You’ve probably looked at thousands of ads already today, but chances are that you haven’t thought about how they got in front of you. Behind all of those ads is a group of people who made a complicated set of decisions to get that specific message to you in a specific place at a specific time. Managing those kinds of decisions at scale is really hard. Centro makes it easier. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that works “to improve the lives of those working in the advertising industry by building media management software that helps marketers engage with audiences across all digital channels in the most successful manner possible.” The goal is put all of the options in one place so that advertisers can make the best decisions for themselves or for clients.
Internships in Canada
Looking for more internships in Canada? Check out the most recent internship postings in Canada.
Below you'll find all of the companies that we've covered that may offer internships in Canada. You can also look at entry level jobs in Canada.
I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to experience the coldest weather of my life last night, but it’s pretty good to be “stranded” on a tropical island. Since I work from home, I used to get through cold snaps by not leaving the house for extended periods of time. Now that I have a dog and no yard, that would be… messy. Shockingly, if you were more and better clothing, you can stay pretty warm in even the coldest temperatures. Less shockingly, quite a few of the companies that make awesome cold weather gear are based in Canada. We don’t usually cover opportunities outside the U.S., but we’re making an exception for Arc’teryx. They are based in Vancouver, BC, and they merge their “unrivaled designs with the best quality, highest performing materials and assemble them in the most innovative and most durable manner for the intended use.” In other words, they make high performance for extreme situations–whether it’s climbing a mountain or walking your dog on the coldest day of your life.
There are a few kids who I knew growing up that ended up playing professional sports. For one it was destiny. His dad was a pretty good MLB player whose cousins played in the NFL. Despite the pedigree and signing an NFL contract, I don’t think my friend ever got in a game. Another kid (with a crazy intense dad who got banned from coaching in at least one local league) played a few years of minor league baseball. However, the most successful pro athlete that I knew growing up was a kid who I never would have expected to make it. He never struck me as super athletic, but he ended up being extremely good at lacrosse. In fact, he has already won a Major League Lacrosse Championship and made an All Star Team. It may not be one of the four major sports leagues, but it’s a serious league with serious growth potential (lacrosse keeps getting more popular). While the league is headquartered in Brighton, MA, it has teams in Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Annapolis, MD; Denver, CO; Hamilton, ON; Hempstead, NY; Columbus, OH; and Rochester, NY.
I’ve mentioned before that if you want to see me act like a hungry, tired five year old, just take me furniture shopping. I’ve only been banned from one furniture store, but that was nearly 20 years ago, and I’m sure the picture of me taped to the cash register no longer looks like me. Now I know why a lot of stores have treats available for kids (usually the sugar high hits by the time the family is gone). One store that I actually kind of like is Design Within Reach. The spaces are usually pretty small compared to other furniture stores, and they have really unique stuff. Design Within Reach is headquartered in Stamford, CT, but they have stores all across the country (and most of their internships are in stores). I always thought the “within reach” part of the name meant affordable, but stuff at Design Within Reach is pretty expensive (though they’re much lower than a lot of other places). Apparently “within reach” means “authentic modern design” that is “not found elsewhere” and is “in stock.” That last one is a big deal. There’s nothing more frustrating than plunking down a huge amount of money only to hear that your couch will arrive in 3-9 months.
Yesterday I came across Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list of America’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs. Apparently I wasn’t cool enough this year, but I’ll leave my hard feelings aside because this list is an amazing source for interesting companies with exciting internships. While the list certainly skews towards tech, my favorite from the list is as old school as you can get. It’s a fungus startup–mushrooms to be exact. Most people stick to store bought mushrooms because eating some mushroom that you found growing in your yard could be deadly (or psychedelic), but store bought mushrooms often leave something to be desired–especially when they get slimy. Back to the Roots is an Oakland, CA based company that allows you to enjoy the freshly picked mushroom experience with a product that you can buy in a supermarket.
When people ask me what I do, I tell them that “I run websites that help college students find jobs and internships.” About half the time, I get, “Oh, so you’re like a recruiter?” That’s pretty far off, so I try to provide an explanation that includes the term “online media.” That usually gets the point across. We live in a time where nearly anyone can build their own media property. Technology is so cheap and easy to use that the hardest problems in online media usually come down to content creation, marketing, and monetization. Say Media is a company that brings together the technology with the media savvy. They’re based in San Francisco, CA, and they’ve been built out of two companies that merged: Six Apart and VideoEgg. Six Apart worked mostly on the technology side, and VideoEgg was an advertising network. Together they’ve become a company that “empowers culturally relevant individuals with its publishing platform and media services designed to help them grow audience and earn a living.”
On Saturday I’m heading to Aruba for two weeks! (Don’t worry, you’ll still get your daily e-mails–even on Christmas Day.) I booked well in advance, so I got a decent fare, but it’s still about four times more expensive than traveling at a different time of year. If you want to travel during the holidays, you’re probably going to have to pay through the nose. Still, it’s worth looking for a deal, and there’s no better place to do that than Travelzoo. They’re a New York, NY based company (with 23 other offices all across the world) that has perfected the art of the travel deal. They don’t just go out and find low rates–they actually “research, evaluate, and test thousands of deals to find those with true value.” Although it’s not exactly the same, they kind of do for travel deals what I do for jobs: curate. Though they have 250 experts working on it, which is 249 more than we have.
A lot of people don’t realize that Google is an advertising company. Your main interactions with them are probably through their search product, Gmail, and maybe Google+ if you’re an early adopter, but all of those are just ways to deliver relevant advertising. Behind the scenes Google has been doing everything it can to become an even bigger player in the online advertising industry. That includes acquiring a New York, NY based advertising optimization startup called Admeld for $400 million. The acquisition hasn’t gone though yet because the Department of Justice is investigating whether Google’s buying Admeld should be considered anti-competitive. (This is stupid. Should a business not act in its own best interest so as to maintain a competitive market?) Regardless of the uncertainty caused by the investigation and the fact that Admeld employees will soon be Google employees, you have to be intrigued by the fact that the DOJ considers Google’s acquisition of Admeld such a big threat to competitors.
Gender in the workplace is a complicated issue. Over the past 50 years, a lot has changed, and a lot has stayed the same. Over that time one of the organizations that has played a significant role in “expanding opportunities for women and business” has been Catalyst. They’re a non-profit headquartered in New York, NY and with offices in Sunnyvale, CA; Toronto, Canada; and Zug, Switzerland. Since they were founded in 1962 they have studied “women and men across levels, functions, and geographies to learn about women’s experiences in business, barriers to their career advancement, and individual and organizational strategies leading to success.” They provide this research to their members (they’re a member organization) with the goal of “building the inclusion that will expand opportunities for women in the workplace.”
Have you ever grabbed a photograph off the Internet for an assignment? I’ll bet most students have done this at some point. But how many actually think about whether or not they have the right to use that image? It may not seem important, but what if that photo is being published in a newspaper, magazine, or blog? The person who created the image needs to be compensated. The same can be said for other creative works like videos, illustrations, music, and more. The problem is that individual creators don’t want to spend their time selling their work and protecting their copyrights–they want to keep putting out more quality work. That’s why companies like Seattle, WA based Corbis exist. They buy and sell the rights for creative intellectual property. They have a massive catalog, so if you needed an image of fly fisherman with a mountain in the background at sunset, they have what you need. In other words they bring efficiency to a market that would otherwise be extremely fragmented and inefficient.
Even though my father is an architect, I must say that my appreciation for architecture is elementary at best. Excluding the few times that my Dad drags me along, I don’t intentionally pay much attention to the design of buildings. Even still, I often can’t help but notice buildings that are architecturally interesting for one reason or another.. When I came across a link to some positions at Perkins+Will, the first thing that I did was look at their work. I was surprised by how many of their projects I’ve noticed and enjoyed. Just a few of them include the San Francisco Ferry Building, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, and The Contemporaine (which is only a couple of blocks from me). And that’s just a small sampling of the work that the firm has done. Perkins+Will was started in Chicago, IL in 1935, but since then they’ve expanded to 23 offices across the world (including locations in Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Dubai, UAE; Hartford, CT; Houston, TX; Los Angeles, CA; London, UK; Miami, FL; Minneapolis, MN; New York, NY; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia, PA; Research Triangle Park, NC; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Shanghai, China; Toronto, ON; Vancouver, BC; and Washington, DC.) I spent some time trying to figure out if they have an actual headquarters or main office, but I couldn’t come up with anything.
Because I started my business without any post-graduation work experience, I’ve had to rely on free resources to learn the tricks of the trade. Sites like Hacker News, SEOmoz, Mixergy have been unbelievably valuable to me. But you can only get so much for free. Fortune 500 companies budget millions and millions of dollars to ensure that their leadership teams are well informed and well advised. One place that 80% of Fortune 500 companies go for advice is The Corporate Executive Board. They are an Arlington, VA based company that helps “senior executives at the world’s leading organizations… and their teams with actionable insights, analytic tools, and advisory support to quickly and confidently focus efforts on what they need to know, and do, next.” The Corporate Executive Board spun off from The Advisory Board Company (they focus only on healthcare and higher education) in the late 90’s, and that was later followed up with an initial public offering.
I was out last night with some friends when a bus with a police escort came roaring down the street. I quickly realized that it was the Blackhawks, so we started cheering as Jonathan Toews stuck his head out of the back of a police car and showed his appreciation for our appreciation. We thought that was pretty cool and continued on our way. As I kept walking, I looked down the street and saw that the bus had stopped and that I could now see the Stanley Cup raised over the head of one of the Blackhawks players who got out of the bus. I ran down the street and snapped this picture.
Chicago has been partying since the Blackhawks won, and there’s no trophy more suited to partying that then Stanley Cup (I mean guys drink champagne out of it). The story of the Stanley cup is actually really interesting, and you can find it all on Wikipedia. The Hockey Hall of Fame, which is based in Toronto, Ontario, is the keeper of the cup, and they could provide some pretty cool internship opportunities (if they actually offer them-they do list volunteer positions). We’re not getting a lot done here today in Chicago (it’s essentially a holiday) with a parade and the start of the World Cup, so I’m going to leave it to you to see if an internship at the Hockey Hall of Fame is a real possibility, but if that doesn’t work out, you can also check out internships with NHL teams. I may be a bandwagon fan (and a late one at that), but you can’t not get excited when the Stanley Cup is being paraded around town.
I know how tough finding a great internship is, so I’m not going to pull a prank on you. It would just be mean to tell you about some awesome internships and then say that they don’t exist. Instead, I’m going to stick to what I’ve done for the last two April Fools’ Days and introduce you to some internships with a humorous side to them. Two years ago we took a look at Motley Fool, and last year it was College Humor. This year we’re going to check out The Second City, which is “the leading brand in improv-based sketch comedy.” They have theaters in Chicago and Toronto, along with Training Centers in those cities and Hollywood too. The Second City is also where famous comedians like Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis (Ghostbusters!), Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Steve Carell, and Chris Farley cut their teeth. (My buddy Jason Seiden also did a little work at their Training Center.) It is the place for comedy, and it’s all located a mile up the street from where I live.
I hope the title of today’s post didn’t make you hungry, because we’re not talking about internships in organic food. Organic is a San Francisco based interactive marketing agency with a brand that has gained a lot of keyword competition over the past 16 years. Yes, people were eating organic back in 1994, but the word wasn’t nearly as common as it is today. Doing research on Organic is tough because the organic search results (excuse my SEO pun) have all kinds of other stuff in them (at least they own Organic.com). Either Google needs to get inside my head to discern my intent, or Organic is going to have to hope that artificial packaged, processed foods go back in vogue. Ok, enough of my ripping on their name—Organic was ranked by AdWeek as the #1 interactive agency in 2007. That fits in perfectly with my impression of Organic from browsing their website and looking at their work. In fact, I’m blown away by how good Organic’s website is. It’s easy to use, it’s full of information, and it’s gorgeously designed. Their corporate mantra is “Exceptional Experience,” and they certainly live up to it.
The way that large corporations operate often boggles my mind. Take for example my friend who worked in the internal consulting division of a massive, well-known company. Despite being owned and operated by the company, his division had to bid against outside consulting firms for projects. There was a good reason for this (it forced the internal consulting division to watch its back), but it still seems a bit ridiculous. Another example of this kind of thinking is transfer pricing (don’t worry, I had to look it up too). It’s the “pricing of contributions (assets, tangible and intangible, services, and funds) transferred within an organization.” At first it may seem that since all of the money is going to the same place pricing things that are transferred within an organization doesn’t really matter. Unfortunately, that would cause all of the accountants in an organization (and the IRS too) to have a fit. So how do companies price these transfers? There’s no external market to set the price, and trying to do it internally can get really messy. That’s when companies bring in Ceteris a “global independent consulting firm specializing in transfer pricing, intellectual property and valuation services” that is headquartered in Chicago.
I love boring businesses. It may not seem like it considering the fact that I’m often featuring startups that are on the cutting edge of technology, but I really do appreciate when a company is able to take an extremely simple idea and make it profitable. Uline is a perfect example. They are a Waukegan, IL based company that considers itself “the leading distributor of shipping, industrial, and packing materials to businesses throughout North America.” It all started in 1980 when Liz and Dick Uihlein identified a need for a local shipping supplies distributer. They started the business in their basement with the H-101 carton sizer, and now they have a product line that fills a 452 page catalog. That’s a lot of growth, and I expect it to continue as e-commerce and the shipping that results from it keep expanding (I have about a dozen boxes in my apartment from various holiday season shipments). And if for some reason the shipping business does slow down, Uline can always reorganize as a producer of forts for children—I always loved playing in cardboard boxes.
Be sure to check out our new contest, Maghound Your Way to a New Job. We’re giving away two one-year subscriptions to an awesome new magazine subscription service that can help you find an internship.
In continuing with my obsession over internships at Inc. 5000 companies (which fits in perfectly with our latest giveaway), we’re going to take a look at Blue Entertainment Sports Television today. They’re a Louisville, KY based “full-service sports and entertainment management, event and production company.” They’ve taken the unified agency approach that you often see in Marketing and Advertising, and have applied it to sports. That means that their areas of work include representation, marketing, promotion, hospitality and events. Their strategy seems to be pretty solid considering that their revenue has grown 4,685.3% over the past three years to $22.9 million.
After a second company used the term “rockstar” in their internship postings, it became clichéd. I know that I’ve said this before, but no matter how good your coding skills (or whatever other rockstar skills employers look for) are, you’re never going to be a rockstar. Unless, of course, you land a gig at Rockstar Games. If you work there, at least you’ll be a rockstar in name. You may not have a guitar, but you’ll be working for the company behind video game series like Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Manhunt. And for those of you who have a different taste in games, they’ve got Table Tennis for the Wii. I keep harping on the fact that the video game industry is doing well, but it’s just so impressive. Other content producers like newspapers, magazines, record labels, and move producers are struggling with changes in how we consume content, but video game companies keep humming along—and Rockstar Games is no exception.
When it comes to entry level jobs and internships, I consider myself to be a trendhunter. I usually have a pretty good pulse on what goes on with the employment of young people. Unfortunately, when it comes to trends surrounding things that are much cooler than jobs and internships, I’m not so forward looking. That’s ok by me, though, because I can always turn to Trend Hunter Magazine for the inside scoop on what’s up and coming in just about any genre. Right now it’s 3D Body Art, Skin Lacing, Sexy Politicans, Super Stretch Motorcycles, and Mythological Homes. Last week it was Reverse Photoshopped Art, Alien Sound Systems, and Shocking Animal Sculptures. I have no idea what half of those things are, but if I want to, Trend Hunter will tell me. If this sounds cool to you, then keep reading. If it doesn’t, keep reading anyway to find out the latest trend in intern compensation.
I’m an iPhone guy, so I tend to feel sorry for people who are constantly thumbing away on their BlackBerries. That’s just my being a smug Apple user though. I realize that a lot of people love their BlackBerries and for good reason. They’re pretty remarkable devices, and they’re perfectly tailored for business use. (Although not as perfectly tailored as my iPhone! Ok, I’m done.) That’s why Research In Motion, the company that makes BlackBerries, has a 16.6% share of the smartphone market. They seem to have hit a bit of a rough spot lately (at least their stock price makes it look like they have), but their market position is still very strong. That’s why it’s no surprise that they appear to have a huge internship program; however, the real reason that I wanted to feature Research In Motion here is that they chose an unfortunate, yet inappropriately hilarious domain name for their Jobs site (it redirects now, but I think that you can figure it out).
Throughout college I went back and forth between being a devoted gym goer and a lazy bum. Some years I was good, and some years I was bad. After I graduated I committed to regular exercise, and it was the one constant that kept me going through a frustrating job search. I usually try to join a relatively expensive gym, but not for the obvious reason. I don’t care about all of the frivolities. I just know that if I’m paying $10 a month for a gym, I’m a lot less likely to go – I need to feel invested. With expensive gyms come lots of people in expensive, designer workout outfits. That’s where I learned about lululemon athletica, a Vancouver, British Columbia based manufacturer and retailer of “yoga-inspired athletic apparel.” Everyone at my gym is wearing lululemon, and the retail stores around here are packed, so it’s no big surprise that they’re hiring a lot of people now. Most of their jobs are in retail (which is an alternative to a Summer internship), but they have one internship that looks awesome.
I never thought that moving to Chicago would prolong the baseball season for me. Living in the New York City area gave me 13 straight years of October baseball, and now that I’ve left, both Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium will remain empty for the rest of the fall before they eventually face demolition. It’s lucky for me that I’m now living in a new city that happens to have two teams that are still in it. I get a 14th straight year of local baseball in October! Playoff baseball is by far the most exciting baseball of the year, but it also means that season will soon be over. Those of you who are baseball fans know how long the winter seems when there is only hot stove chatter to keep you entertained while you wait for pitchers and catchers to report to Spring Training. Although it may seem ridiculously early, now is the time to start thinking about your Summer plans if you want to intern with Major League Baseball. It’s pretty obvious that there is a lot of demand for these internships, so you need to make sure that you’re on the ball and beat all of the deadlines.
Do you love fashion? Do you enjoy being around beautiful people? Are you trying to date a model? These are all reasons that you might want to intern for Ford Models. Some of these reasons are more legitimate than others, but from what we gather, you need to be really serious about the modeling industry to land an internship with Ford Models. Competition is fierce for the limited spots they have, and finding information on how to land an internship with Ford Models is pretty tough. We’ve done a bunch of research, and we think we’ve got most of the details figured out. So if you’re ready to give up that dream of being a model yourself, then maybe interning at a modeling agency will be what you need to plan your new direction in life.