I mentioned earlier in the week in the post about Museum Hack that I can sometimes get a little bored at museums. That’s not true at kids’ museums. I’m not sure what is says about my maturity level, but when I was in college, Amy and I would get really excited to take her sister (15 years younger) to the local science/children’s museum. She loved it, but I think we loved it even more. Next time we go to the West Coast, we might have to visit the Bay Area Discovery Museum. It’s a Sausalito, CA based museum that “is designed to ignite creative thinking in children.” What makes it sound even more awesome than other children’s museums that I’ve been to is that they put their 7.5 acres of natural space to use as part of the experience.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
arts,
California,
development,
education,
events,
Internships,
museum,
non-profit,
operations,
science,
unpaid
This is the time of year when homelessness becomes more visible for many people. The colder weather combined with the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons help us remember that not everyone has a roof over his or her head. In fact, there are “633,782 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States.” The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a Washington, DC based non-profit that, as its name indicates, would like to bring that number down to zero. As a leading voice on the issue of homelessness, The Alliance “works collaboratively with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to build state and local capacity, leading to stronger programs and policies that help communities achieve their goal of ending homelessness.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
Internships,
non-profit,
outreach,
policy,
program development,
project management,
public policy,
research,
unpaid,
Washington DC
Over the past six months baby blue bikes have been popping up all over Chicago. As a driver, they’re a bit scary because many of the riders seem unsure of themselves on two wheels, but it’s an overall good thing for the city. The bikes are part of the Divvy Bikes bike sharing system. The program seems to be a huge success so far, and I’m hearing the same thing about similar programs in other cities. The company behind Divvy, CitiBike, Bay Area BikeShare, Capital Bikeshare, and quite a few others is Alta Bicycle Share. They are based in Portland, OR and have offices in San Francisco, Columbus, Chicago, Brooklyn, Chattanooga, Boston, Washington, DC, and Melbourne, Australia. They’ve been able to launch programs in such major cities because they ” provide solutions for all aspects of bike share, from location assessment and business modeling to system maintenance and expansion.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
green,
Illinois,
Internships,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
New York,
Ohio,
Oregon,
sports,
Tennessee,
transportation,
unpaid,
Washington DC
Sometimes I love museums, and sometimes they bore me to death. I’m pretty sure it mostly has to do with how recently I last ate (apparently it’s a faux pas to waltz around most museums while snacking). I know they have those audio headset things that are supposed to give you a guided tour, but I don’t want to be one of those people. I really like the idea of going to the museum, but it usually disappoints. I wish there was a way to liven up the experience and get more out of it. That’s what Museum Hack is working on. They’re a New York, NY based upstart that has developed a “tour to turn one of New York’s most spectacular cultural institutions into a totally unique experience.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
arts,
communications,
education,
history,
Internships,
museum,
New York,
paid,
photography,
research,
sales,
social media
I grew up in Fairfield County, Connecticut. If it’s not the preppiest place on earth, it’s pretty close. And in case that wasn’t enough, I went to a private school where wearing a blazer was required. I thought that wearing pink pants and pants with little animals on them was totally normal. Working for Orvis in Vermont for a few summers only reinforced that feeling (and gave me a sweet discount on buying more of said merchandise). It wasn’t until I moved to Chicago that I started to tone it down a bit (I still don’t own a pair of jeans though). But what if you wanted to go the opposite direction? What if you moved from Chicago to Connecticut and wanted to fit in? You’d have to shop at Lilly Pulitzer. They are a King of Prussia, PA based fashion brand and retailer (with dozens of locations across the country) that is known for its over the top, colorful prints.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
customer service,
design,
fashion,
Internships,
New York,
Pennsylvania,
public relations,
retail
I cook a lot, but with Thanksgiving only a few weeks away, it’s time to make sure my skills are as sharp as my knives (doesn’t that sound like a promo for some silly cooking show?). Most of my culinary skills are semi-self-taught. Television, cookbooks, and lots of dinners out have exposed me to all kinds of new concepts, but the Internet is where I go to get the definitive answer on how to cook what I want to cook. Often all it takes is a Google search to find what I’m looking for, but sometimes I want to get new ideas. My go to is Serious Eats, but today I found a new site with a similar approach. The company is called Food52, and it’s a New York, NY based online community that brings “cooks together from all over to exchange recipes and ideas and to support each other in the kitchen.” (Side note: Food52 and Serious Eats are celebrating the the one-in-70,000-ish-years holiday of Thanksgivukkah with a cook off.) In their first few years they’ve been able to reach millions of people and get them talking about food, which is no small feat.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
blogging,
communications,
culinary,
customer service,
e-commerce,
e-mail,
editorial,
food,
food merchandising,
Internships,
marketing,
merchandising,
New York,
social media,
unpaid,
writing
I admit to liking bad music. I don’t listen to music all that often, but when I do, I’m perfectly happy listening to Top 40 stuff. I know that most of it is musically questionable, but I can’t help that I like it. I’ve tried listening to Classical music, but I can’t get into it. Maybe one day that will change. And if it does, I’ll have to check out the Handel and Haydn Society. They are based in Boston, MA, and they are “considered America’s oldest continuously performing arts organization.” They’re coming up on 200 years of excellence “in the field of Historically Informed Performance” (see here for a more in depth explanation). In other words they perform pieces “using the instruments and techniques of the composer’s time.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
arts,
development,
events,
grant writing,
history,
Internships,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
music,
non-profit,
research,
unpaid
At this point you’ve spent a lot of your life in a classroom. Do you think you’d be better off if you spent more or less? I lean towards saying less, but only if I would have put that time to good use. I tend to think that a lot of today’s kids are overworked when it comes to school, but that’s probably because I went to a very competitive private school. There’s a lot of research that shows that more time in school leads to better outcomes, and The National Center on Time & Learning is a Boston, MA non-profit that “is dedicated to expanding learning time to improve student achievement and enable a well-rounded education.” Even though it pains me to say it, The National Center on Time & Learning probably has it right.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
blogging,
communications,
community management,
education,
interactive media,
Internships,
Massachusetts,
media,
policy,
public policy,
research,
social media,
writing
In the world of advertising and marketing, creative seems to get all of the credit. We idolize the people who came up with the idea for a memorable campaign, but we don’t think of all the work that led to that idea. Whether you’re developing products, communications, strategy, or anything else that relates to your customers, you have to start with research. That’s where Kelton comes in. They are a New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA based consulting firm that is “passionate about listening to your customers and translating their stories into innovative solutions.” They start with research, then build a strategy, and use that to create design.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
consulting,
design,
innovation,
Internships,
market research,
New York,
research,
strategy
When I was a kid trick-or-treating was a failure if I didn’t reach double digits. I’m not talking about pieces of candy. I’m talking pounds. I laughed at the kids with the jack-o-lantern candy basket. Amateurs. Any real kid would use a backpack, an oversized pillowcase, or–better yet–both. There’s nothing better than getting home, pouring all your candy on the floor, and looking at the majesty of it all. It’s hard to recreate that feeling as an adult, but I kind of get it when I walk into Dylan’s Candy Bar. They are a New York, NY based retailer (with stores in Miami Beach and LA as well) that has merged “the worlds of art, fashion and pop culture with candy” to build “the world’s largest confectionary emporium and lifestyle brand.” Oddly enough, they don’t seem to dedicate much attention to Halloween, but I guess you don’t have to when your brand is all candy all the time.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
buyer,
California,
Florida,
food,
food merchandising,
holiday,
Internships,
merchandising,
New York,
public relations,
restaurants,
retail,
unpaid
Tonight is Mischief Night (also known as Devil’s Night). As a kid I was always a little afraid on October 30th, but I had a dream of becoming a vigilante and catching all of the mischief makers. Luckily, there weren’t many mischief makers in my neighborhood. At worst they would TP some trees and shaving cream some windows. I don’t know from personal experience, but as I understand it, lower quality shaving cream is better for mischief. You want that airy, foamy stuff if you’re spraying it on someone’s windows, but you want almost the exact opposite if you’re shaving your face (or so I’m told, I haven’t shaved with a razor in many years). Lately there has been a movement towards higher quality shaving products… and towards subscription models. We already took a look at Harry’s, and today we’re going to check out Dollar Shave Club. They’re based in Venice, CA, and they are “a rocketing men’s lifestyle brand and e-commerce company on a mission to change the way men address their shaving and grooming needs.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
consumer products,
customer service,
design,
e-commerce,
Internships,
sales,
web development
Early in the wedding planning process I proposed that we try to do as much online as possible. I quickly lost that battle, and I must say that our custom designed paper goods turned out amazingly well. I’m just glad that I wasn’t paying for them. If only there was a way to get beautiful, custom designed paper goods for a reasonable price. That’s exactly what Minted offers. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that aims “to find exceptional artists and designers all over the world and bring their work to consumers who appreciate great design.” They were early to the crowdsourcing model in 2008, and since then they’ve grown into a place where consumers can find great designers and great designers can get exposure that will help them build their careers.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
arts,
California,
design,
engineering,
graphic design,
human resources,
Internships,
marketing,
merchandising,
online marketing,
printing,
production,
recruiting,
seo,
software development,
technical support,
user experience,
web development
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.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
customer service,
development,
engineering,
events,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Internships,
Logistics,
Minnesota,
paid,
Pennsylvania,
planning,
systems administration,
technical support,
Texas,
Washington DC,
Wisconsin
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.
Good leadership always seems to be in short supply. There are plenty of situations where nobody is willing to lead, and there are plenty of others where those who are leading aren’t quite as fit for the job as they should be. I’ve seen a lot of non-profits that focus on developing young people into leaders, but it’s not all that common to find an organization devoted to promoting leadership at all levels. That’s exactly what Leadership Greater Washington does. They are a Washington, DC based non-profit that was founded out of The Greater Washington Board of Trade, The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation and The Junior League. Its goal is to “foster communication and cooperation among the area’s established leaders” and to aid “leaders in every stage of their leadership journey.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
communications,
Internships,
leadership development,
marketing,
non-profit,
unpaid,
Washington DC
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.
Although I always knew that I wanted to run my own business, it took me until after I graduated college to actually do something about it. It’s a shame because there are all kinds of resources available for entrepreneurs who are enrolled in college. A great example is the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. They are an Amherst, MA based non-profit that supports “technology innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education to create experiential learning opportunities for students and successful, socially beneficial innovations and businesses.” The organization exists to bring all of the great thinking ideas that happen on college campuses to life through business.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
entrepreneurship,
fellowship programs,
innovation,
Internships,
Massachusetts,
non-profit,
program development,
social entrepreneurship,
social venture
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.
When I’m talking to a potential advertiser for One Day One Job, I tell them how special our audience is. I’ll spare you the details since you certainly know how special you are, but the point is to convince them that they should pay more to reach you. Nearly every publisher does this, but most publishers don’t have special audiences. How do the ones that do prove it? That’s a problem that Umbel is working to solve. They are an Austin, TX based company that helps publishers “leverage social and big data to prove your premium audience story to advertisers and sponsors.” What I think is really cool about Umbel is that they can even help publishers whose audiences aren’t that special on average by segmenting out the groups that are most valuable to advertise to.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advertising,
data,
Internships,
marketing,
online marketing,
software development,
Texas,
web development
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 haven’t seen snow yet, but I did experience some sort of frozen precipitation while I was in Michigan over the weekend. It’s hard enough to accept that summer is over and that the shorts need to be put away, but it’s really difficult to come to terms with the fact that winter is coming (especially when you live in Chicago). It’s even worse because almost everything that I love to do is better with good weather (fishing, playing beach volleyball, grilling, walking the dog). Yet for some people it’s almost the opposite. These are the type of people who buy gear from Black Diamond Equipment, a Salt Lake City, UT based company that is “all about climbing and skiing.” In fact, Black Diamond Equipment makes it possible for people to enjoy weather that might otherwise keep you stuck indoors with a bad case of the shack nasties.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
apparel,
blogging,
community management,
editorial,
fashion,
Internships,
online marketing,
product development,
social media,
sports,
Utah,
writing
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.
When we featured Duraflame, I thought they’d be the only company that I’d write about with an office on a boat (excluding companies that use boats as parts of their businesses, of course). Today’s company really made a name for itself when they turned a retired ferryboat into a floating workshop on the San Francisco Bay (they now have offices all over the world). That move certainly helped build the Landor brand, which is kind of funny, since that’s what they do for clients–they “help the world’s best brands stand up, stand out, and stand for something.” Many of their clients already have massive brand awareness, so Landor is tasked with making the most of that brand equity.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
account management,
accounting,
advertising,
branding,
California,
copywriting,
design,
editing,
finance,
graphic design,
international,
Internships,
New York,
Ohio,
paid
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.
When you visit most websites, you’re paying for access even though you probably don’t realize it. You’re paying with your attention to advertisements. It’s a terrible model, but it’s pretty much the best idea that we’ve had so far. It’s the reason that Google is one of the most successful companies in the history of the world. Ideally we’d pay the content creators directly on the sites that we like, but managing subscriptions can be a nightmare for both site owners and their visitors. Tinypass has a solution that just might usurp advertising as the preferred way to monetize an audience. They’re based in New York, NY and they enable sites to collect micro payments to access content. They “believe that bloggers, magazines, newspapers, and all creators shouldn’t have so much trouble making money online.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
design,
engineering,
Internships,
marketing,
paid,
payments,
publishing,
sales,
software development,
user experience,
web development
Two weeks ago it was my birthday. Amy wanted us to do something fun and new in Chicago, so she surprised me with trapeze lessons. Unfortunately, she forgot that I have an elbow injury that would make doing such things a bit painful. We called the place to see if they could give us a credit for future lessons, and they were able to. While I certainly didn’t want to mess up my elbow more, I have to admit that the idea of soaring through the air scares me a little bit. Maybe if I had been exposed to acrobatics at an early age through a program like AcroSports, I would have had a better attitude about trying trapeze lessons. They are a San Francisco, CA based “non-profit organization whose mission is to teach and develop the physical, performing, and circus arts.” They’ve been at it for two decades now serving their “community in a safe, positive environment, offering activities that encourage teamwork and build strengths and self-esteem, and enhancing life’s experience.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
coaching,
communications,
education,
Internships,
marketing,
non-profit,
social media,
sports,
training
I’m not much of a gamer, but occasionally I get wrapped up in a mindless iPhone game. It starts as a little diversion while waiting for something, and before I know it, I’m staying up past my bedtime playing. The addiction usually lasts a few weeks, and then I forget about it and get my life back… until I discover a new game. I haven’t tried any games from Pocket Gems, and I don’t intend to… I never intend to. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that “develops free-to-play mobile games that are ridiculously fun.” While their games may be pretty simple, Pocket Gems takes them very seriously. That’s why their dual mission is to “build the world’s best mobile engineering team” and “become a global leader in the mobile entertainment industry.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advertising,
animation,
arts,
California,
design,
engineering,
entertainment,
Internships,
mobile,
operations,
paid,
product management,
software development,
video games,
web development
How many times have you been watching tv when a familiar advertisement comes on. You know all of the words, but five seconds after the ad finishes, you say to yourself, “Wait, what was that ad for again?” It happens to me all the time. So many brands have gotten too complicated with their messaging. Good branding is almost impossible without simplicity. That’s why Siegel+Gale has made a name for itself as “a global strategic branding firm committed to building world-class brands through elegantly simple, unexpectedly fresh strategies, stories and experiences.” The agency is based in New York, NY, but they also have offices in San Francisco, CA, Los Angeles, CA, and six international locations.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advertising,
analyst,
branding,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
research
When my sister and I were kids, our parents would sometimes take us to a toy store and let us pick out something that we wanted (often after doctor and dentist visits–bribery works). I would almost always pick out action figures (G.I. Joes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), while my sister would almost always pick some sort of art kit. Even though I never really liked art, I was always a little jealous that she had some sort of cool project to work on. I don’t remember which specific products she bought, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were from ArtSkills. They are an Easton, PA based company “with a commitment to bringing quality and innovative poster making and art materials to [their] customers.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
administrative,
analyst,
arts,
design,
graphic design,
Internships,
Pennsylvania,
unpaid
My knowledge of anatomy is a mashup of what I learned in my college Meat Science class (it’s amazing how similar animals are to humans when it comes musculature) and what I’ve picked up from reading about professional athlete’s injuries. Luckily, I’m not a doctor and don’t have any intention of being one. Otherwise I’d have to hit the books hard. Firecracker would probably be my best bet. They are a Cambridge, MA based company that has built the “most advanced learning platform for the next generation of Physicians.” If you guessed that it’s not made with dead trees, you would be right. Firecracker is also the name of their app that can help you prep for both Pre-Med and Med School.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
biology,
chemistry,
community management,
customer service,
editing,
education,
Internships,
Massachusetts,
medicine,
physics,
science,
social media,
unpaid
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.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
cartography,
customer service,
design,
geography,
holiday,
Illinois,
Internships,
navigation systems,
software development,
technical support,
user experience,
web development
We all know how hard cycles are to break. Even something silly like leaving clothes on the floor can get out of control if you let it. But with a cycle like that, all it takes is 10 minutes of cleaning up to get back on track (much easier said than done). There are other kinds of cycles that individuals have very little control over. The cycles of poverty and violence are a perfect example–individuals can rarely break them on their own. Full Frame Initiative is a Greenfield, MA based non-profit that is working to break these cycles by ensuring that “people and communities experiencing poverty, violence and trauma have the tools, supports and resources they need to thrive.” The organization took its name from a film making term that means to “pull the lens all the way back” and see the entirety of the situation.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
Internships,
Massachusetts,
non-profit,
unpaid
It sounds stupid to say, but it feels like science is making a resurgence in popularity. It’s hard not to notice when your friends keep liking Facebook posts from “I [expletive] love science.” Science always has been and always will be exceptionally important to the human race, but its popularity seems to vary quite a bit over time. The Society for Science & the Public is a Washington, DC based non-profit that is “dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education.” They realize that science isn’t just for scientists and that keeping the average person engaged with the study of science can have big payoffs.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
blogging,
communications,
copywriting,
editing,
editorial,
education,
information technology,
Internships,
non-profit,
paid,
production,
science,
Washington DC,
writing
About a year ago I woke up to a loud chirp. It wasn’t a bird (though we did have two birds fly down our chimney in two days around the same time). It was the smoke alarm. This wasn’t the “OH MY GOD THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE” alarm. It was the “let’s wake you up in the middle of the night so that you can change the battery” alarm. I ignored it… until it went off again five minutes later… and again… and again. So I’m in my underwear standing on a chair trying to disable this thing. It’s 3 AM and the smoke alarm is just out of my reach. I am at the point where I’ll do anything to go back to sleep, and there’s a baseball bat in the nearby closet…. and then I’m finally able to disable the alarm. I understand that smoke alarms with dead batteries can’t save lives, but there has to be a better way (especially considering that climbing on a chair when you’re sleep-deprived is pretty dangerous). Nest agrees. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that “takes the unloved products in your home and makes simple, beautiful, thoughtful things.” Their first product was a thermostat, and now they’ve just announced a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
business development,
California,
consumer products,
data,
design,
engineering,
finance,
human resources,
Internships,
marketing,
operations,
paid,
product development,
sales,
software development,
user experience,
web development
Nearly every tv show that we watch is sponsored by a number of companies, yet we never would think to thank the sponsors. The same can be said for websites. It’s pretty rude of us, isn’t it? Shouldn’t we be more grateful for all of the things that we get in exchange for a little bit of attention? Maybe we should, but we’re not going to be. The one exception is events. When a corporate sponsor puts on an event, I feel that I owe them something. That’s probably why Mirrorball believes that “if you want to move the needle, then first, you need to move your consumer.” Mirrorball is a New York, NY based consumer engagement agency “that connects brands and people through a fusion of social media and live experience.” Experiences are engaging, and if you can create them win the right way, you can reach people with messages that they might ignore in other settings.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
account management,
advertising,
blogging,
community management,
editorial,
events,
experiential marketing,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
seo,
social media,
writing
I drink a lot of water. Even the best restaurant servers struggle to keep my glass filled. But if I don’t have water in front of me, I don’t drink it. In college I would refill Smartwater bottles with tap water and take them to class (that’s the real smart water), but at some point the good habit ended and I’ve reverted back to drinking very little water on some days and gallons on other days. Maybe a good bottle would get me back on track. That’s exactly what S’well offers. They’re a New York, NY based company that sells bottles “crafted composed of non-leaching and non-toxic 18/8 stainless steel, that keeps your drinks cold for 24 hours and hot for 12.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
consumer products,
information technology,
Internships,
New York,
paid,
sales,
software development,
web development
