ALEX Production Apprenticeship
Of all the virtual people Jellyvision has created, the tallest and least afraid of bears is ALEX® (www.meetalex.com). ALEX helps companies talk their employees through the tricky choices they’ll have to make, like picking a health insurance plan, deciding how much to put in the 401(k), or whether they might want extra life insurance. Our customers love ALEX because he helps their employees figure out what’s best for their personal situations, which, in turn, saves our customers a boat-load of time and money - everybody wins! As we sell more and more of ALEX, we need more and more non-virtual (i.e., real-life) people to keep the virtual ones amazing. That’s where you come in.
That’s lovely, but what’s this I hear about an apprenticeship program?
We’re looking for a select group of apprentices for an extended apprenticeship program with our ALEX team to help deliver perfect, customized versions of our software to our awesome customers. Before we get into specifics, here’s the lowdown on the program in general:
Length: The apprenticeship will start in May or June (we’ll offer a few different start dates to account for various graduation dates) and wrap up in November. Only candidates who will be available for this entire period will be considered. Apprentices work full time, Monday through Friday.
Who’s eligible: Students graduating in May/June 2016, recent grads, or any awesome folks who are looking for an excellent short-term opportunity.
What does the Jellyvision apprenticeship program offer?
- Competitive pay. Specifically, $600/week.
- The opportunity to contribute to Jellyvision’s award-winning interactive ALEX products through specific short-term assignments. You’ll be doing work that matters. You won’t be making copies all day, stuck in a back room filing papers, or fetching coffee — apprentices sit with and are valued members of the team.
- An environment voted one of Chicago’s best workplaces for millennials by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2014 and 2015.
- Training to understand the complex world of health care benefits and other communication issues employers face.
- Professional development support, mentoring and feedback from members of Jellyvision’s award-winning staff.
- Summer social events designed to give apprentices exposure to staff outside their core work area.
- Networking and learning opportunities in Chicago’s vibrant tech scene.
- Bottom line—the opportunity to do good work with fun people in a relaxed and casual environment.
Okay, I could come hang out with you Jellypeople this summer. What are you specifically looking for in a Production Apprentice?
During our very busy software implementation season, our production team delivers many customer-tailored versions of ALEX in a short period. Why so short? There’s a tiny window between when our customers design their employee benefits packages and when ALEX must be live online for those customers’ employees to use.
We make these versions by writing, editing, formatting, spreadsheet-making, cat-herding, and otherwise doing whatever it takes to get each customer’s ALEX experience just right. The production apprentices keep the team organized and the process running smoothly while also supporting the development of great content.
We’re looking for perfectionists who can hit deadlines and magicians who understand that creative work involves discipline and planning just as much as it involves, you know, creating. You’ll mostly be ensuring the accuracy, formatting, and general goodness of already-created content, rather than producing brand-new creative work. To that end, we’re looking for folks who have:
- A love of problem-solving, amazing organizational skills, a great eye fordetail, a spirit of helpfulness, and a calm, can-do attitude.
- Experience with editing, proofreading, quality assurance, technical writing, or other detailed nerdwork.
- Interest in making fantastic products that help people learn.
- An inquisitive, curious nature and a passionate love of learning.
And we’re hoping for these bonus features:
- Experience using weird software: We use many proprietary tools here, so you should be fearless in the face of technology. We’ll train you on the job, but you should be a fast learner who loves trying new things.
- Some exposure to a production atmosphere, such as working on a website or publication, making movies, manning the trapeze at your local circus… any time spent creating great work as part of a team.
Anything else? Yes. We share a commitment to excellence and a desire to work in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere, so we only hire nice, bright, funny people who are willing to work hard. Our credo is a simple one: be helpful. And we think we can be most helpful if our workforce is as diverse in thought, perspective, and culture as the people who use our products. We are looking to add amazing folks to our team who will bring diversity across many lines, including race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity, sex, and country of origin.
I’m a detail-oriented, tech-friendly human! But what exactly would I be doing for Jellyvision as an ALEX Production Apprentice?
- Editing content and data for spelling, grammar, and style.
- Setting up versions of ALEX using Talkshow, our very own content development software.
- Investigating and helping fix bugs (technical problems in the software).
- Making sure customers’ features from last year look awesome in this year’s version, uploading new files when a bug is found, and otherwise helping with version control.
- Providing reports and tools to keep the production team organized.
Sounds fun! So what does a day in the life of an ALEX Production Apprentice look like?
- 9:13: Start your day with some locally roasted coffee from the office kitchen. Check your email and job queue… nothing’s on fire, so you jump into Talkshow and get ahead on setting up files for new customers.
- 10:09: Hear from three different production teammates that three different customers are seeing similar errors—but the bug’s slightly different for each of them, and no one knows why. Time to play detective! Try to recreate the errors and help your teammates solve the problem.
- 12:04: Head to Whole Foods for lunch. Finally try tofu in your burrito, like the director of product development suggested. Verdict: He IS as smart as he seems!
- 1:02: We’ve just learned that Customer B has an unusual plan design, which means a bunch of customizations need to be in their product—ASAP. Get the scripts from a production teammate, check ’em for typos, and put ’em in Talkshow—before the 2:00 recording session.
- 1:50: Run a series of checks on six customized versions of ALEX that have to go out the door today.
- 3:55: Now turn to some work for tomorrow—run the database setup checklist and make sure the bugs from last time are fixed. Get a few missing customer details from the account managers.
- 4:41: Time for a round of foosball in the game room. No worries—no checklist for this part!
- 5:12: Today’s versions of ALEX are out the door, and the team couldn’t have done it without you.
Sign me up! How do I apply?
Send us a cover letter that clearly indicates:
1) what year you are in school and when you plan to graduate (if applicable),
2) what you think you could contribute to Jellyvision as a Production Apprentice this summer, and
3) what you hope to get out of the apprenticeship.
Also send us a resume that fills us in on your experience to date—including school projects and work you’ve done on your own.
You will receive an auto-reply confirming that we've received your application.
If you decide to apply, please know that every complete application will be carefully reviewed. Seriously! We know it is a time commitment to prepare an application. And we respect that effort by thoughtfully reviewing every complete application and responding one way or the other. But that kind of thoughtful review means that it sometimes takes us awhile to get back to applicants, so please NO PHONE CALLS. The time we spend responding to phone calls and emails inquiring about where we are in the process is time that we could be spending actually moving the process along – so please be patient with us!
We review applications as they come in and select candidates to interview on a rolling basis.
Thanks for your interest in Jellyvision, and good luck.
Click here to apply