Comments on: a peek inside the careerbuilder culture

By: Spike

Spike — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:41:16 +0000

Matt Ferguson preaches candor but couldn’t find candor in the dictionary.

Unless, of course, “candor” is now being defined as “tell everyone we’re working as a team and a big family and we won’t be making any big changes, and then let’s lay 300+ people off without any notice because someone’s portfolio imploded.”

CB is fratboy culture masquerading as a growing, living, breathing business enterprise. I’m shocked that the lads in suits don’t just unzip, pull their junk out and compare it, because it seems most business decisions are the results of who wins or loses the pissing contests.

I count my blessings every day that I escaped the defcon-5 level toxicity of CB.

By: Unprofessional Idiots

Unprofessional Idiots — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:40:20 +0000

This guy has no business preaching to anyone on how lead a corporate culture. Candid? You mean in terms of how most current and former CB employees describe the degree to which their corporate culture sucks. If you’re a HR decision maker don’t take advice from these unprofessional idiots, they’re not in a position to be consultating anyone on HR issues.

By: Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:11:13 +0000

I find it a little dangerous that Matt would go out on a limb and talk about how the core values define the careerbuilder culture. Especially after having decimated these core values by promoting woefully incompetent people into senior leadership positions. The last two years have seen the best leaders of the company leave or become demoralized as John Smith and his frat buddies act like they’re running a business. I know of several successful reps that have left the company recently as a result of a) pay cuts, b) core value hypocrisy, c) Hunter’s pathetic and disingenuous attempts at “tough love”. It seems like the company’s mid and senior level managers just can’t get out of their own way while they continue to demoralize top performers and actually enable poor performers like Erik… who hasn’t sold anything to anyone.

I think Matt has many good qualities, but picking the right leadership team has not been one of his strengths.

By: The Real Hunter

The Real Hunter — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:33:40 +0000

CB still is a great company…for my benefits. I can work anywhere I want but I like CB’s United Healthcare PPO… I don’t care if I got demoted, I make more money in my real estate biz than all of the executives at cb combined.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:25:59 +0000

The best decision Fergie ever made was demoting me.

By: Will

Will — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:23:14 +0000

CB still is a great company. I don’t know why everyone chooses to hate on them.

By: Wow

Wow — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:14:38 +0000

What a bunch of bull! They do preach candor but it is not appreciated. I think Fergie said it best when he called his employees “salespeople.” That is the bottom line sell as much product as possible or you are fired. CB doesn’t care about their clients or their business “relationships.”

If you work at a company that uses CB product you know it’s not a great place because you have probably had 5 reps over 4 years. CB is definitely not “promoting” or “realigning” your old rep. Reps are coached to say that so the client doesn’t become upset.

Bottom line is CB buys their traffic with expensive ad campaigns. There are so many other options to use that are better and less expensive than CB.

By: Ha!

Ha! — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:42:04 +0000

I guess that’s what you say when you grow into a larger company and become removed from your people. There is no candor at this company anymore and you either obey or you are out.

And it could have been a great company……

By: StaffingProf

StaffingProf — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:31:23 +0000

I have worked Careerbuilder.

I would be interested to see how they define their “singular” culture. It is basically a men’s club, filled with young men in suits. You are given 30 days to ramp up or you are fired. This fosters a high engery do or die sales environment. The Account Executives behave like stock traders on Wall Street and think they are Gordon Gecko.

It was a fairly terrible place to work. They do not respect their clients, diversity, or any creative input into daily practices. It’s totally cuthroat and cold.

I hate when CB as the beacon of recruitment industry. I’ve been in this industry 10 plus year. They basically, just got very lucky, and used a ton of ad dollars to drive traffic. The product is in no way unique or revolutionary.

By: 1st date

1st date — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:22:12 +0000

You know how on the 1st date people always try to seem all self righteous? I think this interview with Matt Ferguson was like a 1st date. But in after time goes by you start to see some of that persons dirty little secrets. Then after you really get to know that person and you learn they are bipolar and they cheated on their ex, then you think to yourself “you are the freakin devil”.

Matt Ferguson put his date face on.