For those who don’t attend “Blackboard schools,” Blackboard is a company that develops software to facilitate e-learning. In other words, your professor can post a syllabus, grades, announcements, and readings on the Blackboard course site. When we first considered writing a post about Blackboard, we thought we’d try to appeal to the Blackboard lovers. We know they’re out there, but after a thorough search of Facebook, it seems that this demographic isn’t yet ready to publicly declare their love for Blackboard. We were expecting a group named Blackboard Addicts Anonymous for compulsive grade checkers, but instead found a host of other Blackboard related Facebook groups.

Our search turned up (starting with the group with the most members) I check my facebook more than I do blackboard!!!, thanks blackboard, now there is no excuse for not doing my homework, I Blame Blackboard!, Blackboard helps professors unwittingly help ME skip class., and I HATE IT WHEN TEACHERS DONT USE BLACKBOARD. The first group is of little relevance to our scientific study on Blackboard’s popularity, for most college students really love Facebook. Loving Blackboard less than Facebook isn’t that bad. The next two groups are in direct conflict – some students now feel that Blackboard has robbed them of excuses for why they didn’t complete their assignments, yet the more cunning students have taken the “Blackboard ate my homework” route. Then there is a group with a positive connotation if you’re a student, but certainly not if you’re a professor. And the final group is the closest we’ve come to finding those secretive Blackboard lovers – too bad only 40 of them joined this group.

It is our mission to help you closet Blackboard addicts spread the good word about Blackboard by getting a job with them. Not only can you be a Blackboard evangelist, but you can also work to make a product so good that Facebook groups in praise of Blackboard pop up faster than the kid who sleeps in the back of class when he gets called on by the professor. We are especially hopeful that we can send Blackboard some great software developers who will find a way to integrate RSS feeds into Blackboard (don’t know what an RSS feed is? read this article). While compulsive Blackboard checkers might be disappointed by the new functionality, most students would be thrilled to get their grades, new assignments, and course announcements pushed to them as they’re updated.

As a company that was founded by two college friends and already has great brand recognition among college students, we’d think that Blackboard would target college students on their careers page. They don’t. It’s a missed opportunity to translate brand recognition into employment brand recognition. Since Blackboard didn’t make it easy for us, we scanned through their job listings to find the openings that we thought were best suited for new college grads. The job descriptions (which are also known to cause narcolepsy) are dry, but relatively explicit about what they’re looking for. With that said, we think the list below should be pretty accurate.

• Accounting & Finance: Operations Specialist and Payroll Specialist
• Administrative: Proposal Writer and Sales Operations Specialist
• ASP: ASP Operations Engineer and Complex Hosting Manager
• Consulting Services: Trainer
• Marketing and PR: Marketing Programs Associate
• Product Development: Associate Project Manager, Automation Engineer, and Software Escalation Analyst
• Sales: Client Manager (Phoenix or Washington, D.C.), Program Manager BbOne, Sales Manager

Most of these jobs are located at Blackboard’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.; however, a few are based at their other locations. Blackboard also has a number of international job opportunities.

Despite not reaching out to college students like we think they should, Blackboard has a wealth of entry-level job opportunities. They serve a market that you should be familiar with (since you’ve spent the last 17 years being educated), and they have positions in nearly every field. They’re definitely worth a look.

Note: On April 24th we revisited entry-level jobs at Blackboard.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Blackboard’s Home Page
• Careers at Blackboard
• Job Openings at Blackboard
• The Blackboard Blog
• About Blackboard
• Blackboard’s Corporate Video
• Blackboard in the News
• The Blackboard Management Team

If you could add one feature to Blackboard, what would it be?

We've identified Blackboard as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• accounting
• all employers
• consulting
• education
• marketing
• product development
• sales
• software development
• Washington DC

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