If you’re a job seeker that has at least one degree from a top grad school or simply think you deserve a leg up on the competition, or if you’re an employer looking for only the best of the best talent, Ivy Exec might be the site for you.
A sort of “high-end Ladders,” Ivy Exec is a job board that focuses on top tier candidates. The main difference between this site and all the other job boards is that not just anyone can become a member.
The elite site requires job seekers to submit their resume, which must then be reviewed by a company recruiter and pass a quality standards test before they can have access to search and apply for jobs.
“We really have the highest caliber candidates,” CEO Elena Bajic said.
Ivy Exec, which has been operating on a limiting marketing budget, has now grown to include nearly 26,000 members. Bajic said the primary reason is that professionals have responded well to the exclusive nature of the site, as many don’t want to be part of large job boards that cater to a much broader market.
On top of that, Bajic said, the site’s members like the challenge of having to be approved in order to belong to a network of peers. Of the site’s network of job seekers, 75 percent are employed. Bajic said this means many passive job seekers are joining the site in order to help build and become part of a community.
She said 95 percent of the site’s members have graduated from a top 20 grad school, 86 percent have an MBA from a top school, and some members have more than one graduate degree. The highly-qualified members have specialties across all industries.
Bajic said companies come to Ivy Exec when they’re looking to hire high-caliber professionals. Because sites like Monster and CareerBuilder allow anyone to apply, companies are usually left sorting through about 200 applications for any specific job opening. With Ivy Exec, companies only get an average of 20 to 25 applications, cutting down on costs for screening professionals and increasing success rates.
The site costs $22 to $42 a month for job seekers, depending on which package they choose, and is free for career advice and select job postings. The average fee for companies is $8,000. There are currently more than 3,600 job postings.
The idea for the site began when Bajic was writing a business plan as part of her second year in the entrepreneurial program at Columbia Business School. When she noticed there were no job boards dedicated to high-caliber professionals, Bajic decided to create her own.
When the site first launched in 2006, it was focused more on recruiting women reentering the workforce, but within a few months it expanded to include anyone who is attracted to the idea of exclusivity.
The company, located in New York City, employs five full-time workers and five contractors. Ivy Exec brought in $160,000 in revenue during 2008, and has a projected revenue of $315,000 this year.
After hearing positive feedback from several companies and HR teams, Ivy Exec is now seeking a considerable amount of funding. The company was featured in the July/August issue of Inc. magazine, saying as of June it set a goal to raise $1.5 million in funding.
Bajic said since then, the company has received some good responses, and one investor has committed to a portion of the funds. However, she said the company is still in talks with other investors and has not yet quite reached its goal.
Once secured, the funding will mainly be used for marketing and sales purposes, as well as adding to the site’s overall existing technology. Bajic said Ivy Exec is always working on adding new features.
“We like to keep those as a surprise for our members,” she added.
Popularity: 4% [?]
August 19th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
So Ivy League equals high quality worker?
August 19th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Doostang pioneered this business model and currently has well over half a million alumi from elite universities registered in the community, and over 20,000 high quality job opportunities from prestigious companies like Goldman, McKinsey, Facebook, Google, etc.. Doostang is FREE for employers, no fees to post jobs into the community and interact with candidates directly as a community member. Doostang has partnerships with over a dozen top tier MBA programs, including Wharton, Haas, INSEAD, Kellogg, etc. and is backed by Shasta Ventures and several Silicon Valley luminaries such as Andy Rachleff, a founder partner of Benchmark. The company was just featured in Business Week magazine a couple weeks ago, and positioned as the market leader in this exclusive professoinal networking space.
August 20th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Who wants to work with a bunch of type A personalities? Diversity is key in having a successful business. You can buy your way into a an IVY league college, you can’t teach ambition. Is there a site for HS drop-outs who have made millions in the private sector?
August 21st, 2009 at 9:15 am
well said Pete, they can have the silver spoon club, I’ll keep looking for employees who had to work their way through school if they went
August 21st, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Sorry Pete/Fran, but you’re grossly misrepresenting any correlation between work ethic, graduating from a prestigious university, and being a good worker, by mashing together a bunch of overly simplistic stereotypes that just don’t apply to the majority of the people at top universities. A large % of Ivy Leaguers are not part of any ’silver spoon club’. They’re smart, hard working individuals who often take on significant personal debt to attend their school.
Diversity is great – I agree 100% – but this is already being addressed at Ivys (many have waived tuition for families making less than $100k). Listen, I know high performing workers who come from both Ivys and less prestigious schools – but I don’t know anyone who ‘bought’ their way into an Ivy (or Ivy equivalent).
Also, you think ambitious people don’t have Type A personalities just because they didn’t attend a prestigious school? Right…good luck with that.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Brian, my experience with working with non-white Ivy League graduates are brilliant and well-rounded not engaged with who they know or where the next family summer vacation will take place. I know quite a few who come from wealthy backgrounds that have graduated from Cornell and Penn. because of WHO they know not WHAT they know. It’s a known fact that the Ivy League discriminates MORE against qualified non-whites, although the Ivy League has made strides diversifying the student population over the past 10 years.
August 21st, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Intelligence (intelligence @ work tagline) equates to Ivy League…hmmmm. Didn’t George W. Bush go to Yale?!?!
August 21st, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Catherine,
George W. Bush did not need to take any qualifying exams to get into Yale. His daddy just had to make one call.