21st Century Jobs in Indiana

Modern day businesses are exploring the unknown. Social networking, free flow of information, and increasingly open development standards are making commerce more intimate. In this intimate climate, organizations must place an emphasis on creating cultures of innovation where diversity of thought and hotbeds of expression are valued. Companies do not build on ideas; they build on culture. These are the principles that inform the 21^st Century workplace.

Jobs in Indiana are hard to come by these days. But the Orr Fellowship is working to stem that tide of job losses by being an applied training vehicle for recent graduates and creating Indianapolis area jobs for pursuit by a skilled workforce. This Indiana Fellowship that can help bridge the gap between a 20th century training in high school and college, and the 21st century skills necessary for success in a global, information based economy. In the process, entry level jobs turn into opportunities for recent graduates to help remake Indiana into a 21st century economy.

Nate Bullock is a second-year Orr Fellow at Brightpoint America's. The son of a construction manager and bank teller, Nate was educated at Bethesda Christian School in Brownsburg, Indiana. He went on to study Political Science, Communication Studies, and Economics at Indiana University where he was a Top 100 student, Captain of the Speech and Debate Team, and Head Delegate to the National Model United Nations in New York. You'll find him on the golf course, working with Indianapolis-based TechPoint Foundation and the Statewide Political Action Committee, Sign Big.

I never wanted to be a fan of The Bachelor television series on ABC. But I started watching it with my sister two seasons ago and have been stuck in the jet stream ever since. I think the show gets unfairly criticized by pundits who neither watch the show nor appreciate the value of reality television in our culture. For me, The Bachelor became more enjoyable once I started to realize that ABC was not really trying to play matchmaker for star-lost lovers. No, ABC puts these people on television for our entertainment; once you can look at the participants more as characters in a plot, the show becomes more enjoyable.

This most recent season saw Jake, a steamy yet wholesome pilot from Dallas, Texas, try to pick up the pieces from last season after being summarily dumped by Jillian, last season's Bachelorette. Jake won a fan following after he famously returned to The Bachelorette, after his dismissal, to "warn" Jillian that one of the guys she liked was a fraud. Oh my...the irony is thicker than the line at a Kroger flower shop on February 13th.

The Bachelor is a metaphor for life (along with sports, poker, bacon and scratch 'n sniff stickers), and you can derive universal truths if you pay close enough attention. In last week's episode, I derived a universal truth about high growth start-ups and entry-level jobs in start-ups: 

In order to bring value to an organization, you have to bring something of value to the table.

This principle was played out this past Monday as Jake had to choose two women out of three to go to the finals of the competition for his heart. Put more simply, there are three women left and Jake is not a Mormon. Someone had to go.

So there were three women: Tenley, Gia and Vienna. Tenley (green dress) is a college admissions counselor from Oregon, recently divorced. She's gone out of her way to show Jake that her priorities are to be a good wife and a lifelong partner. She wants a husband who is a companion, someone she can lean on and who can lean on her.

Vienna (purple dress) is the opposite of Tenley. She's 23, has a youthful vigor, is playful and wants a husband as a 'best friend', someone she can laugh with until she's 70 and have fun with 'till death do they part.

On the metaphorical spectrum of competitive love matching, Tenley and Vienna are complete opposites. Tenley is the wife and Vienna is the best-friend. Vienna wants to laugh while Tenley wants to nourish. Both aspire to marry Jake but for entirely different reasons. They are both practicing the 101% principle: find the 1% of the product you can affirm and give it 100% of your energy in affirming it. Tenley has all her eggs (100%) in the basket of her character (1%) while Vienna is going all-in (100%) with her fun-factor cards (1%).

Then there's Gia (red dress), a New York, New Yorker who is a little like Vienna and a little like Tenley, and extremely attractive. She is a swimsuit model and she is Italian. She wants to be a wife, and she wants to have fun, and she likes Jake. But she has a major problem:

She'll never be as nurturing as Tenley (green) and she'll never be as fun as Vienna (purple).

Gia doesn't bring anything to the table that isn't trumped by one of the other two girls on the show. She is average. She is un-distinguishable. Which is precisely why she got dumped this past Monday.

Success in an entry-level job requires you to bring value to the organization, which requires you to bring something of value to the table. Gia didn't bring anything to the table that wasn't brought more fruitfully by the other two competitors. Distinguished post-grad jobs require a person to distinguish themselves; Don't be the soft-spoken acquaintance sipping Bacardi hoping that somebody will see the merits in you as a mate (in this situation, 'mate' is a metaphor for entry-level jobs in Indiana).

Even if someone does take an interest at first, much like Jake did with Gia, you'll eventually be shutdown by someone with more vigor or more passion. And like Gia, you might find yourself crying in an Escalade on your way to the airport in St. Lucia to catch a Red-Eye back to NYC. Ok maybe not, but you get my drift.

As you may well know, Apple released it's highly touted iPad in late January of 2010 and has received mixed reviews. While iThings are trendy and slick, performance has been a concern for many (just look at the recent iPhone issues in New York and AT&T network strain). The iPad is no different as the device possesses non-expandable SD inputs, a general lack of multi-task capabilities, no camera and a low battery life (plus MadTV might have some brand name patents that need addressed).

So this was basically another mac product launch whereby brand lovers became more entranced and brand haters...well...could keep hating. However, beyond these Mac-versus-PC-versus-Linux-versus-CMS-versus-Ruby computo-debates, the iPad launch signifies something that every person seeking a technology job in Indianapolis should be conscious of: 

The gap between personal and mobile computing is closing and Apple is blazing that trail despite early attempts at entry by the e-readers (Amazon, B&N, etc.). Where the publishing houses tried to provide a mobile reader, Apple flexed its muscle and offered not only a mobile reader, but mobile computing application along with it.

A number of start-ups, most in NYC and SF, support Apple's move into the portable market as there is a trend towards high growth start-ups building applications for the portable user. My favorite is NYC startup SeeClickFix, a location based service that allows you to report non-emergency issues (potholes, prostitution, graffiti) and receive alerts in your neighborhood about the issue. Other BigApps competition winners in NYC were also location based services (SporkNYC, Taxihack, WayFinder NYC).

As the portable computing gap closes, business jobs in Indianapolis will have to adapt. Entrepreneurial Companies in Indianapolis will hire people who can work within the bounds of a new economy (where your library may eventually be comprised of iPads, Kindles and a few printers). How will you adapt? How will your company evolve? The relentless quest for efficiency is squeezing some of the fat out of life, and portable computing is another step in that quest.

The May 2006 issue of Human Resources magazine featured an article by Sommer Kehrli and Truy Sopp in which the authors attempted to share tips with older generations on how to manage Generation Y, a group roughly 80 million strong born after 1978 that began entering the workforce five years ago. Often the onus for change is on older generations. After all, we 'Millennials' are coming into the workforce whether current generations like it or not. Why should the 'new' be the ones to change our habits or learn new ones from the 'old'? 

An an entrepreneurial fellowship, we constantly strive to place distinguished college graduates into high growth start-ups. But at the same time, we also communicate the need for constant improvement and learning from industry leaders. Nobody is a subject matter expert anymore and while entry-level jobs in start-ups will help you become more knowledgeable about a specific area, it won't guarantee career-long success. To quote Dr. Thomas Mason, Professor of Economics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, "to be successful at [an older] age, you need to keep learning." 

Need real world examples? 

Did you major in Public Relations or Marketing in college? Are you pretty confident writing press releases? Cool. BUT, looks like Presslift is a step ahead and that skill set will become mainstream in the near future.

Did you major in Web Design or UX in college? Are you pretty confident designing emails for your company's marketing team? Great!. BUT, Toddle is making email newsletter design and marketing a breeze.

Major in Finance? ChubbyBrain is democratizing your skill set.

Going to Law School? Legal Zoom has the basics covered.

Are you a scrapbooking professional? Yup...the semantic web has taken over this too.

EVERYTHING  is changing. High-growth start-ups and technology jobs in Indianapolis will KEEP changing. Being an expert today doesn't ensure anything for tomorrow. As Gen-Y'ers, we want to be mentored, use new technology, and be given the space to try new things. But we can be too confident, and in the process, atrophy our innate strengths of learning and development.

Your job won't be around forever, and if you don't keep learning, neither will you. The first step is accepting that a college degree doesn't make you an expert. The second is opening yourself up to learn skills, habits, and lessons from Generations past.

Oh...and sign-up to have your tree lugged through TREE LUGGERS or follow our tweets @treeluggers.

In celebration of the holiday season, @allythill scheduled lunch for the Fellows at a restaurant in downtown Indianapolis. @hunckler and I showed up late, but we probably both wish we hadn't shown up at all. It was a bad dining experience.

12 minutes to get a drink
30 minutes before the food order was taken
50 minutes before the food was served
75 minutes before bills were delivered

On the bright side, I had some time to chat with @YawA about @PocketTales launching their new web app and how he's making the jump from his distinguished post-grad job to an entrepreneurship career. Takes a lot of moxy.

My mind already operates at warp speed. Things jump in my head before I finish a thought. Mitchell Davis and I would be too much to handle. On this particular day of bad service at a restaurant which also had bad food, my mind was racing to find a connection between high growth start-ups (like @PocketTales) and this waiter who seemed to be wasting everyone's time.

Aha moment!

Restaurants give the slow shift to the slow wait staff. Monday is typically the slowest day of the week and lunch is the slowest serving of the day. Since we went on the slowest day during the slowest meal, the odds were against the @orrfellowship having a good service experience. More to the point, while good work is rewarded with accolade, bad work is rewarded with defrocking.

High-growth Indianapolis companies do not like having to defrock their employees due to poor performance. Some of the best places to work in Indiana see applicants present a positive version of themselves during the interview process, but entrepreneurship careers quickly peel away any misperceptions that may have existed after that good interview took place.

The bad news for some on the job market is that many of these startups cannot afford to pay for the 'Monday lunch shift' person. @orrfellowship host companies need good work from talented people NOW; they need the 'Friday dinner shift' person, because every day is like the Friday dinner rush for companies hiring new grads.

Be the 'Friday dinner rush' person today.

This American Life is a radio program out of WBEZ in Chicago that attempts to display what it is like to live an ‘American life’, complete with its dullness as well as its luster. Reporting is not done in the way we see on television or hear on more traditional radio. Rather, the producers attempt to place us into the culture of the topic area; the sounds bites are not ‘bites’ at all. They are actual, full, complete stories that connect the listener to a new set of experiences. This American Life attempts to make the events that mold our being (whatever that means), which makes understanding the experience more transparent. The radio program, at it's core, is about manufacturing an experience.

For example, attempting to paint the picture of Rome to my friends and family when I returned from a tour of Europe was excruciating. My pictures of Trevi’s Fountain did not nearly do it justice. My explanations of the white cliffs of Dover were juvenile. The only way in which my friends could understand the awesomeness of my trip would have been for them to experience it for themselves. In the absence of a shared “experience,” the narrative loses a little bit of sincerity.

The Orr Fellowship strives to create entrepreneurship careers that do more than simply provide post-graduate networking, entre-level jobs in startups, and an Indianapolis job opportunity; The Orr Fellowship strives to create a shared experience among Orr Fellows. Distinguished post-grad jobs are often about putting in time quietly on the sidelines while you wait your turn to play in the game.

This business fellowship is different. Jumping into fast growing Indianapolis companies is not something that most entry-level jobs in Indiana afford a fresh graduate. But entreprenurial companies need driven graduates to help contribute immediately. These companies look to Orr Fellows to help fulfill that need, providing a shared entreprenurial experience in the process.

Click here to find out how you can be included in this experience!

This video surfaced last week from Chow.com, a food and recipe site. I found myself at work watching John, the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop based in Los Angeles, walk me through his store and serendipitously bring me into his world of 'bubbly water'. Aside from his addictive personality, one can't help but be fascinated by the sheer volume of knowledge the man possesses about everything from rose petal flavored soda to his worldwide business development pipeline. It's always refreshing to hear and see someone who genuinely loves what they're doing.

When I watched the video, I couldn't help but think of entry-level jobs in Indiana. Entry Level Careers are often sought by people who want to make a lot of money, manage a team of employees, and take the elevator straight to the corner office. Most fast paced jobs offer entrepreneurially minded young people the chance to win many of those responsibilities. However, high-growth company jobs, and many other entry-level jobs in Indianapolis are about one thing: passion for doing good work. Companies hiring new grads need talent, but more importantly they need passionate talent. One sure-fire result of being passionate about your career is knowing your business inside and out. Jobs at a small company require that everyone contribute, and companies hiring new grads will open their doors to people who are willing to enter a business career in Indianapolis with a fervor for knowledge, hard work, and dedication.

The shipping is expensive, but I'm looking forward to my cucumber soda shipping in from California this week. Case-in-point right there...John was so passionate in his video that I actually ordered a case of cucumber soda. Imagine the possibilities if you began your business job in Indianapolis with that kind of passion...

People often misunderstand the value and cost savings that effective Supply Chain Management (SCM) has on everything we interact with day-to-day. In fact, over the past 15 years SCM has become the dominant way companies compete. For example, in the early 90’s it took roughly 104 days for a box of cereal to get from the factory to the supermarket (over 3 months for those of you wondering if I do good math). Through optimizing their supply chain, the grocery industry over the past 15 years has been able to save over $30 billion.

On the surface, supply chains seem relatively simple; most chains are only 5-7 ‘links’ long. However, modern day supply chains have become overwhelmingly complex (see image above). The internet boom and growth of sophisticated communication technologies allow companies to reduce material and shipping costs through the strategic sourcing of raw materials used to make ‘stuff’. As such, it’s the job of the supply chain professional to find cost effective and strategic ways to integrate these complex supply chains, reduce lead times, and sync sales channels.

I get asked quite often what I do at Brightpoint. I quip that I answer emails and ship cell phones. Then there is an awkward silence as the supplicant stares at me whilst I conjure up a lay-level explanation of “what I do.” It’s a difficult question for most recent college grads who have found technology jobs in Indianapolis. Much like ‘Supply Chain’, 21st century careers are unique post-graduation jobs, and jobs in fast paced companies are difficult to understand. Try explaining corporate blogging to someone, or why they should pay money for consumer reviews, or why Indianapolis business careers kick ‘SaaS’…it’s complicated. But these types of 21st century and high-growth company jobs, like Supply Chain Management, will be differentiators in a global economy.

The Governor Bob Orr Fellowship provides jobs in startups like Bluelock, Compendium Blogware, Canteloupe.tv, and Oxygen Education. These companies do complex work for a complex world. If you're looking for fast paced, and complex, 21st century jobs, click here.

 

Burberry might be one of the only clothing brands that was born out of a trench coat. The plaid patterns and distinctly British feel to the line of clothes, accessories, and bath items draws clear inspiration from Humphrey Bogart's famous Weasel and Stoat in films like “The Maltese Falcon” and “Casablanca.” Today’s New York Times, in an interview with Burberry’s 49-year-old President Angela Ahrendts, explains how despite their background in more traditional items, Burberry is attempting to “adapt the trench coat to the age of the Internet.” The article goes on to share Burberry’s plans for a social networking site called artofthetrench.com, which is specifically designed to market to younger consumers.

Should I repeat that? Humphrey Bogart is going social. The start of a beautiful friendship, indeed.

Is a business career in Indianapolis chic? Are local business jobs ‘smoking cigarettes in a fedora’ when they should be ‘drinking green tea and listening to their iPod’? Burberry is remaking themselves into a 21st Century company, pulling a classic brand into the Internet Age, and there are numerous jobs in Indiana attempting to do the same. Technology jobs in Indianapolis are beginning to reap the rewards from years of companies like Compendium Blogware, ExactTarget, Angie’s List and Canteloupe.tv carving out a niche for the region in internet search marketing and IT infrastructure. Indianapolis area jobs are thriving with jobs for recent grads helping organizations remake themselves into a 21st century organization. Click here too see a list of some of the Orr Fellowship’s Host Companies.