I failed to take advantage of the ILR Career Services office because I thought I could do things on my own. I found myself a fantastic internship for the summer after my Sophomore year. It was in HR at Orvis, the company that made my favorite fly fishing rods. I interned with them again during the summer after my Junior year, and I was even offered a full time job. Despite my having a wonderful internship experience during both summers, I decided against taking the job because I had realized that corporate HR wasn't for me. I had planned to take some time off after graduation, so I waited until the Fall to start looking for a job. I knew that I eventually wanted to start my own business, but I couldn't see a way that I could make it happen as a new graduate with only two Summer internships' worth of experience under my belt. So, I started looking for a job because that was what I felt that I was supposed to do. I had never needed help before, so I didn't ask for any.

One Day, One Job and One Day, One Internship are the fruits of a very frustrating and somewhat depressing job search that spanned about 6 months. Not only was I unrealistic in my expectations for an entry-level job, but I also wasn't a very good job searcher. I had no idea what kind of job I wanted, and I still had my heart set on starting my own company. I was never fully committed to my job search, so I set myself up for failure. I eventually realized that there are thousands of really exciting companies that are open to hiring new college graduates, but finding out who they are and what they do can be extremely difficult. I knew that there had to be a better way to job search, so I started researching the online recruitment industry. I eventually came up with the idea for One Day, One Job - a site that introduces job seekers to a new entry-level employer every day while also teaching those students how to use the job search techniques that we use to find the companies that we write about.

While most job boards list thousands of jobs with very little depth of information, One Day, One Job focuses intensely on a single employer every day. We tell our readers what entry-level jobs are available, how to navigate the company's careers website, how to apply for the jobs, how to further research the company, and much more. We also provide a list of resources at the end of every post so that our readers have a good starting point to continue their research if they find the employer intriguing. In addition to our daily posts about jobs, we also write in-depth articles on the latest online job search techniques. We want our readers to make use of all of the amazing new job search tools that are part of Web 2.0, so we try our best to stay on the cutting edge.

As much as our site is about helping college students find great jobs, our business is about helping employers more effectively communicate about their jobs. We offer both advertising and consulting services for employers and others who are interested in reaching entry-level job seekers in ways that go beyond traditional job board postings. My ILR education has been invaluable both in generating the ideas behind One Day, One Job and in running the daily operations of the business. The recruitment advertising package that we offer to employers is based on research by Chris Collins, who was my professor in HR260 and Business Strategy. My lessons in negotiation from Professors Seeber, Lipsky, and Kramer played a strong role in the process that led to my decision not to accept an offer by another startup that wanted to buy me out of my company before I had even launched the site. Every day my lessons in Labor Law from Professor Lieberwitz and in Labor Economics  from Professors Smith and DeVaro help me better understand the climate of the industry I'm in. The ILR program gives its students a perspective on the world that few other programs do - through the lens of labor and management relations. Without my ILR education, I don't think I would have ever had the inspiration to start One Day, One Job.

Although the period directly after graduation was rough for me, I was eventually able to combine my ILR education with my experience building and running websites to start my own business. Maybe the fact that I made things difficult for myself is what led to the idea for One Day, One Job, but if I had the chance to do it again, I would have stopped into the Career Services office during my Freshman or Sophomore year. Now, part of running my business is developing relationships with dozens of Career Services offices, and I'm always astounded at how willing to help the people whom I contact usually are. No matter what you want to do, Career Services can help, and so can One Day, One Job. I built the site to be the resource that I would have wanted when I was job hunting, and I hope it fills that need for college students for years to come. 

- Willy Franzen, 07/31/08