IT Milk: entry

Last week, I saw Kris Jones’ call-to-action on the pepperjamBlog about his company’s “hiring frenzy.” Pepperjam is a rapidly growing company (2006 Inc. 500 List of America’s Fastest Growing Companies), so Kris needs all the help he can get to keep up with the soaring demand for PPC management.

It’s completely random that such an innovative online company is located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Wilkes-Barre seems like the middle of nowhere in terms of the technology industry. But I am lucky enough to have this future Fortune 500 company so near to my campus. After receiving a friendly phone call from Stephanie in the HR department, today I drove over to their office for an interview for a possible internship.

What attracted me to Pepperjam is its image of innovation. When I entered the Pepperjam office, the interior layout reflected that freshness. The office is one humongous bright room separated by transparent dividers, and there is no ceiling (a metaphor of the company’s limitless growth and potential).

What a contrast to corporate offices with executives working behind solid wood doors and dull, drab carpeting lining the hallways. To clearly reinforce that Pepperjam is not another dragging, sloth-like company, all of the employees bustling around are young and motivated; the oldest employee is only 33 years old.

I was interviewed by Ken Mohn, who is the VP of Search Marketing. We chatted about affiliate marketing and search engine optimization. Since Ken is the person-in-charge of all SEO operations for one of the top 10 SEO companies, I should have spent some time trying to extract valuable information. I spend countless hours reading ebooks and listening to audio books about SEO, but nothing is better than a primary source. We agreed that I would start as an intern in May.

I even ran into the legendary Kristopher Jones on my way out. Kris, you are running a truly awesome company that has so much potential. I am excited that I found your company and I can’t wait to start my internship at Pepperjam this summer.