Most people see insurance as a good thing. I see it as more of a necessary evil. The truth is that the large majority of people are losing money when they’re paying for insurance. Insurers wouldn’t take on your policy if it wasn’t going to be profitable for them. You’d be amazed at how good insurance companies are at predicting risks, which is why their business operations are so largely skewed towards getting new customers. Ever wonder why GEICO, Allstate, State Farm, and other auto insurers are so aggressive with their advertising? It’s because if you sign up, they’re going to make money. This means that generating leads for insurance companies is a huge business, and that’s why Seattle, WA based QuoteWizard came in at #36 on the Inc. 500 this year with 5,950.5% three-year revenue growth. They provide a simple online tool to help consumers find the best quotes for Auto Insurance, Home Insurance, Renter/Condo Insurance, Health Insurance, and Life Insurance. By organizing and presenting information in a simple way, QuoteWizard is able to generate a ton of leads for insurance companies—and for every lead they generate, they get paid. Continue reading about QuoteWizard…
There are a lot of things that you can do to get through college when money is tight. You can get a temporary job, you can do consulting, you can live with your parents, you can sell your blood, and you can even collect cans for the deposit money. But if you’re desperate for cash, you might as well start out with low hanging fruit. There’s a good chance that you have outdated electronics lying around your apartment or house. Maybe it’s a first generation iPhone or a video game system that you never play anymore. Why not sell it? You don’t even have to go to some sketchy neighborhood to find a pawn shop or meet some stranger from Craigslist. You just need to use Gazelle, a Boston based company that provides “a practical, responsible, rewarding way for consumers to get value for used electronics.” The are the “nation’s largest reCommerce company,” and they keep growing—they’re #24 on the Inc 500 list with a 7,119.7% three-year growth rate. Continue reading about Gazelle…
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.” Continue reading about Caring.com…
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
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It’s story time today! Let’s go back three years to when I was still job searching. I was getting extremely frustrated with the recruitment process, and I was starting to think about how I could make online job search better. Beyond my typical job searching, I was reading everything that I could about the online recruitment industry. I was generating new ideas, and trying to find a way in so that other job searchers wouldn’t have to go through what I went through. I took an especially strong interest in Indeed, not only because they provide an excellent job search engine, but also because they were an innovative and successful startup located in Stamford, CT—just 20 minutes from where I was living at the time (they also have an office in Austin, TX). They were still small, and they didn’t really have any job postings that were suitable for me, so I e-mailed the CEO. I told him why I wanted to work for him and what I thought that I could bring to the table. It worked, and I got an interview (going straight to the top is an underrated job search method). After clearing the phone screen, I got invited to the office to meet with some people on the team, and, to my surprise, that included the CEO whom I had e-mailed my initial “cover letter” to. The interview was kind of a disaster. It went well at first, but I had already started working on One Day, One Job, and telling a potential employer that you’re starting a company in the same space isn’t typically a good idea. I didn’t get offered the job (nor did they ever formally reject me), but I think it all ended up for the better. Continue reading about Indeed…
Join the legion of One Day, One Internship readers who are showing up to their internships in Bonobos pants (or wearing their swim trunks to the beach on days off). Learn about Bonobos here and e-mail me for $50 off your first purchase.
I’m sure plenty of you intend to go to grad school in the future, or you’re considering it now that you’re realizing how tough the job market really is. I have absolutely no intention of going back to school because I’m enjoying learning by doing way too much. I also want nothing to do with standardized tests ever again. But if I was going to take a standardized test like the GMAT, I’d probably want to enroll myself in prep course (because my high school strategy of getting a good night’s sleep the night before the test can only take me so far). From what I’ve heard from friends, ManhattanGMAT is one of the best out there. They’re quite obviously based in New York City, but they have locations all across the country. ManhattanGMAT delivers success for their students by staying true to 3 core concepts: focus, superior curriculum, and real teachers (who scored in the 99th percentile on the GMAT). Continue reading about ManhattanGMAT…
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. Continue reading about CafePress…
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. Continue reading about Efficient Frontier…
I’ve been fascinated by the Internet since I got my first modem when I was in 4th or 5th grade. I knew that I was dealing with something special, but I had no idea how big it would get. What amazes me most now is how effective digital marketing has become. The Internet has truly changed the way our economy works, and it has allowed people like me to build businesses with no physical assets. It’s been fun growing up with the Internet, and I imagine the people at Flightpath kind of feel the same way. They’re a New York City based Digital Agency that was founded in 1994, so they started doing business right around the time I first signed on to eWorld. Since then they’ve been delivering “superior, high-impact digital solutions that drive long-term success for brands and organizations.” Continue reading about Flightpath…
Guys, need something to wear to an interview? Check out Bonobos! They make the best pants that I’ve ever worn (I have something like 12 pairs) and they’ll give you $50 off your first order. Just e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com, and I’ll send you the coupon code.
Yesterday we talked about how search engines work, and today we’re kind of going to do it again (but I promise today’s internships aren’t nearly as technical). Ranking well in search engines, especially Google, is extremely important for marketing purposes. 75% of the people who visit this site every day come from a search engine, and about 80% of those people are brand new site. That means that Google is providing me with a constant stream of new users. Now, this wasn’t dumb luck. I’ve invested hundreds or maybe even thousands of hours on search engine optimization (SEO) to improve this site’s rankings. Obviously, I’m not the only one doing this. Anybody who is anybody in the world of online businesses has an SEO strategy, and that means that there are plenty of marketing firms out there that specialize in SEO. Reprise Media is one of those firms (they also focus on Social Media), and they’re based in San Francisco and New York City. Continue reading about Reprise Media…
I hate the term Millennial when it’s used in the same way that Generation Y is. A lot of career advice these days is focused on generational issues, but I just don’t buy into it. Yes, old people and young people have different attitudes, but that’s nothing new. There are way more important things to be talking about, which is why I get visibly irked when the word millennial comes up. (And I’m proving my point right now by being a 25 year old grumpy old man.) My bad attitude should explain why it took me a second to warm to the idea of Millennial Media, which is a Baltimore, MD based mobile advertising company. By millennial, they mean next generation/futuristic, so they’re ok in my book. The company apparently has the largest mobile advertising network in the country, and they claim to reach 83% of the U.S. mobile audience. Continue reading about Millennial Media…
If you’ve been searching for internships for very long, you’d probably do anything to go back to Senior year of high school when you were applying to college. It’s not that the admissions process is particularly fun, but at least it has a set timeline and a fixed set of options. Still, there’s plenty of room for improvement. That’s why there are quite a few young entrepreneurs who have built companies that aim to make the college process better, just like I’m doing with the entry level job and internship searches. One of these companies is San Francisco based Zinch, which was founded by Mick Hagen, a Princeton dropout. They’ve created a social network that allows high school students to connect with the colleges that they want to attend. There are more than 700 colleges and universities that invest in Zinch, which is why more than 1.5 million students have created Zinch profiles to show off to admissions counselors and to apply for scholarships and financial aid packages. Continue reading about Zinch…
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 know that it sounds like a place to buy illicit substances, but Dealer.com is a legal operation as far as I know. They may operate in the underworld of search engine optimization, but so do I, and I’m not a sleaze bag or spammer. Dealer.com is a Burlington, VT based company that “has become the global leader in online marketing solutions for the automotive industry.” They provide a platform for car dealers to generate leads online. I’d imagine that Dealer.com is a direct competitor with Cobalt, a company that we featured back in January. It’s no surprise that automotive online marketing is a growing industry. Most car dealerships don’t have the resources to do online marketing themselves—cheesy tv commercials don’t translate to the web. So how do they reach the masses of people who are using search engines to aid in car buying decisions? They either build an internal online marketing division, hire a local agency that doesn’t know anything about the industry, or go to Dealer.com. Which decision do you think will sell the most cars? Continue reading about Dealer.com…
It’s a tough time of year for fantasy sports enthusiasts. The football season is over, and it’s still a bit early to be preparing for your fantasy baseball draft. There’s hockey and basketball, but they’re right in the middle of their seasons. The excitement of the draft is long gone, and the playoffs are still too far away. You need an outlet for all of that fantasy sports energy, and Arlington, VA based Fantazzle might be the perfect outlet. They’ve only been on the scene for a couple years, but they’ve already been acknowledged by The New York Times’ Fifth Down Blog as having the most accurate preseason fantasy football rankings for the 2008 season. I haven’t played any of their games, but it appears that they run weekly games instead of full season games. It’s for players who don’t the attention span to last a whole season (or maybe players who get discouraged by being in last place after a couple weeks). Continue reading about Fantazzle…
Although we don’t have a Veterans Day themed post for today, we hope that you’ll celebrate by thanking a Vet and possibly checking out our post from last year on internships at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Earlier this week we took a look at Seed Media Group, a relatively new company that is finding success in an otherwise declining industry by focusing on a specific niche. Another company that is taking a similar approach is EatingWell Media Group, which is based in Charlotte, VT (near Burlington). They are “a fast-growing, independent communications company producing an award-winning national consumer magazine, high-quality food and nutrition-related books, a content-rich website, e-mail newsletters, and serving content to strategic partners with other electronic media.” It’s all about healthy eating without sacrificing the enjoyment of food. Some people think that those two things are mutually exclusive, but EatingWell Media Group has built its business on delivering content that proves otherwise. Continue reading about EatingWell Media Group…
At this rate I think that I could finish out the rest of the year covering companies that are on the Inc. 5000 (even if a lot of companies aren’t posting their internships on their site). I’m not going to, but I’m tempted by how many high quality internships I’ve been able to find from this list. Today I’ve decided to take a look at Covario, a San Diego based company that makes interactive marketing analytics software with a focus on search. I do a lot with search engine optimization, so I’m quite familiar with the industry, and I know that it’s growing rapidly. Making data driven decisions becomes essential in tougher times, because companies can’t afford not to know if they’re getting a return on investment. Tracking SEO performance through web analytics is a lot easier to measure than tracking the success of a “branding” campaign. I guess that’s why Covario has grown from $1.3 million in revenue in 2005 to $12.7 million in 2008. Continue reading about Covario…
Let’s say that you wanted to come visit me in Chicago. You’re not afraid to do touristy things, because you’re willing to accept the fact that you are a tourist. You’re going to visit the Art Institute, the Hancock Observatory, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Sears (now Willis) Tower. Then you want to take a ride on the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel followed by an Architecture Boat Tour. That’s a lot of separate admission fees (and an exhausting day). With a Go Chicago Card from Boston, MA based Smart Destinations, you can pay once and do all these things and more. The card will even get you a discount on your Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza. Smart Destinations offers the same service in quite a few other cities, and it seems to be pretty popular. While the Travel industry is struggling with the economy, Smart Destinations has managed 424.7% revenue growth over the past 3 years and #652 on the Inc. 5000. Continue reading about Smart Destinations…
In the environmentalist’s ideal world there would be no such thing as hazardous waste. Everything would be pure and natural and “green.” Unfortunately, that will never happen (partially because every living thing is its own little hazardous waste factory). How we deal with this hazardous waste is what truly determines the future of our environment. Triumvirate Environmental has figured this out, and they’ve spent the last 21 years building a business that provides “turnkey environmental and hazardous waste management services to clients across four niche sectors; Education, Healthcare, Industrial, and Life Sciences.” They’re based in Somerville, MA with locations across New England, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic, and they also appear to be masters of social media. Continue reading about Triumvirate Environmental…
At some point during my Junior year in college (by the way I’m back at Cornell for the weekend), I got the bright idea that I could wear slippers as shoes. These weren’t flimsy slippers, these were sturdy leather ones with shearling lining. They were made by Orvis (where I interned and had an awesome 50% employee discount), and they were great. I loved sitting in class knowing that my feet were more comfortable than everybody else’s. Then I came back from Thanksgiving break. I was admiring the Christmas lights that my roommates had adorned our otherwise aesthetically unpleasing house with, and I slipped. See, my slippers had flat rubber soles. My feet came out from under me as I fell down a muddy slope. My right hand came down hard on the sidewalk, and I had a broken wrist. I gave up wearing slippers for a while, but when my Mom bought me a pair of UGG slippers with proper soles, I reverted. Now UGG slippers are my go to shoes during the winter, and I’m a huge fan of Deckers Outdoor Corporation. They’re the company behind UGG, Simple, Teva (is it Tee-va or Tevv-a?), Tsubo, and Deckers, and they’re headquartered in Goleta, CA with a location in Flagstaff, AZ as well. Continue reading about Deckers Outdoor Corporation…
Jeremy Schoemaker is ShoeMoney. ShoeMoney is probably best known for his picture of the check. Using AdSense, Google’s advertising platform for web publishers, he made $132,994.97 in one month. Since then, he’s had amazing success with marketing ringtones through affiliate deals and a project called AuctionAds, which allows web publishers to market eBay auctions on their sites. There are a lot of web startups that seem glamorous because of their big ideas, but they often lack profitability and end up in the deadpool. ShoeMoney Media Group ignores the glitz and goes where the money is. They follow 3 core principles: embrace new trends and look for opportunities to exploit them; focus on what you know; and small changes can equal big revenue. There is an absolutely insane amount of information about ShoeMoney on the web, so get researching. Google ShoeMoney, visit ShoeMoney’s blog, and read his hilarious, but honest post about his 10 worst money making ideas. There’s also a short BusinessWeek article about ShoeMoney that you should read. It focuses on how he makes money online teaching other people how to make money online. Continue reading about ShoeMoney Media Group…
Beyond writing about a new company and its internships every day, there’s a lot of behind the scenes work that I have to do to continue growing my busines. A huge portion of that work falls under the categories of internet marketing and search engine optimization. Maybe I’m biased because I’m doing the stuff every day, but I think that being able to understand and implement online marketing concepts will be essential in many of the career paths that today’s new college grads take. If you want to set yourself up with the internet marketing skills that aren’t being taught in most undergraduate curriculums, you should consider an internship at a place like HubSpot, a Cambridge, MA based internet marketing startup. Continue reading about HubSpot…
Maybe it’ll sound sad to you, but web analytics are a big part of my life. When your job is running websites, it’s often the best feed back that you can get. I have to admit that it makes me feel better about myself when I get more visitors, more subscribers, and more comments. And I really like it when people sign up to learn more about a job search training course that I’m releasing in the next few days. I’d imagine that employees at large corporations aren’t nearly as emotionally tied to web analytics as I am, but maybe they are – they often hold titles like Web Analytics Manager. While I’m happy with the information that Google Analytics provides me, many companies have much greater needs when it comes to tracking users on their websites. That’s why the big boys like Apple, Adobe, NBC, Chevrolet, Gap, Neiman Marcus, The New York Times, PayPal and Target use Omniture, a Utah based web analytics company. If those names trust Omniture for analytics, then you can be pretty sure that Omniture is the best out there. Continue reading about Omniture…
Ok, we’re going to stick it out for one more week on the Summer internship front. We know that there are still quite a few of you out there who haven’t landed an internship yet, but it’s getting really late. After this week, we’re planning to take two weeks off from writing about internships to recharge and reload (read: go fishing). When we come back, we will shift our focus to Fall internships. Gotta start planning early for those! That’s our plan. If you have a problem with it, leave a comment or contact us and tell us what you’d like to see us do. If you really want us to keep looking for Summer internships, we’ll see if we can stick it out longer. Now that the administrative stuff is out of the way, let’s talk about the Scripps Networks. They include HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living, and GAC, and they appear to have all kinds of Summer internships that are still available. Continue reading about Scripps Networks…
