One Day, One Internship » software development

Wildfire Interactive

Willy Franzen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:25:06 +0000

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This morning I sent out the following tweet: “I entered the Bonobos/Tucker Blair Wardrobe Giveaway! for a chance to win 5 pants/5 belts/5 polos: http://wfi.re/1sy9s.” (By the way, you can follow me @willyf.)I usually get annoyed when I see tweets like that, but every person who enters through my link gives me another entry, and I want to win. I also wanted to take it as an opportunity to learn a little bit more about Wildfire Interactive. They are a Palo Alto, CA based company that has built an amazing web-based software platform to enable “interactive promotions for brand marketing.” For a very affordable price, you can use Wildfire to run sweepstakes, contests, give-aways, incentive-based surveys, and more. I’ve struggled putting together online contests in the past, and Wildfire is exactly the kind of app that would have made my life a lot easier. They’re like a self-service, web 2.0 Don Jagoda Associates (and they shouldn’t be confused with WeTheCitizens which renamed itself to Wildfire Platform).

Spread Like a Wildfire

The key to Wildfire is virality, although they prefer the equally scary analogy of spreading like a wildfire. Usually people don’t want to tell their friends about contests because more people entering will decrease your chance of winning. Wildfire solves this problem by increasing your odds every time that you refer someone. I did run into some confusion when I entered the contest, since there’s no way to verify that the link I’m sending out is actually attached to my entry (and there’s also no way to monitor how many entries I’ve gained by sharing the link. These are key features that Wildfire Interactive needs to add, but I’m sure they’re working on it. Otherwise Wildfire is stupid simple, although there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.

If you are really interested in the company, you’ll probably want to take a hard look at How Wildfire Works. Simply, you can leverage any sort of social network to spark interest in nearly any type of promotion. It’s a brilliant product, and it’s timed perfectly. No wonder Wildfire Interactive can claim names like Pepsi, Facebook, Sony, AT&T, and Unilever as clients. If you have a burning desire to intern for Wildfire, then you should check out their Careers page. However, you should know that they don’t have any internships posted right now. I was able to find some evidence of past internships at Wildfire through some Google Kung Fu, so I think that your best bet is to use their form to describe your perfect job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you entered any contests through Wildfire?

Indeed

Willy Franzen — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:57:25 +0000

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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.

Yes, Indeed

Indeed’s business model looks a lot like Google’s. Scour the Internet for information, organize that information in a coherent fashion, and spit it back to users in a relevant way with ads mixed in with the content. While Google does it for everything, Indeed only focuses on jobs. You probably already know all about Indeed, because if you’re job searching and not coming across Indeed at least occasionally, you’re either not searching very hard or using an ultra targeted, networking approach (which I approve of highly). If you don’t have a problem with getting meta about your internship search by looking for a position at a job search company, then take a look at internships at Indeed. They have a bunch of opportunities, and a number of them are either listed as internships or described as such. The one definitive internship is for a Sales Intern at the Stamford office, while there are a number of positions in Austin, TX with descriptions saying they’re looking for a current student. These include positions like Country Marketing Associate – Native Australian, Country Marketing Associate – Native Canadian, Country Marketing Associate – Native Spanish, and Marketing Associate. I’m still a fan of Indeed, even if they didn’t offer me a job, so go see if you can do better than I did with them. There’s no word on whether the positions are paid, but my guess is that they are.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Indeed?

ScanScout

Willy Franzen — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:03:58 +0000

Sometimes I get annoyed when I go to YouTube to watch a video and get forced to watch an ad or when a video overlay pops up on a site I want to visit. Then I remind myself how awesome it is that I get access to so much free content. As a content producer, I’m especially aware of how hard it is to make a profit off of quality content. I’m never going to bombard you with stuff that you’re not interested in, which is why we only take on sponsors who have awesome internships to offer or at least make sense for college students. I guess that means that we’re editorializing in our acceptance of advertising. ScanScout, which has offices in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago, targets ads a bit differently. They’re a “technology-driven video ad network that delivers precise audience targeting and superior brand results by capturing and synthesizing billions of content and user interaction data points to match the right ad to the right video, at the right time.” That doesn’t mean that their video ads won’t annoy you, but at least they’ll be way less likely to annoy you—and might even interest you. The whole targeting process is automated, which is really impressive considering these aren’t contextually targeted text ads.

Scout’s Honor

ScanScout already has a lot of major advertisers working on their platform. They have brands like Bing, JC Penney, Jaguar, Oreo, and Axe. You can take a look at some of the ads on the ScanScout home page or you can take a look at their ad gallery. To learn more about ScanScout, you’ll probably want to take a look at how they convey their brand message to both advertisers and publishers. Additionally, you’ll want to know whom they’re partnered with and what kind of technology they’re using. Once you have a feel for ScanScout’s business, you’ll want to check out their Careers page. They don’t have any internships posted on there right now, but a little LinkedIn research showed that they’ve offered internships before. My guess is that you could probably score an opportunity in an area like Business Development, Account Management, or Web Development.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you noticed any ScanScout ads on the web?

HUGE

Willy Franzen — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:34:09 +0000

One part of my morning routine to get these posts out to you is looking for the company’s logo. Usually I just snag it off of the company’s home page and that’s it. Occasionally I need to find a different version of the logo because it may have a weird background, the word beta written across it, or it may just be too small. The latter was the case today; however, I wasn’t able to find a more reasonably sized logo despite the fact that the company designs logos—in addition to many other things—and is named HUGE. The irony. HUGE is a Brooklyn, NY based company with offices in Los Angeles, London, and Stockholm that “helps build digitally-driven businesses.” What does that mean? It means that they work with some of the biggest brands in the world in areas like strategic planning, user experience, creative, interactive marketing, technology, and emerging platforms. With approximately 225 employees HUGE has designed and developed online experiences that drive 150 million monthly unique visitors and $12.3 billion in revenue.

Are You HUGE?

HUGE must get their name from the reputations of their clients. You can be nothing but HUGE when you’re building web experiences for names like CNN, jetBlue, IKEA, About.com, and MasterCard. Huge offers a range of services that link strategy, design, technology, and interactive marketing within a defined process that is unique to HUGE. The process seems to be working, because HUGE is growing at a crazy rate—or at least their Jobs page seems to indicate they are. They have 60+ job postings, which will provide a HUGE jump in headcount if they’re all filled. Most of the jobs with HUGE seem to require some level of experience, but they’re also offering internships. They have separate pages for opportunities in NYC and LA; however, the positions offered seem to be the same. Internships are offered full-time, are paid, and are available in Visual Design, Product Design, User Experience Design, Technology, Project Management, and Operations. And if one of those areas doesn’t really fit what you’re looking for, don’t be afraid to reach out to HUGE inquire about other types of internships that may be relevant to their business.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about HUGE?

Etacts

Willy Franzen — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:10:31 +0000

Despite all of the buzz about social media, I’m still convinced that e-mail is the most effective way to communicate with people online. Unfortunately, e-mail can become a headache very quickly. I probably get somewhere between 50 and 100 messages a day, and I sometimes find it overwhelming (but feel free to add to it if you have a question – willy@onedayonejob.com). I don’t know how people who get way more e-mail than I do are able to deal with it. There are lots of e-mail productivity tools, but most of them don’t work for me. I was starting to get desperate for a better way to manage relationships through e-mail, and then I came across Etacts. They’re a really young startup based in San Francisco, CA, and they built an e-mail tool that is exactly what I always wanted. I even went through the hassle of moving all of my accounts to Gmail just so that I could use Etacts. Their web-based software goes into your e-mail archive and pulls out a ton of data, then it gives you a simple interface where you can see things like who your top contacts are, how many messages you’ve traded with them, how long it’s been since you contacted them, and a few more simple features. You can even tie in your AT&T phone bill, although I haven’t figured out how to make that functionality work yet.

Grow Your Relationships

Etacts is so clutch for me. It helps me remember people that I’ve forgotten. I can follow up on conversations that I had six months or a year ago without having to dig through thousands of e-mails. That may mean scoring a new ad deal or getting a success story from a reader (send me your One Day, One Internship success stories!). E-mail is the lifeblood of my business, and Etacts makes the data hidden in all of my e-mails much easier to digest. You can probably find some great uses for Etacts when it comes to managing your internship search. It will help you remember which employers you need to follow up with, and it may help you rekindle some relationships that provide great networking opportunities. Etacts has built an amazing product, and it’s only in its infancy. They have a shot at being a really great company, and now that they have funding, they’re starting to hire. They have a bunch of job openings on the software side, which means that they’d probably take on a Software/Web Development intern; however, the one internship they have posted right now is for an unpaid Community Manager. It looks like a fantastic opportunity to play a big role in building the Etacts brand.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Etacts?

BackType

Willy Franzen — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:01:34 +0000

When I started One Day, One Internship, I expected a more active commenting community. I didn’t realize that most internship seekers don’t like talking publicly about their internship searches, and I also didn’t realize that most of you have nothing to say about a company that you’re hearing about for what may be the first time. When you add in the fact that most of you are reading via e-mail and not using the site, it makes sense that only a few of the posts get most of the comments. Most of the conversation surrounds controversial employers like The Landers Group (MLM scam) or Professional Sports Publications and special offers like those that accompanied the posts on Gilt Groupe, Bonobos, and Groupon. I find that it’s much easier to interact with you all through Twitter (follow me @willyf) and our Facebook page. BackType is a San Francisco, CA company that helps you follow online conversations. They started out by helping you track your blog comments across the web, but they’ve noticed the same thing that I have, so they have moved away from focusing on blog comments and towards real-time conversation tracking through sites like Twitter. They needed to build a business on top of their technology, so they decided to build “an analytics platform that helps companies understand their social impact” instead of building a hard to monetize business that serves people who comment on blogs.

What’s Your Social Impact?

If you take a look at the BackType profile for One Day, One Internship, you’ll see the kind of data that they offer. It’s neat to look at, but not all that helpful at this point. It appears that the good stuff is kept behind a paywall. For me it’s probably not worth it, but if you’re a brand manager who wants to keep up on what people are saying about you, BackType is probably a pretty good solution. Tracking social media is tough without great technology,, and BackType is almost entirely focused on providing that technology. That’s why they’re hiring paid Intern Developers. Their Jobs page shows just one internship right now, and you can read the full description here. You’ll obviously need a strong Software Development background to score an internship with them, but you’ll get a shot at being one of the early employees at what could be a very influential company.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use BackType?

ZocDoc

Willy Franzen — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:28:51 +0000

Yesterday we talked about how regenerative medicine is making it more and more likely that you’ll be able to heal from a stupid Fourth of July injury. Today we’re going to talk about a company that makes it super simple to make an appointment for a doctor (or dentist) to check out that injury that you’re embarrassed to tell anyone about. The company is called ZocDoc, and they’re based in New York City. They’ll not only help you find a doctor or dentist who specializes in what you need, but they’ll also allow you to make an appointment with just a few clicks. You can even check up on reviews of the doctor before you book him or her, and once you’ve had your appointment, you can add a review. ZocDoc has only rolled out in a few areas so far, so you can’t find any kind of doctor in any city or town, but I’m sure that’s in the plans once the business model gets rolling.

Say Ahhhh

ZocDoc hasn’t fixed the fact that you have to wait in a waiting room before you can wait in an individual waiting room with most doctors, but I bet that their review system will bring down wait times over time. The best thing about ZocDoc is that they put a big emphasis on being able to schedule an appointment today. You get your problem taken care of immediately, and the Doctor is able to fill his or her schedule on days when there aren’t enough advance appointments. It’s brilliant, and surprising that nobody else has already conquered online booking for doctors. I also find it surprising that ZocDoc doesn’t charge Doctors a per-patient fee. New patients are key to growing a practice, so you’d think it would make sense to work with a focus on lead generation. Instead ZocDoc charges a few hundred bucks a month for the service. We’ve seen a huge boom in businesses that help local customers find local businesses, so it seems logical that the model applies to the medical fields. If you’re interested in ZocDoc, you should check out their Internships page. Right now they’re looking for interns in Software Development and PR/Marketing/Social Media. No word on whether they’re paid or not.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

SocialShield

Willy Franzen — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:23:18 +0000

Yesterday I spoke on the phone with Keith Petri, a recent grad from Skidmore. Unlike most of the recent grads whom I interact with, he’s not worried about finding a job. He, much like me, is instead starting his own business to help other young people move forward their careers. His business is called eBranding Me, and it “informs students about online privacy and social responsibility through on-site lectures and a supporting website.” Basically, it helps you understand the ramifications of your social media use, so that you can make informed decisions. San Francisco based SocialShield is a startup that is focused on the same problem, but they’re taking a different approach with a slightly different market. SocialShield is a software as a service platform that allows parents to monitor and evaluate their children’s online social activity.

Do You Have a SocialShield

Chances are that you’re at an age where you have mixed feelings about SocialShield. Part of you hates the idea of parents spying on their kids, yet part of you realizes that when you have kids you’ll want to keep them safe. Now imagine that you have a teenage daughter. You go on a family vacation and take tons of photos. Then you post them on Facebook. One picture happens to have your family in their bathing suits. No big deal, right. Well it becomes a big deal when your daughter has 80 adult men hounding her on Facebook. I’ve never seen anything like that, but that’s the story that led Noah Kindler and Arad Rostampour to found SocialShield in 2009. How do you deal with something like that? SocialShield answers that question. In fact, they have a cyber bullying promise: “If your kid falls victim to cyberbullies, we’ll actively assist you to find out who the bullies are and do what it takes to get it stopped.” That’s impressive. Now, SocialShield doesn’t have a Careers page posted yet, but a reader came across them and noticed that their About page says “The company is based in South San Francisco and is constantly looking for awesome people to join the team. If you have a passion for our mission and are a superstar, send us your LinkedIn profile.”
Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What would you do if your parents used SocialShield?

Pandora

Willy Franzen — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:36:13 +0000

I used to listen to a lot more music. In fact, my first website was music related (I won’t go into any more detail because it’s embarrassing). I guess I got a bad taste in my mouth from the shutdown of all of the file sharing websites. As new services have popped up that make it easy to listen to music for free, I’ve started to listen again. One of those services is Pandora, which uses The Music Genome Project to deliver users a radio station that is tailored to their individual tastes. It’s a simple idea, but a huge technical challenge. Not only does Oakland, CA based Pandora have to deliver different music to every user—and all at the same time—but they also have to be able to predict what kind of music you’re going to like based on songs that you tell them that you like. They do the hard part, and all you have to do is click a thumbs up or a thumbs down when they start playing a song for you.

Pandora Is All Gifted

If you were wondering where Pandora got its name, you can read all about it here. And if you’re wondering what Pandora is like, just try it. You can even get an iPhone app and play music in the background, which is awesome. There’s not a lot more to the Pandora product than being able to listen to great music whenever and wherever you want for free. The business is built on both an advertising supported and a freemium model. For $36 a year you can get Pandora One, and if you don’t want to pay you can listen to targeted ads occasionally—just like normal radio. If you’re interested working at a place where music, media, and technology intersect, then you should check out Pandora’s Careers page. They have a ton of jobs posted right now in areas like Advertising Sales, Software/Web Development, Accounting, Design, and more, but they don’t list any internships. They certainly do offer internships, and I’ve found some notes about it across the net, so your best bet is to reach out to them at pandora-jobs@pandora.com to learn more.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Pandora?

Financial Engines

Willy Franzen — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:56:49 +0000

Believe it or not, I started thinking about retirement right after I graduated college. No, I didn’t win the lottery or have a big entrepreneurial success. I started investing and contributing to my IRA. It was a good way to stay productive and get ready to be an adult. If you start thinking about retirement in your early or mid 20s, you’re likely going to be in great shape 40 years down the line. Unfortunately, many people don’t plan that far ahead, so they end up needing help much later in life—and often they don’t have access to good advice once they realize that they need it. Financial Engines is trying to change that. It all started with Bill Sharpe, who won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. By combining “Bill’s pioneering investment methodology with proprietary technology” Fiancial Engines is able “to provide all investors with cost-effective, expert advice and management—the kind previously available only to the world’s largest institutional investors.” Financial Engines, which is based in Palo Alto, CA with offices in Boston, MA and Phoenix, AZ, partners with both retirement plan providers and large employers to offer their services and change the way that people get retirement help.

Start Your Financial Engines

In doing my research on Financial Engines, I came across an excellent writeup about the company on Seeking Alpha. It goes into a ton of detail about the business, and it’s definitely worth a read. The general gist of it is that Financial Engines automates a lot of retirement advising through software as a service. Face to face advising often isn’t economical, and sometimes it’s not even better than what a computer can spit out. Financial Engines took the brilliance of Bill Sharpe, and put it into their computer models—so Financial Engines clients really do get the best. If you’re intrigued by what Financial Engines is doing, you should check out their Careers page. They have a number of internships listed in their job postings including positions in Software Engineering, Product Management, Business Analysis, and Service Delivery. There’s no word on whether the positions are paid or not.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Financial Engines?

Watercooler

Willy Franzen — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:45:19 +0000

Early in the recession it seemed as though the video game industry would never be affected. Traditional game publishers were busy selling their wares to the unemployed and hiring to keep churning out games—so there were plenty of internships in video games. Things seem to have slowed down over the past year, but I think it’s more about a change in the games that people play than macroeconomic conditions. Facebook and the iPhone have created new markets for cheap and free (ad-supported) games to gain a lot of traction. There are a ton of gaming upstarts entering the market, and traditional publishers are changing the platforms that they develop on. One of the upstarts is Watercooler, a Redwood City, CA based social games developer that has already reached “over 25 million application installations.” The company started as a network of online fan communities focused on sports and TV, but they’ve switched focus and used their “social product expertise to create innovative and engaging social games.”

Hang at the Watercooler

Watercooler’s games include Kingdoms of Camelot, Fantasy Football, $20K Football Challenge, 2010 Bracket Challenge, and Epic Goal. I haven’t played any of them, but they certainly look like they could be pretty addictive (and that’s exactly what social gaming companies want). Watercooler has already raised $9.5 million in venture capital, so they’re certainly in a growth stage. This is also becomes evident when you look at their Jobs page. They have a ton of positions open, and there are plenty that might be appropriate for new or recent grads, although there is only one internship posted. It’s for a User Experience Intern, and there’s no word on whether it’s paid or not. I’d imagine that Watercooler might offer other internships in the future, so don’t be afraid to reach out to them and ask about opportunities if UX isn’t your thing.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you played any Watercooler games.

Accruent

Willy Franzen — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:31:02 +0000

Location. Location. Location. You know how important it is. Chances are that one of the major drivers in your internship search is location. It’s even more important for businesses, yet they rarely manage their locations as effectively as they manage everything else. There are all kinds of sophisticated software platforms to manage customer relationships, products, human resources, and plenty of other things, but what about managing the places where they do business? That’s what Accruent is all about. They’re a Santa Monica, CA based company that develops software to help businesses “analyze [their] real estate and facilities portfolios and implement actions to cut costs and drive performance improvements.” It may not sound like the most exciting stuff on the face of it, but when you realize that Accruent helps clients manage “over 1 billion square feet of commercial space, for which they pay over $100 billion in rent annually,” you start to realize how interesting what Accruent does actually is.

Accruent Is Accruing Talent

Think about your college. Huge facilities with lots of people using them. How the heck do they figure out how to make the most of what they already have? If you go to Yale, USC, Michigan State, Syracuse, Brown, or one of the other higher education institutions on this list, you’d know that they used Accruent to figure it out. Accruent also has clients in Retail, Corporate, and Public Sector environments. That includes “20% of the Fortune 500 and over 40% of the top 100 retailers.” If you’re intrigued by what Accruent does, then you should check out their Careers page. They have internships available in Training (Santa Monica, CA), Market Research (Irvine, CA), and Recruiting (Austin, TX). No word on whether they’re paid or not.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Accruent?

BigDoor Media

Willy Franzen — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:54:49 +0000

The most common question that I get asked is “Where do you find all of the companies that you write about?” There’s no simple response to that; however, I consume a ton of information every day, and it usually leads me to some interesting companies—and often those companies are hiring. It’s funny because I was terrible at finding companies when I was a job seeker, and now I do it every day. One of my favorite sources for new ideas is blogs, and specifically blogs of venture capitalists (since it’s their job to identify and fund exciting new companies). The ones that I read most often are Brad Feld’s blog and Fred Wilson’s blog. Yesterday I learned about BigDoor Media from Brad Feld’s blog since his firm just gave them $5 million. They’re a Seattle, WA based startup that allows web publishers to add game-like mechanics and virtual currencies to their websites to promote loyalty.

Go Through the BigDoor

I’m toying with the idea of integrating BigDoor Media’s platform into One Day, One Job and One Day, One Internship. I’m not sure how it would work, but it would be cool to find a way to make the internship search a little more fun for all of you. One idea is that you could gain points for every time that you visit the One Day, One Internship home page to view the day’s company. After accruing a certain number of points, you might be rewarded with a special article or insider info on some really cool internship opportunities. The idea is half-baked at this point, but I’ve already signed up for BigDoor Media’s beta to investigate it further. We’ve seen how successful social gaming companies like Zynga have been, and we know that virtual economies are the future. Now it’s just a matter of making it happen, and BigDoor Media has the platform to do it. They don’t even have a Jobs page yet, but with $5 million in new funding, they’re almost certainly going to be hiring soon—and that will probably include interns. It’s hard to say whether those will only be software development type positions or if there might be marketing, customer service, business development, or social media type positions as well. If you want to find out, you should reach out to the folks at BigDoor Media.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about adding game dynamics to One Day, One Job?

SkillSlate

Willy Franzen — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:56:34 +0000

Guys, need some great fitting pants 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.

We’ve seen an explosion of startups that help small businesses reach new customers. There are Yext, Groupon, Yelp, and, of course, Google all serving this market in one way or another. But what about smaller, personal businesses? How do dog walkers, personal trainers, tutors, and handymen grow their businesses without relying solely on word of mouth? SkillSlate is one option. It’s a New York City based startup that helps individual service providers connect with customers. When you’re hiring someone to walk your dog or fix your door hinge, you want to know that they’re trustworthy. SkillSlate lets you check these people out and see what other customers are saying about them. It’s just like what Yelp does for restaurants.

Do You Have the Skills?

SkillSlate is still in its early stages, but they have a growing team and venture funding. I only heard about them because Brian Rothenberg, their Director of Search, reached out to me with a message about a position that they’re hiring for. It took me a little bit to get the idea behind SkillSlate, but now that I see how they’re taking a familiar approach to a seemingly underserved market, I’m pretty excited about them. If you are too, you may want to consider an internship with them. The position that Brian contacted me about is for a Ruby Developer (it is an entry level position). He then followed up by telling me that they’re also looking for an unpaid PR/Marketing Intern right now. It’s not posted anywhere else, so you can apply by sending a cover letter and résumé to SkillSlate CEO Bartek Ringwelski at bartek@skillslate.com. You might also want to reach out to them if you’d be interested in a Software Development internship.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you given SkillSlate a try?

Eventbrite

Willy Franzen — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:16:03 +0000

Occasionally I’ll realize that I’ve covered a company on One Day, One Job, but that I haven’t let all of the current students know about the company’s internships. That’s the case with Eventbrite, a San Francisco based events management company. Odds are that you’ve used Eventbrite to register for some sort of event or even to put one on yourself. They make ticketing and registration stupid simple. Seriously, any idiot can put on an event with Eventbrite. If you’re putting on a free event, they’ll let you do everything for free. And if you’re charging for an event, Eventbrite will take a 2.5% cut. With over 14 million tickets sold to date, it’s quite clear that Eventbrite isn’t just some startup without a revenue model. They’re already generating revenue and delivering an awesome product experience.

Are You Brite Enough?

Obviously I’m a big fan of Eventbrite, and that’s just based on their product. Once you take a look at their internships, you’ll like them even more. Right now they’re looking for a Superintern. The #1 responsibility that comes with that positions is “being awesome.” They also want someone committed to learning more about and improving Eventbrite’s features. They’re looking for all kinds of interns, and potential projects include “competitive analysis, customer interaction, administrative support, coding in python, number crunching, entry management at our customers’ events, promotion of Eventbrite at trade shows or career fairs, and other fun things we haven’t even thought of yet!” The internships can be full or part-time, and there doesn’t seem to be any mention of whether the positions are paid or not.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you registered for an event through Eventbrite?

Aol

Willy Franzen — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:00:45 +0000

Everybody acts like social media and social networking is a new development, but it really isn’t. Even 15 years ago there was a web service that enabled you to create profiles, connect with friends, engage with communities, and communicate instantly or asynchronously. It was called Aol, and there’s a good chance that you used it. I feel bad for Aol. They had it all. They were the behemoth of the social web before anyone knew what the social web was, but they were too big and not agile enough. They continued to act like an ISP, and their market share eroded as people transitioned to high-speed connections. Today most people think of Aol as irrelevant, but the NYC based company is doing their best to make a comeback. The good news is that they aren’t living in the past. They’re not trying to win at social networking or being an ISP—they’ve repositioned. They now describe themselves as “a leading-edge web services company, with an offering of premium and niche content sites, world-class tools and platforms.” The focus is on content, and in some ways that’s what Aol was always about—making great content easy to access for the masses. The tough thing for Aol is that they’re already a huge company, so they’re going to have to swing for the fences if they want their new business model to work.

You’ve Got Mail!

The only reason that I actually decided to feature Aol today was because they have an amazing internship contest going on right now. It’s focused on their new Lifestream service which aggregates all of your social profiles in one place (apparently Aol hasn’t completely given up on social networking, but I think that they probably should). It’s not your typical internship, but it looks pretty awesome. It’s paid, you get direct access to Aol’s CEO Tim Armstrong, and you get some serious responsibility. Oh yeah, and the most important thing is that your main duty is to live an awesome life and share it through Lifestream. The only downside is that only one person can get it. You can find all of the details here. After looking at that opportunity, I decided to hit up Aol’s Career site and look through their job openings for internships and co-ops (which you can search for specifically). Of Aol’s 749 vacancies, 36 are for internships. I won’t go through each one, but they’re offered in areas like Editorial, Customer Service, Software Development, Customer Service, Finance, Advertising, Sales, Travel, Music, Media/Content, Information Technology, Real Estate, and more. They don’t mention whether most of the positions are paid or not, but the large majority are in New York City with a bunch in the Dulles, VA area and a few scattered across Lancaster, PA; Atlanta, GA; San Francisco, CA; Baltimore, MD; Denver, CO; and other locations.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about the new Aol?

80legs

Willy Franzen — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:54:37 +0000

Need something to wear to an interview? Get awesome deals on fancy clothes for guys and gals at Gilt Groupe. It’s an exclusive, invite-only site, but I’ve got an in. Click here for an invite.

It’s interesting where the web will take you. You type in an address or use a bookmark to visit a favorite site—or maybe a job board, and before you know it you’re reading a blog post about something completely random. Amazingly, that random walk across the web is exactly how Google gathers all of its data for its search engine. They do this with something called a crawler, spider, or robot (all the same thing) that follows links from site to site and collects data. It’s all automated, so, unfortunately there isn’t a future job for you surfing the web all day. Obviously Google isn’t the only company that needs to crawl the web—more and more companies are realizing that there are many ways to profit by aggregating web data. Unfortunately, many of these companies don’t have the resources to build crawling platforms like Google has done. That’s where 80legs steps in, they’re a Houston, TX based startup that is making crawling accessible to the masses. For instance, I could use 80legs to find data on job or internship postings.

Do You Have the Legs?

80legs is still in its early stages, but they have funding and they’ve received some great press. What really makes them stand out, though, is how affordable they’ve been able to make crawling the web. They even have a free offering! I had no idea that crawling the web could be done so cheaply, and now that I do know, I’m trying to figure out if there’s any way that I can put their technology to use to help job seekers. We’ll see if that pans out, but for now you should check out internships at 80legs. Right now they’re offering both remote and local (Houston) internships for Software Developers (I’m pretty sure they’re paid). It’s a great way to get a start at a company that could have a huge future effect on the Internet because 80legs has the potential to spawn some pretty cool features and even businesses.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of 80legs?

Jumptap

Willy Franzen — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:02:26 +0000

See the comments at the bottom of the page to get an update on how Jumptap has repositioned itself.

I have mixed feelings about any company that decides to take on Google. In one sense I think that they must be extremely stupid, and in another sense, I love the ambition. What seems crazier is taking on Google in their core area of expertise: search. But that’s exactly what Jumptap is doing. Now, they’re not trying to build a new web search engine (that’d be really crazy), but they are aiming to be the name in mobile search. Jumptap is headquartered in Cambridge, MA (with regional offices in NYC and Tel Aviv, Israel), and they realize how much potential there is to make money selling advertising on top of mobile search results. The key difference between what Jumptap and Google are doing with mobile search is that Jumptap is building a unique search experience for mobile users, while Google’s mobile search delivers results that are generally the same as what you’d find when you’re sitting at home on computer.

Jump to Jumptap

Here’s how Jumptap CEO Dan Olschwang explained it in a TechCrunch article back in 2008:

We have a little different approach. We present a more usable result on the mobile phone than incumbent search engines. We are not trying to take Web results and shrink them onto a small screen. If you are standing on a street and looking for Tylenol for your baby, you are not interested in the recent press release. You are interested in the closest open drug store.

A search engine that heavily bases rankings on incoming links like Google does will struggle with a lot of the searches that mobile users use. Jumptap thinks that their algorithm will do a better job of helping you find an open drug store. I haven’t tried their search platform, but I hope they’re able to do it. It would be a huge success and a boon for mobile searchers. If you want to help Jumptap accomplish this, you should take a look at their Internships page. Right now they’re looking for interns in Software Development, Partner Operations, Patents, Quality Assurance, Accounting, Linux System Adminstration, and Social Media/Marketing. It’s unclear whether the positions are paid or not, and you can find all of the full descriptions on Jumptap’s Internships page.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about Jumptap’s going up against Google?

Swipely

Willy Franzen — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:40:42 +0000

Social networking sites have a serious TMI (too much information) problem. Never has it been easier for our friends to tell us stuff that we really didn’t want to know. And now it’s getting even easier with websites that share where we’ve most recently swiped our credit cards. Take for example my girlfriend, if she used Swipely, you’d know that the last place that she swiped her credit card was in the toilet of her office. No, she doesn’t work for Ryanair and have to pay to use the toilet. She just had a little a mishap when her credit card fell out of her back pocket. Yuck (but I’m still laughing because she had to wash it off). Ok, that’s not exactly how Providence, RI based (yes, a startup based in Rhode Island) Swipely works, but it gives you an idea. We already discussed the idea of social networks for spending a few months ago when I wrote a post about Blippy, and now it’s a hot topic again because Swipely just launched in conjunction with securing a $7.5 million round of financing. We’re starting to see location based social networks take off, and it’s only a matter of time before we share our purchases too (although Blippy’s data leak from a few weeks ago might have set the timetable back a bit). Facebook is already abusing the hell out of your data, so you might as well give in and start sharing everything on your terms before Facebook does it without your permission.

Swipe This Internship

Where Swipely differs from Blippy is in their approach. Blippy is all about sharing a feed of financial transactions; whereas, Swipely aims to enable you to share what you want to share. It’s not about how much you spent, but where you shopped and why you made the purchase. Apparently their goal is to “add value to every swipe,” although I don’t think that they’ve gone far enough with this yet. I see how powerful referral marketing has been for both Gilt Groupe and Bonobos, and I want to see Swipely take that idea and make it profitable for me to share my transactions with friends. That would be a serious value add. If you’re still not quite sure how Swipely works, you can watch the video below (RSS and e-mail readers click through to view).

Like what you see? You should check out internships at Swipely. With the $7.5 million in financing they’re looking to add fresh talent to their team of industry veterans. Right now they’re looking for college students with a background in Computer Science. For an early-ish stage startup, Swipely is extremely polished, and it shows on their Jobs page. They’re serious about recruiting top talent—even if they’re not located in Silicon Valley.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you going to use Swipely?

Narrative Science

Willy Franzen — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:52:10 +0000

This one is going to scare the crap out of some of you. If you’re thinking of pursuing a career in journalism, writing, blogging, editorial, or a similar area, you might want to start looking over your shoulder. The computers are coming. We’ve already heard about companies like Demand Media churning out tons of content with cheap labor, but now Narrative Science thinks that they can do it with no labor (except the programmers who write the software). They’re a five-month old company based in Evanston, IL, and to be honest, beyond that, I don’t know much. I first heard about them from this article in BusinessWeek, and I knew that I had to share the story with all of you. Right now, Narrative Science is focused on the field of sports. More specifically, they’re turning box scores into short news stories. I’m sure some journalists are up in arms about this, but the truth is that if you can be replaced by a computer, then it’s your own damn fault.

Be Part of the Narrative

Now, Narrative Science probably may never be used to write a recap of a Yankees game. The major names in sports are going to continue to have beat writers covering them for a long time, but the Big Ten Network is already using Narrative Science to cover college baseball. No, it’s not a substitute for having a real journalist there, but it’s way cheaper. And that means that Narrative Science can cover events that normally wouldn’t be covered because of economics (they’re planning on tackling financial, medical, and survey data after sports). Maybe this idea will flop, and journalists will beat the computers, but I wouldn’t bet against Narrative Science. And that’s why I’m talking about them. Even though they don’t even have an About page (let alone a Jobs/Interrnship page), they’re the kind of company that you need to watch out for. Getting in with them early could be life changing, so reach out to them at info@narrativescience.com and tell them why you want to join their team. They may not be looking to hire any interns right now, but there’s only one way to find out for sure.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

NarrativeScience.com

Do you think Narrative Science has a bright future?

AudienceScience

Willy Franzen — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:14:33 +0000

I was really tempted to cover a high frequency trading firm today after what happened yesterday (please, if you do anything today, take 15 minutes and read a couple of articles about yesterday’s events). I decided it against it, but if you are interested in HFT jobs, check out our post on Jump Trading. Instead of talking about financial markets, we’re going to stick with this week’s unintentional theme of science, kind of. AudienceScience is a Bellevue, WA based digital media company that focuses on taking a scientific approach to online marketing. Their approach puts an extremely strong emphasis on behavioral targeting and moving beyond a demographic approach to advertising.

Science Without the Lab Coat

I guess if I really wanted to link AudienceScience to the May 6th Panic or whatever you want to call it, I could mention the fact that their clients include Wall Street Journal Digital, Financial Times, Nikkei.com, and a number of other brands related to financial news. I’ll bet they collected some really strange behavioral data across those sites yesterday. In case it’s not clear, AudienceScience is very much an advertising business. Their value proposition is all about ensuring that they “deliver your message to the right audience, at the right time, in the right place,” and they’re using extremely sophisticated technology to do so. To get a better feel for the kind of work that AudienceScience does, you can check out their Case Studies or take a look at AudienceTargeting.com. And what about careers at AudienceScience? While they’re located in Bellevue, WA and have offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, their only internship opportunity is for a Media Development Intern at their Santa Barbara, CA office. There’s no word on whether it’s paid or not, but it looks really cool. I can’t say whether AudienceScience will have any other internship opportunities in the future, but they’re worth watching for.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about AudienceScience?

Millennial Media

Willy Franzen — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:42:48 +0000

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.

The Mobile Millennium

It’s very clear that mobile advertising is growing at an amazing rate. Cell phones used to be terrible platforms for marketing messages, but we’re suddenly seeing that change with rich technologies on smaller devices. Getting ads on your phone may not seem all that desirable, but when you realize that it’s subsidizing all those cool, free sites, you have to agree that it’s worth looking at some ads to use Google or whatever other site on your phone. And with location based services popping all over the place, mobile advertising is actually going to be useful soon enough (Foursquare has already netted a free appetizer, a free cupcake, and 10% off of Berry Chill). So how do you get in on mobile marketing while it’s still kind of early? You head for Millennial Media. They’re an industry leader, and they’re already working with big name publishers like ABC, MTV, The New York Times, Digg, and more. And to get a closer look at how their platform works, you can check out Millennial Media’s Case Studies. If you like what you see, you should head over to Millennial Media’s Internships page. Right now they have three internships posted: Brand Communications Intern, Operations Coordinator Intern, and Operations Analyst Intern. You can apply online for any of these positions, and there’s no word on whether they’re paid or not.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you pay attention to mobile ads?

DreamBox Learning

Willy Franzen — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:46:53 +0000

Have you told your friends about One Day, One Internship? Share us on Facebook and Like Us too (apparently Facebook has moved away from Fans and now prefers “Liking”).

Yesterday I came across a New York Times article about how Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, recently donated money to a non-profit called Charter School Growth Fund so that they could acquire online education startup DreamBox Learning, which creates web-based games to teach elementary school students math skills. As far as I can tell, the Bellevue, WA based startup will remain a for-profit entity even though it will be owned by a non-profit fund. Along with the donation Reed Hastings also invested $10 million into DreamBox to help them expand the number of subjects that they cover and to reach more schools with their software. You have to think that a large portion of that investment will be spent on hiring new people in the not so distant future.

Join the Dream Team

I love the online education market. I think it’s going to be an extremely exciting and profitable place to work for at least the next decade, and that’s why I’m part of it (have you seen Found Your Career?). What DreamBox Learning is doing reminds me a lot of Reasoning Mind, which is a non-profit that develops online math learning software and curricula. There’s plenty of room in the market for both, and I imagine there’s room for even more considering the level of math education in our country these days. It’s awesome to see someone with the track record of Reed Hastings putting so much into such an important project, and if you want to join him, you should check out DreamBox Learning’s Careers page. Right now they don’t have any internships posted, but I did find that a few Northwestern CS majors have interned with them in the past. There may not be any specific positions to apply for, but you can reach out to them at jobs@dreambox.com to see what they might have in the future.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your feeling about online education?

Quantcast

Willy Franzen — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:00:07 +0000

Think that one company every day isn’t enough? Take a look at our archives. We’ve featured nearly 800 companies so far, and you can access our profiles on all of them.

Lately I’ve been getting a number of e-mails from concerned internship seekers (you can reach me at willy@onedayonejob.com). They seem to be worried about the “One Day, One Internship Effect.” In other words, they think that they have no chance at landing an internship with the companies we profile because the companies get flooded with résumés as soon as we post about them. First of all, that’s silly to worry about. Just apply and do your best and don’t worry about the competition. Second, as much as I’d like to be true, we’re not quite there yet. One Day, One Internship has thousands of readers every day, but most people don’t apply for most internships. I’m not going to give you the actual stats, but luckily there are tools that allow you to see how much traffic a given website gets. One of those is Quantcast, which is headquartered in San Francisco with another office in New York City. Their estimated data isn’t the best—they can’t even come up with an estimate for One Day, One Internship—but their data on larger sites and on sites that have agreed to share their numbers is insanely useful.

Get Quantified

Obviously webmasters don’t need to get data on their own sites from Quantcast, but there are plenty of good uses for Quantcast data. You can use it for competitive analysis, ad planning, research, or showing potential advertisers the demographics and size of your audience (without giving away all of your secrets). Quantcast offers a basic free service that anyone can use, but the real business is in selling subscription access to their huge amounts of data. Apparently Quantcast is “used by 9 of the top 10 media agencies,” so they already have the big name clients. As the web becomes more and more mainstream as a media channel, Quantcast is going to have the opportunity to grow and grow. Right now their Careers page shows a number of opportunities including a few internships: Data Mining and Development Intern, Platform Development Intern, and Web Development Intern. For now everything seems to be pretty technical, but if you have what it takes, go ahead and apply online. There’s no word on whether these positions are paid or not, but I’d be shocked if they weren’t.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used Quantcast?

Hyland Software

Willy Franzen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:51:00 +0000

You should have learned how to share in kindergarten. Now stop being selfish and go tell a friend about One Day, One Internship. We promise he or she won’t steal your dream internship.

I’ve been running a business for almost three years now, and I don’t think that I have a single paper document that I couldn’t throw out tomorrow. Everything is on my computer. It may be a mess of e-mails, Word files, PDFs, and Excel sheets, but it’s all here on my hard drive (and backed up too). Luckily my company isn’t very document intensive, but plenty of businesses and organizations like banks, hospitals, and government offices are overloaded with documents. They need a way to manage them, and Hyland Software offers a software product called OnBase to do just that. The company is based in Westlake, OH, and they are in the business of content management systems (although not the kind that run websites). I got the tip on Hyland from a reader who works in Career Services, and she said that although they have a Midwest headquarters, they have taken on a West Coast attitude.

Head for Hyland

Hyland Software’s story is pretty cool, and it explains why Hyland Software has been able to maintain a unique culture for all of these years. Here it is:

Packy Hyland, Jr., visited a bank in Wisconsin one day in 1991 to learn about what kind of records management technology the bank was looking for. The bank’s president asked Packy his opinion of a competitor’s product.

“I could write it better and cheaper,” Packy told the president while the competitor looked on in shock. The president (not knowing that Packy had never written a line of computer code in his life) gave Packy two weeks to come up with what he promised – a better and cheaper solution. Packy then left the bank and went straight to the library to get some books on computer programming.

Packy delivered what he promised. It’s his gritty resolve that defines how we continue to approach our work. Some may call us stubborn and persistent, but that scrappy, smart and dedicated attitude is what drives us to succeed and keeps our clients happy.

It’s a really cool story, but it doesn’t quite explain why they have slides (ones you go down, not PowerPoint) in their office. I’ll leave it up to you guys to answer that mystery. And to do that, you’ll probably need to land a job with Hyland Software. If you head over to their Jobs site, you’ll see that their Careers branding is very different from their corporate branding. It makes sense—finance, healthcare, and government entities want boring software that does it’s job. They don’t care about slides—they may even be scared of slides. But to build boring software that works really well, you need an exciting environment to attract great people. That’s why Hyland Software’s Internships page looks different. If you take a look at Hyland Software’s Internship openings, you’ll see opportunities in the following areas: Software Development, Quality Assurance, Legal, Product Media Marketing, and Sales. All of the positions are paid and most require some sort of technical background, but there are a few options for those of you who are a little less tech savvy. You can apply for all of these positions online.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of slides in the office?

LibreDigital

Willy Franzen — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:52:02 +0000

Considering that I’m a total Apple fan boy, it’s a huge surprise to me that I’ve only mentioned the iPad twice on this site so far. I’ve had some time to play with the device, and it really has impressed me. As someone who not only reads a ton of books but is also writing one, I’m really excited about how the iPad and other digital reading devices are going to change the way that we consume media. I’m also a little nervous about it (which is why I’m still buying hard copies—they also look good on my bookshelves). Still, it won’t be long before most of the reading that we do will be done on screens. LibreDigital is an Austin, TX based company that has been preparing for that day since 1999 when they were founded. Their business is all about helping publishers and producers get their content in the right formats and then distribute that content electronically. They even already have a way for publishers to get their books on the iPad seamlessly.

Be Libre, Be Digital

While we’ve watched many major companies flounder as they try to grasp the concepts and changes surrounding “new media,” LibreDigital has been expecting these changes for years. They’ve been ready, and they’ve been building their brand as the goto place for publishers who want to go digital. They’re already working with “six of the top ten U.S. trade publishers” and “eight of the top ten newspapers,” so the strategy has worked. Now that the world of digital media is really getting exciting, LibreDigital has a prime opportunity to grow their business. Hopefully this will mean lots of internship opportunities in the near future, but for now there’s only one posted on their site—QA Intern (no word on whether it’s paid or not). You can see the full description here, and if you want to apply, you should send your cover letter and résumé to recruitingmgr@libredigital.com. You may also want to try reaching out about other internship opportunities that aren’t on the software side.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read eBooks or are you holding on to your hard copies?

Firstborn

Willy Franzen — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:33:59 +0000

Here’s another one from Fast Company’s list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.” Firstborn is a New York City based digital agency with “a knack for hard-core programming most of its hipster colleagues can’t match.” By combining advertising smarts with a firm grasp on technology, they’re taking the art of advertising to the next level. Firstborn claims major clients like Ford, SoBe, Aflac, and Wrigley. But they’re not just making commercials. They’re creating interactive experiences that combine branding initiatives with user generated content. Firstborn has been around since 1997, so they’re not new to this Internet thing. That’s why they’re the ones putting out the kind of stuff that gets true ad geeks really excited. Beyond Firstborn’s portfolio, you can also get a more in depth look at how they work by going through their case studies.

Be Firstborn

I could keep yapping about Firstborn, but if you really want to get to know them, you should look at their work. Then you should check out this video that they made for their internship program. It’ll give you a look at what it’s like to work at Firstborn and what they expect from interns. (If you’re a subscriber, you’ll have to click through to see the video.)

Like what you saw? Then you should check out Internships at Firstborn. Right now they’re looking for interns in Software Development, 3D Motion Design, and Design. The positions are paid and last 3-8 months. You can find application instruction on the individual postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Firstborn’s portfolio?

Sportvision

Willy Franzen — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:08:11 +0000

It’s Opening Day of the baseball season, and I’m thrilled that I’m looking at 6+ months of meaningful games for my favorite sport. Last night was disappointing in that the Yankees blew a solid lead in a sloppy game against the Red Sox, but even that can’t drown out my excitement about the hope brought by a new season. Along with a new season comes new technology. Television and online broadcasts are constantly getting better, and not just in quality. There are all kinds of new technological innovations that are making sports more fun to watch, and a lot of them are coming from Chicago based Sportvision. It all started with the FoxTrax “glowing” hockey puck (which was pretty much a miserable failure), but now we have things like the “virtual yellow 1st and Ten line™, KZone™ virtual strike zone, and the RACEf/x system on NASCAR broadcasts.” Each of these was created by Sportvision.

Are You Watching?

Sportvision is very much a technology company, but they also understand sports. They’ve been so successful with their innovation because they have a distinct model for creating new products. They look for aspects of the game that are “hard or impossible to see; happen a lot; and/or central to the understanding of the game or sport.” Then they use their technological prowess to find a way to overcome the challenges that an average fan has with the given aspect of the game in real-time. Maybe it’s strike zone recognition or knowing whether a football team should go for it on a fourth down (or maybe it’s inserting virtual advertising), but whatever it is, Sportsvision is consistently finding new ways to add value by layering things on top of the live action. It’s really cool stuff, and you’ve almost certainly seen it if you watch sports on tv. Sportvision has offices in Milwaukee, WI; Mountain View, CA; and Paris, France in addition to their headquarters in Chicago. They don’t mention internships on their Careers page, and the jobs that they have listed are mostly technical, but I was able to find an online résumé or two that indicated that Sportvision offered internships in the past. You’ll have to reach out to them and inquire if you’re interested.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite Sportvision technology?

MITRE

Willy Franzen — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:35:58 +0000

Not many of the companies on Fast Company’s list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” are non-profit, and not many non-profits generate over $1 billion in annual revenue, but MITRE fits both criteria. I know that many of you want to see fewer technical internships, but I’ve also noticed that most of the non-profit internships that we feature on weekends aren’t very technical. MITRE, which has headquarters in Bedford, MA and McLean, VA offers an exception. They are an “organization chartered to work in the public interest” through “expertise in systems engineering, information technology, operational concepts, and enterprise modernization.” They do this work through “four Federally Funded Research and Development Centers,” with one focused on the Department of Defense, one on the Federal Aviation Administration, one on the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, and one for the Department of Homeland Security.

Give MITRE a Try

MITRE serves each of these groups by providing “a unique combination of broad operational knowledge and in-depth technical skills” while also developing new technology that can be transferred when appropriate. What is really astonishing about MITRE is its size. They have over 7,000 employees, and more than 65% of them hold an advanced degree. The organization is a hotbed for technical knowhow and creativity, and it’s great to know that they have thousands of talented people working to ensure the future of our country. On that note MITRE is constantly looking to hire smart people for both technical and non-technical positions. They have a very strong college recruiting program, which you can find out about here. There are nearly 400 positions posted right now on MITRE’s Jobs site, so browsing through everything may be a little tough. However, they do let you search for Co-ops, Non-technical Internships, and Technical Internships (and 42 of the positions fall into one of these categories). If you have any questions, you can reach out to Jessica Yu using MITRE’s employee directory or you can use the chat box on the Student Opportunities page during working hours. I’m not 100% sure, but I think all of MITRE’s internship offerings are paid

Job/Internship categories at MITRE include: Acquisitions, Artificial Intelligence, Business Analysis & Administration, Communications, Computer Operations, Contracts/Subcontracts, Database Technology Software, Defense & Space Systems, Desktop Support, Digital/Microprocessor Hardware, Domain Operation Analyst, Economics/Business, Electromagnetic & Nuclear Effects, Facilities Engineering, Financial Analysis, General Accounting, General Systems Engineer, Graphics, Human Resources Generalist, Human Factors Engineer, Industrial Security, Information Security, Information Systems Engineer, Integrated Electronics, Legal, Multi-Disciplinary Systems Development, Networking & Distributed Systems, Physical Security, Procurement, Sensor Systems, Signal Processing Engineer, Software Applications Development & Software Systems, Special Security, System Administrator, Technical Project Support, Telecommunications Specialist, and Treasury & Risk Management. There are also a variety of locations beyond MITRE’s headquarters, so you’ll have plenty of options.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about MITRE?

Blippy

Willy Franzen — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:32:24 +0000

We all have that friend who shares way too much information on social networks, and in many cases we are that friend. The problem with status updates is that most of them aren’t very interesting. Lately, we’ve been moving in a much more interesting, but also much creepier, direction. Now we have services that tie into our Twitter and Facebook accounts that can tell people where we are, whom we’re with, and even what we’re buying. It’s that last one that we’re going to talk about today. Blippy is a Palo Alto, CA based startup that lets you and your friends share and discuss recent purchases. It may seem a little weird at first, but it makes sense. Why go to review sites to get reactions from people you don’t know or trust, when you can see what your friends have bought and what they have to say about it?

More Than Just a Blip

Blippy has partnered with a number of online retailers to make it easy to share purchases, while they also allow you to input your credit card info to share those transactions. Right now they’re working with companies like Amazon, iTunes, Zappos, Groupon, Woot!, and StubHub, so you can see what books your friends are reading, what apps they’re downloading, and what events they’re going to. I realize that most of you aren’t ready for this yet, and I’m not sure that I am, but it is the future. 5 years ago most people were scared to use their real names online, and look how that has changed. Blippy has built a really cool platform, and I imagine that the opportunities to monetize it are endless. If I were them, I’d run all of the links to product pages through affiliate programs, then split the cut with the users who post their purchases. That way you could make money by sharing your purchases and referring friends to products that you actually bought. Blippy is still in its early stages, so they aren’t very specific on their Jobs page. In fact, it just consists of a rotating set of photos and “If you’re interested in working at Blippy, say hello at jobs@blippy.com.” They don’t get specific about internships, but that gives you an opportunity to tell them where you’ll add value. They’re most likely looking for software developers, but don’t be afraid to apply if you can bring something else to the table. Most startups love interns.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Will you sign up for Blippy?