientists.” I can’t imagine how I would have found them without the WSJ’s list. Decagon Devices does appear to hire new college graduates, but the jobs that they are hiring for have very specific academic requirements. Maybe in the future they’ll have some jobs that don’t require a scientific background, but until then, those of you who aren’t scientifically inclined should spend time that you would have spent researching today’s employer telling your friends about us. That’s all that you need to do to win the iPod Touch that we’re giving away in 4 days. So far the number of entries is pathetic, so take advantage of everyone else’s laziness and go with that iPod.

10 Sided Jobs

Now that we’ve weeded out all the people who think that biophysical instrumentation is a fancy word for the phenomenon of hearing music inside your head when you use an iPod, let’s take a look at what Decagon Devices actually does. They make devices for markets that include Food Science, Pharmaceuticals, Thermal Properties, Geotechnical Civil Engineering, Environmental Research, and Commercial Irrigation. When it comes down to it, Decagon Devices is all about measurement. Most of what they do is way over my head, so I’m going to hope that you can figure out if their jobs are a good fit for you. Right now they’re looking for a Food Physicist/Engineer and an Environmental Instrumentation Application Specialist. Both are geared towards new college grads, but they’d prefer someone who graduated with a Ph.D. in a relevant field for the Food Physicist position; whereas, the Environmental Instrumentation Application Specialist should be a good fit for someone with a B.S. in soil or plant sciences. The company is located in Pullman, WA, and if the WSJ thinks that they’re a good place to work, then they are. You should definitely check out the section about them in the article for more details. To apply for the Food Physicist job, send a cover letter and resume to laura@decagon.com. To apply for the Environmental Instrumentation Application Specialist position, send your cover letter and resume to gtvanek@decagon.com by November 14th.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Levy Restaurants

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

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

The Levy Difference

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

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

Major League Baseball

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

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

Take Me Out to an Entry Level Job

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

MLB.com Jobs

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

Jobs with MLB Teams

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

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

Chill

Willy Franzen — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:50:49 +0000

With the first day of fall just two days a way, you can definitely feel a chill in the air (at least if you’re in the Northeast like me). The leaves are already starting to change colors, and before you know it there will be snow on the ground. For many this is a depressing picture, but for those of you who love snowboarding, the coming of winter is filled with excitement. Snowboarding is all about seeing hope in the desolate bleakness of winter, and that’s the kind of attitude that Chill is looking for in Local Coordinators. The Chill program is a nonprofit learn–to-snowboard program for underserved youth run by Burton Snowboards.

Can I Chill?

Beyond sounding like a lot of fun, the Chill program seems to be doing a lot to enact positive change in the lives of young people.

From the Chill website:

Every year, we take over 100 youth from each of our sites to the slopes. We provide them with everything they need to learn to ride: lift tickets, lessons, transportation, and head-to-toe gear. Snowboarding is fun and a great activity for the youth we serve, but it takes several lessons and plenty of hard work to learn. We use board sports to motivate youth to accomplish goals they never thought they could, while teaching them some of the most important lessons in life about patience, persistence, responsibility, courage, respect, and pride. With positive adult role models, engaging activities, and incredible mountain environments we build self confidence and raise self esteem.

This is a truly unique

Am I Chill Enough?

Chill is currently looking for 2 Local Coordinators at 13 of their sites. That’s a lot of entry level jobs. These aren’t permanent, full-time positions, but they are a perfect way to transition from the student life to the working life. They’re looking for college graduates who have at least 3 years of snowboarding experience along with experience working with kids. Chill’s sites include Baltimore, Boston, Burlington, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, Prince George, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington D.C. The program runs from November through the end of March. You can find the job description for the Chicago Coordinator here (.doc) and the Chill Fact Sheet here (.doc). The pay scales, dates and hours very depending on location, so you’ll have to e-mail Jason Hirsch for more details. He’s also the person that you should apply to, so when you’re ready, send your cover letter and resume to jasonh@chill.org. The application deadline for the Chicago position is October 6th, but we’re not sure if the deadlines for other sites will vary as well. Your best bet is to apply as soon as possible.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you snowboard?

Alcoa

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

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

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

What Does Alcoa Do?

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

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

What Can I Do at Alcoa?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

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

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

Exponent

Willy Franzen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:00:28 +0000

Imagine getting a job as a MythBuster, except instead of debunking urban legend, you’re investigating real life problems that plague businesses and sometimes hurt people. That’s what you could be doing at Exponent. Founded in 1967 by five Ph.D.-level researchers, Exponent was originally known as Failure Analysis Associates. They started out in the energy industry studying stress and fracture mechanics, but very quickly they were “investigating and analyzing accidents and failures of all kinds.” They eventually became The Failure Group, and were listed on the NASDAQ with the ticker FAIL. In 1998 they realized that they had outgrown their name, and changed again to Exponent, because it means “one who expounds or interprets.” We don’t usually get so deep into how a company chooses it’s name, but with the popularity of the FAIL meme (see also: FAIL Blog), we thought that you might be amused.

Failures Need Not Apply

Despite their fascination with failure, Exponent has a staff of nearly 800 people with backgrounds in over 90 scientific and engineering disciplines. In other words, people who work at Exponent deal with failure often, but they try to keep it at an arm’s length. Are you still not sure what we mean by failure? Here are some examples of projects that Exponent has worked on: investigating defects in automatic revolving doors; determining the path and altitude of Delta flight 191 which crashed and killed 134 people; recreation of the accident that killed James Dean for an NBC series, and testing the Suzuki Samurai for rollover vulnerabilities. There are many more projects that Exponent has worked on, and you can view multimedia presentations on many of them in the Exponent Multimedia Archive. We could keep writing about Exponent’s work for hours – it’s that interesting – but they have a plethora of entry-level job opportunities that we need to talk about.

Entry-Level Jobs to the Xth Power

Exponent’s web site is about as entry-level friendly as we’ve seen, although they could do a better job of making sure that new college grads can navigate to the right jobs. When you visit Exponent’s Careers Page, you’ll notice that they’ve prominently linked to their University Recruiting page. Their approach to University Recruiting on the web is really cool, but it’s not intuitive. There’s a text box that allows you to enter in your school name to search for current alumni from your school and to learn about upcoming recruiting events on your campus. There’s also a list of the 20 schools from which they employ the most alums. For instance, take a look at Cornell’s page (I’m not biased or anything – GO BIG RED!). It’s a really cool way to engage students, but it only works if the students go to a school that Exponent has a page for. A lot of students probably end up on the University Recruiting page and don’t know what to do next.

This is where a little searching helps. If you visit Exponent’s How to Apply page, you’ll see information for entry-level candidates. Here they direct you to contact their College Recruiter, Jenny Irwin, at jirwin@exponent.com or to take a look at their entry-level job listings (these are opportunities specifically for new grads). Here you’ll find a ton of fascinating jobs in a variety of locations. We will warn you, however, that seemingly all of the entry-level jobs currently listed with Exponent require some sort of advanced degree (MS or PhD). Since so many Engineers seem to stick around and get a Masters, we thought it would still be appropriate to feature Exponent’s jobs today.

Some of the most recent listings on Exponent’s site include Engineers, Vehicle Engineering (Menlo Park, CA and Natick, MA); Scientists, Public Health & Industrial (Menlo Park, CA; Bellevue, WA; Wood Dale, IL; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Oakland, CA; Irvine, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Alexandria, VA; and Washington, DC); and Engineers, Technology Development (Menlo Park, CA; San Diego, CA; and Washington, DC). There are many more opportunities listed on their site, and you can apply online through their applicant tracking system. If you want to work for Exponent but are just finishing up undergrad, then you better start thinking about graduate school.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you feel like your entry-level job search is a failure of such grand proportion that Exponent may have to investigate what happened? Subscribe to One Day, One Job (it’s free), and make sure that doesn’t happen.

Brunswick

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

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

Not Quite Early Retirement

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

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

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

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

More Options for New Grads at Brunswick

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of Brunswick’s brands is your favorite?

I Can Has Cheezburger?

Willy Franzen — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:06:31 +0000

There are two kinds of people – those who think that lolcats are the funniest things in the world and those who think that they are symbolic of the sheer stupidity of humanity. I guess there’s also a third kind of person – the ones who are asking, “What’s a lolcat?” This is a lolcat. So is this. This is why lolcats speak the way that they do (if you’re really confused, you can read this About page). I Can Has Cheezburger? is a website that has its entire revenue model based on pictures of cats with funny captions – better known as lolcats. If you’ve stayed with us this long (and haven’t left to go look at pictures of kittehs or in disgust at the not-funniness of lolcats), then you’re clearly intrigued at the prospect of making a living off the backs of lolcats.

I Can Has Job?

No, we’re not pranking you. There really is a website that gets millions of hits, makes lots of money, and needs to hire more people because their pictures of cats are so popular. In all seriousness, there’s not too much more to I Can Has Cheezburger? than the pictures. As silly as they seem, the company actually has an unbelievable online brand on which they’ve built a solid business. If you want to take a more serious look at I Can Has Cheezburger?, then you should listen to this interview that ShoeMoney (internet marketing superstar) had with Ben Huh, Chief Cheezburger. It’s entertaining and informative.

I Can Has Cheezburger? has a real Jobs page, and they have a number of jobs listed that look perfect for new college grads. The job descriptions are absolutely awesome, and the jobs actually look really fun. Right now, I Can Has Cheezburger? is looking for a .NET Superstar, a Moderator, and an Ad Manager. All of these jobs appear to be as entry-level as you can get, so you should be excited. The .NET position is open to telecommuters anywhere in the US or Canada, and the Moderator and Ad Manager jobs begin as contract positions in Seattle, WA with the prospect of going permanent. All you need to do to apply is send a resume and a cover letter on why you are a good fit to lol@icanhascheezburger.com. Attaching a lolcat is optional.

If you do land a job with I Can Has Cheezburger?, make sure that you’re comfortable with telling your parents that all the money that they spent on getting you that degree is being put to work at a company that distributes pictures of cats with funny captions. LOLz.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite lolcat? Leave a comment with a link.

Hopelink

Willy Franzen — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:28:27 +0000

Hopelink is a non-profit organization that serves homeless and low income families, children, seniors and people with disabilities. Their goal is to promote self-sufficiency among these people by providing emergency and social services in:

North and East King County, Washington between the I-90 corridor to the Seattle city limits and the Snohomish County line, and from the shores of Lake Washington to the Crest of the Cascades, an area of 800 square miles.

Hopelink offers help to people in the areas of Food, Housing, Child Care, Family Development, Adult Education, Transportation, Interpreter Services, Financial Assistance, Energy Assistance, and Classes. The end result is often a story like this. That’s just one family that was touched by Hopelink – the story in numbers from just last year are awe inspiring (50,000 lives touched for starters).

You Can Help People and Change Lives Too

Helplink has a number of jobs that seem well suited to new college grads who have spent time actively engaged in their communities. These jobs aren’t entry-level by definition, as the descriptions say that 2 years of experience in social work is preferred, but we know that there are a lot of new grads out there who have what it takes. Moreover, Hopelink qualifies all of their experience requirements in job descriptions with this note: “An equivalent combination of education, experience, and training that provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities may be acceptable.” We love that. It means that they are more concerned with finding someone who can do the job than they are with checking off boxes on a job application.

Hopelink is looking for Case Managers in Redmond, WA; East King County, WA; and Issaquah, WA and an Emergency Services Specialist in Shoreline/Kirkland, WA. The job descriptions are extremely thorough, so you shouldn’t have any trouble figuring out if you’ll make a good candidate or not. If you think you will and you have a passion for helping people become self sufficient, then send a cover letter and resume to jobs@hope-link.org.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Know anything about Hopelink? Leave a comment.