Making Meaningful ConnectionsThe Redesign of RecruitLadder.com

Who is this guy?Other people let him speak to them before. He must be smart.

Jeff GothelfCurrently:

Director of UX at TheLadders.com

Previously:

Publicis Modem, Webtrends, AOL, Fidelity and an assortment of startups

Blog:

www.jeffgothelf.com/blog

Twitter:

@jboogie

Email:

jgothelf@theladders.com

Job service for professionals earning $100k or more and the recruiters/employers looking to hire them.

Online job searching is like online datingPost and pray

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1017/1344679664_fda1c4e7ed_o.jpg

Challenges:You say tomato, I say tomato (but I want ketchup)

The title “vice president” is ambiguous.Does it mean the same thing on two resumes?

Jeff BewkesFormer VP of Time Warner (now CEO)

Anonymous (hint, it’s me)

Challenges:I say tomato, you say tomato (but you want marinara)

Both of these people have vice president on their resumeDoes it mean they both have vice presidential experience?

Challenges:Like the mighty Mayfly, job requisitions die young.

Job listings expire after 8 weeksWhich is 28x longer than the Mayfly

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Rhithrogena_germanica_subimago_on_Equisetum_hyemale.jpg

Challenges:It’s a free-for-all.

Job listings are not standardizedNo way to reconcile the necessary data into a consistently usable format

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Challenges:It’s a mess on the job seeker side too.

Resumes come in every size, shape, color and layoutGetting machines to understand where to pull which data elements is…a challenge.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgl/2693953392/sizes/o/

Challenges:Recruiters have no time to read resumes

Every job posting equals hundreds of applicationsHow does the recruiter figure out which ones to focus on?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94693506@N00/57820781/sizes/o/

Wow, that’s heavy.So where did you start?

Radical idea:Talk to your customers

Call them. Bring them in. Watch them work.After all, you’re solving problems for them.

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/greal/llc/germanwq/Germ670_AYASalzburg/images/Interview.jpg

Tactic #1:Search from anywhere with most important fields always visible.

Tactic #2:Enable two usage patterns: surgical/targeted searching (boolean/advanced) as well as broad searching and zeroing in (filtering)

Tactic #3:Visualize core information

Tactic #4:No dead-ends (i.e., zero results)

Success!

57%

-15%

What does it look like now?

Thanks!Ask me some questions. Here. Now. Or later: jgothelf@theladders.com / @jboogie