InvestmentNews is our sponsor this week, and they would like to tell you about their NextGen Virtual Career Fair on November 8th. It’s an awesome opportunity for students and interns to network and find finance jobs on the spot.
I often find charity events frustrating. It’s not the events themselves that bother me–it’s the auctions and raffles. Non-profits have an amazing ability to get all kinds of high value donations (which should be the hard part), but they completely fail when it comes to extracting as much value as possible out of those donations. It could be an inexperienced auctioneer, poorly priced raffle tickets, a confusing silent auction, or a complicated payment process. Technology can solve a lot of these problems, and that’s exactly what BidPal has done. They’re an Indianapolis, IN based company that “improves charitable fundraising events from start to finish with event management solutions, automated auctions, payment processing, online fundraising, consulting services, and much, much more.” BidPal actually came in at #74 on this year’s Inc. 5000 with 4,323% three-year growth to $10.2 million in revenue.
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When I was in elementary school, Christopher Columbus was a hero. Today people don’t even complain about going to work on a holiday named after him. That tells you just how ugly the true story is. Still, you have to give Columbus credit for sailing across the Atlantic with no idea where he was going (and making it back, and then doing it again three more times). Today we have technology that enables us to always know where we are. Rand McNally is a Skokie, IL based company that played a big part in getting us to this point. They were founded in 1856, and since then they’ve been specializing “in maps, navigation, road travel, and trip planning.”
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When social media started picking up steam as an essential business tool, it was mostly tech brands that were investing in it. They the huge national brands started tweeting, Facebooking, and Instagramming. Now it’s time for the local brands to jump on the bandwagon. Social Media Beast is a Chicago, IL based agency that is helping some of Chicago’s most notable brands do social right. Much of the cost in hiring a full-time social media person are centered around training and managing the individual. Why would a small business waste resources doing that when they can just hire an agency like Social Media Beast?
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One of the worst things about being able to build websites is that people constantly ask you to build them websites. They don’t understand that doing web development for your own projects is very different from doing it for clients. Even the simplest project can become a total headache when you’re trying to meet someone else’s specifications (especially when it’s family). I was never cut out for client work, which is why I stopped doing it when I was 18 even though it was really good money. However, there are many firms that only do client work. One here in Chicago, IL is called Tecture. They design and build “custom web and mobile applications, ecommerce websites, and custom content-managed websites” for all kinds of clients.
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In my tenth grade English class I had to recite a poem from memory. I was assigned “Out, Out–” by Robert Frost. It’s just about the perfect poem for a teenage boy to appreciate, even if it is a bit morbid. When I Googled the poem this morning, the first result was from the Poetry Foundation, which is a Chicago, IL based “independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture.” They are the publisher of Poetry magazine, and in 2011 the non-profit opened a building that “houses a public garden, a 30,000-volume library, an exhibition gallery, the Poetry Foundation’s programming offices—including the offices of Poetry magazine—and provides new space for the Foundation’s extensive roster of public programs and events.” It’s just around the corner from where I used to live, and it’s an impressive and interesting structure.
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Targeting advertising used to be pretty simple–all you had to do was buy ads in the places that your target market frequented. Whether it was a billboard, commercial, or print ad, your first concern was where the ad would be placed. While the basic principles of advertising haven’t changed, the way that we target ads has. There are now far better ways to reach someone than to assume that they’re part of some large group. Today’s advertisers have access to massive amounts of data, but they need to know what to do with it. It may seem like overkill, but there are actually NASA and MIT scientists working on this stuff. Some of them are DataXu, a Boston, MA based company whose “platform enables [their] clients to manage and optimize marketing investments across all digital channels, realizing significant performance and cost benefits.” DataXu came in at #5 on the Inc. 5000 with 21,337% three-year growth to $87 million in revenue.
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One of the best parts about having a significant other is discovering embarrassing moments from his or her past. While my greatest find is the Cosmo cover with my wife’s 4 year old, lipstick smeared face and the headline “How to Attract Men Like Crazy,” a close runner up is the recruiting video that she sent to college volleyball coaches. Her mom shot it with the family camcorder, and it starts with a cheesy opening like “Hi, my name is Amy Gordon, and I want to play volleyball for your team (thumbs up).” It’s priceless, though I shouldn’t make fun considering that this video helped her get recruited to Cornell’s volleyball team–and that’s how we met. College sports recruiting has come a long way, and now most of it happens online. National Collegiate Scouting Association is a Chicago, IL based company that “was founded in 2000 to help student athletes and their families navigate the cutthroat, competitive, and often confusing world of college recruiting.” While they may sound like a non-profit, NCSA is a for-profit business that has seen tremendous growth over the last decade.
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I’ve been dabbling in social media marketing since social media became a buzzword. I’ve typically been disappointed by the results. I’ve learned that it’s harder than it looks (and that most people don’t want to be social about their job search–which is why we built GIF Me a Job). The prospect of having millions of people telling their friends how awesome you are is pretty tempting, but it’s just not going to happen for most businesses. There are certainly exceptions, and many of them are major brands. When you already have millions of customers, it’s a lot easier (but still really hard) to truly engage them through social channels. SocialCode is a Washington, DC based “social marketing solutions provider” that “builds targeted communities, engages those audiences and converts them to customers and evangelists for leading global brands.”
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Finding office space is easy for me. It’s anywhere that I can put my laptop, get an Internet connection (which is especially easy with a mobile hotspot), and occasionally find enough quiet to talk on the phone. Most companies need something a bit more formal, and that means leasing space. Finding an appropriate office space can be a grueling process, which is why View The Space is aiming to simplify and expedite it. They are a New York, NY based startup that is “built around streamlining the leasing process through HD video tours, targeted distribution and analytics.” The company’s customers are broker and landlords, but the software saves lessors a lot of time too.
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I was the kid who couldn’t finish the mile run in elementary school. I had a semi-legitimate excuse in that I had asthma, but even now that my lungs are healthy, I still hate running. But I know for many people running makes them feel more alive. It’s an empowering sport that is accessible to almost everyone, and it’s pretty much cost free. Chicago Run is a non-profit that uses running to achieve its mission of promoting “the health and wellness of Chicago children through innovative, engaging, and sustainable youth programs.” Chicago Run already reaches more than 16,000 children in Chicago public schools, and that’s in less than 6 years of operation.
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Market research is an essential part of marketing these days, but it can get out of hand. It’s easy to keep requesting more research and never take action. The goal is to predict people’s behavior, so once you have a good idea of what they’ll do, it’s time to put the research to work. BrainJuicer is a market research firm that aims “to inspire brave clients to do great marketing by translating a generation of breakthroughs in psychology, behavioural economics and social sciences into Juicy tools that better understand & predict people’s behaviour.” That extra u in behavior may have tipped you off that BrainJuicer is based in the United Kingdom, but they U.S. based offices in Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; and New York, NY. There are also quite a few other offices across the world. BrainJuicer’s website is pretty funky. It has a fun feel and makes it interesting to explore what they do (there’s a simpler version if you find it overwhelming).
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Sales is all about relationships. Whether you’re trying to convince someone to make a one time purchase or enter a ten-year contract, you need to build a certain level of trust and empathy (the level is much higher in the latter case). Sometimes it only takes one conversation, but it often takes many more. A sales person has to be organized to ensure that his or her communications are continuously moving towards a sale. The tools for doing that used to be a rolodex and a notebook, but that has obviously changed. What hasn’t changed is the need for mobility in a customer relationship management system, and that’s exactly what Base CRM offers. They are a Chicago, IL based company that “is paving the way by building the next generation of CRM software.” They realized that most competing software is a burden (not a useful tool) for salespeople, so they decided to build something that people would actually want to use.
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Most of you are probably too young to remember when travel agents were a thing. Before the Internet, booking and planning a trip was much easier with the help of a professional. Today, having someone book your travel is often an unnecessary complication for most travelers. But if you’re the kind of person who travels all the time for work or wants everything to go perfectly, then you might appreciate something higher touch than booking online. That’s what FROSCH offers. They’re a New York, NY and Houston, TX headquartered company (with 30 offices across the country) that provides “high-touch leisure and corporate travel to individuals and companies.” While most travel agencies have been made obsolete by the Internet, FROSCH has continued to grow by offering a superior level of service.
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If you’re taking your job search seriously, you’ve probably read at least one article that advised you to start monitoring your personal brand online. Most people who spend time doing this face the sad reality that nobody is talking about them. Still, it’s nice to get a notification when your name does pop up. For many brands this kind of tracking is a necessity. The tools that you or I might use can’t keep up with the volume, and that’s why Brandwatch has grown so quickly. They’re a Brighton, UK based company with a growing New York, NY office that is “all about monitoring what people say about your brand, products, competitors, industry or any related topics.” If someone is saying it on a publicly accessible website, they’ll find it.
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When social media marketing first started getting serious attention, I was all about it. SEO had been huge in helping me grow this site, so I thought that social would be the next big thing. But as I started working on using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other sites to drive traffic, I realized how ineffective they were. I’ve recently decided to give social another shot because I see a lot of companies making it work for them (though I fear that the Careers space will never be as social as it should be). Most companies that take social seriously use a platform “to measure, engage and advertise across social media.” Unified is a New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, and Chicago, IL based company that offers exactly such a platform. Unified’s software is especially focused on “activating social audiences and impacting consumer actions.”
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I’ve made it a point to never repeat a company or organization on One Day One Internship. A few times I’ve caught myself writing about companies that sound familiar and then realized that they’ve changed names. I even once published a duplicate post, but quickly put up a new one. But I’ve never intentionally featured an organization twice until today. Back in 2008, I wrote about the Chicago Botanic Garden. I had never even visited at the time, but today I’m getting married there! How could they not be featured today?
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As an online publisher I understand how difficult it is to balance ads and content. I’m lucky in that the job search space allows a little more flexibility–most job postings are technically ads, so people don’t really differentiate between “editorial” and paid placement (though I still try to). The toughest part for most publishers is that ads perform best when they blend in with the content. This is really hard to do in an honest and unobtrusive way, but that’s exactly what Vibrant Media tries to do. They are based in New York, NY, and they are “the world’s leading provider of in-content contextual technology that gets brand content and advertising discovered across platforms.” With a network of more than 6,000 publishers they are able to reach upwards of 300,000,000 unique visitors every month.
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My dad is an architect. I was dragged on all kinds of architectural tours as a kid, and that hasn’t changed now that I’m adult. Whenever my parents come to visit Chicago, we end up spending an afternoon on some sort of architectural expedition. About half the time my dad comes up with a random place that he wants to see, and we drive around looking for it. The rest of the time, we end up doing a more formal tour–usually through the Chicago Architecture Foundation. It’s a Chicago, IL based non-profit organization that is “devoted to celebrating and promoting Chicago as a center of architectural innovation.” It all started in 1966 when community members banded together to save the Glessner House (we already did that tour) from demolition. That eventually led to the founding of the Chicago Architecture Foundation, which was then a founding member of the Association of Architecture Organizations.
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One thing that surprises me about today’s crop of college graduates is that as a whole they seem far less willing to move for a job than one would expect (though this blog post says that’s changing). I think the biggest thing holding young people back is that you often have to move to a new city to even have a chance at landing a job there. That’s a big risk to take when you have no money. Things change as you gain more experience and become more valuable to employers. If you do really well, they’ll often try to convince you to move for them. Many will offer relocation bonuses, but only top executives typically get concierge-level relocation assistance. UrbanBound is trying to change that. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that offers “a web-based platform that helps companies offer a comprehensive transition system to their newly hired and transferring employees.” UrbanBound enables employees to plan their entire relocation in one place, and that’s a big deal when we’re talking about such a significant life change.
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One Day One Job is hiring paid Growth Interns/Apprentices/Hustlers! Help us help more student find their dream jobs.
The group buying craze really got its start here in Chicago with Groupon, so it’s not surprising to see a new take on the model come from a local upstart. How can you make the most of the Groupon model without being one of the the thousands of copycats? You can focus on collective corporate purchasing. That’s what OpenMarkets is doing. They’re an Evanston, IL based company that has created “a network of healthcare providers joined together to create cost-savings for capital equipment.” It may not be nearly as fun as $20 for $40 of Thai food, but it has the potential to significantly impact the healthcare market.
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Once or twice a year I’ll come across an opportunity that is so outstanding that I’d almost consider applying. When I saw a post on Facebook saying that the group behind Alinea, Next Restaurant, and The Aviary is looking for an intern, I dropped everything and checked out the posting (though I’m sure whatever I was doing on Facebook was obviously extremely important). I follow the Alinea and Next Restaurant accounts on Facebook because doing so gives you an inside edge on getting tickets. Yes, they sell tickets for a dining experience, and they usually sell out within hours. That tends to happen when one restaurant (Alinea) is the undisputed best restaurant in Chicago, IL and arguably the best restaurant in North America, and the other (Next Restaurant) offers one of the most exciting new concepts in fine dining. And then there’s the Aviary, a place that has transformed the cocktail into fine art.
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Read our latest article that uncovers a potential internship scam.
I often tell people that I don’t like sandwiches. The truth is that I don’t like bad sandwiches, so most sandwich chains are out for me. The only one that I’ll somewhat regularly eat at is Potbelly Sandwich Shop. It’s hard to beat one of their Meatball sandwiches with an Oreo milkshake. I’d never heard of Potbelly until I moved to Chicago, IL, which is both where they’re headquartered and where they got their start. The first store opened in 1977, but it wasn’t until 1996 when Bryant Keil bought the store that they started expanding the business.
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This morning I read an article called Lawmakers Gone Wild in Chicago magazine. It’s about how many Illinois politicians are using their campaign funds as a tax free slush fund for personal expenses. The abuses are rampant, but only the most egregious offenders are prosecuted (and it’s often by the federal government). Much of the research for the article came from the Better Government Association, a Chicago, IL based non-profit that “works for integrity, transparency, and accountability in government by exposing corruption and inefficiency; identifying and advocating effective public policy; and engaging and mobilizing the electorate to achieve authentic and responsible reform.” Considering that the BGA has been around since 1923, you really have to wonder how bad things would be if they never existed.
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Want to intern at a startup? Check out our latest article: Hustle 101: How to Make Any Startup Want to Hire You.
I swear that movies used to start on time and you had to come early to see the coming attractions. I’m probably misremembering, but we all know that what used to be a few quick previews now often lasts more than 15 minutes. There are trivia games (with sponsors of course), straight up commercials, trailers for movies that look horrible, and a few trailers that actually get you excited. Some see this as the cheapening of the moviegoing experience, and that’s exactly what it is–it keeps ticket prices down. National CineMedia is the company behind much of the pre-feature entertainment and advertising that you see in movie theaters. They’re based in Centennial, CO and publicly traded, though they’re also “owned and operated by the 3 largest theater circuits in America: Regal, AMC and Cinemark plus 36 select affiliate partners.”
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Just about three years ago I was working on writing a book (never finished, and I’m glad that I didn’t). I wasn’t making much progress, so I decided that I needed a change of location. I went to some random coffee shop, checked in on Foursquare, and somehow stumbled upon a group of people who were “coworking.” The group is called Jelly Chicago, and I’ve been getting out of the house and coworking with them once a week ever since. It’s a social media success story, as is Loudpixel, a company started by two people I met at Jelly. Loudpixel is a Lansing, MI based (they moved there a couple years ago) “digital consultancy that works with companies and brands to deliver unbiased social media monitoring, measurement and insights research.”
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I’m often asked how I’m able to consistently find interesting companies to cover. It’s all about what I call the always looking approach. If you open your eyes, you start to realize that your life is full of cues that can lead you to interesting employers. One of my favorite exercises is to walk around downtown Chicago and look at all of the billboards and signs. There’s always something new and interesting. But what about the company that makes the the signs? That’s Watchfire. They’re a Danville, IL based company that got its start as ” Time-O-Matic, an industry leader in innovations like the Time and Temperature signs that became landmarks at banks and downtown corner stores across the nation.” Now they’re in the business of LED signs of all shapes and sizes. A lot of people think that they’re not affected by outdoor advertising. I can almost guarantee that’s not true. One of Watchfire’s big products is the Price Watcher sign for gas stations. You can’t tell me that you don’t pick a gas station based on the prices shown on those signs!
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I’m dying for the sixth season of Mad Men to start. There’s no date set yet, but the season should premiere in about three months. One thing that I find funny about the show is that they make it look like everything that happened in advertising in the 50s and 60s happened in New York City. Oddly enough, the Don Draper character is partially based on a guy named Draper Daniels, who was “the creative head of the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago, IL.” Leo Burnett was a huge name then (the company was founded in 1935, and it still is). Their client list is about as high end as you’ll ever see with names like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Altria (those first three kind of scare me from a health/social responsibility standpoint, but they’re still impressive names) General Motors, Kellogg’s, Hallmark, Nintendo, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, and Fiat.
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Most of the companies that we feature have business models that are pretty easy to grasp within a few minutes. Unless they’re a startup with a lot of funding and no business model yet, it’s pretty easy to figure out how they make money. That’s not really the case with proprietary trading firms, though they certainly make money. We’ve featured a few in the past including Jump Trading, Wolverine Trading, and Belvedere Trading. Today we’re going to add another to the list, Chopper Trading, which is a Chicago, IL “technology-based proprietary trading firm that operates in a range of global markets and trades on several major exchanges.” That’s about all they’ll tell you. Proprietary trading firms are in constant competition with each other for talent, technology, and profits, so they keep the details of their businesses secret. (They did spill one secret though–Chopper Trading is named after the CEO’s dog.)
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When you’re in school, you get a distorted view of what principals do. You see them deal with troublesome students and institute new rules, so you kind of assume that discipline is their main role. As you get older you realize that the job goes much deeper. They’re the CEOs for their schools. They have to manager a team of teachers, work with school boards, communicate with parents, and much more. A good school is often the product of good administrators, which is why a non-profit called New Leaders “develops transformational school leaders and designs effective leadership policies and practices for school systems across the country.” The organization is based in New York, NY and also has locations in 12 urban areas.
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I’m on vacation in Aruba, so I’ve been going out to dinner every night. One thing that I’ve noticed at nearly ever restaurant is kids playing games on iPhones or even iPads while their parents essentially ignore them. iDevices are great educational tools, but so is a family dinner. I’m sure there are some reasons for exception, but I think most parents should probably have some sort of “no playing games at the dinner table” rule. Save the game playing for another time… like at school. That’s what eSpark is aiming for. They’re a Chicago, IL based startup that works with K-8 schools to offer “personalized learning on the iPad,” and they’re already delivering amazing results.
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