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The Ladders (May 10, 2004) - Claiming a current subscriber roster of 75,000, The Ladders is trying hard to establish a radically different value proposition in the job board business. The brainchild of one of the latter heads of marketing at Hot Jobs, The Ladders proposes to serve as the data filtration function for job seekers in the over $100K group. At the least, it's the beginning of a good idea. For a monthly fee, the firm will sift through its flow of available opportunities and send you the ones that pass its internal vetting. All jobs distributed through the service are evaluated by one or two members of the Ladders' editorial crew. Job hunters receive a distilled weekly email with viable offerings. Currently, there are "ladders" for Finance, Sales and Marketing The service is free to recruiters. From their FAQ:
First of all, we like the premise. Recruiters are not the only people bombarded by the "fire hose" of opportunity. The executive universe can certainly support a service that monitors the job market on behalf of its members. With its business plan to target ever smaller niches as it grows, the Ladders could provide a very compelling service as the reader of record for executive job changing. It seems like a potentially interesting form of personal competitive intelligence. On the surface, the pitch to recruiters makes some sense. At a $0 price point, job listings are a bargain, right? We're certain that they'll get some takers who haven't seen the $0 price point opportunities in newsgroups or bundled in the subscription prices of the Job Ad Distribution companies. If the scraped job listings on FlipDog or the CareerCast national network weren't essentially $0 price points, there would be a real differentiator here. Unfortunately, the advertising industry is plagued by new entrants who drive the cost lower with freebies. Sophisticated buyers will stay away, the usual suspects will use the opportunity until the price changes. The real sophisticated players will figure out how to get their jobs into the auto-scrapers, that's a pay nothing, do nothing proposition. We don't want to be overly harsh here, it's an interesting scheme. By collecting content (job ads) for $0 and selling a subscription at $10/month, the Ladders is actively demonstrating something we've always believed. Job listings are valuable as content. The extraordinary volume of opportunity produced for the novice user is partially responsible for the dreadful quality of the output of most job boards. The two dynamics create an enticing arena of opportunity. The additional shot across the bow offered by the industry veteran team at the Ladders is their loud accusation about the quality of the jobs offered in the $100K plus market. A large part of their pitch is a guarantee that the jobs are "real". Whether or not there is a quality problem at the job boards, it's a powerful bit of positioning. So, watch this space. Our sense is that the business model needs some tweaks, that the idea is close but a year or so of encountering paying customers and building a reputation is in the cards. The Ladders just might change the way things get done. John
Sumser
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