About a month ago, there was a rally held in Washington D.C. to protest a perceived lack of action by the government regarding climate change. This was estimated to be the largest group in history that has gotten together for this purpose – 35,000 individuals, filling the National Mall, from the Capitol building to the Washington Monument. For those unfamiliar with our nation’s capital, this is an expansive 1.2-mile piece of land.

I’m telling you this because TheLadders would now require a space of the same proportion to fit all of the employers on its site. That’s right – we hit a new milestone this week: more than 35k employers are using TheLadders to find the most qualified job-seeking candidates out there. Luckily, each hiring manager can search for candidates from the comfort of their own computer or mobile device, so we won’t be renting out the National Mall anytime soon.

Our primary goal at TheLadders is to match the right person with the right job. As a member of TheLadders’ Employer Relations team, I am reminded of this goal every day as I approve new employers to use our site. For those unaware, every single employer profile submitted has human eyes on it before it gets approved (more often than not, my own beautiful blues). Taking this step allows us to verify that only legitimate recruiting professionals are allowed to post and search on our site.

Now, there is no certification needed to make a recruiter “legitimate” – we simply use the information on each person’s profile to ascertain whether they are right for TheLadders. The information can be found in a corporate email address, it can be found on the company website they provide, it can be found in the “About Me” section they write, etc. We take a look at the total package and then make a judgment call. If an individual doesn’t meet our standards or have a complete profile, he/she receives a personal email explaining why they weren’t approved. Often times, those turned away contact our Employer Relations team to find out what they need to do to get approved, and eventually are.

So, is this process of maintaining a high standard for employers on TheLadders worth it? Are we able to have our cake and eat it too? This is a commonly used idiom, albeit one that has never made much sense to me. Rather, I would say that through our approval process, we are able to eat a larger piece of cake that is delicious while still being nutritionally sound. On second thought, maybe desert analogies are not the best way to categorize this success. More than 35,000 employers using TheLadders, all meeting our high standards for quality, is a mark of success that stands on its own.

Andrew Wilson is a Junior Account Manager at TheLadders, specializing in recruiter acquisition and onboarding for the Employer Relations team. He enjoys Cleveland professional sports teams, and things that don’t make him miserable.

Spring is upon us! For most of us, spring evokes familiar images of Easter eggs, flowers, and longer, warmer days to come. However, according to our members, spring is also the time of year when you’re happiest with your job.

Across the country, employees report the biggest increase in job satisfaction when winter weather gives way to spring, boosting overall job happiness by 13 percent. Are you ready to be 13 percent happier?

While overall job satisfaction increases across the country from winter to spring, the variance of the increase was also dependent on things like regional climate, and a person’s job industry and salary. In colder American job markets, like Boston, New York, and Chicago, working professionals are 30 percent happier to see spring come than their counterparts in warmer markets like Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami. Makes sense right? If your winter is colder, then of course you’ll be happier to see spring than someone in a warmer climate.

But hold on, after further analysis, we discovered that people in colder markets report an average job satisfaction level 28 percent higher all year long than warmer markets (even those toughing it through famously cold Boston winters). Let’s look into why…

• Warmer job markets have a higher percentage of sales professionals
• Regardless of location, season,  AND salary, sales professionals generally report higher levels of dissatisfaction
• Colder weather markets have a more even distribution of professions across their top job types

Basically, more sales employees with a less diverse job market means that no matter how beautiful it is outside, that market is relatively less happy with their jobs.

TheLadders unearthed lots of other interesting trends; here are some highlights:

• Happiest Job Market: Washington, DC,
• Unhappiest Job Markets: Sacramento
• Happiest Professions: Law, Tech, and Accounting & Finance
• Unhappiest Professions: Real Estate, Sales, and Education

One more interesting trend showed that the axiom, “mo’ money mo’ problems” is actually true. Professionals making or “about to make” $100k proved to be the happiest, meaning there is a psychological factor in starting to make six figures (something employers could leverage in raises/bonus considerations), even though the difference between $90k and $100k is nominal in your take-home pay.

Additionally, the trend data shows quickly diminishing returns on incremental salary as employees near the $200k mark. Across all industries, professionals reported being less happy the more money they made after $170,000 per year. Think about that: on average, professionals making $240,000 a year reported being slightly unhappier than those making $40,000.

So who is the prototypical happiest worker in the country? Drumroll please…our analysis shows that a city-dwelling techie, who works in the northeast during the spring months, and makes six figures (but under $200k) is the happiest employee in the country. Conversely, if you find yourself working a sales job in Sacramento, perhaps this research will persuade you to pack your bags and take a cross-country road trip this spring.

* This study analyzed the behavior of more than 390,000 TheLadders members over the past two years.”

Daniel Cronyn is the director of consumer marketing at TheLadders. Besides a passion for creative direct-response campaigns and analysis, he spends his time tracking down obscure music events and even more obscure food choices across New York City.

Usually after the holiday season, the last thing you want to hear is that you have doubled in size. But here at the TheLadders, we are ecstatic to learn that we are twice as big as we were a year ago, meaning the number of recruiters on our site — not our waistline.

Over the course of 2012, our mission was to increase the volume of meaningful conversations between our recruiters and job seekers in three ways:

• Offering our service as a free resource to recruiters and employers
• Learning from our users to create new functionality for our recruiters and job seekers
• Providing compelling content about the recruitment process and how to best navigate it

However, in the end, we went back to what we learned in school and just did simple math: if we increase the number of recruiters, we will increase the connections with our job seekers. So, we did just that. Over the past year, our product, marketing, and recruiter relations teams were steadfast in their efforts to increase the population of recruiters on TheLadders. And succeed they did. I am happy to report that as of last week, TheLadders boasts more than 30,000 recruiters on our site.

What this means for you, our valued job seekers, is MORE conversations, MORE active job-postings, and MORE recruiters who are dedicated to your specific function.

Although we are proud of this milestone, please know that 2013 will be no different. We will continue to work tirelessly to increase recruiter activity and help you take the next step in your career.

Thomas Murphy is the manager of recruiter experience at TheLadders. Tom works with his team to understand how recruiters use technology to help them find the best candidates. When not talking shop about HR, he is trying to get back in shape so he does not embarrass himself at the team triathlon next year.

Ah yes, the legendary Ron Burgundy. Will Ferrel’s famous news hound from the movie Anchorman is quite the character. Not only for his perfect hair and sharp wit, but also for his mustache. Have you seen that thing? I want to be friends with it.

There are plenty of famous people and characters who are hirsute on the upper lip, but Burgundy is one of my favorites. Here at TheLadders, we may not hold a candle to most of them, but some of us are trying during November.

It’s all for Movember, which raises awareness and funds to fight prostate and testicular cancer. Basically, men grow a mustache for the month of November. In my experience, it usually prompts this exchange from friends, coworkers and relatives:

Them: “What’s going on with your face?”
Me: “Do you like it?”
Them: “God, no. You look like you belong on To Catch a Predator.”
Me: “Well, it’s for Movember. I’m raising money to fight man-cancer. You should donate.”
Them: “Oh. I’ll give you money because that’s a good cause. But you still look creepy.”

That’s the sacrifice we men make during Movember. And it’s been a huge success. Since its inception in Australia in 2003, Movember has raised $126 million to support charitable organizations such as LIVESTRONG and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

You can help TheLadders Movember team fight cancer. Donate on our MoLadder Team Page.

Together, we can wipe out cancer once and for all. And then I’ll never grow a mustache again, I promise.

William Beard is the Associate Creative Director of Copy for TheLadders. He appreciates the irony of someone with the last name “Beard” growing a mustache. This is his current “Mo.” Needless to say, his social life is on hold this month.

To our customers and friends,

First and foremost, if you have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy, we hope that you and your loved ones are safe and sound.

You probably didn’t know TheLadders headquarters are located in lower Manhattan. Like most of that area, our office is currently still without power and our entire staff is working remotely. Despite the hurricane, our employees have been working tirelessly to get our teams and systems running so that we can continue to serve you. At this time, we can gladly assist you with customer service requests via email at
help@theladders.com or on live chat via TheLadders.com.

We will respond to emails within 24-72 hours. Hopefully, phone support will be available starting Monday.

We will continue to keep you updated in the coming days. In the meantime, we ask for your patience as New York, and the entire East Coast, recover from the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy.

Warmest regards,

Alex Douzet
COO & Co-founder
TheLadders

Last week, we headed to Vegas for the Recruiting Trends Conference 2012.  The conference took place at the famous Caesars Palace Hotel, where the team and I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of great people.  HR professionals stopped by our booth to learn about our Passport product, which offers unlimited search and post, and the ability to send targeted hiring alerts, all for FREE!  We didn’t stop there – we also showcased our new mobile app, Recruitable, which connects on-the-go recruiters to our more than 5 million job-seeking members.

We gave away tumblers and tote bags to everyone that stopped by, and one lucky winner won the grand price of an iPad3. I’m happy to announce our lucky winner was Kiki Rice, the talent acquisition manager for Toyota Motor Sales.

If you missed us in Vegas, be sure to sign up for Passport to take advantage of our free offerings that will help you start closer to the finish.

Eliverta Nika is an Enterprise Marketing Associate at TheLadders, and she absolutely loves getting out of the office and meeting industry clients and colleagues.

With the Presidential election closing in, many Americans are focused on what most of us would consider the biggest “interview” process for the title of “Leader of the Free World.” Our own job search, however, is no less important. Candidates can learn a lot from the Presidential candidates, in terms of what strategies to employ and what tactics to avoid.

If you’ve watched the debates (or have been within 100 miles of a computer), you know that the first debate went to the candidate who was better equipped and engaged. By asking questions during interviews, job seekers can show the hiring manager that they have done their research and are genuinely interested in the company. That said, it’s imperative to have the facts. Know the company’s strengths, and also the areas that can be improved, and make sure to call out personal strengths that will positively impact the company, overall.

Connections are key – both in politics and in the corporate world – so it’s not surprising that 82% of job seekers feel that knowing someone at a company gives them a leg up and that 73% said they landed an interview based on an employee referral.  Referrals are generally the hiring managers’ preferred method of finding candidates. If someone is willing to stake their professional reputation on you, then you must be worthy of consideration. Don’t be afraid to seek out referrals. Getting your foot in the door is often the hardest part, so use your connections to get the interview and THEN show the company why you deserve the role.

While Presidential candidates start campaigning heavily a year or so before the actual election, job seekers always should be networking. In fact, networking is one of the most important components of the job search, and establishing a strong network takes time. If you don’t network while employed, it’s likely that your network will be weak when you need it most. Leverage social networking, and be diligent  about noting the names and numbers of new contacts. You never know, they could end up being your swing vote.

Download TheLadders’ Election Day Infographic

David Levy is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC) for TheLadders. While he loves his job helping clients build their careers, he usually manages to sneak out of the office on weekends to play Lacrosse and make new friends on New York City’s friendly subway system.

We’re in celebratory mode here at TheLadders! On October 11^th, we hosted TheLadders Connect NYC where details of our new products were announced by Co-Founder and COO Alex Douzet.

With the release of Passport, which gives recruiters free access to unlimited post and search, we have reached a significant milestone – we now have more than 25,000 recruiters and hiring managers using TheLadders for their hiring needs.

Not only are we thrilled about the success of Passport, we are ecstatic to release a new dashboard, which makes the user experience on TheLadders more memorable and efficient than ever before. Users can now repurpose a saved search, instantly post a job, view job stats, and access applicants, all from the convenience of their dashboard.

In my opinion, one of the coolest new features of the dashboard is the ability to send targeted hiring alerts. Once an alert is created, it’s sent to all candidates on TheLadders that match the job post criteria – this means more views and more targeted applicants for your openings.

TheLadders’ team is constantly developing products and services to optimize our job-matching services. Passport and the new dashboard are two of the most recent innovations, but believe me, there is much more to come. All I can say right now is that 2013 is going to be a year to remember!

Jessica Morales is an Account Manager at TheLadders. When she’s not managing her accounts, she loves to travel, watch or go to football games (go GIANTS!), and spend time with family and friends.  

Last Friday, as I read The Wall Street Journal article, “Apple Makes a Wrong Turn as Users Blast Map Switch,” I could not help asking myself: Is this really a major strategic error by the world’s most valuable company or is it simply an execution blunder in a highly visible case of a prisoner’s dilemma?

To answer the question, I went back and read a post from Bill Gurley, one of technology’s top dealmakers, to better understand why Apple introduced its own turn-by-turn navigation app. Then I read this paragraph:

“Here was the big punch line – because Google will give you ad splits on search if you use that version! That’s right; Google will pay you to use their mobile OS. I like to call this the ‘less than free’ business model. This is a remarkable card to play. Because of its dominance in search, Google has ad rates that blow away the competition. To compete at an equally ‘less than free’ price point, Symbian or Windows Mobile would need to subsidize.”

Double ouch!

The “less than free” business model that Gurley describes is a truly disruptive innovation.

I am big fan of game theory and its application. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita’s book, “The Predictioneer’s Game” defines game theory as a “fancy label for a pretty simple idea: that people do what they believe is in their best interest.”

So, here is the answer: it is in Apple’s best interest to introduce its own version of the turn-by-turn navigation app.

But why? Google Maps is a superior product, and it is free. Similar to a prisoner’s dilemma, Apple’s hand was forced by Google to introduce its own turn-by-turn mapping system. Otherwise, the company was at risk to be left out of the game or compromise on its own margin with the iPhone and iPad devices. How great would the iPhone5 be compared to the Android-based Galaxy S3 without a map application? What are the chances that Google would have pulled the plug on iPhone the way it disconnected NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas?

However, Apple overlooked the fact that the product execution needs to be good (in Apple’s case, great). Supporting my claim, Gurley states, “Naysayers of these assertions will likely have the same retort – quality is key. They will argue that Google’s turn-by-turn apps are inferior to their well-honed, market-leading products. With regard to Android, Google will lack the user interface or embedded software expertise necessary and will deliver a subpar product. Plus, because the Android OS will be so splintered, QA testing will be difficult and incompatibility issues will abound. In the short run, these issues will exist.”

Today, we are seeing that Apple had the right strategy, but failed in execution. However, it may not hurt the iPhone 5 sales because when a product is completely free, consumer expectations are low, and consumer patience is high.”

The good news for Apple is that their loyal customers will be patient and wait for superior subsequent versions of the mapping system app.

The key takeaway is that a free or “Less Than Free” business model can really be an industry game-changer. Let’s analyze how Facebook did it in the social media industry.

For Facebook, Zuckerberg’s brilliance was to bypass Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, all by using the free model. Gurley states, “We noted in our take on the free business model, if a disruptive competitor can offer a product or service similar to yours for free, and if they can make enough money to keep the lights on, then you likely have a problem.”

Borrowing the words from my co-founder Marc Cenedella, “The key point with Zuckerberg’s success is even more profound. Free allowed him to ‘outsell’ the competition. Free freed him from the wrong customer requirements. My claim is: free made the product features better by eliminating customer requirements and that’s because pricing put the focus on the wrong customer.”

Harvard had Facebook before Zuckerberg came along. In the late 90s, graduates of Harvard Business School tried to sell the university their own version of Facebook. For Facebook, the university was the wrong customer. Building university requirements into a product and having a long sales cycle would never have allowed Facebook to exist. Bypassing them entirely was an ingenious move.

So, a subsidiary claim would be: pricing forces you to choose a customer. Choose well, and you have a fantastic product. Choose wrong, and you get stuck.

Have you chosen your customer carefully? Can you leverage a free or “less than free” business model to change the game on your competition? One of the most successful ways for small private companies to gain the upper hand over large incumbents is to change the rules of the game.

Alex Douzet is Co-Founder and COO of TheLadders. In this role, Alex is responsible for the company strategy, global business operations, and product development.

Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Dr. Debra Condren, the radio host of “Ambition is Not a Dirty Word” on WebTalk Radio.

In addition to her show, Dr. Condren is a business psychologist who specializes in assessment-based executive coaching, talent and leadership development, and career advising. She is the also author of “Ambition is Not a Dirty Word: A Woman’s Guide to Earning Her Worth & Achieving Her Dreams,” and is the founder of Manhattan Business Coaching LLC. And you thought you were busy, huh?

Dr. Condren invited me on her show to discuss making a career transition – what you need to do to prepare for this type of job search, and what you can expect along the way. We had a really great conversation that covered the job-search gamut, from identifying goals, to formatting cover letters, to keeping upbeat when things aren’t going your way.

Below are three of the career-transition tips I shared with Dr. Condren and her listeners:

1. Do your research

• Identify industries that are strong or emerging, and are similar to your previous experience.
• Once you’ve chosen your target industry, use social networking, online resources, professional associations and network connections to learn as much as you can about the industry, its hiring practices, and any open opportunities.

2. Focus on job requirements, your qualifications and results

• Your cover letter and elevator pitch should focus on your ability to deliver results.
• When applying to jobs, focus on demonstrating how you meet all the primary job requirements for the role.
• If you’ve worked in multiple industries, leverage this point to demonstrate that you have been successful in a variety of industries in the past, and can be so again with this organization.

3. Show passion…and patience

• Determine why you find a particular industry or company appealing and show that passion in your elevator pitch and interviews.
• Remember that transitioning to a new role can be a long process, especially in this saturated job market. The greater the gap between your job goals and most recent experience, the more challenging this transition can be.
• It may be necessary to compromise on compensation and job title in your next job in order to get you on the right track towards your dream job.

Click here to listen to the full radio segment.

Click here for more tips on making a career transition.

I’m always honest, and it’s true that making a transition can be tricky in this current market. But don’t give up on your dreams! It may take you longer than you expected, but it can be done. Stay positive, continue looking forward, and keep working hard!

Amanda Augustine is the Job Search Expert for TheLadders. She provides job search and career guidance for professionals looking to make their next career move. Have a question for Amanda? Submit your question here for a chance to have it answered in her weekly column, and be sure to follow @JobSearchAmanda on Twitter for up-to-the-minute job-search advice.