On recruiting...

This week, I interviewed for a couple of marketing jobs for post-graduation. I'm excited about the future, but I'm also intrigued by the level of marketing that goes into such a behind-the-scenes process such as human resources. I've seen the career fair trade-show-like booths, the big, impressive signs and bright colors, the freebie giveaways, and everything else in the past couple weeks and it blew me away. Well, it would have blown me away had I not been weighted down with tons of freebies from the booths. I got a deck of cards from Macy's, a water bottle from Johnson and Johnson, a pair of socks from Payless, mints and candy everywhere, letter openers, granola bars from General Mills, and all sorts of other swag. Anyway, my point is, I saw an application of marketing that I hadn't seen before. Companies are out there competing for the best applicants, and they have to fight hard (or give away something really cool). I always envisioned a "I'm the lowly college grad begging for a job" scenario, but it didn't happen that way. Of course, I do attend one of the highest-ranked business schools in the country. Maybe if I was at Podunk State I'd have a more difficult time, but I'm feeling all right right now. I think I'll be able to land a job when I graduate. We'll just see what it is.

Packaging an iPod

Has anyone else ever noticed how cool Apple is with their packaging? Yeah, the design of their products is great (see Business Week's article about it, published not more than a few weeks ago), but I think the packaging is astounding. My new 30GB iPod is cool, but I remarked more to my roommate about how cool it looked in the box than I chatted it up about my new purchase--funny, but that's just how I am sometimes. Anyway, the box is INCREDIBLY small (partially because of the lack of a power adapter, but I won't go into that) and it folds up like a neat little book. It even has a sleeve like a DVD! I'm sure I paid for the packaging, but the idea's brilliant. You take a product that people want because it's small and design-savvy, then put it in a box that emphasizes cool in everything from the matte balck finish with silver to its extremely small size, and you just wow people from the get-go. I'm really impressed. Love the iPod, too, by the way. The new designs just keep getting sweeter. Check 'em out at Apple's web site. They're expensive, but sometimes you just have to pay for the best.