A reader (“Michael”) who is fed up with TheLadders sent along a copy of an e-mail he received a couple of days ago from Marc Cenedella, CEO of TheLadders. Cenedella sends these pep talks to his “members” several times a week.

For those of you who are scratching your heads, this e-mail is the product. This is what you buy from TheLadders. Mark Cenedella sells encouragement. Nothing more. Imagine sitting on a beach somewhere, dashing these e-mails off every couple of days for a living, while a few data base humps keep the servers going…

Financial Planning & Analysis, New York, NY
CFO Local Media, New York, NY
Director of Financial, New York, NY
Chief Financial Officer, New York, NY
Chief Accounting Officer, New York, NY

More Jobs You Might Like… Happy first summer Monday, Michael!

What’s your favorite part of these long summer days? Family excursions with the kids to the zoo or the beach? Backyard barbeques? Blockbuster movies in an air-conditioned theater?

Whatever your top summertime activities, the warm weather even takes a little bit of the chill off that cold, cold economy that’s affected so many of us. Enjoy it!

I want you to recharge those solar cells, Readers – but I also want you to hone your competitive edge during a season too many people write off as dog days for job hunting.

This is your moment to take the initiative. This is your time to prove to hiring managers you’re committed to your job search.

Get that resume in order, whether you seek help from one of our writers or elsewhere. Dig into our Career Advice section for tips on perfecting your brand, your networking and interview skills – even your wardrobe. And never stop checking those job listings and applying for the ones that fit you.

Summer is a perfect time to prove to employers (and to yourself) that you’re serious about going after the big game – and positioning yourself at the head of the pack when September rolls around.

OK, Readers, have a great week! I’ll be rooting for you!

Warmest regards,

Marc Cenedella
Founder & CEO
TheLadders.com, Inc.

Yah, Cenedella is rooting for you, while he counts those monthly membership fees. More Jobs You Might Like, Sucker. (Yah, I know lots of Ladders members who “Might Like.”) You won’t see a job, but you will definitely get a reliably chipper e-mail from Marc every few days, written by an ace copy writer, cheering you on to buy a new resume, have a barbecue, go to a movie, get serious about the big game, take the kids to the zoo, and get to the head of the pack because what’s not to like? Ain’t this a great e-mail? Keep that $30 per month payment active and I’ll keep you on my mailing list. Hell, I’ll keep you on the list anyway. (You’re too dumb or desperate to know the difference, dear Reader…)

Reader Michael adds this note:

If you are a candidate for a financial position, and avail yourself of every financial job posting they have nationwide and simply compute the odds of landing a job with postings as a numerator and active membership as the denominator, you reach no other conclusion other than this is a cruel joke being perpetrated on increasingly desperate people looking for employment who simply don’t have $30 per month to waste on a scam. If I am right, this thing really has “Madoff” characteristics about it. Madoff never had the capital or results he was reporting quarterly. Cenedella doesn’t have the legitimate job listings or scarcely the statistical probability that anyone will get a job by subscribing to his services.

So, dear Reader, enjoy these warm summer days while the cold, cold economy bites your family in the ass! And keep sending those payments in… Ok, Readers, have a great week! I’ll be rooting for you! (Uh, could you please send me a check, too? I don’t write these posts just for fun, eh?)

Nick Corcodilos
Founder & CEO
Ask The Headhunter

9 Comments
  1. I’m speechless.

    Actually, all I have to say is “wow”…

  2. My personal favorites are the ones where he tries to sell the overpriced resume service.

    Those services are like the women behind the makeup counters at a department store selling to teenagers. They play off people’s insecurities at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives, hocking a service that may or may not make much of a difference in the end for an extravagant price.

  3. Nate,

    Selling to insecurities, yah that’s a big part of it. But what’s most embarrassing is all of Cenedella’s chatter about the summer, having a good life, going to the zoo — that’s the nervous prattling of a salesman who knows his product is crap. He nervously tries to change the subject and pretend he’s the prospective sucker’s friend… yah, a lot like the makeup sales person… except you don’t give the makeup lady your credit card and permission to keep punching in a sale automatically every month.

  4. Nick,

    First off, your book was of great help to me in my successful job search. More about that later.

    Back to Mr. Cendella’s email, I am reminded of something I read awhile back about Amway/Quixtar: the #1 money maker for that company is motivational tapes to those who are immersed in the company trying to sell stuff, etc. Cendella’s email strikes me as being of that same genre.

    Nick, I will blog in praise of your book soon on my site, http://www.mikeurbonas.com. Thanks for your book and this companion site which I just discovered!

    Mike

  5. The ladders offered me a free resume critique. I’m always interested in some feedback so I sent it in. It’s the same resume format that I used to get my last two jobs, I had a few executives that were friends of friends review it years ago and used their advice to craft that format and just updated it and customized it for the job. Ladders told me it was horrible, I wouldn’t get interview with it, but for $700, they could craft a great resume. I passed on the offer. What particularly turned me off was, telling me to use the latest buzzwords. I hate that when I read a resume, tell it to me in plain English. Plus, I’ve worked at companies where only they used certain buzzwords, they would be totally meaningless to anyone else.

  6. Now that fall is almost here, this is your time to prove to hiring managers you’re committed to wasting your money on TheLadders or Execunet! Show that you don’t really want a job, you just want to enrich the charlatan Marc Cenedella by buying his snake oil, month after month!

  7. In the UK you get letters from their MD “With Warmest Regards” Derek Pilcher. Every day you get another mail trying to lure you to use their service, using spin and little personalised comments to try and con you into joining but people here are realising that The Ladders are charging people for the services of being an aggregator! We dont buy into the buying for services from employment business and it is in fact illegal and this is soemthing that is being looked at in the UK. How have they got around it and boy there timing was good, set up just at the time recession was biting and people were losing jobs in their thousands…. it is a big con and these ex HotJobs, Monster schisters really should be exposed and answerable for virtually taking money on fraudulent claims!

  8. Nick,

    I was one of their vicitims and used my debit card to pay the fees. They would NOT CANCEL my subscription when asked and kept billing me. I had to cancel the debit card with my bank and get a new one just to STOP Cenedella & Co. from continuing to bill me.

    He should be a candidate for a major a** kicking and NY State should waive the assault charges against the victim who does so.