One Day, One Internship » video

Lucasfilm

Willy Franzen — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:00:29 +0000

Let me preface this post by saying that there is no way that I am going to do the topic justice. There’s just no way that I can properly bring to life the story of Lucasfilm when I’m just not all that into Star Wars. I’ve seen the trilogy, and I even saw the one or two of the movies from the prequel trilogy, but I’m not a fanatic. With that said, there are plenty of fanatical Star Wars fans and fans of George Lucas’ work. What he was able to do with late 70s/early 80s technology in the Star Wars movies is incredible, but what’s even more incredible is the excitement that Lucasfilm has been able to build around its franchises—mainly Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Lucasfilm is located in San Rafael, CA, while they also have a large presence in Singapore. They’re a monster name in the film and entertainment industry, and they also have businesses including Industrial Lights & Magic, Lucasarts, Lucasfilm Animation, Lucas Licensing, Lucas Online, and Skywalker Sound.

Join the Force

The truth is that Lucasfilm has a ton of fanatics. There are people dressing up for movie premieres and devoting big portions of their lives to their fandom. This means that Lucasfilm is a dream employer for many, and if you’re not insanely fanatical, you’re probably not going to be a great fit (unless you’re just really good). If you are fanatical, then I probably don’t need to tell you anything more about Lucasfilm. They have an Internships page that will give you the fulfill rundown of “Jedi Academy.” They recruit at about 20 schools, and it seems that their application deadline is usually in mid-February (so you have some time if you’re thinking about next summer). They ask all applicants to fill out a profile to apply for any of the internships, which are offered in game programming and engineering, game art, R&D engineering, software engineering, information technology, web development, marketing, licensing, and production. All positions at Lucasfilm are paid, and you can find the specific listings for internships by browsing their job listings and selecting “Internships” as your job category. Currently they only have positions posted in Business Affairs and Digital Training.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your famous Lucasfilm production?

Ustream

Willy Franzen — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:00:35 +0000

I’ve never done a live video event for job seekers, though I’ve seen a lot of others in the career space do them. I figure that the video content that Jason Seiden and I put together for Found Your Career is way better than anything that I can do on the spot. However, if you think that a live Q&A or something would be valuable, you should definitely let me know via e-mail at willy@onedayonejob.com. Since you’re probably going to bombard me with e-mails, I’ll probably have to sign up for Ustream, “the leading live interactive broadcast platform.” Ustream, which is based in San Francisco, was founded to enable soldiers stationed abroad to connect more efficiently with their families. The technology required for doing that has plenty of other capabilities, which is why Ustream can be used to broadcast nearly anything—from political debates to sporting events and from move premieres to interactive games. Shoot, Chad Ochocinco says, “Ustream is big for me. It allows me to have a voice.” And

Uhired

Ustream gets over 50 million monthly unique viewers, so they must be doing something right. I haven’t quite nailed down how their business model works, but it seems to be a freemium model. Anyone can use Ustream for free, but if you want extra features you have to pay. There’s also advertising embedded in video streams. Ustream has a huge amount of investment, so they do have some flexibility when it comes to getting to profitability. Remember, delivering online video still isn’t a simple task, so it can be pretty expensive. If you want to add to Ustream’s expenses by joining their payroll as a paid intern, then you’ll need to check out their Internships page. Right now they only have one position posted: Marketing Intern (Public Relations & Social Media). It’s full time and looks extremely interesting, so check it out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Usteam?

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?

Fahrenheit 212

Willy Franzen — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:57:17 +0000

I was flipping through the June issue of Fast Company to take a look at their list of The 100 Most Creative People in Business (Lady Gaga is #1) because I figured it would probably lead me towards some new companies to feature. Oddly enough, the profile in magazine that caught my attention first wasn’t even from the list. It was a short profile of Geoff Vuleta, the CEO of New York City based Fahrenheit 212. He’s building a new type of consulting firm—one where IDEO meets McKinsey. He thinks that most innovation firms ignore the fact that the products and ideas that they create need to make money, and he thinks that traditional consulting firms rarely have ideas good enough to serve the markets that they so easily identify. Fahrenheit 212 focuses on helping major companies find new areas for growth—areas that will provide in excess of $100 million in new revenue. But what might be the most unique thing about Fahrenheit 212 is their business model. They only get paid if their ideas work, as they “put up to two thirds of [their] fees at risk, subject to hitting agreed commercial milestones on the initiative.”

Get These Internships Before They Boil Over

I usually look skeptically at people who say things like “I’m an idea person.” It’s very rare for someone to succeed on an idea alone. Geoff Vuleta is very much an idea man. He came from the advertising industry, and that’s one place where you can get by on ideas (after spending many years executing your way up the ladder). However, it isn’t Geoff’s ideas that scored Fahrenheit 212 clients like LG, Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and NBC Universal. It’s the fact that Geoff’s ideas are only executed on when there’s a real market opportunity. There are plenty of innovation firms churning out new ideas every day, and there are plenty of consulting firms getting paid big bucks to try to help corporations do what they’re already doing better. Fahrenheit 212 is combining those two approaches with the thought that 1 + 1 = 11 (here are some case studies). If you like the way that math looks, then you need to consider an internship at Fahrenheit 212. They don’t mention internships on their Careers page, but if you look at their employee profiles, you’ll see that some of their people started as interns. It may be too late for a Summer internship, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t reach out to Fahrenheit 212. If you want to get experience in Graphic Design, Video Design, Consulting, Innovation, or Product Development, you should reach out to them at careers@fahrenheit-212.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Fahrenheit 212′s approach?

TerraCycle

Willy Franzen — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:48:08 +0000

I have my big annual fishing trip coming up next week, which means that I’m starting to go through my mental gear checklist. One thing that I’ve been looking for is some sort of pack to carry all of my stuff when I’m on the river. I used to use a vest, but it’s no longer doing the job. In my search for a perfect pack, I came across a company called Recycled Waders that makes gear out of old waders (waterproof boots that go up to your chest to keep you dry while standing in the water). I’m pretty sure they’re too small to have any internship opportunities right now, but luckily I found a company (from a reader e-mail) that takes a similar approach, but with a much larger audience. They’re called TerraCycle (based in Trenton, NJ), and they turn trash into stuff. You can get an insulated cooler made out of Skittles bags. Or a kite made out of Oreo wrappers. Or a tote bag made of Capri Sun pouches. It’s all about making “affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials.”

The New Alchemy

TerraCycle got its start when Tom Szaky to pursue his passion for worm poop. Yes, that’s right. TerraCycle was founded as an organic fertilizer company that used worms to process compostable material. They’ve kept their green focus but have moved towards less crappy product offerings. Here’s a video rundown of what TerraCycle does and how it all works.

One of the things that I really like about TerraCycle is how they collect the garbage that they turn into products. They put together Brigades to collect specific types of trash. People on the brigades (you can join one) can turn in the garbage they collect to non-profits or schools, and TerraCycle makes a donation in return for the collected garbage. It’s brilliant. If you like what TerraCycle is doing, then you should give their Internships page a look. They have a number of unpaid opportunities posted including: Operations/Logistics Intern, Product Design Intern, Business Development Intern, Product and Market Development Intern, Graphic Design Intern, Licensing Intern, Video Intern, Public Relations Intern, and Sponsored Waste Intern. The application instructions vary for each position, but you can find it all on TerraCycle’s Internships page.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you own any TerraCycle products?

AEG

Willy Franzen — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:00:18 +0000

I swear that half of all college students want to work in sports and entertainment. Unfortunately most of the job and internship postings you’ll find in those industries are actually scam internships. Getting a position at a legitimate sports and entertainment company is not easy, but with AEG you have a shot. They call themselves “one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world,” and although that sounds broad, it’s a good description. AEG operates in a number of business areas including Facilities, Sports (Teams and Events), Music (Events), and Merchandising. They own/control arenas like the STAPLES Center, Conseco Fieldhouse, and the Prudential Center, while also owning professional sports teams like the LA Kings and Los Angeles Galaxy (can you tell that AEG is based in Los Angeles?). They’ve also “promoted tours by artists including Britney Spears, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Christina Aguilera & Justin Timberlake, The Dixie Chicks, Yanni, Paul McCartney, Usher, Kanye West, Prince, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Nickelback, and PopTarts Presents American Idol.” And that’s not even half of it. AEG is a major player in sports and entertainment, and a great place to start a career.

Join AEG’s Team

Describing AEG’s business in a few paragraphs isn’t easy, so I guess that the best way to put it is that if it has to do with sports or entertainment, they’re probably involved in some way. That means that AEG offersinternship opportunities in a wide variety of areas. They actually have a halfway decent job search function on their site, so you can narrow things down by AEG Company, Area of Interest, Location, or Facility—they also let you sort the jobs so that you only see internships. Right now they have 18 internships posted in areas like Communications, Community Relations, Graphic Design, Hispanic Grassroots Marketing, Charitable Foundations, Sales & Marketing, Marketing, Mascot Marketing, Player Development, Premium Services, Special Events, Sponsorships, Production, Public Relations, Sales & Marketing, Ticket Operations, Video Production, and Youth Development. All of these positions appear to be unpaid, and you can apply for any that you find on their site through their online application process.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about AEG?

VICE

Willy Franzen — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:07:53 +0000

Yesterday I spent a few hours poring over an issue of Fast Company that includes their list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.” It is loaded with companies that I’d never heard of, so I picked out the most interesting ones and checked to see what their internship opportunities looked like. Luckily, I found quite a few prospects, so you’re in for some really cool stuff over the next few weeks. One of the companies that I found was VICE, a New York City magazine and media conglomerate that publishes a “superedgy hipster bible.” Their content is about as safe for work as American Apparel advertisements, which is partially because AA is one of their main advertisers. The interesting thing about VICE is that they are a huge company—they have a print circulation of nearly a million magazines and their sites get 3.5 million monthly unique visitors. This has sparked growth from $45 million in revenue in 2008 to $64 million in 2009.

What’s Your VICE?

Now, I don’t want to be too hard on hipsters, but I find it funny that a company that caters to their audience by being controversial and subversive is actually a major media company raking in the dough. Next we’ll find out that plaid and fixed gear bicycles are also being manufactured by corporate behemoths. Ok, VICE might be making lots of money, but they’re certainly keeping it real. They’ve become more journalistic over time, while maintaining their “blithe and caustic irreverence.” In addition to the magazine, VICE also has VICE Retail (clothing), VICE Recordings (Music/Record Label), VBS.tv (Film and Television), Virtue (Creative Agency), and an Events business. VICE is definitely not for everyone, but if you were offended by my poke at hipster culture (and are not offended by much else), then it’s probably for you. You can learn about internships with VICE here. Current unpaid openings include Motherboard Internship, Digital Ad Operations Internship, Editorial Internship, Viceland Blog Internship, Fashion Internship, Production Internship, Content Internship, Digital Marketing and Strategy Internship, Equipment Management Internship, Production Coordination/Accounting Internship, VIRTUE Internship, VICE Events Internship, VICE Public Relations Internship, Design Internship, and VICE Records Internship. The application instructions vary, so check out VICE’s Internships page for all of the details.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read VICE?

Internet Consulting Services

Willy Franzen — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:00:03 +0000

Today is possibly the biggest day in Cornell sports history (GO BIG RED!), and as an alum I am extremely excited. Our Men’s Basketball Team is facing off against Temple early this afternoon in the first round of the NCAA tourney, and our Men’s Hockey Team will take on Brown in the ECAC semifinals later this afternoon. We also have our wrestling team competing in the NCAA Championships and our Women’s Hockey taking on Mercyhurst in the Frozen Four semi-final this evening. I’m especially excited about this because I’ve been a good fan all year (do I sound like Andy Bernard yet?). I even plunked down $69.95 to be able to watch crappy quality Internet video of all of my favorite teams. I may have to strain my eyes to see the puck or to make out the numbers on the back of a basketball jersey, but it’s been worth watching all season. The company behind this crappy quality video is Syracuse, NY based Internet Consulting Services. They may have the most boring name ever, but they actually have a pretty cool business.

Throw In a Résumé SIDEARM

ICS itself seems mostly focused on web development for corporate, non-profit, and education clients; however, there’s another part of the company called SIDEARM Sports that focuses on building out the web presences for college athletic departments. They have a huge list of clients, so there’s a good chance that they’re serving your alma mater too. SIDEARM is a content management system with a load of features that are geared specifically towards athletic departments. This includes a Live/On Demand Audio/Video component. I imagine that this market will continue to grow as more and more alumni like me reengage with their alma maters’ athletic teams, but the implementation needs to be better. The real reason that I’m featuring ICS/SIDEARM Sports today is that I want smart people to go work for them and make them better. My only experience has been with Cornell’s website and video offerings, which hasn’t been great. As long as Cornell is contracted with SIDEARM, I’m going to be demanding a better experience. Not only do SIDEARM’s product offerings need to be refined, but they also need to improve their handling of customer service issues (the guys over here would agree with me). And the word is that RPI (a hockey rival) has a free, student-run video offering that blows Cornell’s out of the water.

I want ICS/SIDEARM to step up and give me something that I can actually bear to watch (since the Cornell sports teams are finally doing their part). If you think that you have what it takes to make that happen, then check out the ICS/SIDEARM Internships page. Right now they’re looking for a Part-time Graphic Designer and Part-time Support Staff, and both options seem like they could be considered internships (and they’re paid). If you think that you’d be a good fit for one of these positions, or you just know that you could help improve the SIDEARM product, then reach out to the folks at ICS by e-mailing a cover letter and résumé to jobs@sidearmsports.com. I’ll be busy enjoying the fact that I get to watch today’s games on CBS and the NHL Network instead of through Cornell Redcast.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

GO BIG RED!

HBO

Willy Franzen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:52:00 +0000

It’s the ultimate premium channel. The one that separates the haves from the have nots—at least when it comes to cable packages. HBO or Home Box Office is the pinnacle of cable television. Ok, maybe I’m going a bit far, but I remember how excited I was when one day HBO was suddenly part of my family’s cable package. The cable company made a mistake, and I was now able to watch all kinds of great movies in the comfort of my own home (and without having my mom take me to Blockbuster). Of course, HBO, which is based in New York City, isn’t just about movies. Their original programming is one of the key reasons that they have more than 40 million subscribers in the US. HBO’s series past and present include Arliss, Sex and the City, Entourage, The Sopranos, Fraggle Rock, and plenty of others. Then there are their documentaries and sports coverage. It’s why people pay extra for HBO (and Cinemax, its sister station): high quality programming without commercials.

Do You Get HBO?

What many people don’t realize about HBO is the role that they’ve played in the history of cable and satellite television. TV used to be free. Then people started paying for cable with packages of channels. Then HBO came along and people started paying extra for individual channels. It almost sounds like the evolution towards paid content that we’re seeing on the Internet; however, I’m not sure that anyone is constantly innovating like HBO has done in the television industry. They were the first to transmit digitally. The first to encrypt their satellite signal. The first to broadcast in HD. The first to offer premium video on demand. HBO knows what their customers want before they want it, so they’re continually able to stay ahead of other premium channels. It will be exciting to see how HBO transforms as more and more content moves online.

Now, what if you want to be a part of the future of HBO? You’ll have to head over to their Careers page, which is hosted by Time Warner, their parent company. Right now there are 44 openings, and a few of them are internships. Unfortunately the Time Warner applicant tracking systems is a total piece of crap, so I can’t link you directly to the internship postings. The posting for HBO Internship is based in Los Angeles, CA, and it offers unpaid positions in Films Development and Production, TV Development and Production, Legal, Casting, Media Relations, Finance, and Participations & Residuals. There is also an NYC based posting for their 2010 Undergraduate Technology Internship. I find it hard to imagine that they don’t have general internships in New York City too, so you may want to reach out to internships@hbo.com to inquire. It’s unclear if you’re supposed apply online or send your résumé and cover letter to the aforementioned e-mail address, so you may want to try both.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you get HBO growing up?

Zinch

Willy Franzen — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:04:24 +0000

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.

Getting an Internship Is a Zinch

Zinch’s motto is simple: “I am more than a test score.” They’re all about helping students make their case for why they’re a great fit at a given institution of higher learning. It’s the anti-common app. But what about Zinch’s business model? How does it work? Well, Zinch is free for students, but colleges must pay an annual fee to connect with students. This may seem strange to you, but you have to remember that colleges are essentially businesses, and they need a constant flow of customer. While schools like Harvard and Princeton constantly have way more qualified applicants than spots in their Freshman classes, most colleges aren’t so lucky. They need to market themselves to students. Traditionally they’ve done this by inundating the mailboxes of high school juniors and seniors based on data from standardized test scores. (Side story: My mom forced me to check the “do not mail me” box on all of my testing stuff, so I felt left out when all of my friends were getting recruited and nobody was sending me anything.) Zinch thinks that’s a poor model, so they’ve stepped it up a bit. They’ve created a new marketing platform for colleges, and it seems to be working out pretty well.

This means that Zinch is growing and hiring lots of interns. If you check out their Careers page, you’ll see that they are looking for people in Engineering/Software Development, Sales/Marketing, Internet/Search Marketing, Graphic Design, Public Relations, and Videography/Cinematography. To apply for any of these positions, you need to e-mail intern@zinch.com with the following:

1) An attachment of your resumé/CV
2) Answers to the following questions:
+ If you could change/add one thing about Zinch, what would it be and why?
+ How would you move Mount Fuji?
+ What are three things you want to accomplish before you die?
+ What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done (crazy can be defined as, for example, dangerous, silly, stupid, etc)?

There’s no word on whether these positions are paid or not.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you wish that you had Zinch when you were in high school?

Demand Media

Willy Franzen — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:46:03 +0000

I’m sure that you’ve heard a lot in the news about how traditional media companies are having trouble taking their business models online. You may be under the impression that making money from web content is near impossible, but there’s a dirty little secret: it’s not. While companies like the New York Times stick to editorial integrity and chasing Pulitzers, there are companies out there that craft their content with the sole purpose of making money. A perfect example is Santa Monica, CA based Demand Media. They’ve secured more than $355 million in venture capital funding, grown annual revenue to more than $200 million annually, and reached a valuation north of $1 billion all by taking an ROI based approach to content development. How does that work? Demand Media has developed an algorithm that helps them find profitable topics. By using data from Google AdWords, they’re able to estimate the demand for a given piece of content (example: an article and video on how to tie your shoes) along with the revenue that the yet to be developed piece of content could be expected to make given a certain number of pageviews.

Demand an Internship

This may sound unsavory to some of the writers out there, but I’d imagine the business students are in awe. Demand Media delivers their content through a number of web properties, and some of these include eHow, Cracked, and Livestrong.com. In addition to distributing profitable content across their web properties, Demand Media also licenses some of the social media tools that they’ve developed internally to other businesses. One of the amazing things that I learned about Demand Media while researching them is that they publish approximately 4,000 articles and videos every day. Demand Media is YouTube’s largest contributor, and the number of pageviews that they’re driving across their network is staggering. They’re able to develop so much content through an army of freelancers who work through a site called Demand Studios. If you’re a Writer, Filmmaker, or Copy Editor, that’s the first option for getting an “internship” (it’s only freelance, and the rates are kind of low) through Demand Media. Your second option is to check out Demand Media’s Corporate Career offerings. There’s only one internship posted right now—an unpaid Editorial Internship in Santa Monica, CA—although I wouldn’t be surprised to see more opportunities posted in the future. You can apply online for this postion, but before you do, take an hour to learn more about Demand Media—there’s a ton of information available about them.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Demand Media’s business model?

Invodo

Willy Franzen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:58:33 +0000

Video is an amazing sales tool. It’s able to show you exactly what you’re buying and how it works. The only thing better is an in-person demonstration, and those are far too expensive for mostproducts. Now that online video capabilities are pretty much ubiquitous, we’re seeing more and more companies adopt video as part of their sales process. More and more product pages have an embedded video along with all of the stuff you normally expect to find on an e-commerce site. Invodo is the company that is often behind these videos. They’re a three year old company based in Austin, TX, and they offer “a full-service eCommerce video solution that drives conversion for retailers, consideration for manufacturers, and satisfaction for consumers.” They work with more than 2,500 manufacturers and retailers including Sony, New Balance, Toys “R” Us, and plenty more major brands.

Video That Sells

If you want to take a look at the type of video that Invodo offers, all you have to do is check out their home page. It’s loaded with samples of work that they’ve done. Invodo offers a full solution for their clients. This includes content production, a platform for delivery, and a network for distribution. Surprisingly they don’t seem to have a video about themselves—you’d think that would be a key part of their sales process. They also don’t have a video about their Careers, but they’re a small company so that’s understandable. Their Internships page only shows one internship right now, and it’s for a Sales Intern. There’s no word on whether it’s paid or not, and you should also note that it’s more Sales & Marketing than just Sales. To apply send your cover letter and résumé to careers@invodo.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Has video influenced your purchasing decisions?

DriveCam

Willy Franzen — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:03:49 +0000

It’s every teen’s worst nightmare. You finally reach that magical age where the state says that you’re ready to drive a car. Your parents reluctantly hand over the keys to the family station wagon. You get a lecture, but you’re going to escape. You’ll finally have the freedom that you’ve been waiting for all your life. But there’s a catch. Your parents have installed a camera in the car to assess your driving and mitigate risk. It’s from a San Diego based company called DriveCam. To you it’s a terrible idea. You hate being spied on. You know you’re a good driver with your state mandated 20 hours of experience behind the wheel. What you probably don’t know is that car accidents are the leading cause of teen death. You’re too caught up in having a sense of freedom to care that this device has reduced the risk of reportable crash by 70% over the course of 2 million miles.

I Always Feel Like Somebody’s Watching Me

I’m sure that I would have resented my parents if they had put a DriveCam in my car, but I must be getting old because now I think it would be a pretty good idea. If you’re not convinced, all you need to do is look at some of the videos on DriveCam’s website to get it. The way it works is pretty cool—DriveCam is only triggered by “fairly aggressive or inattentive driving.” It is constantly recording so that it can catch the moments before a triggering event, but any data collected that is not immediately before a triggering event is deleted. By setting the goal of not triggering the camera, DriveCam forces drivers to slow down and pay more attention. It’s not just for teens, many companies use it to monitor fleet drivers as well. The way it works is that DriveCam uploads video via a cellular network to DriveCam’s servers, and then there’s a Software as a Service subscription that allows the parents or business owners to analyze the data uploaded by DriveCam. The software even provides coaching advice and risk scores. There was a lot of resistance to seat belts when they first came out, but now nearly everyone uses them. I see the potential for the same to be said about DriveCam in 10 or 20 years. That’s why they’re one of the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies. They have a ton of potential for growth, and they’d be a great place to start a career. Their Careers page shows that they’re looking for a paid Marketing Intern. You can apply by sending a résumé and cover letter to jobs@drivecam.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did your parents install a DriveCam?

Lunchbox

Willy Franzen — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:51:18 +0000

Although Twitter’s search results are getting filled with more and more junk, I’m still finding that Twitter is a pretty easy way to find jobs and internships that wouldn’t typically be on your radar. That’s how I came across Lunchbox, a Culver City, CA based “full-service agency that specializes in creating complete-branded content packages.” Since I have no idea what that actually means, I took a look at Lunchbox’s portfolio to get a better idea of what their work entails. Basically Lunchbox helps build brands by developing new ways for their clients to introduce their brands to customers. It may be creating stuffed animals for Discovery Channel or designing a magazine for CMT. Whatever the challenge is, Lunchbox brings an amazing creative team that has worked in the past with some of the world’s biggest brands.

What’s in Your Lunchbox?

My take on interactive agencies like Lunchbox is that the best way to judge whether you want to work for them is to look at their portfolio. Not only should you consider the names that they work with—Lunchbox has worked with Pepsi, Nick at Nite, Walmart, Warner Bros., and plenty more—but you should also look closely at what kind of work they put out. I’m impressed with what I see from Lunchbox, but it’s up to you to determine if you’d fit in with them. Now, back to that tweet that I mentioned. There’s not much more to it than a mention of paid Social Media internships, and I can’t find any details on Lunchbox’s Jobs page, but I did find someone on LinkedIn who had a social media internship at Lunchbox. Some of Lunchbox’s job offerings include Back-End Software Engineer, Front-End Software Engineer, Interactive Developer, QA Analyst, and Video Production Assistant, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them take interns in those areas too. To apply for an internship at Lunchbox, my recommendation is that you reach out to them at jobs@lbox.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Lunchbox’s portfolio?

NESN

Willy Franzen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:56:51 +0000

As a Yankees fan I am obliged to hate anything and everything related to the Red Sox—and even Boston sports in general. That’s why it pains me to cover NESN (New England Sports Network) today. They’re one of the most successful regional sports networks (RSNs) in the country ratings-wise (#1 for 6 straight years), and they do it in the 7th biggest media market. NESN is jointly owned by the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins, whom they cover along with the Celtics, Patriots, and plenty of local college teams. They were launched in 1984, which makes Watertown, MA based NESN one of the oldest RSNs in the country, and they now reach more than 4 million homes. I still don’t understand why anyone would want to watch Boston sports on tv.

Monster Opportunities

Obviously I think that internships at the Yes Network are way cooler, but I do have to admit that working at NESN would be pretty sweet. There probably couldn’t be a better place for a Boston sports fan (must… hold… back… joke…) with an interest in television than NESN. They have a “40,000 square foot state-of–the art facility” and they do a ton of broadcasting in HD. The only thing they were short on this year was October programming. If you’re interested in NESN, you should check out their Internships page. They’re currently offering unpaid internships in New Media (NESN.com), SportsDesk, Sales & Traffic, Promotions, Program Development & Acquisitions, and Boston Bruins Pre and Post Game Show. All seem like pretty cool opportunities, so I hope that you’ll check out NESN. Maybe you can help them broadcast another Red Sox collapse next fall.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you watch NESN?

DivX

Willy Franzen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:00:28 +0000

We’ve looked at plenty of Internet video companies in the past, but we haven’t spent too much time looking at companies that provide the underlying technology that drives Internet video. DivX is a San Diego, CA based company that develops and licenses video codecs. Codec is short for compressor-decompressor, which is essentially technology that allows you to more efficiently transfer data. In DivX’s case they provide a codec that allows high definition video to be compressed without sacrificing quality on the other end. They’re a big part of why Internet video finally works so well. Transmitting uncompressed video over the Internet takes a huge amount of bandwidth, but using a DivX codec significantly decreases the amount of bandwidth necessary to transmit your favorite time wasting video.

Decoding Your Internship Search

If you’re going to end up interning at DivX, chances are that you know more about video codecs than I do (please forgive me if my explanation above wasn’t up to snuff). While most consumers aren’t familiar with the DivX brand, they most likely use the company’s technology often. Whether it’s on the computer, the tv, or your phone, there’s a really good chance that DivX’s technology makes it possible for you to watch video. Since DivX isn’t typically selling you a product, they have to make most of their money through licensing this technology to third parties. DivX is very much a technology company, so it’s no surprise that their internship offerings are tech heavy. Right now they only have one position posted, and it’s for an Engineering Intern in Malvern, PA. You’ll need some pretty strong Software Development knowledge if you want to land the position. There’s no word on whether it’s paid or not, but you can apply online.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Had you heard of DivX before?

NBC and Telemundo Chicago

Willy Franzen — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:55:56 +0000

I have to admit that I pretty much stopped watching local news after going to school and living in Central New York for four years. I swear that every night the news would come on at 11 PM, and there would be a new crew reporting live from a barn that caught on fire. Here in Chicago it’s more likely to be a shooting or possibly some government corruption. I’m sure that your area has its own regular story. Usually I like to talk about how the Internet is kicking traditional media’s butt, but that hasn’t been true when it comes to local stuff. TV and newspapers still own the local market, which is why NBC Chicago and Telemundo Chicago would be pretty cool places to intern. (Telemundo is a local network much like NBC 5 Chicago, but it’s tailored to a Spanish speaking audience.)They’re still the place to go for local news (whether it’s on the web or on the tube).

Intern Locally… If You’re in Chicago

I recently came across the Internships page for NBC Chicago and Telemundo Chicago and was impressed by how many opportunities they are offering. The only thing that bugged me is that they stick a bunch of legalese in the first few paragraphs instead of using the space to tell you how awesome the internship program is. I guess they want to make it painfully clear that their internships are unpaid and only for current students at accredited college. They’re also adamant about the fact that interns can’t do certain work because of union contracts.

With all that said, there are still a ton of cool opportunities including internships in: Advertising and Promotion (NBC and Telemundo), Station/Community Relations (NBC), Digital Sales, Consumer Unit (NBC), Health Unit (NBC), Investigative Unit (NBC), National Business Development (NBC), NBC Network News Midwest Bureau, News Assignment Desk (NBC or Telemundo), News Department (NBC or Telemundo), News Planning Unit (NBC or Telemundo), Sales Research and Marketing (NBC), Sports Department (NBC), Web Development Department (NBC), and NBCChicago.com Editorial Department (NBC). There are 4 internship sessions per year at NBC Chicago and Telemundo Chicago. There’s a PDF application form that you need to fill out and mail in, so check out the NBC Chicago and Telemundo Chicago Internships page for all of the details.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you watch the local news?

Brightcove

Willy Franzen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:51:45 +0000

It took long enough, but Internet video is everywhere. Yes, we had online video 10 years ago, but now it actually looks good—and works. The main reason for this is that end users (you and me) finally have technology in their homes that can handle playing online video. This means high speed Internet connections and computers with enough processing power to not crash when a website uses a Flash video player. The issue for content creators is that delivering video still poses some challenges. Sure, I was able to produce an online job search training course that relied heavily on video with little trouble, but I wasn’t delivering video to thousands or even millions of people (I wish I had the problem). As your use base increases, the challenge of delivering video increase exponentially. Moreover, managing video content in an organized fashion is a completely different challenge than organizing text and images. Brightcove is a Cambridge, MA based company that provides an online video platform for many of the worlds biggest brands.

Are You Bright Enough?

I’ve probably said this before about other companies, but I’m not sure that I’ve seen a client list as impressive as Brightcove’s customer list. It includes names like The New York Times, Discovery Channel, Sony Music, U.S. Army, and Ticketmaster, so you know that Brightcove isn’t just some flash in the pan startup. They have top flight clients who are paying lots of money for the Brightcove platform. With that said, it will be interesting to see how online video delivery develops in the next 5 to 10 years and how Brightcove adapts to those changes. If you want to be a part of the future of online video, then you need to check out Brightcove’s Internship listings. They have quite a few positions posted including Sales Data Specialist Intern, Quality Assurance Intern, Partner Marketing Intern, and Marketing Operations Intern. There’s no word on whether these positions are paid or not, but you can apply online directly from the links above.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you seen websites that use Brightcove to deliver video?

Tandberg

Willy Franzen — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:01:40 +0000

I think that I’ve mentioned before that my first experience with video chat was was with CU-SeeMe in an Internet cafe in the mid 90s. Back then the potential for social interaction over online video seemed pretty promising, but the potential for business uses (not that I thought about that when I was 13) was even greater. Real-time video has been slower to take hold on both the social and business fronts than I expected, but now that the quality is so good, we’re seeing more and more businesses embrace video conferencing. Tandberg is a company that is at the forefront of this movement. They have dual headquarters in Oslo, Norway and New York City, and they are both “the market share leader and the fastest growing company in the video conferencing industry.” Their 30% annualized revenue growth for the past 10 years may not be Inc. 5000 material, but it’s still hugely impressive.

I Wonder If They Use Video Interviews

While video conferencing can be as simple as opening up iChat and using the built-in iSight in your Mac, Tandberg offers a higher end experience. They offer products and services that offer superior a superior user experience with a focus on business uses. I remember using video conferencing in a class in college, and I was amazed at how effective it was for presenting to the company that we were working with on our project. It’s all about changing the way people communicate, and if that’s something that gets you excited, then you should check out Internships at Tandberg. They have opportunities in the United States, Asia Pacific, and Europe. We’re going to focus on the US where they have Reston, VA based paid internships posted in Corporate Communications and Technical Support along with a General Posting that mentions internships in Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Sales, and Logistics/Operations. You can apply for any of the positions by sending a cover letter and résumé to hr@tandberg.com.

Do you ever use video conferencing?

Rooftop Media

Willy Franzen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:57:28 +0000

We’ve featured a lot of startups here at One Day, One Internship, but never one with as good of a sense of humor as Rooftop Media. They’re a San Francisco based company that is entirely focused on comedy. Yes, they were able to secure $2.5 million in venture capital solely on their sense of humor. Ok, they actually have a well thought out business model too, but I’d like to think that instead of pitching decks (slides) to VCs, they just did a little standup routine and that was that. The main concept behind Rooftop Media is providing a platform for middle tier comedians—professionals whom you’ve probably never heard of. They have a destination comedy video site called RooftopComedy.com, while also working with media and advertisers. For media they “create custom comedy programming for broadcast, web, mobile and print channels hungry for unique, compelling content,” and for advertisers they “create powerful, branded entertainment and integrated marketing programs on behalf of our advertising clients.” They’ve worked with impressive names like Microsoft, Purina Mills, Virgin America, Fast Company, and more.

Climb Up to the Rooftop

Comedic marketing is a brilliant idea that we’re all quite familiar with—Super Bowl commercials are a perfect example. Rooftop Media is taking the idea to a new level by creating a huge library of comedic content while also working with their comedians to make content targeted to specific audiences. For instance right now they’re putting together Rootop’s Rooftop Comedy National Comedy Competition’s Funny Film Contest, which is open to US college students. Yes, it’s a comedy contest, but it’s also a promotion for Microsoft Office Live Workspace—presumably because you can use it to make funny films. That’s a pretty brilliant way to do marketing, considering that funny videos are about the only way to grab a college student’s attention for a prolonged period of time. If you’re intrigued by what Rooftop Media is doing, then you should check out their Internships page. There are two internship opportunities posted right now—Marketing Intern and Events Marketing Intern. There’s no mention of whether the positions are paid, but they do mention the potential for a full-time job offer for successful interns. You can apply for both positions online, so be sure to bring your sense of humor.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Rooftop Media?

Pogo Pictures

Willy Franzen — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:01:27 +0000

You know you love tv commercials—at least good ones. Who doesn’t? They’re an art form. Just as much creative energy goes into the advertisements that pay for the shows you watch as goes into the actual shows. Well… not always, but often enough. How else are the advertisers going to keep you from ignoring their marketing messages? If you’ve ever wondered what the behind the scenes of creating television commercials looks like, you should check out Pogo Pictures. They’re “an Atlanta based film production company specializing in image branding & television commercial production.” They represent 4 award winning directors who have shot commercials for names like Bank of America, ACE Hardware, Ford, AT&T, Publix, Verizon, Kraft, Coke, Breyers, Comcast, Coca-Cola, SunTrust and Chevron. They’ve also worked with Departments of Tourism in many states and done commercials all across the world.

Bounce Your Way into an Internship

Chances are that you’ve seen quite a few commercials shot by Pogo Pictures, but you’d never know it because commercials don’t come with credits. I’d link to some of the work from Pogo’s directors—Angel Traverso, Steve Colby, Zach Freyer, and Ryan Smith—but the site is all in Flash, so we can’t link to it. You’ll just have to browse Pogo Pictures’ website yourself to get a full read on what they’re about. Anyway, someone from Pogo Pictures contacted me and told me about their internship program. They’re looking for someone ASAP, and I don’t believe they have this internship posted anywhere else. Here’s the rundown:

Pogo Pictures is looking for a motivated hardworking Fall intern to work with the company’s Office Coordinator, Executive Producer, and Director. The candidate should currently be an undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in the current and/or upcoming semester. The internship is unpaid and requires 15 to 20 hours per week. Candidates will have the opportunity to be on set for local productions. Interested students are encouraged to send a cover letter and resume to info@pogopictures.com.

Yeah, it’s unpaid, but it sounds like some pretty cool experience. Go get it!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

PogoPictures.com

Do you love commercials?

The FeedRoom

Willy Franzen — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:03:15 +0000

Having developed a product that relies on delivering video content, I know firsthand how difficult online video can be. Yes, any idiot can record something and upload it to YouTube for millions to watch, but it takes a significantly greater effort for a company to deliver an even slightly more professional video experience. Westborough, MA based The FeedRoom is a company that offers enterprise solutions for online streaming video and digital asset management. You may have seen their software at work on sites like PentagonChannel.mil and BestBuyTrueStories.com. It’s about 14 steps above publishing to YouTube, yet it’s nearly as easy to do for corporate clients who use The FeedRoom’s products, services, and solutions. If I had the budget for some serious enterprise software, I’d definitely The FeedRoom for Found Your Career.

Feed Your Career

Online video delivery is only going to continue to grow, and as expectations grow, YouTube isn’t going to cut it any more. The FeedRoom is primed for success as more companies decide that they need to get serious about video. The FeedRoom is already working with some serious names (The Pentagon!), and they seem to have the ease of use thing down. If you’re excited about the growth in the world of online video, then you might want to consider an internship with The FeedRoom. It appears that they offer unpaid internships year round in Digital Media Technology. They don’t go into a lot of detail about what that means, but they take interns in New York, NY; Westborough, MA; and San Francisco, CA. Take a look at what The FeedRoom is all about, and if you think that you’ll make a great addition, then send a cover letter and résumé to jobs@feedroom.com. Be sure to tell them what you’re good at and where your interests lie so that they can find the right place for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you impressed with The FeedRoom’s offerings?

YES Network

Willy Franzen — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:56:28 +0000

July 31st is always a holiday for me. Not only is it my Dad’s birthday (Happy Birthday Dad!), but it’s also the Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline. It’s a day packed with excitement as winning teams trade away their future for a shot at winning it all this year. I usually spend the day glued to ESPN and MLB Trade Rumors, but this year I don’t think my Yankees are going to make any big moves (mostly because they’re only 1 game behind the best record in baseball). That means that I can sit back, relax, and watch the YES Network since I’m in Connecticut this weekend (which means I left Chicago where the Yankees are actually playing… ugh). The YES Network is pretty much all Yankees, all the time, except for when they show New Jersey Nets games, and because of that, they also happen to be “the most-watched regional sports network in the country.”

Make Them Say YES

As you may have noticed from the links in the opening paragraph, we’ve covered a lot of baseball related jobs and internships. I have actually wanted to write a post on the YES Network for a long time, but they don’t seem to publicize their Internship program on their Jobs page or anywhere else. That hasn’t changed, but I’ve realized that waiting around for internships to get posted is a good way not to get an internship. I’m pretty sure that the YES Network offers internships in the Fall, and I know that you can get a look at the types of internships they offer by browsing through their LinkedIn company profile. I was able to find profiles of interns in Public Relations and Production. You should also check out the YES Network’s ratings on InternshipRatings.com. There’s only one rating, but it’s pretty glowing. It also appears that YES pays their interns. If you want to land an internship at YES, you’re going to need to be proactive. That means reaching out to them at jobs@yesnetwork.com with a résumé and cover letter in WORD format, and using LinkedIn to do some networking.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think the Yankees will win the World Series?

America’s Test Kitchen

Willy Franzen — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:43:30 +0000

I love cooking, but I didn’t always. I went into college barely knowing how to make myself a bowl of pasta, but when I lived off campus Sophomore year, I was left with little choice but to learn how to cook. I’ve never been one to follow recipes strictly, though. I always like trying something new and getting creative with my cooking. That’s exactly the philosophy behind America’s Test Kitchen. It’s a real kitchen (all 2,500 square feet of it) in Brookline, MA that is used to “to develop the absolute best recipes for all of your favorite foods.” They do this by testing recipes anywhere from 30-70 times until they not only get it right, but get it right to the point that it’s dead simple for the people who are consuming the products that America’s Test Kitchen puts out – magazines, cookbooks, DVDs, tv shows, and websites. To me it sounds like one of the coolest places in the world, so if there’s no post tomorrow, it’s because I quit in hopes of a career at America’s Test Kitchen (just kidding!).

Cooking Up Some Great Internships

Although I’ve been familiar with the America’s Test Kitchen tv show and their Cook’s Illustrated magazine for a while, I never thought to look at their internships. Luckily, a loyal reader pointed out that they have a ton of openings in a variety of areas. These internships look awesome! Even if they’re unpaid. America’s Test Kitchen is currently looking for interns in Online Editorial, Test Kitchen, Video, and Product Testing and Tasting. Are you kidding me? Product testing and tasting? How cool does that sound? You can find all of the details including how to apply on the internships on America’s Test Kitchen’s Internships page. These are some of the coolest internships that I’ve ever seen, so act fast.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Hungry yet?

Howcast

Willy Franzen — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:00:23 +0000

When you don’t know how to do something (like find an internship), what do you do? You probably head straight to Google and look for an online resource to tell you how to do what you want to do. It didn’t used to be that easy. You’d either have to ask someone, or buy a book (if you could figure out which book to buy), or figure it out yourself. Answering “how to” questions wasn’t easy, but now it is because of websites like New York City’s Howcast. Whether you head straight to Howcast or you find their answer to your question through Google, you’ll be delighted to find what they call “the best how to videos on the web.” Howcast covers nearly every topic you can imagine – from How to Adopt a Child to How to Psyche Out the Competition and – more relevant for our purposes – from How to Deal with a Smelly Coworker to How to Dress for a Job Interview. Each topic has both a video and a Wiki with written instructions, and the content is either user submitted or Howcast produced (it’s generally very high quality content). Oh yeah, and Howcast was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites of 2008. That’s pretty cool.

How Do I Get an Internship?

Howcast answers a lot of important questions, but they completely missed the boat on one. Why the heck don’t they have a howcast on how to get an internship with Howcast (they do have a video on How to Get an Internship)? It would be an awesome employment branding move, and it would really liven up their Internships page even more than the video that is already on it does. Unfortunately, it looks like you’re going to have to figure out how to get an internship with them the old fashioned way – by showing initiative (or I guess you could follow the instructions from the generic video). That means you should check out their internship postings, and see what you like. Currently they have opportunities posted in Post-Production, Production, Marketing, Distribution, Editorial, Emerging Filmmaker Program, Content Acquisition, and Social Media. All of the internships appear to be located in New York City (except Content Acquisition which is in San Francisco and Social Media which is San Francisco or NYC), and there doesn’t appear to be any mention of whether they’re paid or not. I’ve checked out some other postings, and it appears that the internships are unpaid, but I’m not 100% certain. The application instructions vary position by position so check out the individual descriptions to get the details.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Howcast?

ShoeMoney Media Group

Willy Franzen — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:56:04 +0000

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.

ShoeMoney is Hiring an Intern

If you want to learn Internet Marketing, there are few people in the world who can teach you better than Jeremy. This isn’t like most of the internships that you’re used to seeing – there’s no HR office, it’s a 4 person company, and stuffiness is non-existent. This really is the internship opportunity of a lifetime – I wish I could drop everything and do it myself. You can find all of the details on ShoeMoney’s blog, but here’s the quick rundown. The internships are located in Lincoln, NE, and they’re unpaid; however, everyone who works at ShoeMoney Media Group is on track to be part owner. It’s a full-time internship, which means always on – not 9 to 5. They’re open to all kinds of applicants, but they particularly want people who have a serious work ethic, are good with numbers, have street smarts, and have skills in PHP/MySQL/Graphics editing/Video Editing. Sending a cover letter and resume isn’t going to land you one of these internships, so figure out a way to get creative and blow ShoeMoney away with your drive. With that said, the contact to apply to is brienna@shoemoney.com

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever heard of ShoeMoney before?

TokBox

Willy Franzen — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:43:22 +0000

Remember The Jetsons? They were my first indication of what the future would look like – flying cars and video phones were my favorites. Apparently we aren’t much closer to flying cars, but video phones are here – sort of. We’ve had the technology for quite a while, and many of you have probably used video chat at some point, but it hasn’t caught on quite like the creators of The Jetsons thought it would. I’m sure that you can come up with a number of reasons why, but I think the big thing holding us back from more video communications is the lack of a common platform. If I want to call someone, I can pretty safely assume that they have a phone that I can call. If I want to video chat with someone, I need to make sure that they not only have the right hardware but also that they have software that is compatible with mine. TokBox is a San Francisco based startup that is using the common platform of the web browser to enable video chatting. When you want to video chat, you just go to TokBox and they’ll give you a link. You send that link to a friend, they click it, and assuming that both of you have webcams and fast enough connections, you’ll be video chatting in no time.

Let’s Tok About Internships

I first came across TokBox when I got an e-mail from a PR firm about their internships program. Yes, that’s right. They hired a PR firm to promote their internship program. That’s a big sign that they value their talent, but it’s obviously about more than their internships. They’re using their web based video chat platform to accept internship applications, which means that all the people who don’t get the internship are going to give the TokBox product a test drive. The e-mail I got described TokBox’s contest to select one intern for the summer:

TokBox is offering one college (or graduate) student the opportunity to get real start-up experience working for them in downtown San Francisco this summer. In return they will pay $1000 a week plus room, board, and round-trip air travel. Pretty sweet set-up if you ask me. To apply, all students have to do is complete an online application form, submit a 1 to 3 minute video using TokBox at www.tokbox.com/theultimateinternship.com and invite friends, family and professors to submit video mail references. All they need is an Internet connection and a webcam. After April 22, 10 lucky finalists will then be invited to a live video interview, via TokBox.

The hiring process is always a contest, so it’s fun to see more companies using the contest approach to select interns. You can find more information about the contest at TheUltimateIntern.com, and if you don’t win the contest, you can always be a TokBox Brand Ambassador. The internship will have you working with the CEO and VP of Marketing, so it sounds like it’s more geared towards Business and Marketing students, although I’m sure they’ll tailor the internship to your talents. This is an awesome opportunity (especially because $1,000 per week is a lot of money), so get familiar with TokBox and apply ASAP.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried TokBox?

Justin.tv

Willy Franzen — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:56:19 +0000

You know about YouTube. You’ve known about YouTube for years. It’s the place to go for online video. There are some competitors that offer some pretty great services, but YouTube is still the default. Now, what if you want to watch live video? Or what if you want to broadcast live video? Justin.tv beats out YouTube when it comes to live stuff. You can watch white labrador retriever puppies, live soccer, or some kid in your dorm’s lifestream. The options are pretty much endless. You may ask why anyone would want to sit on a computer and watch puppies, but you’d miss the obvious answer – they’re cute. Actually, there’s an audience for just about anything these days. Justin.tv taps into that. Live video on the Internet isn’t new. There were people doing it in 1996, but the technology now makes it a lot more worthwhile. The question of whether the actual content being broadcast is worthwhile is up to you.

Justinternships.tv

Justin.tv all started with Justin Kan, a guy who decided to broadcast his life 24/7. A lot has changed since then, but you can still watch the Justin.tv office live. Now “Justin.tv is the largest online community for people to broadcast, watch and interact around live video [w]ith more than 41 million unique visitors per month and 428,000 channels broadcasting live video.” That’s crazy! But Justin.tv isn’t just about people broadcasting their lives. There’s all kinds of cool content, and there’s some really cool technology behind the platform.

Justin.tv’s live video platform scales to support massive audiences by measuring demand in real-time and intelligently replicating streams to additional servers to meet that demand. Constructed by a team of MIT and Yale graduates, the Justin.tv platform pushes more than 177 Gbps of video at peak usage – the equivalent of 16,946 standard DVDs per hour.

Justin.tv is doing cool things, which is why it’s no big surprise that they’re offering some pretty cool internships. If you check out their Internships page, you’ll see that they have opportunities for interns in Software Engineering and Marketing. I think that the Software internship is paid (although it doesn’t say so), while the Marketing position starts out unpaid but has the potential to become paid. The internships are located in the Bay Area, and you can apply by e-mailing a cover letter and resume to jobs@justin.tv.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used Justin.tv?

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Willy Franzen — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:11:04 +0000

I always say that when it comes to ad agencies, marketing companies, and PR firms, the best way to evaluate the company is to check out their client list and look at the work that the company has done. It’s not going to tell you everything that you need to know, but it’ll give you a solid idea whether or not the company is a place that you might want to work. If you want to work with big brands who are willing to take big risks with their advertising campaigns, then Crispin Porter + Bogusky might be the place for you. The Subservient Chicken is one of their more successful campaigns that started out virally, while the Microsoft campaign with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld was one of their well-publicized flops. CP+B is headquartered in Miami, FL, while they also have major locations in Boulder, CO; Los Angeles, CA; and London, UK. Their client list sits at the bottom of every page on their website – probably because it is so impressive.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky = An Internship for You?

The brands that Crispin Porter + Bogusky have worked with are unparalleled, so if that’s what gets you excited, keep reading. Here’s what CP+B has to say about what they do:

We’re a factory. A factory that makes advertising and branded creative content. But there is no assemly line. All the work is custom desgined and assembled by hand. We don’t have the luxury of knowing the product we build today will be exactly like the product we built yesterday. To be successful, we have to apporach every single day like it will be our defining moment. Because that’s reality.

They’re clearly a company that knows how to tell stories – their own and their clients’. My only issue with Crispin Porter + Bogusky is that their site is in all Flash, so it’s impossible for me to link to all of the interesting things on their website. Luckily, their Internships page is an exception. CP+B’s Internships are offered at their offices in Miami and Boulder in Content Management (Account Services), Cultural and Business Insights (Account Planning), Message Planning and Analytics (Media), Integrated Production-Video, Interactive Production, Interactive-Technical (Programmers, Developers, Quality Assurance), Interactive- Creative, or Creative. The internships last 12 weeks, and you have until April 10th to apply. There’s no mention of whether the internships are paid or not, and they say that you must be a senior in your program to apply (not sure if that means rising senior or new grad). You can apply by sending your materials to internships@cpbgroup.com. They also offer internships in the winter and fall with different deadlines.

Also, check out Crispin Porter + Bougsky’s Employee Handbook, which will give you an inside peek at what it’s like to work for them. You should note that Crispin Porter + Bogusky recently laid off 6% of their staff, so it’s not an entirely rosy picture there.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s work?

WellcomeMat

Willy Franzen — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:47:46 +0000

You know what’s not hot right now? Real estate. You know what is hot right now? Web video. What happens when you combine the two? Do you get something that’s lukewarm. Not exactly. You actually end up with WellcomeMat, a New York City based (with an office in Boulder, CO) startup, that is taking advantage of the current climate in real estate to try to incite a video revolution. I’m not sure how many college students check out real estate listings, but if you do, you know that they’re pretty one dimensional. There’s some hyperbolic language about how great the property is and a few pictures from the best possible angles. Places almost never look like the pictures in the listing. Video can change that, and that’s why WellcomeMat is building a platform “where video newbies meet and hire video gurus, a place where local video producers can be found helping do-it-yourselfers, a place where the stars of real estate marketing harness the unmatched power of online video and a place where superior video presentations and tours are born.”

Wellcoming New Interns

The key to finding an internship that is going help you develop useful skills is to keep looking forward. You shouldn’t only be anticipating where internships are going to be, but you should also be anticipating where the industries that you’re interested in are headed. If you’re frustrated because that career in real estate that you want doesn’t seem like a possibility now, why not check out WellcomeMat? A lot of real estate is about marketing, and the web is where marketing happens now. WellcomeMat sees the future, and they can prepare you for the jobs in real estate that don’t even exist yet (but they will). Right now WellcomeMat is looking for interns in Design, Web Development, Community Management/PR, and Video Production. The postings on their site don’t seem to mention whether they are paid or not, but this Craigslist posting for one of the internships says that the compensation is negotiable. You can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to work@wellcomemat.com, and you should also check out this interview with WellcomeMat Co-Founder Phil Di Giulio.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think that video will change the face of real estate?