One Day, One Job

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?

Steiner Sports

Willy Franzen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:23:31 +0000

“Ball game over! World Series over! Yankees win! THEEEEEEEE YANKEES WINNNNNNNNN!” Although I was watching tv and not listening on the radio, I heard John Sterling’s call in my head as soon as Cano threw to Teixeira to get the 27th out and a 27th World Championship. As you can probably guess, I’m a huge Yankees fan, and I’m in a great mood. Since we’ve already covered entry level jobs with Major League Baseball teams, entry level jobs with the YES Network, and plenty of other entry level jobs in baseball, today we’re going to take a look at Steiner Sports. They’re based out of New Rochelle, NY, and consider themselves the “the leader in autographed sports memorabilia and sports collectibles.” They also happen to have a very strong partnership with the New York Yankees, so they are the place to go for your 2009 Championship collectibles. Whether you want a seat from the old stadium or an official Championship locker room t-shirt, they’ve got it. You can even buy a Derek Jeter autographed 2009 World Series ball despite the fact that he probably hasn’t had time yet to sit down and sign autographs.

Collect Your Way to a New Job

I used to be really into sports memorabilia, but now I’m happy to just watch the game. Still, sports memorabilia is a huge market that seems to be going strong despite the decline of the collectible card industry. I guess people would much rather have something that is actually scarce like a game used jersey than a piece of cardboard that can be produced en masse. I guess that’s why Steiner Sports is now a “booming, 100-plus employee, $50 million enterprise.” Beyond the memorabilia and collectibles side of the business, there’s also Steiner Sports Marketing. It seems like an awesome company for sports fans, so if you’re intrigued, check out their Jobs page. Right now they have a handful of openings posted including a B2B/Retail Sales position and a Direct to Consumer Account Executive position. The application instructions can be found on the Jobs page, so check out the full descriptions and make your job search something that you can commemorate.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Yankees win!

The Wrap

Willy Franzen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:45:19 +0000

I’m going to be brutally honest with this one. When I landed on the The Wrap’s Home page, I immediately clicked the back button. I thought that I had landed on one of those Google Money Maker scam pages (it’s all because of the font choice). After processing what I had seen, I decided to take a second look. Despite their poor design choices, The Wrap is a legitimate site—if a site that covers entertainment industry analysis and breaking hollywood news can be considered legitimate (I kid). Now, The Wrap shouldn’t be confused with gossip sites like TMZ or Perez Hilton, this is actually an industry focused site that does primary source reporting. They’re venture funded and quite obviously located in Los Angeles. I don’t know a lot about the entertainment industry and how it’s covered by the press, but it looks like The Wrap is growing a solid audience with their web-based content.

Get Wrapped Up In It

Whether or not a job in entertainment journalism sounds interesting to you, you need to be reading The Wrap if you have any interest in the entertainment industry whatsoever. On the other hand, if you’re looking for an entry level journalism job covering Hollywood news, you’re in serious luck. The only job posted on The Wrap’s Jobs page is Entry-Level Reporter. They want someone with writing/reporting experience and a good business sense. The position starts as a contract job with the opportunity to join the staff full-time. It’s the perfect opportunity for a new journalism grad to prove his or her worth by diving into some real work. If you’re interested, send a résumé and clips to info@thewrap.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read The Wrap?

Fanzter

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:38:20 +0000

One thing that I find really exciting is the fact that there are cool startups popping up all across the country. Yes, Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest are still the primary places for technology focused companies to open up shop, but that’s becoming less and less true. That’s why I was intrigued by Fanzter—they’re web products company based in Collinsville, CT. Considering the fact that I’m from Connecticut and have never heard of Collinsville (it’s near Hartford), you have to consider it an unusual location for a startup (they would tell you it’s optimally located between Boston and New York City). Fanzter’s first (and only current) product is called Coolspotters. It’s a website that “makes it easy to discover and buy the products, brands, and fashions being used by your favorite celebrities – in their real lives, and in movies and television.” It reminds me a lot of what Delivery Agent is doing.

Spot These Cool Jobs

The business behind Coolspotters is pretty clear—their content can flow seamlessly into e-commerce. Coolspotters relies heavily on user-generated content, so the site can grow organically on it’s own. To get a feel for Coolspotters, let’s take a look at Joba Chamberlain (go Yankees!). His profile page will show you products that he’s been spotted with including a picture of him with the product. I see a picture of Joba playing Guitar Hero, and then I can go buy my own Guitar Hero. There are still a lot of kinks to be worked out on Coolspotters’ site (like having Mariano Rivera’s picture for C.C. Sabathia), but the concept is there and so is the funding. Right now, Fanzter’s Jobs page only has one position posted: Software Engineer, which is focused mostly on Web Development. The job is to build a new site called SimpleSports, so you have to love sports to be a good fit for the job. You might also want to note that Fanzter is offering Editorial Internships, so there’s the potential for some non techie jobs in the future (or maybe now if you want to try cold calling). You can apply for a job with Fanzter by sending a cover letter and résumé to jobs@fanzter.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Coolspotters?

Personal Finance and the Job Search

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:21:22 +0000

Today (Friday, November 6th) is the last day to sign up for Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich Bootcamp. Keep reading for more details, and take note that if you sign up today from the links on this page and forward your receipt to willy@onedayonejob.com, we’ll enroll you in our job search training course Found Your Career for free (a $152 value).

Before I started One Day, One Job, I was a recent grad without a job and without an idea of what I wanted to do. I had a lot of time on my hands, and I wasted most of it doing a halfway job search and grasping for ideas of what to do with my life. In early 2007 there was one really smart thing that I did—I decided to get my personal finances in order. I didn’t have an income or any debt, and my expenses were minimal because I was living with my parents, but I still thought it was important to be in control of my financial well-being. So, I took some time, and started to figure things out. For the first time in months I felt like I had accomplished something; in fact, I even considered starting a personal finance website to share what I had learned (luckily I did this instead).

Had I not been so dense back then, I probably would have realized that taking care of one’s personal finances is a fantastic way to get a job. Here’s why:

Imagine yourself in a job interview. You think that you’re making small talk when the interviewer asks you what you’ve been up to since you graduated, but she’s actually trying to gain some valuable information about you.

You could respond:

Ummmm… well I’ve been looking for a job… and traveling. Yeah, I went on a road trip with my friends for 5 days. Oh yeah, and I worked so hard in college that I thought I deserved some time off.

Good luck with that one. Here’s another option:

I’ve been spending a lot of time preparing to start life on the job. A big part of that has been working on my personal finances. I just moved my accounts to a new bank to maximize interest and minimize fees. Then I called my credit card and negotiated a lower interest rate, which will save me $900 this year. I also sold a bunch of stuff that I no longer needed on eBay and put that money towards opening a retirement account. And I must admit that I’m really excited to start a new job because a semi-weekly paycheck will allow me to automate my bank accounts.

Now, if you had just said this to your friends, they’d probably think you’re a dweeb, but in 30 seconds you demonstrated to your interviewer that: you’re responsible, you’re smart, you’re savvy, you’re a good negotiator, and you’re a hard worker.

Even though you’ve only spent 20 hours of your life focused on personal finances, you’ve packaged your accomplishments into an impressive story. That’s a really good way to get hired. And once you do, that paycheck is going to go a lot farther for you because of the time you’ve spent getting comfortable managing your personal finances.

So, how do you do learn to do all of that stuff?

Meet Ramit Sethi

Ramit Sethi is a friend of mine, and he will teach you to be rich. Sounds kind of scammy, right? It’s not. Let’s go back to your SAT days and use an analogy to describe who Ramit is.

Willy Franzen : Job Search :: Ramit Sethi : Personal Finance

There really should be an inequality sign in there or something, because Ramit’s accomplishments put mine to shame. The guy has saved people millions of dollars! He’s been featured by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, NPR, and Fortune. His website I Will Teach You To Be Rich has had millions of visitors. And his book I Will Teach You To Be Rich was an Amazon, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal Best Seller.

The guy knows personal finance, and he’s also a great teacher. I know this not only because I’ve learned a lot from his blog, his book, and his videos, but also because I’ve read some of his awesome testimonials.

So now I have a plan. I’ve followed Ramit’s advice and negotiated better rates on my credit cards by using the scripts in his book — those scripts and negotiation tactics paid for the book 10 times over in the first phone call. I can’t recommend those highly enough. I also took Ramit’s advice in automating my finances. Every bill that can be set to be paid automatically is now paid that way. That includes my minimum payments on my credit cards so I will not have another late or missed payment ever again. Victory!

Using tips from your blog & book I’ve gone from $250 savings with $1700 debt to $6,000 savings and $0 debt in about 4 months. Thanks.

I just got 3 late fees waived thanks to Ramit’s suggestions in I Will Teack You To Be Rich. Get it. I promise you won’t regret it.

One thing that Ramit taught me is that most credit cards offer an insurance policy on recent purchases. When my girlfriend ran over my brand new iPod Nano (ok, I dropped it behind her tire), I was distraught. Then I called American Express and they credited my account for the cost of the Nano. Without Ramit, I would have been stuck with a pancaked iPod.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp

The reason that I’m talking about Ramit isn’t because I want to suck up to him. It’s because I think that managing your personal finances is an essential part of the job search. It’s also because Ramit asked me to partner (in full disclosure that means that I get revenue share on sales) with him to launch the I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp. It’s a 6-week course that is guaranteed to save you money.

That means that if Ramit’s advice doesn’t help you save more than you paid to enroll, you can e-mail Ramit, and he’ll refund the the entire fee.

Considering the fact that people who work with Ramit usually save thousands of dollars, the $199 price tag for I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp is ridiculously low. Ramit set it so low because this is the first time that the Boot Camp will be publicly available. The next time that enrollment opens up, you can be sure that the price will be at least twice as much.

Now, if you can’t commit to making a risk free investment that will easily pay for itself, then you’re not the kind of person that Ramit wants to work with. He like successes stories. It’s the reason he has a ticker on the top of his website that counts how much money he has helped people save. However, if you’re fired up to add a big number to that ticker, then here’s what you need to know.

Registration starts now! You can enroll here.
You only have until Friday, November 6th to register.
$199 buys you a lifetime subscription.
Ramit is offering a 100% money-back guarantee for 30 days after purchase.
You will never again have a chance to do I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp at such a low price.
The course consists of a full curriculum, live webcasts, guest speakers, and hundreds of peers.
BONUS: If you enroll for I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp via One Day, One Job and forward the receipt to willy@onedayonejob.com, I will spend 20-minutes on the phone with you crafting a personalized job search strategy.

Managing your personal finances is all about taking action. Many people know what they need to do, but they never do it. By investing in Ramit’s Boot Camp, you’re going to force yourself to take action. And with your newly found motivation and his expertise, you’re going to save a lot of money.

It might just be the reason that you land a new job too.

Entrepreneurial Job Search – Job Action Day 2009

Willy Franzen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:32:34 +0000

Last year I participated in Job Action Day by publishing a post called Making Job Search Social. I took a look at how being more outgoing in your job search can push you forward. This year I want to go along with some of the Job Action Day 2009 themes and talk about one key concept:

Being entrepreneurial in your job search

What does that mean? It simply means being opportunistic and taking advantage of favorable situations. Whether you aspire to run your own business or not, you need to start shadowing great entrepreneurs right now.

…But I’m Not an Entrepreneur

What’s that? You thought that you were supposed to be looking for jobs? That’s wrong.

You need to be looking for companies and entrepreneurs that are creating success day in and day out.

There are lots of people making lots of money right now—and I’m not just talking about bank CEOs who are getting huge compensation for lackluster performance (although you can even learn from them). I’m really talking about people who have been growing businesses through a significant recession. You don’t need to concern yourself with how they’re doing it or why they’re so successful—although you’ll want to learn that eventually. You just need to take a look at what they’re doing, and then figure out how you can jump on the bandwagon.

Early Adoption Is Key

Let’s look at a couple of examples of how this works outside the job search.

Have you ever started a fashion trend? Not bloody likely. Have you ever been an early adopter of a fashion trend? There’s a decent chance.

Have you ever created a joke or coined a catchphrase that became insanely popular? I doubt it. Have you ever introduced your friends to a great joke or catchphrase? I hope you have at least once for your sake.

Those few weeks when you were one of a dozen kids at school popping your collar felt great. Ok, it actually felt kind of awkward. You were totally unsure of yourself, but then popped collars caught on, and you were able to take credit for being an early adopter. You weren’t so sure at first that popping your collar would be cool, but your super cool friend did. So you trusted him. And it worked.

I know this is a stupid example that trivializes what you’re going through in the job search, but think about it. You need to stop trying to do too much, and start cheating by using the intuition of successful people. You don’t need to take the risks that they take. You can wait for their initial successes, and then jump in.

How To Apply This

The reason that the traditional job search is so hard right now is because opportunities are few and far between. Large companies aren’t growing, and many people get more risk averse in a recession. That means that there’s more competition than ever for most jobs.

But if you move to where the opportunity isn’t quite as certain, you’ll have a huge advantage. Yes, you’ll be taking on a little more risk, but you’ll be way ahead of the competition. You’ll have to work harder to find what you’re looking for, but the rewards will be worth it.

We’ve heard a lot about how much growth there is in green jobs, alternative energy jobs, social media jobs, and even government jobs, but now everybody knows about those. How will you find the next big industries of growth? Or how will you find out about the new companies in these areas that aren’t yet on the radar?

You look for the new leaders. They’re the ones being featured on magazine lists. They’re the ones who were tweeting on Twitter 2 years ago. They’re the ones who went to YOUR college.

However, they’re not the ones posting their jobs on job boards. They’re not the ones going to job fairs. They might not even be hiring right now at all.

They’re too busy growing their businesses.

But they will respond to your e-mail. They will talk to you about your career aspirations. And they might even respond with a job offer to your cold call (if you do it right).

These are the people that you want to follow. They’re in the process of making something out of nothing—and that something might include a job for you. Entrepreneurship is a great alternative to the job search, but it’s not the right path for most new college grads. However, an entrepreneurial mindset and a knack for being an early adopter will give you an edge that most other job seekers are too scared to have.

Don’t get caught up in looking for jobs. Look for cool companies. Look for charismatic entrepreneurs. Look for opportunities that will turn into jobs instead of jobs that will turn into opportunities.

Be sure to check out JobActionDay.com to find more great content related that will help you with your job search.

Text 100

Willy Franzen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:46:11 +0000

This is a guest post by Heather R. Huhman. Heather is the media relations manager at a national health care professional association and entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com.

Text 100 is a global, high tech public relations agency. They call themselves the world’s only “global boutique PR consultancy” or “big agency 2.0.” Like the public relations industry as a whole, Text 100 prides itself in constantly evolving to meet its clients’ needs. Speaking of clients, I recognize nearly every name on their client list, which includes PayPal, MTV, IBM, Adobe, eBay and more. This year, Text 100 took home two awards, including the 2009 Holmes Report “Best Agencies to Work For” where it ranked #6. The other award, also from Holmes Report, was “Best Campaign” for its work with Cisco.

Be a Driver of Innovation

Text 100 offers the typical agency services, but what sets them apart is the sectors they serve, which includes clean technology. This is definitely an area which will continue to grow in importance over the coming years and even decades. Text 100 is currently seeking an Account Coordinator in its San Francisco office. While I typically tell you about the position description, I’d like to note Text 100’s fabulous benefits—4 weeks of vacation, an annual bonus package, international opportunities and more! So how do you get in on this? Text 100 is seeking a “self-starter who wants to get in on the ground floor of a rapidly growing entrepreneurial environment.” And they will “look particularly closely at candidates who possess enthusiasm, passion, ambition and a great sense of humor.” Interested? Submit your cover letter and résumé online. I also recommend familiarizing yourself with their blog, hypertext.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Text 100?

Wildlife Conservation Society

Willy Franzen — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:41:20 +0000

I’m a nut about wildlife. I don’t watch Animal Planet all day or anything, but I get ridiculously excited when I see a new species in the wild. My hope is to one day run into a mountain lion in the wild, at least as long as I’m not being hunted. As fanatical as I am about wildlife, I bet I don’t even come close to the people at the Wildlife Conservation Society, a New York City based non-profit. They were founded in 1895 with a “clear mission to save wildlife and wild places across the globe.” Their first major success was aiding the recovery of American Bison, and now they’re working to “protect many of the world’s iconic creatures here and abroad, including gorillas in the Congo, tigers in India, polar bears in the Arctic, and ocean giants in our world’s amazing seascapes.” Beyond doing that, they also run 5 parks in New York City—the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo.

Jobs in the Wild

According to Wildlife Conservation Society’s About page, they’re committed to protecting 25% of the world’s biodiversity. I’m not sure where that number came from, how it’s measured, or what exactly it means, but it sounds like an ambitious goal for a passionate organization. The way that pursues this goal is by focusing on 4 key issues: “climate change; natural resource exploitation; the connection between wildlife health and human health; and the sustainable development of human livelihoods.” With so much on their plate, Wildlife Conservation Society has a lot of job opportunities. You can find all of the information on their Jobs page, where they separate opportunities into New York City Full Time, New York City Seasonal, and Opportunities in the Field. Oddly enough, all of these pages feed into the same job search function. You can narrow down your search by any of the aforementioned categories, or you can just look at all of their job opportunities. You’ll probably want to take an especially long look at the following positions: Development Associate – Operations, Guest Relations Supervisor, Marketing Assistant, Membership Sales Associate, Pathology Technician, Program Assistant – Global Program Development, and Program Coordinator. You can apply for any of these positions online.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever been to any of Wildlife Conservation Society’s parks?

Children’s Dental Health Project

Willy Franzen — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:09:17 +0000

Happy Halloween! Yesterday we took a look at Mars and talked about Halloween candy, but today we’re going to take a different tack. Since we’re told from an early age that candy will rot our teeth, I figure that Halloween is the perfect time to discuss a dental non-profit. It’s also appropriate because many people would consider the dentist to be way scarier than even the most deranged Halloween costume. After a little searching, I came across Children’s Dental Health Project. They’re a relatively small Washington, DC based non-profit organization that “advances policies that improve children’s access to oral health.” Now, this definitely does not mean that I think that anyone should give out toothbrushes for Halloween, but make sure you brush after eating all that candy.

Dental Hygiene for the Win

Now, when I was growing up, I always thought it was ridiculous that I had two scheduled dental appointments every year to take care of my teeth, but only one annual checkup with the pediatrician for the rest of my body. Although I’m still tempted to that feel that way, I realize that most of us significantly undervalue dental health. The truth is that tooth decay at an early age will have significant negative impact over the course of one’s life. Considering the fact that of American children “one-quarter will have at least one cavity by the time they reach kindergarten and one-half by second grade,” we need to do better with our children’s dental health (and probably our own too). This is why Children’s Dental Health Project is actively working to:

Prevent childhood tooth decay, because cavities are the result of a disease that is overwhelmingly preventable.
Promote solutions that are grounded in the best available research and supporting exploration when evidence is lacking
Engage policymakers and other decision-makers in addressing ongoing inequities in oral health and to implement cost-effective solutions.

It sounds like a great organization, and although I don’t know if they’re hiring now, I think it would be worth reaching out to them to see if they have anything open—especially if you are a fanatic about dental health. Use their Contact page to learn more about how to reach them.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you brush your teeth today?

Mars

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

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

Take a Trip to Mars

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite candy from Mars?

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?

Franklin Fuel Cells

Willy Franzen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:41:37 +0000

Whether you think the human race is going to end at the hands of the greenhouse effect or you just don’t like paying 3 bucks a gallon for gas, you likely have a vested interest in alternative energy. There’s a good chance that some time in your lifetime our main energy source will be something other than fossil fuels. Then again, I’m just coming to the realization that I won’t see flying cars in my lifetime. Hopefully I’m wrong about that one. Anyway, there are a ton of companies that are vying to win a big share of the alternative energy market. Many of these are small startups that you’ve never heard of. Their websites are ugly, and they’re usually not located in big cities. You’d never guess it from their appearance, but they’re actually at the forefront of engineering technology. One of these companies is Malvern, PA based Franklin Fuel Cells. Their focus is on “commercializing a unique solid oxide fuel cell (SOFCs) technology that can operate directly on today’s hydrocarbon fossil fuels as well as future fuels such as, biofuels and hydrogen.” I don’t really know what that means, but it sounds pretty cool.

Career Alternatives in Alternative Energy

Franklin Fuel Cells has a few million dollars in venture capital funding, and they’re working on technology that originated at the University of Pennsylvania. It’s hard to say whether they actually have any products, services, or licensing deals to bring in revenue yet, but it’s very clear that their focus is on developing technology that will shape the future. This is a long term play. Franklin Fuel Cells only has about a dozen employees right now, yet they have a few positions that they appear to be looking to fill. Most of the jobs require a graduate degree and at least a few years of experience, but Franklin Fuel Cells’ Jobs page does show an opening for a Test Technician that appears to be suitable for new grads. You can apply by sending a cover letter, résumé, and salary requirements to epaz@arbfc.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think fuel cells will play a big part in our future?

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?

The Boston Globe

Willy Franzen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:48:50 +0000

It feels pretty good to be talking about a Boston based newspaper today knowing that they have to report on another trip to the World Series for the Yankees; although, I’m sure they’d much rather be publishing stories on what Dustin Pedroia and Jonathan Papelbon are doing during their offseason (possibly watching the World Series from their couches). Now that I’ve gotten in my dig at Red Sox fans, we can take a look at The Boston Globe, Boston’s most widely read newspaper. The paper is owned by the New York Times and has an excellent web presence at Boston.com. Much like other newspapers the Globe has had significant financial struggles, and The New York Times even threatened to shut the paper down if the paper’s union didn’t accept major concessions. Apparently those problems have been worked out, and The Boston Globe is now on more stable ground. At least that’s what the fact that they’re hiring would indicate.

Navigate The Globe

When it comes to newspapers and magazines, there’s no better way to get to know them than to read them. Luckily, you can do that online at Boston.com, which is a good example of how newspapers should use the web. I’m especially impressed with their Big Picture photoblog, which is constantly getting voted up on social media news sites. Since you’re going to have to start reading The Boston Globe to get a feel for them, let’s jump right to their jobs. If you take a look at their Job postings, you’ll see that there are only a few openings; however, a number of those jobs seem perfect for new grads. These include positions in Outbound Sales, Web Programming/Development, Technical Production, and Online Advertising Traffic Coordination. Most of the job postings don’t appear to be very fresh, but they’re still posted, so apply online and see what happens.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read The Boston Globe?we

American Rivers

Willy Franzen — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:45:26 +0000

I love rivers (mostly because they’re where I usually go fly fishing). They’re the lifeblood of our society, and even though we’ve figured out ways to move water on our own, they’re still a huge part of our infrastructure. There’s no question as to why most major cities sit on the banks of a large river. The problem with that is that it means that many of our greatest rivers have been subjected to significant abuse. Dams, pollution, irrigation, and overconsumption have left many of our rivers in pretty sad states. American Rivers is a Washington, DC based non-profit that hopes to fix this. They describe themselves as “the leading conservation organization standing up for healthy rivers so communities can thrive.”

Go with the Flow

American Rivers focuses on five program—Rivers and Global Warming, River Restoration, River Protection, Clean Water, and Water Supply. These are extremely important issues that are sometimes ignored by other environmentalists. For instance, many environmentalists advocate hydroelectric dams, yet they fail to realize the damage that these dams can do to our watersheds. I’ve also noticed that even the most environmentally conscious cities (cough, Ithaca) destroy their rivers by bounding them with concrete and allowing trash like shopping carts and mattresses to litter their riverbeds. Many of our rivers are healthier than they were 10 years ago, but there’s still plenty of work to be done to ensure that future generations have healthy rivers. Here’s a video from American Rivers that outlines the issues better than I can:

If American Rivers looks like somewhere that you might want to work, you can check out their Jobs page here. Right now they’re looking for a Conservation Associate, which looks like a perfect position for a new grad. Check out the job description for all of the details on how to apply.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite river?

Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation

Willy Franzen — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:00:09 +0000

When I saw the name and location of Winston Salem, North Carolina’s Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, I was instantly reminded of one of my favorite recent reads—Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley. A North Carolina based non-profit with Reynolds in it name has to be tied to the tobacco industry, and it is. “The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation was established in 1936 as a memorial to the youngest son of the founder of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company,” and it seems to be one of the few good things that has come out of the tobacco industry—”a trust for charitable works in the State of North Carolina.” The Foundation is focused on making grants to non-profit organizations in the areas of Community Economic Development, Democracy and Civic Engagement, the Environment, Pre-Collegiate Education, and Social Justice and Equity, which, in my opinion, is a huge improvement on the other things associated with the Reynolds name.

Improving North Carolina Grant by Grant

The cool thing about foundations like the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation is that they get to give out lots of money. That’s what allows them to have such a wide range of focuses. Instead of having to do everything themselves, they can find the best organizations with the best people and fund them. Although the Foundation has had to make some changes due to the economy, they still have plenty of money to spread to do-gooders in North Carolina. If you’d like to spend some time working at the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, then you should check out their Jobs page. Although they don’t have any permanent positions posted right now, they do have an annual fellowship that they offer (it lasts 2 years, but they offer a new one every year). It sounds like a pretty cool gig, as “the fellow acts as a junior program officer and works with Foundation staff in evaluating grant proposals and visiting with grant applicants.” The application deadline is January 11, 2010, so check out all the information and see if a fellowship at Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation is something that you want to do.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation?

20×200

Willy Franzen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:56 +0000

Since we’re going to talk about art today, I have to give my little sister a shout out for her Vernissage benefitting Artists for Charity tomorrow. If you’re in the Fairfield, CT area and enjoy art, you need to check it out. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not all that into art. With a painter for a sister, a graphic designer for a mom, and an architect for a dad, I’m the black sheep of my family. Designing this site is about as far as my artistic talent goes. With that said, when you combine art with a cool web based business idea, my ears perk up. That’s exactly what happened when I saw a friend post an article about 20×200 (a part of Jen Bekman Projects) on Facebook. 20×200 is an online art and photography gallery based out of New York City, and they just closed a first round of $800,00 in venture capital funding. Now, you don’t typically see art galleries getting VC funding, but you also don’t typically see art galleries using the power of the Internet to make affordable art available to the masses either.

20×200 ≫ 4,000

The idea behind 20×200 is based on a pretty simple formula: (limited editions x low prices) + the internet = art for everyone. It all started with limited edition runs of 200 pieces sold at $20, and now 20×200 offers more sizes at more prices. Still, the goal remains to keep art affordable so that it becomes more accessible. It’s a brilliant idea because it takes advantage of exactly what the Internet is best at doing—making inefficient markets more efficient. Matching artists with buyers is tough work, and brick and mortar galleries just aren’t big enough to do the job well. 20×200 matches these people up easily. That’s why investors saw potential in them, and now 20×200 has some cash to spend. Judging by their Jobs page, it looks like hiring is one way that they plan on spending that money. Despite their artsy fartsiness, 20×200 is most focused on hiring techies right now—they’re looking for a System Admin and a Web Developer. I’m sure that there will be more jobs in the near future, and some of them will be a bit closer to the art side of things. For now, check out these jobs and consider reaching out to 20×200 to see if they’ll consider hiring you for an unlisted position.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you buy anything on 20×200?

SurveyMonkey

Willy Franzen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:06:05 +0000

One of my goals with One Day, One Job is to get more interactive. I’d like to get more feedback from you, the readers, on what you want to see, and I’d also like to use the collective wisdom of thousands of college aged job seekers to develop better content. The best way to do that is through reader surveys, which is why I recently signed up with SurveyMonkey. They’re a Menlo Park, CA (formerly Portland, OR) based “startup” that has been helping people run online surveys for the last decade. While most Internet companies that started in 1999 have since flamed out and most companies started in the 2000s have relied on flashiness to bring in venture capital money, Survey Monkey and its outdated look have been laughing all the way to the bank. By providing a dead simple way for business owners (they’ve worked with more than 80% of the Fortune 100) to collect data, SuveyMonkey has built an insanely successful business.

SurveyMonkey Says…

As TechCrunch reported last month, SurveyMonkey has finally taken on some outside money and started to take growth seriously. They’ve more than doubled their staff over the last year, and they’ve revamped their management team. You won’t find a lot of information about SurveyMonkey online, but you will find a lot of people who have used their software. SurveyMonkey has never seemed to care much for flash or attention. Instead they have used the “Freemium Model” to bring in thousands of paying customers. If you’ve always wanted to work at a web startup, but were wary of the “scene,” then SurveyMonkey might be the right place for you. They have a number of job openings posted, and a few seem suitable for new grads. The most likely is Front-end Engineer, but they also have some positions in Marketing, Product Management, Technical Operations, and User Experience Design that might be work looking at. And if you don’t see anything that suits you, you can always use their online form to apply for an unlisted position.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever responded to a SurveyMonkey survey?

Delivery Agent

Willy Franzen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:28:05 +0000

Product placement started out as a secret. Companies realized that they could pay to get their products featured in books, television shows, and movies, so they did. And we, the viewers, assumed that these products were included for editorial reasons. At some point we got smart and realized what was going on. It didn’t really change much, but we became a little more skeptical. Now product placement is assumed. If someone is promoting something, you take for granted that they’re getting paid for it. Delivery Agent is a San Franciso based company that realized this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They’re taking product placement to the next level with a level of integration that we’ve never seen before. They call this “shopping-enabled entertainment.” When you see Dwight Schrute wearing a great looking shirt on The Office—ok, bad example—when you see a beautiful necklace on Gossip Girl, you can go to the show’s website and check out the “Seen On” section for more information how to buy the necklace. There’s also SeenON.com, which aggregates the information from all of Delivery Agent’s clients and makes it easy to “shop by show” or “shop by celeb.”

Become an Agent of Delivery

Delivery Agent is killing it right now. They currently monetize 90% of the Nielsen Primetime Top 50 Shows, and they just closed a $25 million round of financing. Their “Seen On” service is what has been driving most of the attention publicly, but they’re also doing some pretty cool stuff behind the scenes—they’re pushing to convince companies whose products are featured on tv to buy supporting advertising during the show. It’s a brilliant idea. The best part is that they’re already working with the most impressive names in entertainment, which is the biggest challenge a company like this has to overcome. When you can list ABC, CBS, NBC, MTV, FOX, and many more as partners, you’re in a great place to grow your business.

Even cooler is the fact that Delivery Agent has taken product placement and made it more results based than it has ever been before. They’ve also made everyone better off. Viewers can find the products they want. Media companies can more easily monetize their content. And companies with products increase their sales. I’m extremely high on Delivery Agent, and I strongly recommend that you check out their Jobs page. Right now they have quite a few jobs posted, but only a couple are suitable for new grads. These include E-mail Marketing Coordinator and M-Comm Site & Smart Phone App Developer (Contract). You can apply online, so get to it.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you buy anything through Delivery Agent’s “Seen On” service?

College Prowler

Willy Franzen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:00:10 +0000

Back when I was looking at colleges, I had to rely on traditional guidebooks to get relevant information like average SAT scores, whether freshmen are allowed to have cars, and what the food is like. Finding solid information online was pretty much out of the question, and none of the guidebooks that I looked at seemed to have a good read on what the campus was really like. Then along came College Prowler in 2002 (after I was already at Cornell, which turned out great). They’re a Pittsburgh, PA based company that aims “to be the most accurate, complete, and honest resource on colleges and universities across the United States.” Although those are their words, I think that a more accurate description of what they do (also in their words) is:

No university affiliations. No half-truths. No out-of-touch authors who haven’t been in school for decades. A class project turned company, College Prowler produces guidebooks that are written by actual college students and covers the things students really want to know.

College Prowler’s guides are what college guidebooks should have always been. Unfortunately, it took a long time for anyone to realize how big the need for “real” information was. Along with guidebooks, College Prowler has also built an awesome web resource to help high school students make informed college choices. The best part is that they’ve recently made all of their online content free.

Prowling for Jobs

The business side of College Prowler is an interesting story, as I recently learned in an Inc. Magazine article. The short of it is that College Prowler is doing a fantastic job of helping students make the right college decisions, but they’re not nearly as successful at monetizing the attention that they’re getting (I can sympathize completely). As publishing has become less necessary with user-generated content sites like Unigo.com delivering free content, College Prowler has had to reevaluate its strategy. They still have a great brand and a great idea, but there’s a reason that they’re an Inc. Magazine Case Study and not a member of the Inc. 5000. If you’re up for a challenge and want to help make a cool company become significantly profitable, you should check out College Prowler’s Jobs page. Although they only have specific internship positions posted, they do say that they “typically hire in sales, marketing, editing, and web development.” If you have skills in any of those areas, reach out to Mark Tressler at tressler@collegeprowler.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

CollegeProwler.com
Jobs at College Prowler
About College Prowler
CollegeJolt.com (College Prowler’s Blog)
College Prowler in the News

Did you use any College Prowler guides?

Bite Communications

Willy Franzen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:37:52 +0000

This is a guest post by Heather R. Huhman. Heather is the media relations manager at a national health care professional association and entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com.

Bite Communicationstouts a “fearless and boundless” approach to B2B and B2C communications. They have seven offices worldwide—three of which are in the U.S., including Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. “Public relations” and “media relations” used to be synonymous, but no longer at Bite Communications. They recognize different clients have different challenges that require different approaches. Starting your career at a progressive agency is the best way to go—you’ll end up a more rounded professional and thus be more marketable. As a full-service agency, Bite Communications offers everything from strategic counsel to new media programs to influencer relations—and everything in between. Some client names you might recognize include Sun Microsystems and Vonage.

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Biter?

Joining the Bite Communications team would mean joining 150 other brightest minds in the industry. According to their People section, they only hire “the best.” With an average age of 29 years old, the agency is not adverse to a young staff. Currently, Bite Communications has a Public Relations Account Coordinator position open in San Francisco. The listing indicates Bite prefers candidates with one year of experience, but don’t forget that internships count! Have high tech PR experience? Even better! Interested? Apply online at the links above. To get a better feel for the people with whom you would be working, read some of their biographies.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Bite Communications?

Common Cents

Willy Franzen — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:20:27 +0000

How worthless is a penny? The only reason people pick them up off the ground is for good luck. Stores have dishes in which they give pennies away. And there’s a group of people who fervently advocate retiring the penny. In fact, the value of the metal in pennies produced prior to 1982 (that’s the year they switched from copper to zinc) is higher than the currency value of the pennies themselves. We’ve pretty much established that pennies are worthless; however, there’s a New York City based service learning non-profit that has a very different take on the penny. They’re called Common Cents, and they are the creators of The Penny Harvest. Since 1991 they’ve worked with children aged 4-14 to make $6.8 million in grants to community organizations. How have they mobilized kids to do this? By collecting pennies! That’s right. They’ve collected $6.8 million in pennies.

Are You a Penny Pincher?

It’s a pretty simple idea to collect pennies and turn them into something big. You’ve probably done the same thing yourself. You either tirelessly rolled your coins and then deposited them in the bank, or you took the easy way out and went to Coinstar. I’ve done it, and I have to say it’s pretty cool to turn a whole bunch of change in to a $134.76 Amazon gift card (that way you don’t have to pay a Coinstar fee). Now, just imagine how cool it is to work with kids to collect pennies and then make a grant to a charitable organization. This is how the whole process works. Since there are billions of dollars in pennies out there, I think that there’s a ton of potential for Common Cents to keep growing. Although their Jobs page says that they aren’t hiring right now, you should take a look at their Staff page to see where you might be able to fit in in the future. If you don’t yet grasp how cool it would be to work at Common Cents, just take a look at this to be blown away. And don’t worry about getting paid in the pennies, they’ve already found a better use for them.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you do with all of your pennies?

Cultural Tourism DC

Willy Franzen — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:54:27 +0000

Being a tourist is fun, even if it makes you feel a little stupid. The only problem with doing touristy things is that you miss out on a lot of what a city has to offer. Major attractions have the resources, reputation, and connections to bring in lots of people, but they often lack the local feel that tourists often seek. Smaller attractions often struggle to get people in the door, despite the fact that they are many times more interesting than their larger counterparts. Cultural Tourism DC is a non-profit organization that is trying to change that in Washington, DC. They aim to “strengthen the image and economy of Washington, DC, neighborhood by neighborhood, by linking more than 200 DC cultural and neighborhood organizations with partners in tourism, hospitality, government, and business.” It’s a perfect idea for a city that is so packed with history and culture that you could probably do the tourist thing every day for a year without running out of things to do.

Are You a Cultural Tourist?

Tourism plays a huge role in the Washington, DC’s economy, and Tourism DC is doing it’s best to spread that wealth around the city. By helping the less visited tourist attractions and neighborhoods make the connections and partnerships that they need to bring more people in, Cultural Tourism DC is improving the city and bringing tourists to places that they never would have visited before. While some tourists would prefer that cool, cultural places stay “off the map,” they have to realize that “off the map” attractions often disappear because they can’t afford to stay open or be maintained. If you’d like to help people truly experience Washington, DC, then you’ll want to check out jobs at Cultural Tourism DC. Right now they only have one position—Media and Publications: Communications Associate. It looks like a cool opportunity, and you can apply by sending a “résumé and cover letter with salary requirements and two writing samples (one press release and one other) via email to Reply@CulturalTourismDC.org with ‘Communications’ in subject line.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite attraction in DC?

Care2

Willy Franzen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:34:22 +0000

Social networking is a new thing, right? Not at all. Social networks have been around almost as long as the Internet. They’ve just become way more mainstream in recent years. Take Redwood City, CA based Care2 for example. They’re an online social network that aims “to help people make the world a better place,” and they’ve been doing it since 1998. That’s impressive, not only because it means that they were early to social networking, but also because it means that they survived the dot com bust of the early 2000s. “Making the world a better place” used to be strictly the territory of non-profits, but now we’re seeing more and more companies like Care2 that are choosing to be B Corporations. That means that they can do good and build a profitable businesses at the same time. That’s exactly what Care2 is doing with their “more than 50 employees, 11 million members, 400 nonprofit partners and hundreds of responsible advertisers making a difference.”

Care2 Work at Care2?

If you’ve ever read Seth Godin, you know how important it is to build a “tribe” of loyal fans. Bringing together people with similar interests is a great way to build a business, and that’s exactly what Care2 has done. The community that they’ve built not only encourages people to do good, but it also provides a fantastic platform for the right companies to market the right products. It’s hard to call a site with 11 million members niche, but its Care2’s focus on bringing together “do gooders” that has enabled them to build a social network that actually makes money. If Care2 sounds like something that you want to be a part of, then you should check out their Jobs page. Right now they’re looking for a PHP Developer and a Web Editor/Producer. Neither job is explicitly entry level, but they seem like they could be great fits for new grads with the right background.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you participate on any sites like Care2?

The Daily Beast

Willy Franzen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:51:28 +0000

Once you start interviewing for jobs, you realize how important it is to stay well informed. Whether it’s staying up on the industry that you want to work in or just keeping up with current events, you need to be able to speak (somewhat) intelligently about a wide range of topics. Chit chat and small talk play a big part in the impression that you make, so don’t try to use the fact that you “live in a bubble” at college to explain away your ignorance. Instead, you should subscribe to the The Daily Beast. It’s a cheat sheet for current events that covers a wide array of topics. Some would call it a news aggregator, but they like calling what they do “curating.” The site was created by Tina Brown, who was formerly the editor at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. The Daily Beast, which is based out of New York City, launched just over a year ago, and has been able to garner a huge amount of traffic pretty quickly. I guess it might have something to do with their IAC backing.

Beast on These Jobs

The way we consume news is changing, and The Daily Beast is a perfect example of how smart startups can create growth in what many people deem to be a dying industry. I could go into more detail about what The Daily Beast covers, but you’re better off just checking it out for yourself. After you give it a look, be sure to read their About page, which is really a Q & A with Tina Brown, the company’s founder. It will give you a lot of insight into what the company is all about. It’s an extremely entertaining Q&A, so I’m sure that you’ll like what you see. If that’s the case, then you’ll probably want to check out jobs at The Daily Beast. Their job listings are mixed in with the job postings from other IAC companies, but it’s a pretty easy list to scan through. (It’s pretty obvious that The Daily Beast is growing well judging by how much hiring they’re doing.) You’ll see a number of intriguing entry level positions including Business Analytics Manager, Graphic Designer, Assistant Video News Editor (West Hollywood, CA), Editorial Assistant, Social Media Associate, Sales Partnership Associate, Traffic Coordinator, and Web Developer. You can apply online for any of these positions, and be sure to read The Daily Beast before your interview.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read The Daily Beast?

Classified Ventures

Willy Franzen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:33:00 +0000

I remember being in middle school and deciding that I wanted a drum set. I already had a snare drum, but I knew that a full set would be much cooler. My mom bought me a copy of the Bargain News, a local paper full of classified ads, and helped me pore over the listings in search of a drum set. That’s certainly a relic of the past, but classified ads are far from dead. They’ve just moved online. You’re probably most familiar with Craigslist, and maybe you’ve considered using Facebook Marketplace or something like that. What you probably didn’t realize is that there is still a huge business behind classified ads. Take Chicago based Classified Ventures for instance. They’re another Inc. 5000 company, and they’ve increased their revenue from $146.7 million to $297.5 million over the past three years. They’ve done this with four distinct businesses: Apartments.com, Cars.com, HomeGain.com, and HomeFinder.com. You’ve probably noticed at least one of those sites before, which is exactly what they’re looking for.

Get Classified

Whether you’re looking for a car, an apartment, or a home, Classified Ventures is going to do its best to grab your attention and show you some ads. Since classified ads are the kind of ads that people actually seek out, Classified Ventures’ main focus is on driving traffic. As long as they can keep linking up more buyers and sellers, their business is going to grow. They’re already a pretty good sized company with “offices in Chicago, IL, Emeryville, CA, Santa Monica, CA and Austin, TX, and over 1,100 employees in 37 states,” but they’re not stopping there—their Jobs page shows 33 current openings. You might want to consider the following positions: Product Specialist – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Ad Trafficker – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Dealer Experience Advocate – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Software Engineer – ApartmentHomeLiving (Austin, TX), Software Quality Assurance Analyst – HomeFinder.com (Chicago, IL), Inside Sales Manager SBU – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Freelance Web Designer – Cars.com (Santa Monica, CA), Account Receivables Analyst – Corporate Services (Chicago, IL), Account Manager – Apartments.com (Chicago, IL), and Technical Web Producer – Apartments.com (Chicago, IL). You can apply online directly from the job descriptions, so see which of these jobs suits you best—no need to scan the classifieds.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used classified ads in your job search?

ZooLoo

Willy Franzen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:48:44 +0000

I’ve never found a use for start pages and portals. Until Safari came out with a feature that allowed me to view a dozen of my most visited sties at a glance, I just set a blank page as my home page. However, I realize that many people have very different web browsing habits, and a lot of people find start pages really useful. One company that is trying to update the start page by making it social is ZooLoo. They’re a Phoenix, AZ based startup that, despite an unfortunate name that sounds like a bathroom at a wildlife park, is trying to own the market for customizable start pages. They’re competing with behemoths like Google and Facebook to be your home page, but they do have an advantage in that they’re laser focused on start pages and only start pages. They think if they can own that market, they can deliver lots of relevant advertising and make lots of money.

Do You ZooLoo?

One of the things that makes ZooLoo stand out is that you can buy your own domain name to host your start page. That means that your ZooLoo page can be more than just your home page—it can also be an online résumé, portfolio, or other type of personal website. This requires a paid upgrade, which shows that ZooLoo isn’t putting all of its eggs in the advertising basket. I guess it’s working, because ZooLoo seems to be growing pretty quickly. They’re up to 24 employees, and according to their Careers page, they’re looking to add more. They don’t get specific about which positions they have open, but a look at LinkedIn shows that Marketing, PR, Social Media, and Software Development are the areas in which they’re most likely to have jobs. To find out more you can send a cover letter and résumé to careers@zooloo.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

ZooLoo.com
Jobs at ZooLoo
About ZooLoo
What Is ZooLoo?
Why ZooLoo?
ZooLoo in the News
ZooLoo FAQs
JeffHerzog.com (ZooLoo CEO’s ZooLoo Page)

Will you create a ZooLoo page?

Facet Technology

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:57:50 +0000

In my day… Columbus Day was a real holiday. Now there’s a huge portion of the population that doesn’t even get the day off. Yes, I understand that Christopher Columbus was a bit overrated as a historical hero (and a lot of the things that we learned about him in grade school were inaccurate), but I’m still amazed that he had the guts and the persistence to make a voyage across the Atlantic happen. Now we’ll barely take a walk down the street without a GPS enabled device in our pocket. Navigation and exploration have a long history, but I’m not sure how much more advancement is possible. Facet Technology would disagree. They’re an Eden Prairie, MN based software and services company that is changing what state of the art means when it comes to the Transportation, Mapping and Food Processing Industries. They’re another Inc. 5000 company with 110.4% three-year growth, and I think they’re going to shoot up the rankings over the next few years.

Explore Every Facet

Computers are pretty good at identifying objects when they know what to expect. For instance, a factory that makes widgets can quite easily set up computers that use vision technology to ensure that the widgets are consistently produced. Every widget should be the same, so detecting differences isn’t all that difficult for computers. This all changes when you leave a controlled environment. This is how Facet Technology responds:

Many environments, however, don’t allow full control over all the parameters that make standard computer vision tools easy to use. By changing one of the parameters – either moving the man-made object into an uncontrolled environment (outdoors) or by changing the man-made object into a natural object (grain, fruit, meat, poultry, etc.) – the identification and inspection task becomes several times more difficult. This is where Facet’s patented technology shines and allows computer vision tools to now be used successfully. Facet allows you to control the uncontrollable.

Think about how this technology can change the way we navigate—the possibilities are endless. It really is the next step after GPS and location aware devices. If you’re intrigued by what Facet Technology is up to, then you should check out their job postings. Right now they’re looking for an Associate Software Engineer, a Computer System Specialist/Software Tester, and a Data Acquisition Vehicle Operator. While the latter doesn’t require a college education, it sounds like a pretty cool gig (driving around a camera equipped, ultra high-tech SUV to collect data). You can apply to any of the jobs by sending a cover letter and résumé to jobs@facet-tech.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How important do you think Facet Technology will be in the future of navigation?

Best Shot Foundation

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

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

Give It Your Best Shot

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

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

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

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever played in a dodgeball tournament?

Shedd Aquarium

Willy Franzen — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:13:34 +0000

My parents are in town for the weekend, and I’ve been thinking of fun things to do with them around Chicago. One place that came to mind is Shedd Aquarium. I don’t think that we’ll end up getting a chance to make it there this weekend, but it was certainly a good thought. And once I thought about it, I realized that they’re probably hiring. Shedd Aquarium is much like other aquariums now, but it really stood out when it was opened in the 1930s. The aquarium was founded by John G. Shedd, retired president of Marshall Field & Company, and financed by him with $3 million in gifts. The goal was to bring Chicago up to par with other “cosmopolitan” cities that had aquariums, and by the end of the project Chicago’s aquarium “housed the greatest variety of sea life under one roof.” It also happened to be “the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater collection,” which meant that they had to ship millions of gallons of seawater from Florida on trains to provide a proper habitat for the sea life.

Shedd Your Job Search Worries

To this day, I still find it extremely impressive that an aquarium in Chicago can have whales and dolphins. The idea of a Beluga Whale in the heart of the midwest blows my mind. Although now the aquarium is more focused on education than on bringing up Chicago’s status, it’s still a great tourist attraction and a wonderful resource for the city. I’d imagine that Shedd Aquarium is very much like other aquariums in its mission and values, which means that they’ll have similar jobs. Right now they have a number of jobs posted, and a few look like possibilities for new grads. These include Membership Coordinator, Administrative Assistant (President’s Office), Brand Traffic Assistant, and Media Coordinator. You can apply by sending a cover letter and résumé to jobs@sheddaquarium.org.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever been to Shedd Aquarium?