Indianapolis Jobs

Last week, I received a very interesting email. This message informed me that Mayor Ballard, and Governor Mitch Daniels would be paying a visit to Angie's List, my host company, the following day. As I drove up to the ever eclectic Angie's List campus the next morning, the energy was undeniable. The entire company was counting down the minutes until 9:15, when the two were scheduled to arrive. At about 9:00am, my department was buzzing was eagerness. We all walked over to the courtyard where a mix of employees, including many Orr Fellowship alumni, sat on hand-me-down picnic tables, looking on as Angie Hicks introduced the mayor and the governor.

The first statement Governor Daniels made was that he was proud of this organization and the impact it has made on the near east side of Indianapolis. As he continued his speech, I could not help but feel pride as well. I am proud to be a part of Angie's List. I am proud to be associated with one of the Best Places to Work in Indianapolis; a company that will be providing over 500 jobs in the city of Indianapolis in the next 5 years. I then looked around at all of the Orr Fellow alumni, and thought about their positions within Angie's List, as well as all of the entrepreneurial endeavors they work on after hours and the career opportunities they are pursuing.

I could not help but feel, in that moment, that I was beginning to fully realize the mission of the Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship in Indiana. Angie Hicks, Co-founder of my host company, is motivating me to take a career risk. The current Orr Fellows and alumni I associate with, aside from their distinguished post-grad jobs, are motivating me to do more with my energy than just a 9-5 job. Governor Daniels and Mayor Ballard are motivating me to make a tangible impact on the city of Indianapolis.

As I left my office that day, my head was buzzing with opportunities to pursue around the city. I spent that evening sending emails and brainstorming how I could give back to this community that is offering so much to me during my fellowship experience. I found myself reaching out to connections I have already made through the Fellowship to offer help in various volunteer avenue. I was beginning to take advantage of post-graduate networking in Indianapolis. I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to experience the influence of city and state leaders just three short months out of college.

It seems like just yesterday that I graduated from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and took off for a month in Europe.  Coming back was difficult, but starting at Fifth Gear, an Ecommerce fulfillment company looking to double revenue in five years, and the Orr Fellowship Indiana was an abrupt trek back to reality.  However, it is great to be in a high-growth Indianapolis company, were the focus is on people.  Management recognizes that in order for profitable growth, new people will need to be brought on;  and brought on I was.   On my very first day with Fifth Gear I left before lunch to visit our 500,000 square feet warehouse location in Louisiana, Missouri.  Louisiana had the wonderful smells and feel of a small Middle American town with approximately a third of the town employed by Fifth Gear.  I toured the twin warehouses on the outskirts of town, less than two miles from the center!  The warehouse was hot and my stomach was growling for food, but the warehouse was never-the-less impressive.  With thousands of horse, house restoration and enough contact lenses to keep me seeing for life, I was prepared to whip out my Visa and go on a never-ending shopping spree. 

The next morning started with a delightful visit to a local favorite café called Daybreak, located a stone’s throw from the Mississippi River.  A pleasant man took our orders.  Delicious omelets, California style with spinach and feta cheese is what I got.  At the end of breakfast, a nightshift worker recognized our badges and gave us recommendations on how to improve the warehouse.  The recommendations were genuine and thorough.  After breakfast, it was back to the warehouse.  The community office that is shared by temporary visitors is quant with street views.  The information I attained over the next few days advanced my knowledge incredibly more than sitting in Indy for four days starring at my computer wondering, “What does this Operations Analyst role I have really mean.”  Later, I was invited to sit in on a freight meeting with our CEO, President, and VP of Operations; yet again emphasizing the honor it is to be an Orr Fellow.  Two more days of business meetings and shadowing carried on like this.  Except on the last day where we all splurged with homemade cinnamon donuts from Daybreak.  It was hands down the greatest donut these taste buds have experienced. 

The five hour ride back home allowed for reflection on what I learned, as well as a vital phone conference with my manager, we couldn’t find time to meet in Louisiana, further emphasizing exactly how important time is to growing companies.  I walked away with valuable insight of what Fifth Gear does, but more importantly I put a face with a name and each person I met was able to do the same.  The warehouse was hot, the restaurants were only opened a few nights a week, but the people had the right attitude needed for growth.  The people were friendly and everyone acknowledge my existence in passing.  It felt simply like home away from home.

In addition to my exciting new role with Fifth Gear on August 1^st the Orr Fellow crew met and I was placed in the Fellow Development Group.  The group plans the all-Fellow retreat coming up in mid-August, as well as, five personal and professional growth seminars throughout the next year.  Finally the group is responsible for smoothly transitioning our next class of Fellows.  Though starting “two” jobs in quick session was a brain shock, I am already seeing the benefits from both.  I am excited to spend more time with current Fellows and learn more about Ecommerce.

• Attended a Venture Club of Indianapolis meeting with Chris Palmer and an executive at my company. Our CEO spoke on the guest pannel.
• Helped develop my company's social media presence
• Worked on my salesforce database skills while sending messages out to customers
• Had a bbq pork sandwich and a beer in the office as part of our thirsty Thursday tradition.
• Wrote this post.

• Just adding people will no longer solve the problem:  Rob talked with us about how not too long ago, simply adding educated people to a country's workforce and not necessarily worrying about productivity gains within that workforce would bring about increases in economic growth for the country.  That day in age is long gone now and becoming more productive as a workforce with less resources is driving economic growth much more than simply adding another body to the stem.  
• Finding new and innovative ideas to solve big problems is as important now as it ever has been: Much of the time in conversation with Rob revolved around the issues that the Lilly Foundation has identified in education and health care and how they are trying to solve them.  One thing I found refreshing about his approach to solving issues was trying to find workable solutions on a small scale before advocating them on a large scale.  For example, in the education field, the Lilly Foundation doesn't try and solve entire country's problem in one big cash-flush solution, but instead they take small, but calculated, bets on Indianapolis and Indiana based initiatives that are innovative and take new approaches to solving problems of things such as getting more students to graduate and improving the quality of education.  Then if they see success in these smaller initiatives they advocate these solutions on a larger scale, thereby advocating for more proven and refined solutions then ones that are great in theory but may not be great in practice. 

5 tips for you to consider when tweeting:

1)      No redos on Twitter.  Consider what you are posting before you take the dive and send out your 140 character short story about how upset you are by @soandso and remember there is no effective means of recalling public tweets.  Once they are out there, they are part of the public domain and sure to be scrutinized and reflect upon you and your brand.

2)      Your tweets are owned by you.  Once tweeted, your posts are public domain and indexed for searches and linked back to you.  Don’t share anything you don’t want to be public information.  Save this for direct messages if absolutely necessary but remember that even direct messages can be retweeted.

3)      Tweet what is relevant to your brand.  As an individual you represent a brand and that brand can be YOU, your employer, your cause or any other number of things.  Make sure to keep this in mind when tweeting and keep your tweets relevant.  The last thing you want to do is destroy your personal brand because of what you have decided to tweet in the heat of a twitter war or lapse in judgment.

4)      Twitter is not Facebook.  Don’t use Twitter like you use Facebook.  Twitter is used to connect with people and to follow people of interest so you can stay in the conversation.  It is not simply a status update.  To be effective you have to use references and acknowledge individuals on a regular basis.  This may be a retweet, reply, use of hash tags (#) or simply posting relevant content.

5)      Twitter is best utilized via Twitter clients.  I personally use HootSuite which allows me to manage multiple accounts from one system while staying connected and engaged.  These clients also provide analytics and allow you to shorten URLs and easily schedule your tweets. 

Twitter is a highway of information and hopefully this will help you to more effectively consume and contribute to the vast amount of relevant information out there. 

Happy and safe tweeting!                                                                            
@zacworkman
 

The Orr Fellowship's ROTC took place in Indianapolis, Indiana, just a few days ago, and with all the wonderful new candidates to speak with, inspiring presenters,  and some great MCing by Bob Reish and Matt Lubbers, there was plenty to be excited about. My favorite part, however, was after the event had ended. The last candidates were trailing out and the hosts were gently herding the current fellows towards the exits while flipping the lights off behind us.

Outside, the conversations continued. For a good 30 minutes, almost twenty of the current fellows stood in the not-so-tropical Indiana night, catching-up, telling jokes, and making plans for both the short-term (weekend) and long-term (career). It was already late, we all had work in the morning, and we had already been together for nearly four straight hours. Yet somehow we were simply having too much fun enjoying each others company, conversing about business jobs in Indiana and pleasure, and bouncing our latest ideas off one another to be bothered.

To my left, the ever enthusiastic Jon Corwin rang out, saying he wished the candidates were still around, as this scene was the best example he could think of of what it really means to be a fellow. I had to agree.

I realize I have yet to make a splash on the Orr Fellowship blog (shame on me), but I’m hoping that – after reading this post – this will speak to not my lack of involvement with or enthusiasm for the Orr Fellowship, but quite the opposite.

As I read through the blog posts to date from my fellow Orr Fellows, it’s clear that this entire string highlights one reason after another why you should respect the organization’s goals and obvious deliverables (deliverables? Meaning: the network, connections, friendships, professional experience and education, exposure to executives and high-growth startups, entrepreneurial opportunities, and on and on…) – or even consider applying. It’s a team effort to grow and improve the Fellowship, which says something else about it. We have all either consciously or unconsciously acquired a sense of ownership of the program. Every new class of Orr Fellows has the potential to define the Fellowship further, which is intensely motivating.

In that same vein, one of the biggest themes between the two current classes of Orr Fellows (2009 and 2010) right now is collaboration and, more importantly, the power thereof. Orr Fellows are active and making an impact on the Indianapolis community. Matt Hunckler, with assistance from Jon Corwin and other Orr Fellow alumni, organizes Hackers & Founders, a group for entrepreneurs and developers passionate about startups and new opportunities. Max Yoder decided to help give the group some face time and wrote about it for the Indy Spectator (this tweet shows how the magic happens).


Speaking of Max, he’s also fairly active with his music alongside his job and Orr Fellowship activities. I (Lauren Weatherall) am working with a co-worker of mine in organizing Linking Indy Women, a networking group for women professionals looking to share and be inspired by others’ accomplishments. In short, a lot of great things are happening through collaboration and, often times, connections spurred by the Orr Fellowship serve as the catalysts for this kind of activity.
 

For brevity's sake, I won’t delve into further examples, but I will express my enthusiasm for the culture we, as Orr Fellows and motivated young professionals, are helping cultivate in Indiana. I'm surprising myself by how much I'm enjoying Indianapolis right now; I think it's partly because I can see and am part of some of the changes happening here. People are helping and connecting each other in the entrepreneurial scene (well, and just in general) and I'm finding myself constantly surrounded by positive energy. I can honestly say I have the Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship to thank for that. Wherever you go and whatever you do, never underestimate the value in connecting and collaborating with people. Who you surround yourself with makes all the difference. If there's one thing I could share that I've learned in the past few months, that's it.

After attending several of the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship recruiting events, I have discovered a common concern held by many senior candidates.  As if the job search isn’t stressful enough, many college seniors are concerned that recruiters are attempting to “sell” them on the job at hand, leading them to hold false expectations about what the job will really be like.
 
My response to their concerns is always the same.  We’re not here to “sell” you on anything.  Our responses to your questions and accounts of our experiences are completely genuine.  When we say the Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship offers executive mentorship, it’s the truth.  Last month, I went to lunch with the President of my company where we talked casually about his career successes and some of the business challenges he’s faced.  On a more frequent basis, I experience executive mentorship through some of the projects I am working on with the VP of Technology.  He’s taken a direct role in some of the critical learning experiences that have pushed me to grow at my host company. 

When we say that the Orr Fellowship offers networking and social opportunities, we mean it.  Aside from our monthly Business Leader Meetings, there is a steady stream of networking opportunities, whether it’s attending a technology-based convention in Indianapolis or attending an Orr Fellowship social event, like the one being held this month, where guests include Orr Fellowship Board Members, Orr Fellowship Alumni, current Orr Fellows, Host Company Executives, and other special guests.

So far, I have completed four months of the Orr Fellowship, and I can honestly say that it has lived up to and even exceeded my expectations.  The Orr Fellowship doesn’t need a sales pitch.  It speaks genuinely of itself. 

 

Recently, Bob Reish, Matt Barloh and I attended the first career fair of the season! We traveled north to our Alma mater, The University of Notre Dame, and after spending the morning promoting the Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship in front of several classes, we moved to the fair to further spread the word about this amazing program.

We met some great candidates and had a ton of fun getting to know many of the good prospects for the Orr Fellowship Class of 2011. We had conversations with people we had asked to come see us, and also a surprising number of folks who sought us out after they had heard of our program from friends.

Many candidates were not specifically looking for entrepreneurial companies or technology jobs in Indianapolis, but when we began discussing the fantastic networking opportunities in Indianapolis, and the high growth start-ups we work with, we could see their interest begin to swell. Of course, many of our best candidates had serious offers from big companies and other prestigious post-graduate programs, so with this strong competition it was even more incredible to see the how their eyes would light up when we discussed the opportunities at the Orr Fellowship. Obviously the advantages the three of us saw in the Orr Fellowship resonate with other people.

The recruiting season is off to a great start but there is still much to do. It is obvious already however that the word is spreading about this great opportunity. With a little luck this recruiting season will be the best yet.