KODA is not just another job board
The Opportunity Community!
One of the new career sites to come on the scene recently is KODA. I first heard of KODA in detail in New Orleans when I got a chance to meet Katie Del Guercio, Director of Business Development & Marketing. Katie is one of about a dozen employees of KODA which has offices in San Francisco, in addition to New Orleans.
KODA refers to itself in several different ways. The one I like is “The Opportunity Community”. I also like the fact that they are trying to help people find out what they want to be, not just what job opportunities are posted on their site. See their video called What do you aspire to be? – KODA.
Interview with Katie Del Guercio of KODA
Katie was kind enough to agree to an interview recently. I told her I would ask five questions, but that was a lie. It turned out to be seven.
Explain the reasons behind the founding of KODA. I’d like to hear the inspiration and how the original idea for the site was conceived?
Why San Francisco and New Orleans?
What is the source of the KODA name, and why a .us domain extension?
Some of the early “reviews” of KODA are that it is “just another eHarmony job site” . How do you respond to this? What makes you better than others who have tried and failed?
We don’t think it’s possible to make one-to-one recommendations like the “eHarmony” job sites claim. We don’t slam new users with a lengthy self-assessment quiz the moment they join. Job seekers can fill out their KODA profile gradually over time, and peruse employers and job opportunities at their leisure. The recommendation engine merely slims the haystack and gets smart about what employers and opportunities to present. For example, it will learn that a job requiring a “strategic thinker” should be presented to a candidate who says they “love Sudoku puzzles.” From there, it’s up to the candidate to make wise choices about what opportunities to pursue. The sky is the limit for how smart our recommendation engine might become in the future, but the site doesn’t promise one-to-one matching and our user interface makes browsing small bundles of opportunities simple and fun.
I am in my early 50’s, which is a little outside your target demographic. How do I relate to KODA as a user?
Anyone who has struggled to make their resume a true representation of themselves, or who has struggled to find their dream job on a job board, or who has applied to hundreds of jobs online and felt rejection, or who has had to sift through a stack of resumes and found that 90% of applicants weren’t even qualified – anyone who has experienced those things should know that there is room for improvement in online recruiting. This space is just begging for some innovation. Anyone who is interested in improvements based on a people-centered design approach and smarter technology should learn about KODA.
Tell me how you work with companies as customers.
Creating personal contact with employers has been central to our corporate outreach strategy. We’ve developed relationships with hundreds of employers in the few short months since our launch because we’re not afraid to hit the phones. We schedule live demos of the site using an online web conferencing tool so that we can train corporate recruiters to use the tool most effectively. We help our customers get started on their profiles by plugging in the company logo and other basic information. We then hand the profiles over, and in some cases work with the corporate marketing department to ensure that the organization’s brand is authentically portrayed. KODA is a way for HR and Marketing to become closer allies and collaborate on a branded recruiting program.
KODA just obtained $ 3 million in additional funding from an Angel investor. Without revealing sources, how does KODA make its VC pitch, what’s the sell?
There are 77 million Baby Boomers who will retire in the coming years with only 49 million members of GenX. Those statistics, coupled with GenY’s lack of interest in corporate life and high employment turnover, will lead to an employee-driven job market. Businesses need to adapt to this new reality, and they will pay to recruit talent: online job recruiting is already an $8B industry. That said, consider these stats from a 2009 JobVite study: 57% of companies plan to invest less in job boards this year, and 72% of companies plan to invest more in social networks going forward. So companies are willing to spend money in this market, but they’re questioning the effectiveness of the first-generation tools. They’re interested in social networks, and they’re also investing in their own corporate job boards.
When you examine job boards as a source of hire, it’s the company’s own site 54% of the time. That number can’t grow further because job seekers simply haven’t ever heard of most companies before and therefore wouldn’t deliberately visit their websites. KODA‘s crawler eliminates the need for companies to manage job postings on more than just their own careers page. Our technology automatically publishes job summaries on KODA, introducing engaged talent to opportunities that they may never have considered. That fierce combination – a social recruiting tool that leverages companies’ own careers sites – will earn KODA significant market share.
Here is a link to my 66% complete profile on KODA
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Me in Three
- I work at the intersection of Human Resources and Social Media
- I am a labor relations/employee relations expert
- I have more skills in social networking than most Gen Y peeps!
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A Deeper Look
- Leader,
- Articulate,
- Writing,
- Creative,
- Social Web,
- Social Media,
- Innovative,
- Sense Of Humor
- Social Media,
- Blogging,
- Networking,
- Labor Relations
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The World – travel, music, foodie, culture, sports, social media, blogging
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