“Scouting” the Competition

As director of consumer marketing at TheLadders, I receive daily exposure to the world of job seekers. Industry data suggests that, while not everyone is actively looking for jobs, the majority of us would be open to new and interesting opportunities. Basically, between wintry economic times and passive job seekers, it has never been harder to conduct a competent job search.

A typical job seeker may wonder, “Who is my competition, and how do I stack up against them?” or simply, “Should I even bother applying for this job?” While that decision is ultimately up to the job seeker, it is fundamental enough to our customers’ satisfaction that we attempt to help them do so. In a post-web 2.0 world, it is not enough to provide the ability to apply to great jobs; a superior experience will bring its community together (with all the data it creates) to add value for everyone.

This is why we’re kicking off 2013 with our newest product, “Scout.” For the first time, we are giving job seekers a behind-the-scenes look at the other candidates who have applied for the same position. Based on your profile, you can see how you compare to other applicants in five categories: years of experience, education level, areas of expertise, current title, and current salary. All this information is anonymously aggregated and displayed in Scout, providing instant insight into the competition.

Take a look:

This is a powerful for three main reasons: competition, differentiation, and communication. For the job above, you can see that competition is on the high side, with 50 applicants, but how do you fair against the bulk of them? Take a look at their backgrounds, current jobs, and areas of expertise to determine how you differ from the competition, which will help you identify unique skills to showcase. Additionally, Scout alerts you when others apply, and when recruiters provide feedback.

Does Scout stop working when you are not at your desk? Of course not! We’ve designed Scout to give our Premium users on-the-go information in a slick mobile-responsive interface, as well. Savvy online marketers know that across the web, people are accessing the Internet from mobile devices outside of typical work hours more frequently and making Scout even timelier.

The job search has become much more cluttered over the past few years. As a job seeker, you should be utilizing tools that save you time and stress, and give you a more targeted approach to your search. Scout is one of these tools.

All Premium members of TheLadders will have access to Scout by summer 2013.

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.