I started One Day One Job because I couldn’t land a job. After taking a bit of a break after graduating college, I realized that employers weren’t too keen on hiring someone who had been on the job market for a while. The only way that I was going to get experience was to create it for myself. People with criminal histories face a similar, but much more dire problem. That’s why Defy Ventures was started. They’re a New York, NY based non-profit that “provides carefully selected, ambitious men and women who have criminal histories with life-changing entrepreneurship, leadership, and career opportunities.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
development,
Internships,
investment,
New York,
non-profit,
social venture,
training,
venture capital
It’s hard to feel any sympathy for software developers. They’re one of the most employable groups of people on Earth, and they can apply their skills to almost anything they want. However, they’re working in the technology industry which is defined by constant change. A piece of software that used to need to run on a single platform is now expected to work on all kinds of devices. Xamarin is the answer for developers who want their software to work for as many people as possible. The San Francisco, CA based company allows developers to write “apps entirely in C#, sharing the same code on iOS, Android, Windows and Mac.” Why do something four different ways when you can do it once?
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
customer service,
design,
engineering,
Internships,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
paid,
quality assurance,
quality engineer,
sales,
software development,
technical support,
training,
user experience,
web development,
writing
I think that one of the biggest problems with the American education system as a whole is that there is very little focus on career outcomes. We loosely assert that if you learn this stuff you’ll get a job, but the past 7 years or so have proven that it’s not true. Youth need more than traditional education, and that’s what Futures and Options offers. They’re a New York, NY based non-profit that “empowers underserved youth to explore careers and guides them to further their education and become productive citizens of the community.” The organization was founded in 1995 and has served more than 4,000 teens.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
development,
education,
Internships,
New York,
non-profit,
paid,
program development,
training
I live to be outdoors. For me it’s mostly about fishing, but I enjoy hunting, hiking, kayaking, and pretty much anything else that gets me out in the wilderness. The tough thing is that I like to get away from civilization, but civilization is constantly encroaching on the wilderness. We need to find a balance, and that means getting more people involved in outdoor activities so that they’ll stand up to protect what needs to be protected. It’s better to share our special places with other enthusiasts then have them get turned into strip malls. The best way to get more people involved is to start them young, and that’s what Bay Area Wilderness Training is all about. They’re an Oakland, CA based non-profit that was “founded with the idea that California’s bountiful wilderness areas are a vast – yet untapped – resource for local youth-serving organizations.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
accounting,
California,
development,
education,
environmental,
Internships,
Logistics,
marketing,
non-profit,
outdoors,
outreach,
sports,
training,
unpaid
Right now I have a shot at winning $1 billion. My bracket is 100% correct… though no games have been finished yet. In case you haven’t heard, Quicken Loans has put up that amount for anyone who gets a perfect bracket (and Warren Buffet backed it with one of his insurance businesses). It sounds like March Madness until you crunch the numbers. There is essentially zero chance that someone will win the prize, yet millions of people entered… and shared their information with Quicken Loans. That’s exactly why the Detroit, MI based company sponsored the contest. New leads are the lifeblood of a mortgage business, even if you’re already the “#1 online retail lender.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
account management,
accounting,
analyst,
Arizona,
banking,
e-mail,
finance,
human resources,
information technology,
Internships,
marketing,
Michigan,
mobile,
Ohio,
online marketing,
paid,
public relations,
software development,
training,
web development
Raise your hand if you’ve come to the realization that college didn’t prepare you for the job market. I see a lot of hands. I’m not knocking college, but the skills that I’ve developed from starting a business are way more marketable than the ones that I developed in the classroom. So what do you do if you realize that you don’t have what employers want (or you want to start your own business)? You can hustle and develop the skills on your own, or you can speed up the process by enrolling at General Assembly. They are a New York, NY based company that is “creating a global community of individuals empowered to pursue work they love, by offering full-time immersive programs, long-form courses, and classes and workshops on the most relevant skills of the 21st century.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
accounting,
business development,
California,
community management,
customer service,
education,
entrepreneurship,
events,
finance,
Internships,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
New York,
online marketing,
production,
recruiting,
social media,
training,
Washington DC
Do any of you remember Flip cameras? They were all the rage for a few years, and then they got completely crushed by smartphones. Who would buy a standalone consumer level point and shoot or video camera when you already have something that offers comparable quality in your pocket? The only good reason that I can think of is that you’re worried you might destroy your phone. That’s where GoPro came in. They’re a San Mateo, CA based company that has built a huge business by offering “the world’s most versatile camera.” While other manufacturers were killing each other with battles over megapixels and size, GoPro was focusing on a niche market of users who wanted to be able to take their cameras on adventures. It turned out that it was a really big niche.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
accounting,
analyst,
California,
communications,
data,
design,
engineering,
finance,
human resources,
Internships,
law,
photography,
planning,
post production,
product development,
production,
public relations,
research,
sales,
software development,
sports,
strategy,
training,
video
While having the baby boomers leave the workforce should be a good thing for our generation in terms of employment outcomes, the mass retirement will likely bring new challenges. As people age they not only head more healthcare, but they also need more care in general. Sometimes that can be provided by families, but sometimes it needs to be done by professionals. Relias Learning is a Cary, NC based company that educates those professionals by offering “online training to senior care, health and human services, corrections, and intellectual and developmental disabilities organizations.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
account management,
analyst,
community management,
customer service,
data,
education,
Internships,
market research,
North Carolina,
paid,
product management,
public relations,
research,
sales,
social media,
software development,
training,
web development
A few decades ago chicken wings were essentially a throw away. This year Americans will eat 1.25 billion chicken wings… for the Super Bowl. The prices are actually down significantly from last year, but the longterm trend is up and to the right. Chicken wing popularity really seemed to take off when the Buffalo Bills went to four straight Super Bowls and shined a spotlight on the city’s culinary speciality. It continued with the growth of a national restaurant chain centered around the wing. Buffalo Wild Wings was actually founded in 1982 (by a guy who moved away from Buffalo, NY and couldn’t find buffalo wings), but it took a while for the Minneapolis, MN based company to go public and grow to 925 locations. In fact, the company’s growth seems to mirror the growth in popularity of the buffalo wing.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
design,
information technology,
interior design,
international,
Internships,
marketing,
project management,
training
Getting a dog is one of the best things that I’ve ever done. Seriously, how could you not love this guy? I’ve been taking his training very seriously, and it has been a really rewarding process. Working with animals often brings out the best in people. That’s why the Prison Pet Partnership is such a good idea. It’s a Gig Harbor, WA based non-profit that “gives inmates the opportunity to learn valuable pet industry-related vocational skills to use in finding employment when they resume their lives outside of prison.” They take dogs from animal rescues and train them to be service dogs. Since most dogs aren’t cut out for the service life, the rest are rehomed as “Paroled Pets.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
animals,
education,
Internships,
non-profit,
training,
Washington
I don’t remember what methods my teachers used to teach me how to read, but I do remember that it all came together on while my family was traveling to Florida on a train for vacation. For me it felt like a binary thing–one minute I couldn’t read, and the next minute I could. I’ll assume that’s the desired outcome, even though we all known that literacy is much more of a progression. The progression happens more quickly with the right methods, and that’s what the Children’s Literacy Initiative is about. They are a Philadelphia, PA based non-profit “that works with teachers to transform instruction so that children can become powerful readers, writers and thinkers.” While most literacy focused non-profits work directly with children who are learning to read, CLI ensures that the people working with those children are properly prepared for such an important job.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
education,
Internships,
marketing,
non-profit,
paid,
Pennsylvania,
program development,
training
Two weeks ago it was my birthday. Amy wanted us to do something fun and new in Chicago, so she surprised me with trapeze lessons. Unfortunately, she forgot that I have an elbow injury that would make doing such things a bit painful. We called the place to see if they could give us a credit for future lessons, and they were able to. While I certainly didn’t want to mess up my elbow more, I have to admit that the idea of soaring through the air scares me a little bit. Maybe if I had been exposed to acrobatics at an early age through a program like AcroSports, I would have had a better attitude about trying trapeze lessons. They are a San Francisco, CA based “non-profit organization whose mission is to teach and develop the physical, performing, and circus arts.” They’ve been at it for two decades now serving their “community in a safe, positive environment, offering activities that encourage teamwork and build strengths and self-esteem, and enhancing life’s experience.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
coaching,
communications,
education,
Internships,
marketing,
non-profit,
social media,
sports,
training
Today is my birthday. My wife has an exciting day planned for me, and that obviously makes me feel very special. Everybody should feel special on their birthdays–especially children. Unfortunately, children who are living in homeless shelters often have their birthdays forgotten. Birthday Wishes is a Newton Centre, MA based non-profit that believes “that all children, regardless of their living situation, should celebrate their birthdays joyfully, surrounded by family, friends, and others who care.” The organization was founded in 2002, and is getting close to celebrating 20,000 birthdays a year. That’s truly amazing. I’m off to celebrate my own special day, so I’ll send you to Birthday Wishes’ Idealist page. They don’t have any internships posted right now, but I know that they’ve had interns in the past. They’re also always looking for volunteers.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
holiday,
Internships,
Massachusetts,
non-profit,
training,
unpaid
There are two kinds of entry level jobs. There are the professional track positions that are typically targeted towards recent college grads (what we try to cover on ODOJ), and the jobs that have very minimal education and experience requirements. Both types are extremely important to our economy because they enable people to learn how to make a living, and both seem to be getting rarer. Today many of the best job opportunities in that second category are in the food service industry. That’s why FareStart is focused on them. They are a Seattle, WA based non-profit that “transforms lives by empowering homeless and disadvantaged men, women, and families to achieve self-sufficiency through life skills, job training and employment in the food service industry.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
culinary,
events,
food,
hospitality management,
non-profit,
operations,
program development,
training,
unpaid,
Washington
Almost all of are here (in the United States) because of immigration. Whether it was you, your parents, your grandparents, or a passenger on The Mayflower, someone in your family decided that he or she wanted a better life and left a lot behind to come here. How long you’ve been here doesn’t really matter. What does matter is what you’re going to do while you’re here; however, being new to the country brings a lot of challenge. Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians is a Philadelphia, PA based non-profit that “connects newly arrived individuals from around the world with the economic opportunities that they need to succeed.” The Center has been around for a decade now, and in that time they’ve helped more than 8,000 people from well over 100 countries.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
bilingual,
graphic design,
Internships,
non-profit,
outreach,
Pennsylvania,
training,
tutoring,
unpaid
Some of you (though probably not most of you) should quit your internship search and start a business. It’s what I did, and I can’t imagine having done anything else. That’s why I’ve spent hundreds of hours talking with and helping aspiring entrepreneurs. Yesterday I came across a Quora answer by Noah Kagan that I wish they had all read before I talked to them. It explains why most people who hold off on pursuing their dream of starting a business are doing so for the wrong reasons. There’s a movement called The Lean Startup that preaches a similar philosophy–starting a company doesn’t need to be expensive and you don’t even need a brilliant idea. Lean Startup Machine is a New York, NY based company that is spreading the philosophy not only to new entrepreneurs but also to people working in more corporate positions.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
blogging,
business development,
design,
events,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
online marketing,
paid,
sales,
software development,
training,
web development,
writing
One of my favorite episodes of The Office is when Michael Scott tells his employees to pack a swimsuit for a leadership training trip, and then takes them on a “booze cruise” on Lake Wallenpaupack in January. The staff are obviously pissed at Michael, but for the most part end up having a good time. I’ve been on a few evening cruises, and I’ve always had a great time. I guess that is why Entertainment Cruises is doing so well. They’re a company with “26 vessels serving eight cities with six unique cruise products.” Entertainment Cruises’ offerings range from fine dining and dancing to speedboat tours, with a lot in between. They currently operate fleets in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
account management,
accounting,
culinary,
customer service,
entertainment,
events,
food,
hospitality management,
Internships,
marketing,
Maryland,
Massachusetts,
New Jersey,
New York,
operations,
paid,
Pennsylvania,
recruiting,
restaurants,
sales,
training,
transportation,
travel,
Virginia,
Washington DC
Right now I’m in the process of getting some of my friends together to coordinate my bachelor party. I have less than zero interest in the traditional approach, so I’m looking for some good outdoor activities for a bunch of dudes. We haven’t decided where we’re going yet, but ideally we’ll rent a house instead of staying in a hotel. One of the best places to find vacation rentals is HomeAway. They’re an Austin, TX based company that offers “the world’s leading online marketplace of vacation rentals, with sites representing over 711,000 paid listings of vacation rental homes in 171 countries.” I figured that VRBO.com was their biggest/most similar competitor, but it turns out that they own them. I guess maybe the biggest competitor is Airbnb then, though they serve a slightly different market (more apartments fewer houses).
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
analytics,
bilingual,
copywriting,
customer service,
design,
hospitality management,
international,
Internships,
marketing,
paid,
product management,
sales,
sem,
seo,
software development,
technical support,
Texas,
training,
travel,
web development
We live in a strange time. The stats tell us that investing in higher education is one of the best investments that an individual can make, yet so many young people are saddled by student loans and under or unemployment. Something is going to have to change, and I’m not sure what it will be. American Student Assistance is an organization that will likely play a role in the change. They’re a Boston, MA based “private nonprofit whose public purpose mission is to empower students and alumni to successfully manage and repay their college loan debt.” ASA was founded in 1956 as the Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation and has served as a loan guarantor for much of its history. That ended in 2008 with a change in Federal law, but it hasn’t stopped American Student Assistance from offering SALT, its “innovative financial literacy and default prevention program.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
bilingual,
blogging,
business development,
communications,
design,
education,
finance,
Internships,
law,
market research,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
non-profit,
paid,
personal finance,
product management,
project management,
software development,
training,
video,
web development,
writing
I used to be on top of all of the latest web technologies. When a new social network or tool came out, I’d figure out how to use it and add it to my repertoire. I can’t keep up any more–there are just too many cloud-based services out there. While you’ll never be able to master all of these technologies, you can get up to speed in about a minute thanks to Grovo. They’re a New York, NY based company that “produces one-minute video lessons covering every change to the world’s most popular websites, mobile apps and online tools.” Grovo’s content is updated in real-time, so when Facebook announces a new feature or a long awaited new iPhone app is released, they’re on it almost immediately. So far they already have more than 3,000 videos covering more than 100 web products.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
blogging,
editorial,
education,
marketing,
New York,
online marketing,
public relations,
social media,
software development,
training,
video,
web development,
writing
As you’ve probably noticed, we cover non-profit internships on the weekends. Occasionally I come across a company that feels like it should be on the weekend, but rules are rules (even if I’ve created them arbitrarily). Social Impact is one of those companies. They’re an Arlington, VA based management consulting firm and “global social enterprise dedicated to helping international agencies, civil society and governments become more effective agents of positive social and economic change.” Social Impact was founded in 1996 has grown to serve five regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia & Pacific, Latin America & Caribbean, Europ & Central Aisa, and Middle East & North Africa.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
consulting,
economics,
education,
environmental,
events,
international development,
Internships,
paid,
program development,
public health,
recruiting,
social entrepreneurship,
social venture,
training,
Virginia
I didn’t have a teacher accept an e-mailed assignment from me until my Senior year in high school. When I went to college all of my classes were supposed to be on Blackboard, but most of the professors didn’t use it because it was a terrible piece of software. Even by the time I graduated, most of my professors weren’t using much technology beyond e-mail to communicate and interact with students. I hear that’s changing, and I’ll bet that a lot of it has to do with how far technology has come over the last decade. We’ve all seen teachers try to get a video to play in class. When classroom technology doesn’t work, it brings learning to a screeching halt. Schoology is a New York, NY based company that does the opposite–they provide teachers with “the tools and connections to engage students more efficiently and improve educational effectiveness on both a large and small scale.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
community management,
design,
education,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
online marketing,
paid,
sales,
social media,
software development,
training,
user experience,
web development
I’ve mentioned before that I was on the board of a startup non-profit. We were petty clueless and needed all the help that we could get–especially when it came to fundraising. The organization eventually folded, but maybe it wouldn’t have if we had known about the Foundation Center. It’s a New York, NY based non-profit that “connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed through data, analysis, and training.” While the Internet has changed the way that the Foundation Center works, they’ve been around since 1956, so they have a long history of helping other philanthropic organizations achieve their goals.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
data,
education,
Internships,
New York,
non-profit,
research,
training,
unpaid
A few months ago my cleaning lady brought a printed out picture with her to work. It was a pair of headphones that her grandchild in Poland wanted for Christmas. She explained to me in broken English that the headphones were very expensive in Poland and much cheaper here. She wanted to know where to buy them. When I told her that I could order them on Amazon for what would amount to nearly four house cleanings for her, she decided that her grandchild would have to appreciate a less expensive gift. In case it isn’t obvious, the headphones on the print out were from Beats by Dr. Dre, a Santa Monica, CA based company that “provides a premium sound experience at every touch point of the consumer’s life.” In only six years Dr. Dre has built an iconic brand (one that Polish kids tell their grandmothers in America about) in a market where most people used to use whatever came free with their CD or MP3 players. (I’m still perfectly happy with my Apple earbuds.)
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
audio engineering,
business development,
California,
design,
e-mail,
finance,
Internships,
marketing,
music,
product development,
product management,
production,
quality assurance,
quality engineer,
sales,
software development,
strategy,
training,
united kingdom,
user experience,
web development
When I moved to Chicago I joined the board of a startup non-profit. We were a group of twenty somethings with little idea of how to run a non-profit or what being on a board actually meant. Not surprisingly, the non-profit no longer exists. Our board did its best, but we were never really prepared to succeed. We probably could have used the help of Boardsource, a Washington, DC based non-profit that “supports, trains, and educates more than 60,000 nonprofit board leaders from across the country each year.” You can’t just Google “how to be a non-profit board member” and pick it up. Boardsource provides a wide array of resources that help board members serve their organizations more effectively.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
development,
education,
member services,
non-profit,
research,
social media,
training,
Washington DC
I am not a coffee drinker–never have been and never will be. I can’t even stand the smell of it, so it’s hard for me to comprehend how so many people want to start their mornings off with it. I’m either wrong or it’s the best marketing success in the world, but coffee is a massive industry–somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 billion annually just in the U.S. One of the more interesting success stories in the business is Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. They’re a Waterbury, VT based company that was founded in 1981 as a small coffee shop. Instead of sticking with that model and following the Starbucks path, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters went another direction. They decided to focus on helping other people make good coffee.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
beverage,
food,
human resources,
Internships,
organic,
planning,
public relations,
training,
unpaid,
Vermont
On Friday I visited one my Dad’s college friends at his workshop. He makes sails for traditional boats, and he’s been doing it for a long time. He doesn’t get a lot of incoming calls from potential clients (it’s a pretty niche business), but when he does, he almost always makes the sale (no pun intended). It’s because he has developed a process that shows potential customers that he’s undoubtedly the best guy for the job. He does it all by hand (even to the point of writing a personal letter), but it’s essentially automated. He spends about 15 minutes on it every morning, and that’s it. While that approach won’t work in a lot of business, nearly every company can benefit from automating parts of their marketing. Pardot is a company that provides software to do exactly that. They’re based in Atlanta, GA, and they came in at #172 on the Inc. 500 with 2,001% three-year growth and $7.4 million in revenue.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
business development,
customer service,
data,
engineering,
Georgia,
graphic design,
Internships,
marketing,
online marketing,
quality assurance,
quality engineer,
sales,
sem,
seo,
software development,
support,
technical support,
training,
virtual,
web development
I don’t know why adults even bother asking kids what their favorite class is. They’re obviously going to either say recess or make something up because they know that they’re not supposed to say recess. As a kid I felt bad for liking recess more than the rest of the school day, but now I realize that recess is totally underrated. It’s a time for social interaction, safe risk taking (or are monkey bars banned now?), decision making, and more. It’s also a fantastic way to get kids to burn off energy so that they can be more focused in the classroom. Playworks is an Oakland, CA based non-profit (but they work in cities across the country) that aims to “improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.” In other words, they’re all about recess.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
Colorado,
community development,
development,
education,
Illinois,
Internships,
non-profit,
outreach,
program development,
sports,
training,
unpaid,
Utah
My dad always tells people that he loves shopping malls because they are full of people who aren’t doing the things that he wants to do (namely fishing). My views aren’t quite so negative, but when I do visit a mall, my goal is to be in and out as quickly as possible. Luckily for General Growth Properties there are millions of people for whom malls are a destination. GGP is a Chicago, IL based real estate trust that owns and operates shopping centers across the U.S. Some of their most notable properties include: Ala Moana Center (Honolulu), Tysons Galleria (D.C.), Glendale Galleria (Los Angeles), and Water Tower Place (Chicago). That’s just the tip of the iceberg though–General Growth Properties owns more than 135 mall properties that combine for more than 140 million square feet of space.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
accounting,
administrative,
analyst,
architecture,
business development,
construction,
finance,
human resources,
Illinois,
Internships,
law,
market research,
marketing,
nationwide,
operations,
real estate,
retail,
sales,
training,
unpaid
I had some pretty awesome after-school activities when I was a kid. I played baseball and basketball, but I also did some sort of space/science class and participated in Odyssey of the Mind. Then there was the time on the computer, which didn’t seem all that important, but ended up shaping my career. Time out of school can be extremely important for educational outcomes, which is why BOOST Collaborative exists. They are a San Diego, CA based non-profit that “is committed to creating opportunities for change in educational and social services agencies serving youth in the out-of-school time hours.” While most organizations in this space focus on working directly with kids, BOOST Collaborative focuses on working with the people who work with kids.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
consulting,
design,
education,
events,
Internships,
marketing,
non-profit,
online marketing,
program development,
social media,
training
