| Cenedella is allegedly worth $150 million, all of it from TheLadders.com.
Until September, the brand of TheLadders.com was that it offered access to jobs that paid $100K or more to job-seekers who paid for that access. TheLadders.com made money on both ends, also charging companies to list jobs.
Anyway, via the Google, I quickly found the Ask the Headhunter blog, where TheLadders.com brand is dirt.
The stories there, in just one post and comments underneath, are damning.
Here are a few:
I checked into one of the positions you posted in Powell, Ohio, with Star Dynamics. The job you posted doesn't exist and certainly doesn't pay $100k+ if it did. After personally visiting the locations in Powell, Ohio, a bedroom community that has only two RF communications companies (Star Dynamics and Aeroflex), it was found that the job postings do not exist. When I mentioned the $100k salary number, everyone laughed. None of the engineers working for these locations have salaries that come even close to that number.
I have an annual subscription to The Ladders, which does not self-renew. In the last year, I have caught them posting jobs which don't exist. I have caught them posting jobs which were filled as much as a YEAR before. I have caught them re-posting these jobs. I have demonstrably caught them in a misrepresentation of salary for a job WHICH WAS CREATED AROUND ME. They caused both me and an inexperienced HR person to wrong-foot the negotiation, and cost me a job.
I have been an Executive Recruiter for many years. I have had several comments from candidates about this problem on The Ladders. My suggestion is to NEVER post your resume on a site like this and if searching for jobs - remember that it might not be true. I received sales calls from The Ladders and found their prices to be outrageous! So they are charging the candidates fees for jobs that are not really $100k and the real job posters big amounts to list a true job. I guess the rest of the space on their site has to be filled up with junk they mine off the internet. Personally, I think it's stealing.
I always thought it was a bait and switch scam. You get the "basic" subscription, which is nothing more than a teaser. Example - looking for a project management position. They send you notices of project management positions they have - but you can't find out anything specific at all unless you pay the premium price. $30 a month is a lot less than what you can get clipped for for other career services, just ask any former customer of Bernard Haldane or RL Stevens. But 30 cents is too much for a bogus service.
There's plenty more where that came from.
Cenedella certainly knows that he has unsatisfied customers, on both ends, and probably thinks that it won't come up much in a NY Senate campaign and won't affect his business.
If so, he really is a clueless political rookie.
Who would be lucky to break 40 percent in November. |
