TheLadders Enterprise team was on the move this week. We headed down to National Harbor, Maryland, for the SHRM Talent Management Expo. This wonderful Expo gives us the opportunity to meet with today’s most influential HR professionals—not to mention, get some very cool swag! We were able to showcase our various product offerings, including “Recruitable,” our new mobile app that connects recruiters on TheLadders to fresh candidates instantly.
There was also a buzz around TheLadders Passport, where we treat recruiters to a free posting and offer them limited search access. Since we always try to go above and beyond here at TheLadders, anyone who signed up for Passport at the Expo was also entered into a drawing to win $500. As recruiters came to our booth, they’d ask, “How do you get me closer to the finish line?” For those of you who weren’t at the booth, they weren’t talking about a track meet. They were reading our signage.
“TheLadders starts recruiters closer to the finish.” In other words, TheLadders delivers accurate, qualified, interested candidates with almost no effort on the part of the recruiter. We put you in a position to discover the best candidates right at the beginning of your search. If you missed this expo, make sure to visit us at the SHRM 2012 Annual Conference & Exposition, where we will be providing more solutions to get you closer to the finish line!
Eliverta Nika is an Enterprise Marketing Associate at TheLadders, and she absolutely loves getting out and meeting our recruiter customers at events like SHRM.
When our VP of Public Relations, Lisa Hagendorf, first asked me if I wanted to work with AMC’s The Pitch, I broke out in a cold sweat. It wasn’t the show’s fault — it was that simple phrase: The Pitch.
See, before I started my successful career here at TheLadders, I was an agency guy. I’ve worked at some of the biggest and best advertising agencies — Ogilvy, Euro RSCG, Draft and McGarryBowen. Throughout my agency days, I’ve worked on over 50 pitches. They can be exhilarating and they are always exhausting. Late nights. Bad take-out dinners. Intense discussions. Strategies. Concepts. More intense discussions. New strategies. New concepts. Arguments. Sometimes there was crying. Too many calls home, saying you’re still working. Finally, we’d finalize the concepts and send them off to production. There would be a light at the end of the tunnel.
But wait! Emergency meeting!
The new Executive Creative Director took a shower and now has a new strategy and creative idea. Swearing. Lots of swearing.
As soon as I became a Creative Director, I vowed to respect my teams and make sure I understood how they felt. But that goes out the door after a few late nights and the pressure you feel to win. No other professional business gets close to the insanity and pressure of “the pitch.” You have to be willing to put everything you have into it. No one wins because they brought in work they could do in one day. They might have done the work in one day but that’s because they only had a day to do it.
As I watched The Pitch, I felt the pain and excitement of the teams. A part of me wanted in. The competition showcased is really addictive and brought up old competitive feelings. The rush.
And it’s on AMC. Who doesn’t love AMC right now? They’re the most Emmy-recognized network on basic cable. Many of you know it as home to your favorite shows, including Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Killing and The Walking Dead.
TheLadders is happy to collaborate with The Pitch. How do we fit in? We’re experts on the elevator pitch, one of the key aspects of career advancement, and an essential part of a strong personal brand. The Pitch reached out to us because they know we can help professionals give the perfect Elevator Pitch and move their careers forward.
Todd Hozais Director of Creative & UX at TheLadders. When he’s not busy helping build the brand from the inside out, he’s taking credit for all the great work his talented team creates.
We live in a mobile world where business never stops. Most of us read emails, send texts, and engage with coworkers, friends and family on our mobile devices. It’s easy. It’s fast. It’s makes us more productive wherever we are.
So why are recruiters still reduced to staring at their monitors as they try to find the perfect candidate?
We asked our product and development teams that same question. During a “hackathon,” a few of them answered it: Recruiters can go mobile, too. With a lot of hard work, a mobile app was born.
Today, TheLadders is proud to launch our first mobile app for recruiters: “Recruitable™.”
TheLadders Recruitable mobile app will instantly connect recruiters to fresh “recruitable” candidates that match their job posts, so recruiters can contact great candidates instantly, wherever they are.
This is great for TheLadders recruiters and job seekers alike. It means more frequent—and faster—connections.
(For now, Recruitable is only for recruiters on TheLadders who have a full RecruiterLicense, and only available for the iPhone. Download Recruitable from the app store now.)
So what does Recruitable bring to the table for recruiters?
Instant notification of great candidates.
We spend a great deal of time away from our desk: waiting for the next train, buying special order lattes, or jumping between meetings. Recruitable aims to make these moments more useful.
Recruitable compares every new candidate who joins TheLadders to a recruiter’s existing job posts, and immediately sends the recruiter a push notification when there’s a match. Recruiters don’t need to keep checking email or even run a search. Recruitable simply hands them great candidates.
Key candidate info.
Recruitable provides the candidate’s name, location, title, company, and dates of current and previous roles. According to our recent eye-tracking study, that’s what recruiters need to make a decision on whether or not to connect with a candidate.
Recruiters quickly see new matches for their open positions, and job seekers are given a jump start on a job. Win, win.
Instant communication.
First impressions are important, but being first is more important. Recruitable gives recruiters the chance to send a personalized message to matching candidates at the moment they join TheLadders. That means both the job seeker and recruiter have a competitive edge.
We’re excited about Recruitable. We can’t wait to help both recruiters and job seekers find the right match, at any time.
Dan Logan is a Product Marketing Manager at TheLadders. As a frequent host of company meetings, he’s used to answering questions and keeping up with industry trends. He also lives in Brooklyn… and loves it.
If you are looking for innovative ideas for driving revenue for your organization, a regional user group is the perfect format. You get an opportunity to get answers to the top questions on your mind and network with other experts in the field to find out about their methods.
This week TheLadders is hosting the first Marketo Regional User Group in New York. More than 20 marketing professionals from several companies are joining for a discussion about their experience with the solution. The topics include lead scoring and qualification process, nurturing programs and using Sales Insight tools to maximize the impact on the top line.
TheLadders just recently launched the solution while rolling out marketing campaign functionality, lead scoring and nurturing programs. Our biggest challenge was to tie all the data environments together to make Marketo tools effective so we reached out to the CRM team to create the infrastructure. Everything needs to work in synchronicity with each other. Currently our focus is partnering with Sales Leadership to refine our scoring logic, build process and drive adoption. With Marketo, it’s easy to set up reporting and the marketing team can execute campaigns with less manual effort enabling us to be more strategic, and focus on driving higher marketing and sales ROI.
Marketo Highlights
Allows the marketing team to pass highly qualified, prioritized leads to the sales force at the right time
Enables marketing to measure effectiveness of its campaigns in real time
Gives sales team better visibility into marketing programs and to get tips and talking points on customer behavior
Launched the solution in five weeks, immediately pushed several key campaigns to help achieve corporate KPIs and set records on site visits and all-time site engagement
We’re confident the Marketo Regional User Group will be a success, and we’re excited to share with the attendees—and learn from them—so we can all reach our customers more effectively.
Inga Romanoff is Director, Enterprise Marketing for TheLadders and the Marketo Regional User Group Leader in New York City with over ten years of marketing experience in the U.S., Russia, Europe and Asia PAC. Inga is responsible for strategic initiatives in developing the B2B platform at TheLadders.
Our New York offices are located in a neighborhood just west of SoHo, recently deemed Hudson Square. We’re lucky enough here to have a great group called the Hudson Square Connectionthat hosts local get-togethers for those who work and live in the area. I’ve really enjoyed attending their events with coworkers and getting to know some of the people I pass on the street to and from work every day.
The Hudson Square Connection team even created a special rewards program, the Connection Card just for locals offering discounts at nearby businesses. TheLadders is partnering to offer a free 3-month Premium membership to our neighbors as a way to help them get to know our business better. For TheLadders, this is a great opportunity to establish and grow relationships with our neighbors. For attendees like me, this is a great way to save some cash at local restaurants and meet other professionals in the area.
As business, it’s smart to make friends with your neighbors. As a professional, it’s even smarter. Here are some simple ways you can build connections in your community.
Say hello to familiar faces
You see the same people on the street, in your lobby, in the parking lot or on the train every day. If you see them often enough to recognize them, odds are they recognize you, too. Why not introduce yourself in those quiet moments on the train or waiting for the elevator. After all, it’s called an elevator pitch for a reason.
Attend local events
Don’t limit events to just meeting people in your industry or function. You never know what connections your neighbors near your office or home may have. For extra credit, go a step further and see how you can help your community through volunteering. That way, you’re not just meeting new people—you’re also showing them your skills and work ethic while building your resume.
Ask your friends
One of the best ways to connect with people in your neighborhood is through the people you already know. See if you can join local friends when they go out with their coworkers for lunch. Reach out to non-nearby friends to see if they know anyone in your area that might be interested in meeting up for a coffee. This is especially helpful if you’ve just moved to a new area and don’t know many people yet. You might find a great new industry contact, possible job opportunity, or just a new coffee buddy.
Kate Addicottis lead copywriter & voice behind @TheLadders. When not tweeting, Kate creates content to engage members and attract new ones. (At exactly 140 characters, the preceding bio is Twitter-ready.)
Ask a customer service representative if s/he likes his/her job. Chances are that the answer will be some form of “no” (and may contain expletives). Here at TheLadders, that’s not the case. Our Job Search Support Center is staffed with highly qualified, extremely helpful, pleasant people. We’ve known our team to be top-tier for years, but as of yesterday we can now call TheLadders customer service team “award-winning!”
The Stevie Awards have named TheLadders Job Search Support Center as the recipient of their prestigious Contact Center of the Year award*. Helping support and engage our customers during a time when they need it most is gratifying work and we’re thrilled to be recognized by industry peers for our hard work and devotion.
Our Job Search Advisors are unmatched in their energy, intelligence, and dedication and I’m grateful to have such a talented team to lead every day. Having started at TheLadders as a customer service agent (we were called Community Associates way back then), I can speak firsthand to how much we’ve learned and grown over the past several years. Much of what we’ve become is a result of our forward-thinking leadership – industry trailblazer Anita Samojednik (VP, Customer Operations) has brought us to new levels of innovation and we are delighted to bring this award home to her. Anita and the entire management team work tirelessly to make sure that we are listening to our customers and improving our services for them.
Here’s to all the new and exciting things we have in the works for our customers in 2012!
*(Up to 100 Seats)
Niccos Andrade is Manager, Operationsand has been with TheLadders since 2007, in the Job Search Support Center. When he’s not working on ways to the best customer experience for our members, he’s working on his backhand on the tennis court.
Wow! We have come a long way. This week, TheLadders surpassed five million members. That’s five million people that we are helping with their job search. We work to help these members find their next calling in life however we can, whether it’s through our job matching expertise, our personalized products and services or our world class career advice.
We certainly have come a long way as a company and have a lot to be proud of. When I started at TheLadders in 2004, we had just reached 9,000 members. Since then, not only have we grown our member base to 5 million, we’ve expanded to all professional level jobs and have grown our jobs onsite by 3x just in the last 6 months alone. We’ve attracted over 17,000 new recruiters to our site to connect with job seekers and launched countless products and features for users to take advantage of during their job search.
I’m proud to be part of a company committed to finding the right person for the right job – and helping so many members move their careers forward. Great job, team!
Leslie Semegran is Vice President of Marketing and Engagement and has been with TheLadders since 2004, in various capacities across Marketing and Sales. When she’s not endlessly searching for ways to engage and help members, she’s at home running around after her nine-month-old daughter.
Nearly every year around December, TheLadders freezes development and releases around the holidays to stabilize the site in preparation for the expected spike in site traffic from professionals hoping to make good on their New Year’s resolutions to find a new job. A colleague of mine, Ed Cudahy, had the idea to use this time for an internal Hackathon and it’s been our pre-holiday tradition ever since.
This annual event has been hugely valuable for our product development teams allowing us to build and test innovative new tools and techniques. Reaching a little bit beyond their technical comfort zone is something that we want our teams to embrace all the time. Encouraging that creativity during the Hackathon is a great way to help incorporate innovation into our everyday process and get everyone involved in the process of innovating at all stages of implementation.
This year, we extended the event to four days total to make sure there was time to trace a full product development arc: from ideation to selection of tools to the crunch-time that hits just short of the finish line. With just a little direction and a lot more freedom, I think this was the most successful Hackathon yet. In our experience, a strict set of requirements can stifle some good ideas—and the whole purpose of this event is for people to stretch their brains a little.
To create little breaks and make good use of some of the ridiculous (i.e. awesome) toys we’ve accumulated on the floor here, we added a number of side competitions as well. Really, these were just for fun to build team morale and release a little energy. In the true spirit of a Hackathon, all of our awards and trophies were hacks in and of themselves. We had a few golden mice, a golden keyboard, and the grand prize, a lego trophy with an Arduino and an LED sheild embedded in the front scrolling the word “WINNING”. Taking a little inspiration from the television show “The League,” we expect that this year’s winning team will modify the trophy and present it to the team that wins next year’s Hackathon.
Dustin Lucien is the Director of Engineering at TheLadders with 15 years of product development experience. When not planning flying fish races as a fun diversion for internal hackathons, you can find him at home in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Clinton Hill.
When we think about Valentine’s Day, romantic images of chocolates, flowers, and candlelit dinners may come to mind. However, being happy in the workplace may just be our greatest gift. In fact, only 12% of Americans have found the right corporate chemistry and are “really happy with this job,” according to a new study we’ve conducted. Of the 255,000 job seekers surveyed, an astonishing 88% confirmed varying degrees of dissatisfaction with their workplace.
In the poll — which is illustrated by our awesome new infographic — 61.3% of job seekers who were asked to describe the way they feel about their current job admitted they are ‘actively looking for a next job.’ Another 19.0% claimed their ‘job isn’t awful, but not great,’ and 3.9% ‘don’t know how much more of this gig can be tolerated.’ The most unhappy? Unfortunately, 4.1% ‘want out of this job now.’ Talk about a bad romance.
Whether in your love life or in your work life, finding the right match is all about chemistry, and feeling motivated and appreciated in the workplace is paramount for being successful in your career and life. That’s why we suggest workplace satisfaction be determined by the following factors: corporate culture, opportunity for growth, sense of challenge, work-life balance, and compensation package.
That’s why we come to work every day: to help professionals find the right job matches, so their story can have a happy ending.
Lisa Hagendorf is the Director of Public Relations for TheLadders where she is a huge ambassador of the brand in the office. At the gym. And on the street. She just can’t stop talking about TheLadders. Ever.
