Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In past years we’ve looked at Shamrock Foods and Luck Stone to celebrate the holiday, but today we’re going to take a look at internships with Minneapolis, MN based General Mills because there’s no more authentic Irish breakfast than Lucky Charms. Now, it’s been a while since I last had a bowl of everybody’s favorite marshmallow-filled cereal—ok, it’s been a month—but it feels like it’s been much longer. Beyond Lucky Charms, General Mills’ brands include Cheerios, Pillsbury, Gushers, Haagen-Dazs, Betty Crocker, Cascadian Farm, and many more names that you’ll recognize from the center aisles in the grocery store. Most of them may have nothing to do with St. Patrick’s Day, but add some green food coloring if that’s what you’re really concerned about. Continue reading about General Mills…
I grew up in Fairfield, CT, which is next to a city, Bridgeport, that is always aiming for “revitalization.” They’ve talked about a building a casino for years, and they even built a minor league baseball stadium. It’s hard to say whether that has helped or hurt, but it seems that Bridgeport is at least doing a little better than it was a decade ago. I’d imagine that the real reasons for improvement have come from smaller projects that are more in tune with the city’s communities’ needs. These are the kinds of projects that The Reinvestment Fund invests in in cities in the Mid-Atlantic. They are “a 24 year old nonprofit financial lending institution with a strong social mission” and offices in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. They started out as a small community development organization, and they’ve grown to become something much bigger. Continue reading about The Reinvestment Fund…
If you woke up this morning with a sore throat, what would you do? I bet many of you would get on the computer, type your symptoms into Google, and probably end up on WebMD trying to self-diagnose. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing (maybe we should leave the diagnosing for the doctors), but it’s how most of us operate these days. We have a remarkable amount of medical information available at our fingertips, and WebMD, which is based in NYC with a significant presence in a number of other cities, is responsible for a lot of it. They consider themselves “the leading provider of health information services, serving consumers, physicians, other healthcare professionals, employers and health plans.” If you read that closely, you probably noticed that WebMD’s business goes well beyond their consumer facing website. Continue reading about WebMD…
Over on One Day, One Job I’ve been collecting user data over the past week to help me make the site more useful. So far the survey has received hundreds of responses, and there are a number of common themes that keep coming up. It’s amazing at how well an 8 question survey can tell me about what you students want in a job search tool. For companies that need a little more than an 8 question survey, there’s Communispace, a Watertown, MA based market research company. Their name probably wouldn’t have made them too popular during the cold war, but fear of communism has been replaced with community building—which is what Communispace is all about. Continue reading about Communispace…
We’re supposed to reach a high of 56 degrees today in Chicago, which is great even if it’s foggy and gloomy. Spring is on its way, and in only a couple of months it will be farmers market season again. Although my city is short on farms (we have a few, really), there are a ton within driving distance. Many of them haul the food that they produce into the city on a weekly basis and sell it to the yuppies who love eating fresh, organic, locally grown food (also known as me). One of these farms is Tomato Mountain Farm, which is based in Brooklyn, WI. They have a presence somewhere in Chicago 6 days per week, and their produce offerings range from basil and beets to watermelons and zucchini. Obviously, they also grow a lot of tomatoes. Continue reading about Tomato Mountain Farm…
Today’s company has nearly pushed me to plagiarism. I love their tagline so much that I want to steal it and make it my own. Instead of “Our business creates ideas. Our ideas create business.” I’d use “My job is to create ideas. My ideas create jobs.” Ok, it isn’t perfect yet, but I guess that’s why I need to stick to coming up with my own ideas. Laughlin Constable, owner of the slogan, is a Milwaukee, WI based creative agency with locations in Chicago and New York City. When you look at their client list, you won’t see the long list of huge brand names that hire some of the other agencies that we’ve featured. That’s because Laughlin Constable has a thing for the underdog—they “help brands challenge bigger brands.” For their clients execution isn’t enough. They need big ideas that can help to challenge the status quo. Continue reading about Laughlin Constable…
You’ve probably heard of the World Bank, but do you know what it is? Now’s a good time to head over to Wikipedia to find out. The short version is that they’re “an international financial institution that provides leveraged loans to developing countries for capital programs” with the goal of reducing poverty. Bank Information Center is a Washington, DC based non-profit that helps “developing and transitioning countries to influence the World Bank and other international financial institutions to promote social and economic justice and ecological sustainability.” Basically that means that they work at the local level in countries across the world to make sure that the interests of the people are represented in the decisions of international financial institutions. Their aim is to democratize development. Continue reading about Bank Information Center…
I got a tip on this one from a fellow Cornellian (which is cool because a few of my friends from Cornell work at Rosetta). If you ever find a company that you think that we should feature, e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com. We feature a lot of interactive marketing agencies because they’re usually pretty big on hiring young talent whether it be at the intern or entry level. Rosetta stands out because of their size and sophistication—they almost seem more like a consulting firm than a marketing agency, at least in the way that they present themselves. For instance, they recently become a “top ten interactive agency” by means of an acquisition. That seems so different from the image that most agencies try to portray, but it’s working. Through “dedication to client work within Consumer Products & Retail, Healthcare, Financial Services, Consumer Technology & Media, B2B, and Travel & Hospitality industries” Rosetta “has created enduring partnerships with [their] clients including Scholastic, Coach, Borders, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Nationwide, Marriott and Microsoft.” Those are huge names, so you know Rosetta, which is headquartered in Princeton with offices in New York, Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, and Denver, is capable of delivering results. Continue reading about Rosetta…
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it or not, but I’ve spent the last week in Florida. It’s been a partial vacation, but I’ve spent most of the time working (since it’s been cold and rainy here). One thing that I’ve noticed down here besides the terrible weather and bad driving is that immigration is still a major issue. With Florida’s proximity to Cuba and Haiti, the state runs into a lot of immigration issues. It may be refugees arriving by boat or raft, or it could be immigrants flocking to the state to work in agriculture. Whoever they are and wherever they’re from, they are eligible for support from Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, a non-profit “legal assistance organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the basic human rights of immigrants.” The organization is based in Miami, and they’ve been around since 1996. Continue reading about Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center…
I hope the title of today’s post didn’t make you hungry, because we’re not talking about internships in organic food. Organic is a San Francisco based interactive marketing agency with a brand that has gained a lot of keyword competition over the past 16 years. Yes, people were eating organic back in 1994, but the word wasn’t nearly as common as it is today. Doing research on Organic is tough because the organic search results (excuse my SEO pun) have all kinds of other stuff in them (at least they own Organic.com). Either Google needs to get inside my head to discern my intent, or Organic is going to have to hope that artificial packaged, processed foods go back in vogue. Ok, enough of my ripping on their name—Organic was ranked by AdWeek as the #1 interactive agency in 2007. That fits in perfectly with my impression of Organic from browsing their website and looking at their work. In fact, I’m blown away by how good Organic’s website is. It’s easy to use, it’s full of information, and it’s gorgeously designed. Their corporate mantra is “Exceptional Experience,” and they certainly live up to it. Continue reading about Organic…
Apparently my parents and sister have engaged in a never-ending series of online Scrabble games played via iPhone. I’m with my parents in Florida right now, and every five minutes they’re bugging each other to make the next move. It’s crazy. Free online gaming has hit the masses, and it isn’t pretty. There are tons of new online gaming companies, and while some are focusing on bringing new gamers to the market, others are more focused on gaining ground with serious gamers. Culver City, CA based Riot Games is a perfect example of the latter. They are behind League of Legends, a free online role-playing game that is set in an imaginative world. The game has been downloaded more than a million times, and Riot Games has received $20 million in venture capital investment based on the game. $8 million of that investment came from a Chinese gaming company that has a huge user base, so this is very much an international play. Continue reading about Riot Games…
I’ll admit it, I don’t read The Economist regularly, but plenty of my friends do—mostly the smart ones. It’s a magazine (they call themselves a newspaper, but you’d likely identify it as a magazine) that stands apart from other periodicals in a variety of ways. It’s not the topics that they cover—they offer both news coverage and analysis and opinion on business and politics—it’s more the way that they cover those topics. The most interesting thing about The Economist is the fact that all of their articles are written anonymously. It’s about “a belief that what is written is more important than who writes it,” but you have to like the fact that anonymity allows the writers the freedom that they need to address topics in the ways that they should be addressed. The Economist is all about free trade and free markets, yet it “considers itself the enemy of privilege, pomposity and predictability.” The Economist is based in London, but they are very much an international business and magazine. Continue reading about The Economist…
For most of us museums are just places to go to visit for a day and to learn something new. We rarely think about what is going on behind the scenes, but we should. At many major museums there is also a significant research function. A perfect examples is the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, PA, which sounds like a research institution, but it also runs a museum. In fact, The Academy is the “oldest natural science research institution and museum in the New World” according to Wikipedia. The Academy has been at the forefront of biological and earth sciences since its inception, and it continues to promote public education in those areas. Just to give you an idea of the scale on which they operate, their collections include more than 17 million specimens. That’s crazy! Continue reading about Academy of Natural Sciences…
In the world of startups, hardcore usually means eating ramen for 17 meals straight, working 100 hour weeks, and sleeping under your desk. That’s not the case with Tough Mudder—that kind of lifestyle will prevent you from finishing their races. What races? The most hardcore races known to man. Tough Mudder was “launched because there is not a race in America that tests toughness, fitness, strength, stamina and mental grit all in one place and all in one day.” There will be soon. The team at New York City’s Tough Mudder doesn’t think much of marathons or even ironmans. They want something that puts the human body and mind to the ultimate test in one day and one location. They haven’t quite nailed down what this race will look like, but I think the pictures on their website will give you a good idea of what they have in mind. Continue reading about Tough Mudder…
You may have heard that NASA just had what was probably the final night launch of the space shuttle. I was lucky enough to see one a few years ago from a beach in Connecticut, although it didn’t look like much more than a bright light screaming through the night sky. Our space program is going through a lot of changes, and it seems that current funding for some future programs isn’t what the people at NASA were hoping for. Many fans of the space program are disappointed and pessimistic about the future of space exploration. Luckily, the past decade has led to the rise of private space companies that are taking up a lot of the slack when it comes to space flight. One of these companies is Hawthorne, CA based SpaceX, which was started by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk in 2002. Their focus is on building launch vehicles (mostly for satellites) that are not only more reliable, but also more affordable. Continue reading about SpaceX…
You thought that you were done with test prep, but now the economy is in a rough spot and the job market is kind of weak. You’re hoping that things will bounce back before you graduate, but in the back of your mind you’re thinking about grad school. And that means doing the standardized test thing all over again. Luckily, things have changed since you took the SAT or ACT. The one size fits all approach of classroom instruction is out, and “adaptive learning” delivered through an online platform is in. Knewton is a New York City based startup that is one of the leading innovators in the test prep market. They seem to be mostly focused on the graduate school test prep market, although they do offer an SAT prep course too (PrepMe is a similar company that focuses only on pre-undergraduate test prep). Knewton is not only focused on improving the quality of test prep results, but they’re also working hard to make test prep more affordable and more interactive. Continue reading about Knewton…
I’m always amazed with the diversity of the non-profits that I come across. Yes, there is a lot of redundancy in the non-profit world, but I swear that you can find an organization for every idea, interest group, and cause. Take Advertising Research Foundation for example. They are a New York City based organization that aims “to improve the practice of advertising, marketing and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications.” They bring together people from all areas of marketing to promote collaboration and the open exchange of ideas. The ARF (as they’re often called) spends significant resources on developing new research and publishing it in the Journal of Advertising Research. They also put on all kinds of events and run councils on a variety of different advertising niches. Continue reading about Advertising Research Foundation…
It’s every teen’s worst nightmare. You finally reach that magical age where the state says that you’re ready to drive a car. Your parents reluctantly hand over the keys to the family station wagon. You get a lecture, but you’re going to escape. You’ll finally have the freedom that you’ve been waiting for all your life. But there’s a catch. Your parents have installed a camera in the car to assess your driving and mitigate risk. It’s from a San Diego based company called DriveCam. To you it’s a terrible idea. You hate being spied on. You know you’re a good driver with your state mandated 20 hours of experience behind the wheel. What you probably don’t know is that car accidents are the leading cause of teen death. You’re too caught up in having a sense of freedom to care that this device has reduced the risk of reportable crash by 70% over the course of 2 million miles. Continue reading about DriveCam…
I always thought that .edu domains were reserved for accredited colleges and universities. It seems as though those restriction may have loosened (or they may have never been as tight as I thought they were). Lately I’ve seen some dodgy online education sites built on .edu domain names, so when I came across Academia.edu, I assumed that’s what they were. A closer look showed me that they’re nothing of the sort; in fact, they’re not an academic institution at all. They’re actually a San Francisco based startup that is building an online portal to help people find out “who’s researching what.” It’s kind of like LinkedIn meets a Wiki, but it’s only focused on academia. If you’re a PhD student, you can use it to track down other researchers in your field for collaboration. If you’re a journalist, you can use the site to find sources for articles. If you’re a high school student looking at colleges, you can use it to find professors who will help you achieve your ambitions. It’s a really cool idea, and it seems to be gaining some traction. Continue reading about Academia.edu…
I’m a big proponent of making personal finance part of your career planning. By managing your money wisely (even if you barely have any as a student), you’re creating a project for yourself that you can use to demonstrate to employers how you’ll be an effective intern. When I need information on personal finance, I always look to Ramit Sethi, the founder of a website called I Will Teach You To Be Rich and the author of a book by the same name
I’m not sure if it’s a trend yet, but it seems that more and more creative/interactive agencies are moving away from client work and spending more time developing products. 37signals used to be a web design agency, and now they develop web-based applications that help people get things done. Brooklyn, NY based AD:60 appears to be taking a similar path. They’re still putting a strong emphasis on their client work, but they also seem to have a lot of interest in developing their own products. The agency’s offerings include Web Design, Website Development, Mobile Technology, Marketing & Advertising, and Consulting, while their current internal projects include MyBankTracker.com and BankTwitter.com. Continue reading about AD:60…
Some of the most effective non-profits are the ones that work at a local level; however, the non-profits that operate at the national level usually have a much easier time raising money. Feeding America is a non-profit that is able to take advantage of both these facts by using a network model. Based in Chicago, they are “the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity.” They’re able to do this by operating “a nationwide network of member food banks.” This network of more than 200 food banks across every state distributes “more than 2.5 billion pounds of food and grocery products annually.” Those are numbers that are hard to get your mind around. Continue reading about Feeding America…
I’ve written about a lot of green internships, but I’m well aware that most of the internships in the energy sector are still related to oil. As the price of oil continues to rise and competition starts to increase from alternative energy companies, we’re going to see more and more innovation in the oil industry—there will a much bigger focus on efficiency. One example of his Houston, TX based Object Reservoir, which is a company that helps their clients in the Energy & Petroleum industry model their underground wells to optimize drilling and maximize production. I spent a good amount of time reading over the company’s website to try to understand exactly what they do, and I have to admit that it’s way over my head. Hopefully for some of you it all makes sense. Continue reading about Object Reservoir…
One of the books that I’ve been reading lately is SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
I have to admit that the “jobs” that I’m most concerned with today is Steve Jobs. I can’t wait to find out what Apple is announcing today, and I wish that I had some relevant internships to bring you. I don’t, but I did come across a really cool list yesterday called 5 Butt Kicking Companies You (Probably) Never Heard Of. The list is exactly what it promises, as it features 5 later stage startups that are growing rapidly and hiring lots of people. The first company on that list is Palantir, a Palo Alto, CA based company (with another office in McLean, VA) that “is working to radically change how groups analyze information.” They were founded by former PayPal employees and Stanford computer scientists. Right now the company is focused on two verticals: Government and Finance. Both areas deal with massive amount of data and information, so it makes sense that Palantir is starting with them. Continue reading about Palantir…
Design matters. It’s the reason that Apple can sell devices that essentially do the same thing as those of their competitors for a significant premium. It’s the reason that you choose to trust one website over another. It’s the reason that you buy brands. Yes, functionality matters too, but that’s a given. Grafik gets it. They’re an Alexandria, VA based integrated marketing agency that appears to put a heavy focus on visual design. Their main service offerings are brand strategy, integrated communications, and interactive marketing, but it’s very obvious from looking at their website (and their name) that graphic design is a key part of what makes Grafik successful. Browsing through a gallery of their work only confirms this. Continue reading about Grafik…
I have no idea how I’ve made it through nearly two years of posts on One Day, One Internship without featuring ESPN. I covered ESPN’s entry level jobs on One Day, One Job, but never took the time to look at their internship program. As you probably know, ESPN is the “worldwide leader in sports.” They’re a huge media company with multiple television stations, a magazine, and an enorous web presence—they also have branded restaurants. When it comes to sports coverage, there’s no competition; ESPN is king. They also have an amazing employment brand not only because they offer jobs and internships in sports, but also because of their awesome commercials that take place in their Bristol, CT office. I have to imagine that internships at ESPN are some of the most sought after internships out there. Continue reading about ESPN…
When I was in 6th or 7th grade, I played a trading card game called Magic the Gathering. Being a baseball card collector, I was more interested in what the cards were worth than actually playing the game. I occasionally played with my friends, but when they lost interest, I went back to baseball cards. Many trading card games came after (I didn’t play any of them), but apparently Magic the Gathering was the first. I had long forgotten about Wizards of the Coast, the company that was behind Magic cards, when I came across their name again. I took a look, and was surprised to see that the Renton, WA based company has grown quite a bit over the past decade and was eventually purchased by Hasbro. Wizards of the Coast is still a gaming company—the world leader in hobby games—and their brands include Dungeons & Dragons, Duel Masters, Heroscape, Axis & Allies, and Star Wars in addition to Magic the Gathering. Continue reading about Wizards of the Coast…
Yesterday we took a look at one of the most familiar names associated with the Haiti Relief effort—the American Red Cross. This morning I came across a couple lists that shine a light on other organizations that are also putting a focus on Haiti. One is from U.S. News & World Report that discusses 10 Ways You Can Donate to Haitian Earthquake Victims, and the other is Haiti Earthquake—Best Ways to Assist in Providing Emergency Relief from the American Institute of Philanthropy, which rates charities involved with Haiti Relief. One of the organizations on both of those lists is Oxfam America, a Boston, MA based “international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice.” They already have teams delivering aid in Haiti, and you can find out all about what they’re doing their on their Haiti Earthquake page. Continue reading about Oxfam America…
By now I’m sure that you’ve all heard about the earthquake in Haiti. It’s the kind of tragedy that most of us will never be able to understand no matter how much we see about it on television or read about it in the newspaper. It is a worst case scenario for millions of people. The one positive thing to come out of this disaster is the response from the rest of the world—it shows that compassion is an overwhelmingly human trait. One of the organizations that is most associated with disaster response is the American Red Cross; in fact, “compassionate services” is what they do. In addition to disaster relief, they also work on: “community services that help the needy; support and comfort for military members and their families; the collection, processing and distribution of lifesaving blood and blood products; educational programs that promote health and safety; and international relief and development programs.” While headquartered in Washington, DC, the American Red Cross has hundreds of local chapters across the country—it’s almost a certainty that there is one near you. Continue reading about American Red Cross…
