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. Continue reading about Lucasfilm…
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…
A couple of days ago the blogosphere exploded (pun intended) with news about bomb proof wallpaper. The story originally came from Popular Science with a video of a wrecking ball trying to knock down a brick wall that has been reinforced with the X-Flex Blast Protection System (the video is included below). I always love news stories like this one, because it puts the spotlight on a company that you never would have otherwise. In this case it’s Berry Plastics, an Evansville, IN based plastics company. Their products range from agricultural films to plastic bottles and from drink cups to trash bags. There’s a good chance that you have dozens of items in your house/dorm/apartment that were manufactured by Berry Plastics—you just don’t know it because most people don’t care who manufactured their shampoo bottles. Continue reading about Berry Plastics…
I’m an iPhone guy, so I tend to feel sorry for people who are constantly thumbing away on their BlackBerries. That’s just my being a smug Apple user though. I realize that a lot of people love their BlackBerries and for good reason. They’re pretty remarkable devices, and they’re perfectly tailored for business use. (Although not as perfectly tailored as my iPhone! Ok, I’m done.) That’s why Research In Motion, the company that makes BlackBerries, has a 16.6% share of the smartphone market. They seem to have hit a bit of a rough spot lately (at least their stock price makes it look like they have), but their market position is still very strong. That’s why it’s no surprise that they appear to have a huge internship program; however, the real reason that I wanted to feature Research In Motion here is that they chose an unfortunate, yet inappropriately hilarious domain name for their Jobs site (it redirects now, but I think that you can figure it out). Continue reading about Research In Motion…
Today’s company might not have the sweetest sounding name, but they’re Dutch, so we’ll give them a break. Droog is “an enterprise based in Amsterdam and set up in 1993 as a statement on design.” They “operate worldwide together with partners, clients and manufacturers, designers, artists and architects in all areas of design.” So, what exactly do they do? First of all, they design their own products, but they also seem to take on client work. Droog doesn’t seem to be so much concerned with what it is they actually do as they are concerned with the science and the art of design. Droog Lab is where much of the company’s creativity comes from, as “the Lab’s research and design results find their way into Droog stores, publications, exhibitions or client proposals in collaboration with the Creative agency.” Continue reading about Droog…
I don’t think that we’ve featured any internships in Venture Capital yet, but today that’s going to change. From what I’ve heard, it seems like there just aren’t that many internships in VC to start with, and when there are, they get snapped up almost immediately. That’s why I was pretty interested when I got word that vSpring Capital is now recruiting for their Summer Internship Program. They’re based out of Salt Lake City, UT, and they’ve funded a portfolio of companies that work in the Software, Communications, Internet, and Life Sciences industries. I don’t recognize any of their portfolio companies by name, but some of them look pretty cool, so you should check them out. Continue reading about vSpring Capital…
Unless you go to see fewer movies than I do, then you know about Dreamworks. On the animation side they’ve done Shrek, Antz, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar and more. On the film side they’ve done Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, American Beauty, Gladiator, Old School, Transformers, and many more. They make great movies, and they’ve been very successful. It’s no surprise considering they were started by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. If you don’t recognize their logo, then you probably shouldn’t be looking for a internship in the entertainment industry. An internship at DreamWorks is a dream come true for many college students, so let’s look at how you can land one. Continue reading about DreamWorks…
What’s your favorite public place? Where would you most rather be than sitting in front of a computer searching for internships? I guess that with wifi you could actually be in your favorite public place while searching for internships, but that’s a relatively new development. The odds are that your favorite public place is somewhere that you feel like a part of the community. Project for Public Spaces is a non-profit organization that works to increase the number of “people-friendly settings that build local value and serve community needs.” In other words they want to make it easier for people to get out of the house and interact by providing better places to do so. Continue reading about Project for Public Spaces…
Over on One Day, One Job, we recently mentioned that Facebook now has a valuation on par with that of the Ford Motor Company. In our post about Facebook, we noted how amazing it is that so much wealth can be created seemingly out of thin air; however, we didn’t mention the contrasting point that American auto manufacturers have had a similarly amazing ability to hemorrhage money. It’s sad to say, but the reason for the decline of the Big Three has a lot to do with foreign auto companies like Honda making better cars, and often doing it with American talent! Continue reading about Honda R&D…
