One Day, One Internship » California

ModCloth

Willy Franzen — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:47:02 +0000

Looking good is key to interviewing well. If you’re not confident in how you look, you won’t be confident in how you speak. Clothes matter. Luckily, dressing well doesn’t have to be expensive. We’ve worked out deals to get you $50 off your first order at Bonobos and free access to Gilt Groupe’s daily sample sales. You’ll look good, feel good, and still have some money left to celebrate landing an internship.

I just got back home to Chicago on Saturday, and I arrived to see the latest issue of Inc. Magazine waiting for me on the kitchen counter. It’s a big day for me because it’s the Inc. 500 issue where they list the 500 fastest growing private companies in the United States. It’s my absolute favorite tool for finding new companies to feature, which is why we’re going to take a look at ModCloth today. They came in at #2 on the list with 17,191% growth over the past three years to get to over $15 million in revenue. And all of that growth has been “built on a foundation of love for vintage and retro clothing.” The company, which is based in both San Francisco and Pittsburgh, was started by high school sweethearts Eric Koger and Susan Gregg Koger, and they aim to “provide a fun and engaging shopping atmosphere” for their customers by using social media to interact with them. ModCloth is big on democracy, so customers actually get some say in the direction the company’s buyers take.

Mod Your Internship Search

The tough thing about being an indie brand is that it becomes difficult to maintain your image as you grow—especially when it’s at a 17,191% rate. By constantly including customers in their processes, working closely with bloggers, and engaging more than 100 indie designers, ModCloth is building a foundation that ensures that they’ll be able to effectively grow an indie brand. Another key part of their growth plan has to do with hiring. Right now their Careers page gives a nice rundown of what it’s like to work at ModCloth and also includes a link to their current openings. They have more than two dozen positions posted right now, but only one is an internship. Right now, they’re looking for a Public Relations intern. There’s no word on whether it’s paid or not, but don’t despair if you don’t want to do PR, but love ModCloth. I’m pretty sure that they offer quite a few other internships, but just don’t have any posted right now. You can always reach out to them to find out more about other opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you wear vintage clothing?

Lucasfilm

Willy Franzen — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:00:29 +0000

Let me preface this post by saying that there is no way that I am going to do the topic justice. There’s just no way that I can properly bring to life the story of Lucasfilm when I’m just not all that into Star Wars. I’ve seen the trilogy, and I even saw the one or two of the movies from the prequel trilogy, but I’m not a fanatic. With that said, there are plenty of fanatical Star Wars fans and fans of George Lucas’ work. What he was able to do with late 70s/early 80s technology in the Star Wars movies is incredible, but what’s even more incredible is the excitement that Lucasfilm has been able to build around its franchises—mainly Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Lucasfilm is located in San Rafael, CA, while they also have a large presence in Singapore. They’re a monster name in the film and entertainment industry, and they also have businesses including Industrial Lights & Magic, Lucasarts, Lucasfilm Animation, Lucas Licensing, Lucas Online, and Skywalker Sound.

Join the Force

The truth is that Lucasfilm has a ton of fanatics. There are people dressing up for movie premieres and devoting big portions of their lives to their fandom. This means that Lucasfilm is a dream employer for many, and if you’re not insanely fanatical, you’re probably not going to be a great fit (unless you’re just really good). If you are fanatical, then I probably don’t need to tell you anything more about Lucasfilm. They have an Internships page that will give you the fulfill rundown of “Jedi Academy.” They recruit at about 20 schools, and it seems that their application deadline is usually in mid-February (so you have some time if you’re thinking about next summer). They ask all applicants to fill out a profile to apply for any of the internships, which are offered in game programming and engineering, game art, R&D engineering, software engineering, information technology, web development, marketing, licensing, and production. All positions at Lucasfilm are paid, and you can find the specific listings for internships by browsing their job listings and selecting “Internships” as your job category. Currently they only have positions posted in Business Affairs and Digital Training.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your famous Lucasfilm production?

Ustream

Willy Franzen — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:00:35 +0000

I’ve never done a live video event for job seekers, though I’ve seen a lot of others in the career space do them. I figure that the video content that Jason Seiden and I put together for Found Your Career is way better than anything that I can do on the spot. However, if you think that a live Q&A or something would be valuable, you should definitely let me know via e-mail at willy@onedayonejob.com. Since you’re probably going to bombard me with e-mails, I’ll probably have to sign up for Ustream, “the leading live interactive broadcast platform.” Ustream, which is based in San Francisco, was founded to enable soldiers stationed abroad to connect more efficiently with their families. The technology required for doing that has plenty of other capabilities, which is why Ustream can be used to broadcast nearly anything—from political debates to sporting events and from move premieres to interactive games. Shoot, Chad Ochocinco says, “Ustream is big for me. It allows me to have a voice.” And

Uhired

Ustream gets over 50 million monthly unique viewers, so they must be doing something right. I haven’t quite nailed down how their business model works, but it seems to be a freemium model. Anyone can use Ustream for free, but if you want extra features you have to pay. There’s also advertising embedded in video streams. Ustream has a huge amount of investment, so they do have some flexibility when it comes to getting to profitability. Remember, delivering online video still isn’t a simple task, so it can be pretty expensive. If you want to add to Ustream’s expenses by joining their payroll as a paid intern, then you’ll need to check out their Internships page. Right now they only have one position posted: Marketing Intern (Public Relations & Social Media). It’s full time and looks extremely interesting, so check it out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Usteam?

Caring.com

Willy Franzen — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:00:39 +0000

Over the weekend I was complaining about irresponsible government spending (most of which is the result of the generations that came before us). Now, our parents and grandparents may have left us with a nasty bill to pay, but we still owe them a lot. Which is why I encourage you to take care of your aging parents—much like I do by accompanying my Dad on all kinds of fishing vacations. I’m truly looking out for his best interest. Obviously, I’m being sarcastic, but the truth is that it won’t be that long before we do have to start taking care of our parents. It can be an uncomfortable and unfamiliar situation, which is why resources like Caring.com exist. Caring.com is based in San Mateo, CA and “is the leading online destination for those seeking information and support as they care for aging parents, spouses, and other loved ones.” Their tagline is “You’re there for them. We’re here for you.”

Do You Care?

According to Caring.com’s About page, more than 40 million people in the United States care for someone over the age of 50 (like me for my Dad). That’s an astounding number, and it’s only going to go up as the Baby Boomers continue to age. While taking care of children is something that is supposed to be ingrained in our DNA, taking care of aging loved ones isn’t. This is why Caring.com provides “thousands of original articles, helpful tools, a comprehensive local directory of caregiving services, and the collective wisdom of an involved community.” Their business appears to be completely advertising based; however, they’re very upfront about how they separate sponsored content from editorial. If you’re interested in online media or serving caregivers, then you can check out jobs at Caring.com or you can head straight for Caring.com’s internship posting on Craigslist. They’re looking for paid Marketing Interns to assist them in areas like SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, and Display Advertising. It sounds like a pretty cool gig, so check it out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you care for anyone over the age of 50?

Somark Innovations

Willy Franzen — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:49:53 +0000

If you’re anything like me, you’ve run into this problem before. You’re sitting around the house, and your lab mice are frolicking around. One of them starts misbehaving and you need to scold it, but you can’t because you don’t know it’s name. They all look the same, and you are completely clueless as to who the troublemaker is. Ok, I actually don’t have mice in my house, and I hope that you don’t either, but if you’ve ever worked with lab mice you probably know that identifying them is kind of important.Somark Innovation is a San Diego, CA based company that makes that a lot easier. They’ve developed technology called Labstamp that “applies automated tail tattoos for mouse identification.” The tattoos are human readable, permanent, and available with 46,656 unique alpha-numeric IDs.

San Diego Ink

I know that a lot of people don’t love the idea of animal testing, but it’s essential to all kinds of scientific research. Somark Innovations provides technology that makes testing with mice more cost effective and less prone to mistakes. It may seem stupid, but proper identification of lab mice can be absolutely essential to the success of a given study. There’s a version of Labstamp on its way for lab rats, and I’m interested to see how else Somark Innovations uses their technology going forward. Some of the earlier press on Somark Innovations mentions “chipless RFID tattoos,” which sounds really cool, but it doesn’t seem to be mentioned on their site anymore. Somark Innovations also doesn’t mention a Jobs or Internships page, but they do note on their Team page that they’re “always looking for more team members, especially engineers” and “if you would like to learn more about joining the SOMARK team, please send a note to LearnMore@somarkinnovations.com.” Additionally, I found a posting that they made for a paid Marketing Intern. Check it out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you get a tattoo on your tail?

Lowercase Capital

Willy Franzen — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:53:58 +0000

I was considering writing about McDonnell Douglas after having my apartment building buzzed by F-18s all day yesterday (they’re practicing for the Chicago Air and Water Show), but I had a friend send me a link to a posting that was way too cool to pass up. It’s from the venture capital industry, which is notoriously hard to break into. Lowercase Capital is a new Angel Fund that was launched in June by Chris Sacca, who was formerly the Head of Special Initiatives at Google. I’ve spoken with a few venture capital companies who were interested in my business, and most seemed buttoned up (at least compared to the startups that they invest in). This is definitely not the case with Lowercase Capital, unless you mean buttoned up with a Bolo tie. Yes, Lowercase Capital has a Western theme, which is fitting because they’re located in Truckee, CA (I was in Truckee two days ago, and it’s awesome). It almost seems gimmicky, but the whole thing really speaks to how Chris is trying to change the way venture capital works with Lowercase.

Giddy Up

Before he started Lowercase Capital, Chris Sacca was an individual angel investor. He put his own money to work helping startups get off the ground. Now, he’s doing the same thing, but on a larger scale and with $8.5 million in his fund. The fund is extremely hands on, so they do a lot more than just write checks. You’ll want to browse around the Lowercase Capital site to a get a better feel for who they are and what they do, but at first you might find it confusing. Outfit is their About page, while Posse is a list of their portfolio companies. Prospecting gives you info on how to pitch them, and Cables is their blog. Most importantly, Ranchhands is what they call their Jobs/Internships page, and right now they’re looking for a Cowpoke/Intern. It is a paid position, and it’s one of the best opportunities that you’ll have to break into the VC world since there aren’t all that many internships in the industry. The description takes the Western metaphors to a whole new level, so you’ll probably have to read the posting a few times to be able to process it all. The position comes with a ton of flexibility, so you’ll have the chance to make of it what you want. If you’re interested, check out the job description and apply to thisjobhasmynameonit@lowercasellc.com. Oh yeah, and apparently you can do the internship from anywhere.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Lowercase Capital’s western theme?

Lolapps

Willy Franzen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:07:38 +0000

I don’t play Facebook games with one exception—a game that a friend built. I guess this makes me unusual (I do play iPhone games though) because the stats on Facebook games are crazy. It’s hard to believe that anybody gets work done these days. If only there was a Facebook game where winning meant you’d landed an internship. That’s not going to happen, so if you insist on Facebook gaming your way through the internship search, then you better be looking to work for a company like Lolapps. They’re based on San Francisco, and they make Facebook games. They actually started with a user-generated quiz business, then they moved on to building games for well-known brands. Now, they’re focused on becoming their own gaming brand. Their current products include games like Garden Life, Band of Heroes, Diva Life, Yakuza Lords, and a few more. I’m sure they’re working on plenty more as they try to grow their name in the ultra-competitive world of Facebook games.

Laugh Out Loud and Apply

I know it seems crazy that people are getting rich off of Facebook games, but it’s really happening. It’s the right platform at the right time. It’s also not all based on advertising either. Yes, ads are a bigger driver of revenue for many Facebook gaming companies, but in game purchases are also huge. Yes, people actually spend money—sometimes more than they’d spend on a console game—to improve the experience of their favorite Facebook games. With 180 million users and 5 million daily active users, Lolapps is in great position to be a leader in the space. If you’d like to join them, then you should check out their Internships page. Right now they only have a position posted for a UI Artist (no word on whether it’s paid or not), but I wouldn’t be surprised if they also offered internships in Flash Engineering, Web Development, and UI/UX Design. If you want to get to know the company better, you should be sure to check out their Flickr stream and their blog where they occasionally spotlight their employees.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you play any of LOLapps’ games?

Square

Willy Franzen — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:51:58 +0000

I think that some of the biggest innovation yet to come in the Internet space is going to be in the form of payment processing. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one day in the future we pay for almost everything by logging into our Facebook/Google/Amazon accounts. That still seems pretty far off though. The lag in easy online payments can probably be attributed to the need for extremely high levels of security. As soon as it’s ridiculously simple to send a friend money to chip in for a group gift, it’s also going to be ridiculously simple for a hacker to take you for all you’re worth. In the meantime there are some companies that are working to develop transitional solutions for payment processing. San Francisco’s Square is one of them. They have developed a software platform that allows anyone to accept credit card payments. It all started when a glass artist was unable to make a sale because he couldn’t accept credit cards. Now, all you need is an iPhone/iPad or an Android device to do just that.

Fair and Square

Not only does Square allow nearly anyone to accept payments, but they also allow you to do it anywhere. Their tagline is”0 to $60 in under 10 seconds.” They’re not quite there yet, but they’re working on it. Ideally, all you have to do is download an app, set up an account, and get your hands on one of their Square readers—a small device that plugs into the headphone jack of a phone and accepts credit card swipes. This is an amazing solution for a lot of people. I think of farmers’ markets as the ideal place for Square, but you probably have a different idea. What’s also cool is that customers can get their receipts via e-mail instead of having little pieces of paper that they crumple up and put in their pockets. If you like what Square is doing and you want to help move us forward towards better forms of payment, then take a look at jobs at Square and start thinking about an internship. Right now they have positions in Software Development/Engineering, Customer Service, Design, Information Technology, and Research/Risk Analysis, although none of them are internships. Their About page does mention two Summer interns, and a little digging turns up the fact that they’re part of the Iraq Information Technology Intern Exchange Program, which sounds awesome. You’ll have to reach out to the folks at Square yourself to see about an internship, but I think it’ll be well worth your while.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you ever use Square?

SOSMentor

Willy Franzen — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:01:08 +0000

Growing up is tough no matter where you come from. As you reach your teenage years, you have to start taking responsibility for yourself—your grades, your ambitions, and your diet. Now imagine growing up in a situation where your parents aren’t all that helpful and your community and its schools don’t have the resources to give you the help that you need to get on the right track. This is often the case in inner-city neighborhoods across America, and this includes many communities in the greater Los Angeles area. That’s why Calabasas, CA based SOSMentor was formed in 2000. They’re a non-profit organization that provides “academic mentoring, resources, and educational support to underserved students and their families.” They also put a huge emphasis on diet and fitness, which are really important things to learn about as you enter adulthood.

Supporting Our Students

SOSMentor addresses the problems found in underserved communities by bringing mentors into the communities and helping students in those communities “pursue careers and higher education and make healthy eating and lifestyle choices.” With a focus on growth, achievement, leadership, and success, SOSMentor is well equipped to do things like “increase grades, reduce violence and substance abuse, lower the rates of teen pregnancies, while increasing high school graduations and college admissions.” If you like the sound of the work that SOSMentor is doing, then you should check out their Internships page. Right now they’re looking for a paid Nutrition Intern, so check them out and see how you can make your transition to adulthood by helping others do the same.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about SOSMentor?

Tea Collection

Willy Franzen — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:02:00 +0000

When I was a little kid, my parents dressed me in shorts with suspenders and knee socks. I pretty much looked like a mini-version of Augustus Gloop from the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. My parents also occasionally put me on a leash. I’ve been taking it out on them ever since. For parents who prefer to raise children who don’t have axes to grind, there’s Tea Collection. I’ve also seen them go by Tea Living, but most often they just refer to themselves as Tea. They’re a San Francisco based company that offers fashions for children, or as they put it “for little citizens of the world.” Tea got its start in 2002, and now your can find their clothes “in more than 400 stores including Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Takashimaya, and the best boutiques throughout the US and abroad.” Tea’s clothing is certainly high-end, and on the expensive side when you consider it’s for kids under the age of 12, but just look at those pictures of kids looking like smaller versions of real people.

Join the Tea Party

Obviously nobody’s kids need fancy clothes like those from Tea Collection, but that hasn’t stopped the business from growing. As far as I can tell, Tea Collection’s location in San Francisco has helped them to be a little more tech savvy than many of their competitors, and I have to imagine that it makes Tea Collection an even more interesting place to work. If you take a look at their Inspiration and History pages, you’ll get a better feel for their culture. After doing that, you should check out their Internships page. Right now they have one paid internship in Social Marketing along with unpaid internships in Operations/Finance, Fashion Design, Merchandising, Marketing, and Graphic Design.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did your parents dress you in embarrassing clothes?

LearnBoost

Willy Franzen — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:04:38 +0000

Think back to your days in school. If there was one thing that you could get your hands on (besides the teacher’s edition of your textbook), what would it be? Your teacher’s gradebook, obviously. Not only could you change your own grades (which apparently can get you a felony charge if you do it on a computer), but you’d also have access to all of your friends’ grades. Fortunately, the gradebook with gridded paper that can be locked in a desk drawer is becoming an anachronism. Some teachers have been using computers for grade entry for years, but others stick to the old fashioned way. LearnBoost is a San Francisco, CA based startup that is trying to change the way that teachers manage their classes. They’re starting by offering teachers an easy to use online gradebook, but their aspirations are to offer a simple, fully featured suite of tools for teachers to manage relationships with both students and parents.

A Boost for Your Internship Search

As we’ve seen with HotChalk (a company that we featured a while back), the freemium model is a great way to get inside schools. Teachers are often frustrated by the resources that their schools provide, so they look outside for helpful tools. LearnBoost will provide free tools for teachers who will hopefully convince schools to invest in subscription plans for more advanced versions of LearnBoost’s software. LearnBoost has already raised nearly $1 million in venture capital funding to allow them to build out their idea, and they’re starting to spend some of that money on hiring. This includes internships. As you’ll see on their Jobs page, they’re looking for a Social Media and Marketing Intern. The position is unpaid, but it looks pretty cool. Also, if you have Web Development/Design/UI skills, I bet they’d want to talk to you about an internship too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of LearnBoost?

Wildfire Interactive

Willy Franzen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:25:06 +0000

This morning I sent out the following tweet: “I entered the Bonobos/Tucker Blair Wardrobe Giveaway! for a chance to win 5 pants/5 belts/5 polos: http://wfi.re/1sy9s.” (By the way, you can follow me @willyf.)I usually get annoyed when I see tweets like that, but every person who enters through my link gives me another entry, and I want to win. I also wanted to take it as an opportunity to learn a little bit more about Wildfire Interactive. They are a Palo Alto, CA based company that has built an amazing web-based software platform to enable “interactive promotions for brand marketing.” For a very affordable price, you can use Wildfire to run sweepstakes, contests, give-aways, incentive-based surveys, and more. I’ve struggled putting together online contests in the past, and Wildfire is exactly the kind of app that would have made my life a lot easier. They’re like a self-service, web 2.0 Don Jagoda Associates (and they shouldn’t be confused with WeTheCitizens which renamed itself to Wildfire Platform).

Spread Like a Wildfire

The key to Wildfire is virality, although they prefer the equally scary analogy of spreading like a wildfire. Usually people don’t want to tell their friends about contests because more people entering will decrease your chance of winning. Wildfire solves this problem by increasing your odds every time that you refer someone. I did run into some confusion when I entered the contest, since there’s no way to verify that the link I’m sending out is actually attached to my entry (and there’s also no way to monitor how many entries I’ve gained by sharing the link. These are key features that Wildfire Interactive needs to add, but I’m sure they’re working on it. Otherwise Wildfire is stupid simple, although there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.

If you are really interested in the company, you’ll probably want to take a hard look at How Wildfire Works. Simply, you can leverage any sort of social network to spark interest in nearly any type of promotion. It’s a brilliant product, and it’s timed perfectly. No wonder Wildfire Interactive can claim names like Pepsi, Facebook, Sony, AT&T, and Unilever as clients. If you have a burning desire to intern for Wildfire, then you should check out their Careers page. However, you should know that they don’t have any internships posted right now. I was able to find some evidence of past internships at Wildfire through some Google Kung Fu, so I think that your best bet is to use their form to describe your perfect job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you entered any contests through Wildfire?

Collective

Willy Franzen — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:24:00 +0000

Ever wanted to connect with me or other One Day, One Internship readers on LinkedIn? Join the One Day, One Internship LinkedIn Group and you can do just that.

You know what One Day, One Internship is all about? It’s you, the audience. Maybe for you, it’s all about learning about cool companies, but for me it’s the fact that every day you bring these posts to life by researching the companies we feature and applying for their jobs. I love it when I get e-mails from employers telling me how excited they were about the surge of talented applicants that they got from being featured on One Day, One Internship. When it comes to the world of advertising, it’s kind of the same. It’s all about the audience. They’re the ones who see the ads, and then hopefully take the desired action—usually that means making a purchase. Collective is a New York City based media company that is entirely audience focused. They are “the leader in understanding and delivering audiences. With the premium inventory that attracts them. The innovative technology that delivers them. And the insights that define them.” By finding the “intersection of the right ad, targeted to the right person, in the right environment,” Collective is able to maximize the effectiveness of any advertising campaign.

Will You Join the Collective?

What Collective does isn’t easy. It requires a ton of data and some extraordinary technology to translate that data into actionable advertising strategies. Collective works with ad agencies, brand advertisers, and publishers to help all of them make the most of audiences, which is why Collective calls itself “The Audience Engine.” If you want to get a feel for what Collective actually does, you should take a look at their What Worked This Week page. It allows you to see what kind of ad campaigns they’ve been running and how well it has worked. Pretty cool for them to be so open with their success stories (although I’d love to see some of their failures too). You kind of have to dig in to really understand what Collective is all about, so I guess their messaging could be a little tighter, but it’s hard when you’re taking such a technical approach to an area like advertising. If you like what you see with Collective, you can check out their Internship page. Right now they have a bunch of jobs posted, but only one internship: Account Management Intern. The position is paid, and it looks exciting, so check it out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Collective?

Become.com

Willy Franzen — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:58:45 +0000

I don’t do a ton of shopping, but when I do, I almost always buy stuff online. It’s become way too easy not to do. It’s also usually significantly cheaper. I used to shop around a lot online, but I’ve gotten to the point where if Amazon stocks the item, I go with them. They almost always have the best prices, and they’re as reliable as can be (and having free 2-day shipping from Amazon Prime doesn’t hurt—by the way, I think it’s now free for students“>free for students). If you’re not as trusting, and you really want to find the best price, then you’re probably going to want to use a comparison shopping site. Become.com, which is based in Sunnyvale, CA, is one of the big ones. They get millions of unique visitors every month, and they have tens of millions of dollars in investment from a variety of firms. The cool thing about their business is that all they do is provide information. They don’t actually sell anything, but they get a cut of every sale that they refer through affiliate programs.

What Will You Become?

Become.com is a tech company, a content company, and a marketing company. There’s a ton of technology behind the scenes, which helps them find all kinds of relevant information on products including where the best deal is. They then use the content that they collect to add value to the purchasing process. You’ll be a better informed buyer if you use Become.com instead of the retailer’s site. Finally, the most important thing for Become.com is to get shoppers on their site. This is the Marketing side, and a lot of it has to do with search engine optimization (SEO). Become.com wants their content to rank well in search engines, so that when you search for a product, you find their page. You like what you see, so you click one of their links to a retailer and buy. Become.com profits. You can help them do that as a paid SEO Intern or Search Marketing Analyst Intern. You can find the full job descriptions here.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Become.com?

Thomas Keller Restaurant Group

Willy Franzen — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:53:34 +0000

Ever wanted to connect with me or other One Day, One Internship readers on LinkedIn? Join the One Day, One Internship LinkedIn Group and you can do just that.

You know what’s awesome? Having one of your restaurants on The S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restauarants list. You know what’s even more awesome? Having two of your restaurants on the list. That’s the case for Thomas Keller Restaurant Group and its eponymous chef Thomas Keller. Per Se in New York City came in at #10, while The French Laundry in Yountville, CA came in at #32. Additionally Thomas Keller Restaurant Group owns and operates Bouchon Bistro, Bouchon Bakery, and Ad Hoc Restaurant (which are all in Yountville as well). I had the pleasure of dining at the latter for Brunch a few weeks ago, and it was fantastic (especially because we got dessert after breakfast in the form of fancy, but simple ice cream sandwiches). Thomas Keller is probably the biggest name in American fine dining, and he deserves it—he lives up to all the hype, which is hard to do when you have that much hype. Although each of Keller’s restaurants has a unique feel and purpose, they all share “the common desire to provide memorable experiences for every guest that visits.”

50 Best or Bust

Maybe it’s an age thing, but it seems that more and more people I know are becoming “foodies.” I’m shocked at how many people I know who have stepped out of a more traditional career path to go to culinary school. Just because you majored in Accounting or Business or History or Basket Weaving doesn’t mean that you can’t follow your stomach to something else. You might even want to consider an opportunity with Thomas Keller Restaurant Group. Their Careers page shows a wide range of options that include positions in Kitchen, Dining Room, Administration, Management, Private Dinging, Bakery Retail, and Beverage. They don’t list internships on the site, but there is a posting for a Pastry Extern at the French Laundry. Additionally I found a LinkedIn profile of a PR Intern with Thomas Keller Restaurant Group and this story of a culinary student who landed an internship at The French Laundry. These aren’t the kind of positions where you can just come in with no experience at all, but they do offer great learning opportunities (and they should because they appear to be unpaid).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever dined at one of Thomas Keller’s Restaurants?

ScanScout

Willy Franzen — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:03:58 +0000

Sometimes I get annoyed when I go to YouTube to watch a video and get forced to watch an ad or when a video overlay pops up on a site I want to visit. Then I remind myself how awesome it is that I get access to so much free content. As a content producer, I’m especially aware of how hard it is to make a profit off of quality content. I’m never going to bombard you with stuff that you’re not interested in, which is why we only take on sponsors who have awesome internships to offer or at least make sense for college students. I guess that means that we’re editorializing in our acceptance of advertising. ScanScout, which has offices in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago, targets ads a bit differently. They’re a “technology-driven video ad network that delivers precise audience targeting and superior brand results by capturing and synthesizing billions of content and user interaction data points to match the right ad to the right video, at the right time.” That doesn’t mean that their video ads won’t annoy you, but at least they’ll be way less likely to annoy you—and might even interest you. The whole targeting process is automated, which is really impressive considering these aren’t contextually targeted text ads.

Scout’s Honor

ScanScout already has a lot of major advertisers working on their platform. They have brands like Bing, JC Penney, Jaguar, Oreo, and Axe. You can take a look at some of the ads on the ScanScout home page or you can take a look at their ad gallery. To learn more about ScanScout, you’ll probably want to take a look at how they convey their brand message to both advertisers and publishers. Additionally, you’ll want to know whom they’re partnered with and what kind of technology they’re using. Once you have a feel for ScanScout’s business, you’ll want to check out their Careers page. They don’t have any internships posted on there right now, but a little LinkedIn research showed that they’ve offered internships before. My guess is that you could probably score an opportunity in an area like Business Development, Account Management, or Web Development.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you noticed any ScanScout ads on the web?

CafePress

Willy Franzen — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:02:51 +0000

There is one, and only one, One Day, One Job t-shirt (and there are no One Day, One Internship t-shirts). It came free with the business cards that I ordered from VistaPrint (see VistaPrint’s internships). I usually wear it to the gym or to play volleyball, and, unfortunately, nobody who recognized the logo has ever stopped me to tell me how awesome my site is. That’s why there won’t be any more One Day, One Job t-shirts (unless more than 100 of you e-mail me and tell me that you want one). But if I was going to give you the option to buy all kinds of One Day, One Job/Internship gear, I’d probably use CafePress. They’re a San Mateo, CA based company that allows you to customize nearly any piece of merchandise—t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, underwear, pillows, and even Flip cameras. Webmasters have been using CafePress forever to sell custom merchandise, and from what I can tell CafePress’ quality continues to get better.

Impress at CafePress

Want the CafePress story? Just watch the video below, it will give you the whole rundown of how they got started and what they’re all about.

CafePress has “a community of 6.5 million users, and over 11 million unique visits each month,” which makes them the “world’s largest collection of user-designed products.” Every day 2,000 new shops open up on CafePress and 45,000 new products are added to the catalog of more than 250 million unique products. If those numbers get you excited, then you may want to check out internships at CafePress. Right now they have openings for a Merchandise Intern and an SEO Analyst Intern. There’s no word on whether or not the positions are paid. You can apply online, and let me know if you would actually buy a t-shirt… or underwear with the ODOJ logo on it.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any CafePress merchandise?

Federated Media Publishing

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:14:11 +0000

There has never been a better time in history to find great reading material for free. The Internet is full of excellent content on nearly any topic (such as finding internships). The coolest innovation has been blogs, which have changed the top down approach that used to dominate media publishing. Now, it’s quite easy to have a conversation with the author whose work you’re reading, whether it be through comments, e-mail, IM, Twitter, or some other preferred form of communication. This has led to more engaged audiences and, sometimes, a much quicker development of ideas. The only way to continue this trend, though, is to make sure that web authors are well compensated for their hard work (pay me!). That’s where San Francisco based Federated Media Publishing comes in (we originally covered them on One Day, One Job almost two years ago). Few web publishers have figured out how to effectively charge for access to content, yet many have learned that running engaging advertising can be a big win for all parties involved. Federated Media doesn’t works with a wide range of conversational media properties to monetize visits from highly engaged online readers through advertising.

No, Not the Department Stores

For most web publishers Federated Media is the holy grail of advertising. When you get accepted into their network, you can say that you’ve made it. There are a plethora of other ad networks out there for publishers, but none seem to be able to score deals with major blogs like Federated does. Even two years after I first looked at them, Federated Media is still growing like crazy and profitable. Clearly this “conversational marketing” thing has some merit. Don’t be one of those haters who uses an ad blocker. Relish in all of the free content that you have access to, and occasionally click the ads (that’s not going to send you to an advertiser, it’s a Seth Godin blog post) when you find a product or service that interests you and has appropriately used the conversational medium to reach you. And after you click the ads, check out Internships at Federated Media Publishing. Right now they have three positions posted: Ad Sales Marketing Intern, Ad Sales Operations Intern – Project Management, and Ad Sales Operations Intern – Reporting & Analytic. All of the internships appear to be paid, so give them a good look!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of Federated Media’s authors do you enjoy reading most?

HUGE

Willy Franzen — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:34:09 +0000

One part of my morning routine to get these posts out to you is looking for the company’s logo. Usually I just snag it off of the company’s home page and that’s it. Occasionally I need to find a different version of the logo because it may have a weird background, the word beta written across it, or it may just be too small. The latter was the case today; however, I wasn’t able to find a more reasonably sized logo despite the fact that the company designs logos—in addition to many other things—and is named HUGE. The irony. HUGE is a Brooklyn, NY based company with offices in Los Angeles, London, and Stockholm that “helps build digitally-driven businesses.” What does that mean? It means that they work with some of the biggest brands in the world in areas like strategic planning, user experience, creative, interactive marketing, technology, and emerging platforms. With approximately 225 employees HUGE has designed and developed online experiences that drive 150 million monthly unique visitors and $12.3 billion in revenue.

Are You HUGE?

HUGE must get their name from the reputations of their clients. You can be nothing but HUGE when you’re building web experiences for names like CNN, jetBlue, IKEA, About.com, and MasterCard. Huge offers a range of services that link strategy, design, technology, and interactive marketing within a defined process that is unique to HUGE. The process seems to be working, because HUGE is growing at a crazy rate—or at least their Jobs page seems to indicate they are. They have 60+ job postings, which will provide a HUGE jump in headcount if they’re all filled. Most of the jobs with HUGE seem to require some level of experience, but they’re also offering internships. They have separate pages for opportunities in NYC and LA; however, the positions offered seem to be the same. Internships are offered full-time, are paid, and are available in Visual Design, Product Design, User Experience Design, Technology, Project Management, and Operations. And if one of those areas doesn’t really fit what you’re looking for, don’t be afraid to reach out to HUGE inquire about other types of internships that may be relevant to their business.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about HUGE?

BackType

Willy Franzen — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:01:34 +0000

When I started One Day, One Internship, I expected a more active commenting community. I didn’t realize that most internship seekers don’t like talking publicly about their internship searches, and I also didn’t realize that most of you have nothing to say about a company that you’re hearing about for what may be the first time. When you add in the fact that most of you are reading via e-mail and not using the site, it makes sense that only a few of the posts get most of the comments. Most of the conversation surrounds controversial employers like The Landers Group (MLM scam) or Professional Sports Publications and special offers like those that accompanied the posts on Gilt Groupe, Bonobos, and Groupon. I find that it’s much easier to interact with you all through Twitter (follow me @willyf) and our Facebook page. BackType is a San Francisco, CA company that helps you follow online conversations. They started out by helping you track your blog comments across the web, but they’ve noticed the same thing that I have, so they have moved away from focusing on blog comments and towards real-time conversation tracking through sites like Twitter. They needed to build a business on top of their technology, so they decided to build “an analytics platform that helps companies understand their social impact” instead of building a hard to monetize business that serves people who comment on blogs.

What’s Your Social Impact?

If you take a look at the BackType profile for One Day, One Internship, you’ll see the kind of data that they offer. It’s neat to look at, but not all that helpful at this point. It appears that the good stuff is kept behind a paywall. For me it’s probably not worth it, but if you’re a brand manager who wants to keep up on what people are saying about you, BackType is probably a pretty good solution. Tracking social media is tough without great technology,, and BackType is almost entirely focused on providing that technology. That’s why they’re hiring paid Intern Developers. Their Jobs page shows just one internship right now, and you can read the full description here. You’ll obviously need a strong Software Development background to score an internship with them, but you’ll get a shot at being one of the early employees at what could be a very influential company.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use BackType?

Advanced BioHealing

Willy Franzen — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:16:04 +0000

Last week a friend was telling me that his wife, who is in her residency, was going to have to work in the ER on the Fourth of July. I have to imagine that’s one of the most active nights of the year with injuries from fireworks, barbecues, and gunshots (especially in Chicago). All you need is a little imagination to come up with some nasty scenarios that would have ruined your holiday and left you with a permanent injury like my friend who passed out at a barbecue and now has perfect grill marks on his forearm—yes, that means he put his arm down twice. Usually these types of injuries aren’t funny, and they can be extremely traumatic with lasting consequences. Luckily, we’re entering an age of regenerative medicine in which injuries may not be so permanent. Advanced BioHealing is a La Jolla, CA based company that “develops and commercializes living cell therapies that repair damaged human tissue and enable the body to heal itself.” Their current product is called Dermagraft, and it’s a “a bio-engineered skin substitute that assists in restoring damaged tissue and supports the body’s natural healing process.” Right now it’s FDA approved to treat diabetic foot ulcers, but it appears that Advanced BioHealing also has a product called TransCyte that might be used to treat the kind of burns that fireworks or barbecues could cause.

Can You Regenerate?

Now, my medical knowledge is pretty much limited to what I make up, so I’m not the guy to tell you all about Advanced BioHealing. You’ll have to head over to their website and delve into their Corporate Info, Product Details, and Press Releases. Once you get a feel for how Advanced BioHealing works and operates, then you can check out their Careers page. They don’t list any internships right now, but one of their Research Associate job descriptions mentions managing interns. You can reach out to the HR team at Advanced BioHealing to learn more about internship opportunities at careers@abh.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about Advanced BioHealing?

Enterprise Community Partners

Willy Franzen — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:41:32 +0000

Chances are that housing is and will be your biggest expense for most of your life. It’s one of our most basic needs, so it makes sense that we spend a lot on it. Unfortunately, housing markets don’t react quickly to changes in demand, so we often have situations where housing becomes unaffordable for many who wish to live in an area. This may be ok when it’s some posh area of town, but what about when people who have lived and worked in area for years can no longer keep up with the real estate prices? Enterprise Community Partners is a Columbia, MD based non-profit that addresses these problems by creating “opportunity for low- and moderate-income people through fit, affordable housing and diverse, thriving communities.” They want to help people living in poverty “move up and out,” and they do this by helping to develop “a diverse mix of affordable and market housing options, access to jobs and social supports, and a strong commitment to the environment and civic participation.”

Join the Enterprise Community

Enterprise Community Partners has been doing their work for more than 25 years, and their site is full of information on what they do and how they do it. You can read about their Programs, Policy Work, Financial Products, and Local Work. They also offer a ton of Information Resources so that you can learn more about the organization and its work. Since 1982 they’ve helped to “develop over 240,000 affordable homes and invest over $9 billion throughout the United States,” so they’re operating on a scale that few other non-profits are. Once you’ve had a chance to check out the links above, you should take a look at internships at Enterprise Community Partners. They have a few opportunities, all of which appear to be paid. These include positions like Communications Intern, Foreclosure Intern (Washington, DC), and Research Intern (Los Angeles, CA). Take a look at them and see which make the most sense for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about Enterprise Community Partners?

SocialShield

Willy Franzen — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:23:18 +0000

Yesterday I spoke on the phone with Keith Petri, a recent grad from Skidmore. Unlike most of the recent grads whom I interact with, he’s not worried about finding a job. He, much like me, is instead starting his own business to help other young people move forward their careers. His business is called eBranding Me, and it “informs students about online privacy and social responsibility through on-site lectures and a supporting website.” Basically, it helps you understand the ramifications of your social media use, so that you can make informed decisions. San Francisco based SocialShield is a startup that is focused on the same problem, but they’re taking a different approach with a slightly different market. SocialShield is a software as a service platform that allows parents to monitor and evaluate their children’s online social activity.

Do You Have a SocialShield

Chances are that you’re at an age where you have mixed feelings about SocialShield. Part of you hates the idea of parents spying on their kids, yet part of you realizes that when you have kids you’ll want to keep them safe. Now imagine that you have a teenage daughter. You go on a family vacation and take tons of photos. Then you post them on Facebook. One picture happens to have your family in their bathing suits. No big deal, right. Well it becomes a big deal when your daughter has 80 adult men hounding her on Facebook. I’ve never seen anything like that, but that’s the story that led Noah Kindler and Arad Rostampour to found SocialShield in 2009. How do you deal with something like that? SocialShield answers that question. In fact, they have a cyber bullying promise: “If your kid falls victim to cyberbullies, we’ll actively assist you to find out who the bullies are and do what it takes to get it stopped.” That’s impressive. Now, SocialShield doesn’t have a Careers page posted yet, but a reader came across them and noticed that their About page says “The company is based in South San Francisco and is constantly looking for awesome people to join the team. If you have a passion for our mission and are a superstar, send us your LinkedIn profile.”
Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What would you do if your parents used SocialShield?

Pandora

Willy Franzen — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:36:13 +0000

I used to listen to a lot more music. In fact, my first website was music related (I won’t go into any more detail because it’s embarrassing). I guess I got a bad taste in my mouth from the shutdown of all of the file sharing websites. As new services have popped up that make it easy to listen to music for free, I’ve started to listen again. One of those services is Pandora, which uses The Music Genome Project to deliver users a radio station that is tailored to their individual tastes. It’s a simple idea, but a huge technical challenge. Not only does Oakland, CA based Pandora have to deliver different music to every user—and all at the same time—but they also have to be able to predict what kind of music you’re going to like based on songs that you tell them that you like. They do the hard part, and all you have to do is click a thumbs up or a thumbs down when they start playing a song for you.

Pandora Is All Gifted

If you were wondering where Pandora got its name, you can read all about it here. And if you’re wondering what Pandora is like, just try it. You can even get an iPhone app and play music in the background, which is awesome. There’s not a lot more to the Pandora product than being able to listen to great music whenever and wherever you want for free. The business is built on both an advertising supported and a freemium model. For $36 a year you can get Pandora One, and if you don’t want to pay you can listen to targeted ads occasionally—just like normal radio. If you’re interested working at a place where music, media, and technology intersect, then you should check out Pandora’s Careers page. They have a ton of jobs posted right now in areas like Advertising Sales, Software/Web Development, Accounting, Design, and more, but they don’t list any internships. They certainly do offer internships, and I’ve found some notes about it across the net, so your best bet is to reach out to them at pandora-jobs@pandora.com to learn more.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Pandora?

Efficient Frontier

Willy Franzen — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:53:03 +0000

Auctions are huge online. You probably know all about eBay, but did you know that Google’s advertising platform (the one that makes them almost all of their money) is also run by an auction model? If you want to advertise on a specific keyword’s search results, you make a bid, and if your bid is the highest (with some kinks thrown in to ensure quality advertisers), then your ad gets shown. What’s really interesting is that our financial markets are also based on an auction system. This means that innovations in the financial markets can also have relevance to the online advertising markets. That’s what Sunnyvale, CA based Efficient Frontier has figured out and built their business on. Their “performance optimization platform harnesses the power of advanced modeling to optimize campaigns and forecast the impact of changing tactics.” Efficient Frontier handles over $900 million in search engine marketing spending for their clients every year, which makes them a world leader.

Explore the Efficient Frontier

The key idea behind Efficient Frontier is portfolio theory, which has been used to develop their optimization platform and predictive modeling. It’s really complex stuff that you’d expect to find at an investment bank or hedge fund, but it may feel a little bit more approachable since it’s about advertising and not financial instruments. If you take a look at Efficient Frontier’s clients, you’ll see a lot of familiar names, and if you want to get a better feel for how those clients use Efficient Frontier’s technology, you should check out their case studies and testimonials. If after reading those you’re even more excited about Efficient Frontier, then you should check out their Careers page. Right now they’re looking for an MBA Marketing Intern. It’s hard to say how tied they are to the MBA requirement, but it looks like a pretty cool opportunity to learn about Efficient Frontier’s business.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about Efficient Frontier?

Financial Engines

Willy Franzen — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:56:49 +0000

Believe it or not, I started thinking about retirement right after I graduated college. No, I didn’t win the lottery or have a big entrepreneurial success. I started investing and contributing to my IRA. It was a good way to stay productive and get ready to be an adult. If you start thinking about retirement in your early or mid 20s, you’re likely going to be in great shape 40 years down the line. Unfortunately, many people don’t plan that far ahead, so they end up needing help much later in life—and often they don’t have access to good advice once they realize that they need it. Financial Engines is trying to change that. It all started with Bill Sharpe, who won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. By combining “Bill’s pioneering investment methodology with proprietary technology” Fiancial Engines is able “to provide all investors with cost-effective, expert advice and management—the kind previously available only to the world’s largest institutional investors.” Financial Engines, which is based in Palo Alto, CA with offices in Boston, MA and Phoenix, AZ, partners with both retirement plan providers and large employers to offer their services and change the way that people get retirement help.

Start Your Financial Engines

In doing my research on Financial Engines, I came across an excellent writeup about the company on Seeking Alpha. It goes into a ton of detail about the business, and it’s definitely worth a read. The general gist of it is that Financial Engines automates a lot of retirement advising through software as a service. Face to face advising often isn’t economical, and sometimes it’s not even better than what a computer can spit out. Financial Engines took the brilliance of Bill Sharpe, and put it into their computer models—so Financial Engines clients really do get the best. If you’re intrigued by what Financial Engines is doing, you should check out their Careers page. They have a number of internships listed in their job postings including positions in Software Engineering, Product Management, Business Analysis, and Service Delivery. There’s no word on whether the positions are paid or not.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Financial Engines?

Bling Nation

Willy Franzen — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:52:16 +0000

When I came across an internship posting for Bling Nation, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I didn’t know if it would be something like Cash4Gold or an online store for pricey hip hop accessories, but it turns out that Bling Nation is something far more reasonable despite their flashy name. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that is building an alternate payment platform for in-store purchases. Instead of using cash or credit card, they want you to swipe a tag that is affixed to your mobile phone. It makes sense. Credit card purchases where you sign the receipt seem outdated, and merchants are getting fed up with the processing fees that they have to pay for credit card transactions. PayPal has been the de facto online payment standard for a long time (even though a lot of people hate them), but they do nothing for in-person purchases beyond offering a credit card that links to your account. It seems to me that it’s inevitable that our mobile phones will replace our wallets in the future, but I wonder whether a Bling Nation sticker on the back of the phone will be the way in which we do it.

Bling Bling

So Bling Nation has an odd name and an odd approach to alternate payment processing; however, they have something like $33 million in venture capital funding. Mobile payment platforms are going to be the future, and Bling Nation is positioning itself to be a player in that market. Interestingly enough, they’re building their platform by starting in tiny markets. Instead of attacking New York City or San Fracisco, they’re focusing on a couple of small towns in Colorado. People can get a Bling Nation account going through their local banks, and then they can use their accounts at local merchants who have been outfitted to accept Bling Nation payments. It’s the opposite of how most companies launch, but I like it—it’s an interesting marketing strategy. If you’re intrigued by it, you might want to check out internships at Bling Nation. Right now they’re looking for a Summer Marketing Intern. There’s no word on whether it’s paid or not, but you can apply here.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you use Bling Nation?

Watercooler

Willy Franzen — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:45:19 +0000

Early in the recession it seemed as though the video game industry would never be affected. Traditional game publishers were busy selling their wares to the unemployed and hiring to keep churning out games—so there were plenty of internships in video games. Things seem to have slowed down over the past year, but I think it’s more about a change in the games that people play than macroeconomic conditions. Facebook and the iPhone have created new markets for cheap and free (ad-supported) games to gain a lot of traction. There are a ton of gaming upstarts entering the market, and traditional publishers are changing the platforms that they develop on. One of the upstarts is Watercooler, a Redwood City, CA based social games developer that has already reached “over 25 million application installations.” The company started as a network of online fan communities focused on sports and TV, but they’ve switched focus and used their “social product expertise to create innovative and engaging social games.”

Hang at the Watercooler

Watercooler’s games include Kingdoms of Camelot, Fantasy Football, $20K Football Challenge, 2010 Bracket Challenge, and Epic Goal. I haven’t played any of them, but they certainly look like they could be pretty addictive (and that’s exactly what social gaming companies want). Watercooler has already raised $9.5 million in venture capital, so they’re certainly in a growth stage. This is also becomes evident when you look at their Jobs page. They have a ton of positions open, and there are plenty that might be appropriate for new or recent grads, although there is only one internship posted. It’s for a User Experience Intern, and there’s no word on whether it’s paid or not. I’d imagine that Watercooler might offer other internships in the future, so don’t be afraid to reach out to them and ask about opportunities if UX isn’t your thing.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you played any Watercooler games.

Accruent

Willy Franzen — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:31:02 +0000

Location. Location. Location. You know how important it is. Chances are that one of the major drivers in your internship search is location. It’s even more important for businesses, yet they rarely manage their locations as effectively as they manage everything else. There are all kinds of sophisticated software platforms to manage customer relationships, products, human resources, and plenty of other things, but what about managing the places where they do business? That’s what Accruent is all about. They’re a Santa Monica, CA based company that develops software to help businesses “analyze [their] real estate and facilities portfolios and implement actions to cut costs and drive performance improvements.” It may not sound like the most exciting stuff on the face of it, but when you realize that Accruent helps clients manage “over 1 billion square feet of commercial space, for which they pay over $100 billion in rent annually,” you start to realize how interesting what Accruent does actually is.

Accruent Is Accruing Talent

Think about your college. Huge facilities with lots of people using them. How the heck do they figure out how to make the most of what they already have? If you go to Yale, USC, Michigan State, Syracuse, Brown, or one of the other higher education institutions on this list, you’d know that they used Accruent to figure it out. Accruent also has clients in Retail, Corporate, and Public Sector environments. That includes “20% of the Fortune 500 and over 40% of the top 100 retailers.” If you’re intrigued by what Accruent does, then you should check out their Careers page. They have internships available in Training (Santa Monica, CA), Market Research (Irvine, CA), and Recruiting (Austin, TX). No word on whether they’re paid or not.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Accruent?

Fanscape

Willy Franzen — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:17:21 +0000

It’s the longest day of the year and the official beginning of summer! (At least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere). The only bad thing about it is that from here on out the days are getting shorter. I don’t like that. Now, the only way that I can come up with to tie length of the days with digital word of mouth marketing is the thought that it’s probably easier to generate buzz in the summer because people get out more with the good weather. And that’s my segue into Fanscape, a Los Angeles based marketing agency. They know that word of mouth is the “#1 influencer of consumers when making a purchase or behavioral decision,” so they’ve decided to focus entirely on marketing that enhances word of mouth. You can’t just get people to talk about you (please do tell your friends about One Day, One Job—seriously go tell a friend today), but there are many ways that you can foster “targeted WOM conversations with the individuals, influencers and gatekeepers who inhabit the online social media landscape,” and Fanscape knows all about them.

Are You Part of the Fanscape

Fanscape must generate pretty good word of mouth for themselves considering that their clients include MTV, Doritos, AT&T, Electronic Arts, Hotels.com, Monster.com (yuck, bad word of mouth is all I hear), Hilton, Kia, and plenty more impressive names. Now, a lot of people who talk about word of mouth marketing are full of it. They give all kinds of advice, but can’t provide and results or measurement. That’s not the case with Fanscape. If you take a look at their Services page, you’ll see that they’ve engineered the word of mouth marketing process to an impressive degree. They appear to be extremely sophisticated, which means that they’d be a great place to start your career. You can find their internships here. You’ll see that they’re currently looking for unpaid interns in Business Development – Creative and Strategy, Business Development – Research and Proposal, and Marketing. They should be great learning opportunities, so go look a the descriptions for all of the details.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your take on word of mouth marketing?