Author Archives: michael

Amazing: Empower People to Create – Bamboo Bike Studio

Written by michael. Posted on March 19, 2010. Filed under Amazing Things, Startup Scene. Tagged , , , . No comments.

Teaching people to make bamboo bicycles is awesome.

Amazing people doing amazing things — it’s inspirational, it’s motivating, it’s, well…amazing. Good things happen when you can identify a problem to fix, be it simple, technical, or social.

At Intern Inc., we’re hoping to help bridge the gap between employers and students entering the job market in a difficult time with the power of social networking. It’s exciting to meet new people and share our story. The Denver and Boulder areas have a great startup buzz and nous. But there’s always an extra element of excitement when a startup has an inherently altruistic mission.

Enter the Bamboo Bike Studio.

The problem: How do you help people get around in a sustainable, low-impact way?

The answer: Teach people how to make their own bicycles out of bamboo.

Some folks visit the Brooklyn bike studio to build their own new bike. But the real appeal is where “self-propulsion and sustainable entrepreneurship go hand in hand.” Supporting bamboo bike factories in Africa and South America, the three 20-somethings behind Bamboo Bike Studio are creating a positive solution to an everyday problem while simultaneously putting the power of creation back into people’s hands.

Justin Aguinaldo, Marty Odlin and Sean Murray represent a form of exciting and admirable social entrepreneurship.

And we think it’s an amazing thing.

Amazing: TOMS Shoes — One for One.

Written by michael. Posted on March 18, 2010. Filed under Amazing Things. Tagged , , , , , . No comments.

Blake Mycoskie on a shoe drop.

Inspiration can strike at any time. For Blake Mycoskie — third place finisher on the second season of the Amazing Race — inspiration struck while vacationing in Argentina. Inspired by the local alpargata or espadrilles style of canvas shoe traditionally worn by farmers, Mycoskie went on to found TOMS Shoes to provide shoes for impoverished children.

The premise? One pair of shoes donated for every pair purchased. One for one.

The shoes are great — comfortable, breathable, light and stylish; I own three pairs. The concept is equally fantastic. For $44, you get a pair of shoes and the piece of mind that your purchase is also funding a pair of shoes for an impoverished child.

TOMS continues to expand and update not only their shoes and styles, but their reach and scope of the shoe drops.

And we think they’re doing amazing things.

Wading through all the resume advice to arrive at YOU.

Written by michael. Posted on March 10, 2010. Filed under Career Planning. Tagged , , , , . No comments.

Pearsonified: Smart resume advice.

There’s no shortage of resume advice out there. 54 million-plus hits on Google. Paying attention to what people in your field are recommending is a good idea. The only pitfall comes when you get conflicting advice, or advice that’s really based on the judgment of only one expert/recruiter/HR director.

Interviewing for jobs is like dating. There’s awkwardness, fidgeting, everyone is trying to be super-courteous, overly nice, well-dressed, impressive; Do I chew gum? No — gum is unprofessional. Bad breath is worse. Mint? It’ll clatter around in my mouth. Is my tie on straight? I wonder if they like me. Should I crack a joke? Etc., etc.

The thing is — just like people and dating — everyone has different taste! Swap a potential hire for a potential date. We all look for different things. If only it were as simple for us as Birds of Paradise:

Be unique.

Great — what does that mean? That doesn’t help someone in college or just entering the job market. Unique can be a lot of things.

You want to be superficially “attractive”? Then load up your resume with great design, details of every Boy/Girl Scout award you ever received and go for it.

Want to be intellectually engaging? Focus on framing what motivates you, the problem you want to solve, how you’ll save the world and how this job will help you do it in your cover letter.

You have to know your audience. Applying for a graphic design gig, you’re probably going to want to make everything you show the employer as sexy and visually arresting as possible. Want a gig with a web startup? You’re going to want to inject some personality — how your awesome self is capable of awesome programming, conquering mountains, saving orphans, etc.

Andrew Hyde — a notable startup enthusiast in Boulder, CO with TechStars — has a great post with advice for startup applicants. Andrew’s main thrust: People are at sea when it comes to resumes, interviews and trying to get noticed in a bloated, saturated applicant market.

Web developer Chris Pearson talks about “The Only Thing  on Your Resume That Matters to a Smart Person” on his blog…and guess what? That “thing” isn’t on your resume. Because it’s YOU. But what about people that aren’t especially eloquent or personable? Let me drag the dating metaphor back: Sometimes it’s about getting out of your shell.

Being yourself, being unique, showing how awesome you are — these are all impossible goals when you’re nervous, fidgeting, worrying about the superficial stuff like gum vs. mint, tie vs. no tie, joke vs. no joke. Forget about that stuff.

Come with ideas.

Advancing your ideas, your concerns, your solutions to problems you may notice related to your field is one of the best things you can do. No ideas = no passion. Employers want to hire passionate people, and if you can’t muster the enthusiasm to write a unique cover letter for a job, talk about issues in whatever industry you’re in — it’s a tip off. It’s like forcing a conversation with someone you’re just not compatible with.

And that’s the takeaway point. If you’re looking for jobs in an arena that you’re genuinely excited about, your interview isn’t an interview. It’s a conversation. It should be exciting. You should be buzzing. So let the sparks fly.

Are Unpaid Internships Illegal?

Written by michael. Posted on March 8, 2010. Filed under Internship Advice. Tagged , , , , , . No comments.
Don't get eaten by jaguar sharks, intern.

Don't get eaten by jaguar sharks, intern.

These days, 84 percent of college students complete an internship before graduation and 64 percent of those are paid.

So are the other 36 percent college-educated slaves shackled by the burden of building a resume while being whipped until each and every TPS Report is filed alphabetically?

The legality of unpaid internships has been clouded by companies that don’t develop a truly valuable internship experience. Small companies may have a lot to offer a student looking for experience through an internship. They might not necessarily be able to afford paying an intern though. But when an internship is unpaid, it needs to meet a higher standard for what the intern gets out of it in terms of experience. In other words, if you can’t pay your intern, you better make sure they’re really getting something of value for their time.

Unpaid internships themselves aren’t illegal — it’s just that there are too many employers that can get away with substituting a valuable experiential learning experience with a filing cabinet and some phone jockeying.

It’s not unpaid internships that are the problem. It’s employers that think an intern is for slinging coffee.

Many employers offer internships that are either unpaid or for college credit in lieu of pay. The intern meme is that of a college student desperate for experience, hurriedly filing away endless mountains of paperwork, doing menial tasks and being given unwanted work.

If a business’ internship programs fits that meme, chances are it’s illegal. The Department of Labor created a 6-point test to evaluate whether a “trainee” is an intern or technically an “employee.” Each of these six points must be true for a legal internship:

1. If the training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in a vocational school;
2. If the training is for the benefit of the trainee;
3. If the trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under close observation;
4. If the employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and, on occasion, the employer’s operations are actually impeded;
5. If the trainees are not necessarily entitled to employment at the completion of the training period;
6. If the employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.
The part that makes this dicey is displacing regular employees and the bit about the employer not directly benefiting from the activities of the intern. That may make you scratch your head — aren’t interns supposed to help? Yes and no.

Interns should be benefitting at least as much if not more than the employer from a given internship. At play here is the idea that an employer should be taking a hit to their productivity by taking time out to help serve a mentorship role, teaching the intern and helping them develop.

But let’s turn the tables and think about internships for a second: Sure, some smaller companies might be able to offer a great experience to a student looking to add experience to their resume. But at the same time, if the extra help isn’t worth $8 an hour to a company, there’s probably either something wrong with the help…or the company.