Yesterday we looked at an organization called Youth Service America that encourages youth to get involved in their communities. Today we’re going to look at an organization with a similar, but slightly different approach. Mobilize.org is a Washington, DC based non-profit organization that aims “to improve the way democracy works by investing in Millennial-driven solutions.” I kind of hate the term Millennial, but it is important that our generation makes an effort to act together in our shared best interest. It all started with a guy named David Smith who was a student at UC Berkeley. He learned of another tuition increase, and instead of taking it, he mobilized some peers and made some noise. It worked, and David decided to make the movement national by starting Mobilizing America’s Youth, which eventually became Mobilize.org.
Internships in Michigan
Looking for more internships in Michigan? Check out the most recent internship postings in Michigan.
Below you'll find all of the companies that we've covered that may offer internships in Michigan. You can also look at entry level jobs in Michigan.
Who would have thought that video advertising would be the new thing? It’s only been around for more than 50 years. But as consumption of video moves from watching what is broadcasted over air/cable/satellite to watching what you want when you want to over the Internet, advertising has to change with it. People will click away from a website in an instant if they’re annoyed by the ads, while tv viewers are much slower to change the channel (even if it’s one of those commercials where the volume is twice as high). Yet, there’s so much more potential online–you can actually get someone to take an action by clicking on the ad. Television doesn’t offer that. YuMe is a Redwood City, CA based company that was founded in 2004 to encourage the growth of online video content by making it easy to monetize. The founders recognized “that the nascent broadband video sector was going to need a strong ad model and technology platform to generate revenue,” so they built it.
Big day today–not only is it St. Paddy’s Day (in the past we’ve looked at General Mills, Shamrock Foods, and Luck Stones) but it’s also the first day of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. What ties those two celebrations together (besides being excuses for drinking during the day)? Shoes! It’s a little-known fact that all leprechauns are shoemakers, and we know that all basketball players love a good pair of kicks. That’s why we’re going to take a look at Wolverine World Wide, a multi-brand shoe company based in Rockford, MI. Their brands include Bates, Cat Footwear, Chaco, Cushe, Harley-Davidson Footwear, Hush Puppies, HyTest, Merrell, Patagonia Footwear, Sebago, Track ‘n Trail, and Wolverine, almost all of which are targeted towards rugged, outdoorsy customer bases. Most of the brands don’t offer great footwear for playing basketball, but they have plenty of shoes for leprechauns that wants to cause mischief and trek to and from the end of the rainbow.
The Washington Media Scholars Program runs a case competition for college students every year. Participating can get you a scholarship, a trip to DC, networking opportunities, and even extra credit for a class. Learn more here.
Everything that I know about aerodynamics I learned from MythBusters. Ok, that’s not completely true–AP Physics taught me a little bit too, but MythBusters does a remarkable job of explaining how different objects (from bullets to cars) react to the drag forces of air and water. Today I found a company that puts MythBusters to shame, at least when it comes to aerodynamics (but definitely not when it comes to explosions). Their name is Exa, and they’re a Burlington, MA based company that “develops, markets, and supports simulation software for the fluids engineering marketplace along with a full suite of engineering consulting services.” They typically work with companies in the “automotive, aerospace, architectural, environmental, electronic, and heavy equipment industries,” so I’m sure that you can imagine what kind of cool projects they’ve been involved with. Think optimizing the USA 4-man bobsled that won the Olympic Gold Medal or providing simulations for a Discovery Channel TV show called Ultimate Car Build-Off (ok, it’s not MythBusters).
Now that we’re entering the holiday season, it’s time for all kinds of promotions, sales, and contests. The holidays can be financially stressful for a lot of people, which is why so many companies offer promotions that try to ease that burden a little bit. Black Friday sales are probably the most visible way that retailers do this, but you also see plenty of interactive promotions this time of year. If one of your favorite brands is doing a holiday promotion, there’s a decent chance that ePrize is behind it. They’re a Detroit, MI based company that offers a wide range of solutions—from sweepstakes to collect & win to loyalty programs. I’ve run contests on this site before, and it’s not easy to do effectively—especially if you don’t have experience. ePrize brings more of a decade of experience to the table, so they can ensure that their clients get a serious return on all of the free stuff that they’re giving away.
Cornell students! I’m on campus right now, working from Mann Library. I’ll be here for a bit, then I’m going to head over to the Ives Hall. I’m wearing a green sweater and using a Mac. Come say hi! E-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com if you need help finding me.
I’ve been a Mac user since the early 90s. No joke. I remember the days of trading floppy disks with shareware on them back before the Internet. There weren’t a lot of Mac users, so we had to band together. In fact, I used an Apple IIe before I had a Macintosh, so I’ve been through all of the ups and downs with Apple. It’s a great feeling to walk into a college library and see more Macs than PCs. Even when I was here at Cornell, PCs were still dominant with college kids. Obviously the Internet along with the insane growth of Apple’s market share has made Mac software way easier to find, but Apple still doesn’t have an “app store” for programs to run on your desktop/laptop. That’s where MacUpdate comes in. They are “the number one, Mac-only software website on the Internet.” They not only make it easy to find great software for your Mac, but they also have software that automates updates to third-party applications.
While on a fishing trip last month, I met a guy who was telling me about his daughter’s coursework in forensics. He mentioned that her college’s program has its own house for practicing crime scene investigation. Apparently, it’s filled with all kind of carnage—you know, bullet holes, blood stains, and other—ahem—bodily fluids. I told the guy that I didn’t understand how this house was any different from most college housing after a good weekend, but he didn’t seem to appreciate the humor. My point is that the area of forensics is growing, and Kalamazoo, MI based Forensic Fluids Laboratories is a perfect example of this. They’re an Inc. 500 company with 1,680.7% three-year revenue growth and $2.8 million in annual revenue. Forensic Fluids Laboratories specializes in testing oral fluids—in other words, spit—with a heavy emphasis on drug testing.
Maybe you’ve jumped on the energy efficiency bandwagon. You changed out your lightbulbs, unplugged your chargers when you’re not using them, and opened the windows instead of using air conditioning. But let’s be real, individually you’re not going to save the world by yourself (but you might save a bunch of money). That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of power in collective action, but energy efficiency measures are way more effective when they come from the top. That’s why Austin, TX based CLEAResult Consulting works with utility companies to maximize efficiency. They’re “an energy efficiency consulting firm with expertise in utility program design, development, implementation, and evaluation.” Apparently their programs are pretty successful considering that they were #144 on the Inc. 500 with 1860% three-year revenue growth to $21.6 million. Not only are they improving environmental outcomes, but they’re also saving businesses and consumers money.
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.
Today is the last day to enter our Maghound Your Way to a New Job contest. With so few entries so far, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll win a one-year subscription to an awesome new magazine subscription service (3 monthly magazines for free!).
I’m still on my Inc. 5000 kick, and today we’re looking at a company whose name immediately caught my eye. They’re called College Hunks Hauling Junk, and that’s exactly what they are. Omar Soliman wanted to make some money during the summer, so he borrowed his mom’s cargo van to start hauling away people’s junk. He then entered his business plan in the Rothschild Entrepreneurship Competition and won the $10,000 first prize. He realized that he had a business that he could grow, and now College Hunks Hauling Junk is doing $2.9 million in revenue. Guess that’s why Omar and his co-founder Nick were named (also by Inc.) as Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30. College Hunks Hauling Junk is headquartered in Tampa, FL, but through expansion and franchising they now operate in Anne Arundel, MD; Baltimore/Howard County, MD; Chicago, IL; Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; Indianapolis, IN; Little Rock, AR; Los Angeles, CA; Louisville, KY; Orange County, CA; Orlando, FL; Phoenix, AZ; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Richmond, VA; San Francisco/San Jose, CA; Tampa Bay, FL; and Washington, DC Metro.
When I was in high school, I had a number of friends who seemed pretty serious about pursing careers in the music industry. There was one problem though… they weren’t the most musically talented individuals. Some of them played music – although not that well – and some others just listened and went to concerts. They were passionate about music, but landing a career in the music industry isn’t very easy when you don’t make music. My friends moved on from their musical aspirations, but if you’re still committed to working in the industry, you might want to think about working in management. To do that, you’re going to need some serious internship experience. One place that you can get that is Alter Ego Management, a Detroit based management and booking agency that was founded “to serve both the artists represented and the fans of those artists.”
It’s not big surprise that jobs are constantly in the news these days. That’s part of the reason Jason Seiden and I launched our course. People need help finding and landing jobs. People in the news have picked up on the need, and now it’s newsworthy if a company is hiring. Take this article from mlive.com’s Michigan Business Innovation Blog – it’s about who’s hiring in Ann Arbor. That’s obviously of interest to me, since so many of you are at both University of Michigan and Michigan State (as well as other great Michigan schools). There were some pretty interesting names on that list, and one that stood out to me was Compendia Bioscience. They’re Biotech meets Software, they’re also part of the future of Michigan, and they’re offering internships
Henry Ford was one of the most ingenious men to grace our country’s history. “Fordism,” his philosophy of bringing inexpensive automobiles to the masses through cost cutting and the assembly line has truly changed the face of world history. It’s amazing to think that ideas that we now take for granted were so revolutionary back then. You can find plenty more on Henry Ford on Wikipedia, but what about The Henry Ford. It’s kind of an odd name for what it is, but it’s a place in Dearborn, MI that includes historic Greenfield Village, the Henry Ford Museum, the Ford Rouge Factory Tour, the Benson Ford Research Center, and The Henry Ford IMAX Theater. It’s something between a museum and an educational center. It’s a non-profit organization, but that doesn’t really tell us much about what it is. I guess that’s why they call it The Henry Ford.
Now that we’re done with our end of ’08 recapping (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 1 of non-profits, Part 2 of non-profits, Part 3 of non-profits, and Part 4 of non-profits), we can return to telling you about cool new companies that are looking for interns. Today’s company definitely qualifies as cool. You may have never heard of Moosejaw, but the outdoor apparel manufacturer’s customer base is insanely loyal. They sell via retail, catalog, and online, and Every day they get rave reviews and customer photo submissions. Maybe it’s because Moosejaw has really good looking models, or maybe it’s the fact that Moosejaw offers homework help and dating advice to their customers. We’re not really sure what it is, but they’ve got their niche figured out. We waited a long time to write about entry level jobs at Moosejaw, and we’ve had to wait 9 months longer for them to post internships, but they finally have.
You may have noticed that we occasionally run sponsored posts from companies who want to draw more attention to their internships. Right now, we’re more focused on telling you about other exciting things like the job search training course that we’re working on, our partnership with VisualCV to help you build a killer online resume, and our soon to be announced contest where we’re giving away $6,000+ in HP and Microsoft products. When we do run sponsored posts, it’s always a pain in the butt to get paid. We have to fill out all kinds of forms and jump through lots of hoops to get a check sent. It can be quite annoying. Enliven Software is a startup based out of East Lansing, Michigan that makes the billing process a lot easier for small and medium sized companies. They’re aiming to be the “leading provider of secure, paperless electronic invoicing, online payables and electronic payment solutions.” Our Accounting function isn’t quite advanced enough to need their software yet, but I hope one day that I’ll be able to do all of my invoicing, billing, and getting paid online.
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.
How do you make any sport better? Put the word “arena” in front of it! Arena Soccer, arena badminton, arena fishing, arena skydiving… you get the idea. Putting “arena” in front of a sport’s name is only second to putting “extreme” in front of it. Well one of the sports that actually works (not necessarily better) in an arena is football. The Arena Football League is exciting to watch and offers an option for the football junkies who are bored to tears in the offseason. Getting an internship in sports can be tough, and getting an internship with a team in a major sports league can be near impossible. Sometimes looking to the secondary leagues (sorry AFL) can offer great alternatives.
I just found out that my car is on its last legs. It’s a ’97 Ford Explorer, and I’ve loved it since I bought it as a senior in high school in 2001. These days American car manufacturers have a pretty weak reputation with consumers, but I was a happy customer. Unfortunately the decline in reputation has been part of the demise of the Big Three, and it’s seriously hurt the entire Michigan economy. That’s why you see these commercials with Jeff Daniels that try to sell businesses on a Michigan location. Armstrong White is exactly the type of company that is going to bring jobs back to Michigan. They have built a business in Bloomfield Hills, MI that directly serves the auto industry, but is also high tech and extremely innovative. No, they haven’t developed some sort of alternative energy technology. They specialize “in rendering reality out of automotive 2D and 3D assets and digital landscapes for print, broadcast and interactive mediums.”