Know anyone looking for a cool place to work in Duluth?
By ravendave on Sep 27, 2011 in Help Wanted
Hey! Do you know anyone looking for a cool place to work? Not cold, mind you, but a place where coming to work is like being wrapped a warm, sweaty blanket supplied to you by dear friends? OK, maybe not sweaty. Here’s the deal: I am look for two people who are fun, artistic, and competent to come and work at my company, Raven & Associates, Inc.
Here’s the basics on the two jobs:
Position #1: Full time customer-service representative position. Hourly wage beginning at +$10 per hour, flexible scheduling, retirement benefits and partial health insurance. Previous experience, background in art, and interest in outdoors preferred. Please note this is not a phone-sales job. There will be no cold calling.
Position #2: Entry-level graphic designer. Position pays $10 per hour plus some health benefits, retirement benefits, and some flexibility with scheduling. Job responsibilities include graphic design, production layout for screen printing and embroidery, and order processing. Please send resume and digital portfolio (though a link to online portfolio preferred).
If you have any questions, call Dave Orman at 740-2769.
$10 an hour! It better be a warm fuzzy fleese you are planning on wrapping around people. I think $10.50 is the cutoff for poverty level in the USA? Correct me please folks if I’m wrong? Insurance is worth something however. At least you’re offering that. A lot of companies don’t. How much, however, is required of the employees to pay of that? 50 percent? Duluth is a wonderful city, but jobs? Ouch!
I agree, $10 for an entry level graphic designer is very low.
$10/hr = $21K a year. Americorps (another likely option for the first year graduate) will pay substantially less though with an education credit upon completion.
Friends of mine who graduated the Pratt in Brooklyn would say that what you basically have here is a job that covers minimum expenses and health while you freelance on the weekends. As Duluth is a small market for freelance, I think I see the wisdom in thinking that way.
No, it’s not a career. But for someone committed to remaining in Duluth, it’s a start.
$10/hour does seem low for a graphic designer experienced enough to have a portfolio to show, but $10/hour is average to good for a customer service job in the area. If I was looking for work right now, I’d apply. Not exactly the same kind of job, but last spring I worked for a big box retailer for $8/hour and it was a completely miserable experience, and with no benefits. Starting at $10/hour, working for a cool company and access to insurance would have been pretty dreamy.
Addressing Wes Scott concerns about wages: Remember that the federal minimum wage is only $7.25, and in Minnesota a small company with annual receipts below $625,000 only has to pay $5.25/hour. Can a person support a family on a $10/hr job? Probably not without some outside help (food support, energy assistance, etc.). But there are a hell of a lot of people struggling to scrape by on a lot less. But poverty levels and living wages are perhaps topics for another post.
I’m a graphic designer and know many designers, including some looking for jobs, but $10/hr really!? Have you done any research as to what a designer is worth? It’s actually offensive to see that. Especially how you have the position compared to a customer service rep. position.
I agree! If you want top notch design, you should probably offer a little more than what I made at my high school job, to people who, most likely went to college and have a degree in the field. If you find anyone that’s willing to work for that little money, you can expect sub par quality at best.
This is going to start to get repetitive, but I agree with the majority here. Yes, times are tough and some people may jump at such an offer, but really, this just doesn’t seem like a fair offer. With the word load you’re proposing you need someone with an degree in graphic design + experience or something comparable in work experience. Anyone that has that is making more than you’re offering.
Also, any job that feels like I’ve been wrapped in a sweaty blanket just doesn’t sound too appealing.
I have a niece working in a food store bagging and working floral department also for $8 an hour. Of course there is no insurance. But with that said many companies want you to pay 40 percent of that sometimes more. I think it’s sick what is happening to wages in America. Of course Duluth isn’t the Twin Cities. Being north has been an excuse for low wages too long. Where you think you are? Take it or leave it. Many do leave it and move sadly.
Hey, if the GD position is schedule flexible, why not hire a high school student? Often, they can work the photoshops good.
United Health Care
Starting Customer Service Position
(No college degree required. No experience required)
- 13.94 / hr
- 401k
- 144 hours paid vacation a year
- stock options
- 50 dollars a month for full benefits
All that in Duluth. Just to show you don’t have to have a low-paying job to stay in Duluth.
Downside: You are working for the “Man.”
I love how all of the people complaining about hiring someone for a “low” wage are not offering any jobs for any amount of money. Complaining sure is easier than offering a solution.
Thanks for the heads up Dave, it is good to know there are places that are looking for local talent that need a start.
+ 1 to B-man -- It’s an entry-level design position with benefits. That alone is pretty good news in Duluth. Show the employer you know your stuff, and you can probably negotiate a raise.
Sure, a freelance designer should be charging more than that, but they’re also covering their own equipment, software, insurance and more.
It’s more than I made in entry-level positions, of course that was a looong time ago.
I generally walk away from negative comments but find myself oddly bemused by the griping about the $10 for the graphic design job. It is a job. In Duluth. For a Person who wants to be a Graphic Designer. It’s a way to build experience and a portfolio. We are a small local company and are paying what we can currently afford for this position. We expect that position will turn over (and it has) as people gain experience and move on in their careers. And hey, find out more about us and the job before passing judgement. Better yet, do business with my company so that we can continue to grow and raise wages.
I have a friend looking for a job! I’ll pass this on, she graduated last year and is working for $7.50/hr!!!!! Mind you all, not in her field! Doing freelance stuff in her spare time.
Could you give some more details though, like days of the week and FT or PT?
Monday through Friday. 9 AM -- 5PM. We do have flexibility in scheduling hours during week.
It is a very inviting way of putting a job out there. It makes me want to come and work for you. I may have someone interested also. Thanks for putting it out there. Money is important, but to love your job is half the battle.
I can vouch that it would be pretty awesome to work for Dave. He’s great.
I’m floored to see a $10 entry level position getting trashed, especially with all the benefits. But I suppose the entry on the price of food with the comments about a two person household spending $400-600 a month should have tipped me off… It’s easy to judge from a position of privilege but it’s not like that income is poverty level either (really guys, at least not in Duluth). I’m sure plenty of people would love a job like that.
Frankly, I’m 26, I’ve been employed steadily since I was 16 and I’ve never made more than $8 an hour (and that is only at the most recent job in the last year). For the most part, its been in the $6 and $7 range. Yet I’ve done well enough to buy my first home at 20 working such jobs (mortgage was cheaper than rent and it wasn’t exactly a crummy house). My spouse had a better paying job but the reality is, we could have flipped burgers and still paid for everything. I know people that have bought homes in Duluth on 20K/year incomes and come to think of it, much less and with no trouble paying the bills. Could you do that in any part of the country? Of course not, but to trash a $10 an hour job around here is just silly. There’s plenty of beloved local businesses that pay much less.
Working for $10/hour, with any health insurance, retirement benefits, a flexible schedule and for a place that sounds cool (i.e., doesn’t make you wake up dreading going into work every day) sounds like heaven. I’d apply for either position if I wasn’t a month away from maternity leave.
What is the meaning of “partial” and “some” health benefits?
We pay 50% of monthly health insurance, establish simple IRA (3% match), and you start first year with 10 paid days leave.
Surprise, surprise. PDD liberals bitching about a great job not being good enough. Have any of you paid attention to the unemployment rate? Here is a person offering two full time positions with some benefits and yet all most of you can do is put this man and his company down. For a community blog, it sure seems you’re against something that can benefit a few members of this community and a local business striving to make it in this community. Disgusting.
Don’t blame the blog, Jadiaz. Blame the bloggers. PDD doesn’t have opinions, the people commenting on PDD do. And that includes PDD conservatives like you.
Fair enough Paul, my apologies.
Thanks for the explanations of the benefits. What is the monthly premium? Are family members covered?
Monthly premium generally depends on age and health. Family members can be added to policy but employee has to cover them.
For Duluth, $10 an hour ain’t that bad at all. I started out at that 8 years ago at the shop. I’m making significantly better than that now, but sometimes the job ain’t about the money.
Your “assessment” is laughable. It may be a great job, in that it is personally rewarding, but the salary is substandard for a trained designer.
It may be a great entry level job for a young, single, healthy, unemployed graphic designer, but most Duluthians do not fit that description.
More power to the poster, though. I wish him or her much success.
“It may be a great entry level job for a young, single, healthy, unemployed graphic designer, but most Duluthians do not fit that description.”
It’s also fair to say that Raven doesn’t want “most Duluthians” applying. They want someone with a thin portfolio and a 2-year degree or with a thin portfolio and a four-year degree who’s just starting out.
I know a guy that got a tech degree in graphic design down in Minneapolis. He’s quite talented, but when it came time for him to get a real grown up job it was impossible to get a start anywhere. His career ended up going in a different direction as a result.
To get paid to do what you really enjoy is a benefit that too many people will never experience.
Yeah, sometimes I can’t believe they actually give me money to do what I do!
Don’t get me wrong, the flow is nice … makes living a little easier, but really, doing what you love has its own reward.
Is this graphic design position still open?
Sometimes you have to take shit jobs in order to move on up in the world. Especially in Duluth. My first job in this town paid $6.50/hr in 1994, but it directly led to my second job that paid twice that, and so on…
Both jobs have been filled, though I am submitting another job opening today! This worked out great last time!
Congrats, Dave!