Pat Brien | April 21, 2022

Here’s how Apply4Me works for you.

Imagine a serious professional painstakingly copying and pasting every element of her resume into a huge electronic form, piece by piece; or fixing every messed up element after being invited to drop her resume into it, only to see it turned into a bad jigsaw puzzle loosely based on her career. And after spending at least eighteen long minutes laboring over this mindless task (yes, we’ve tested the average time spent filling job application forms), a late request in the painful process is often to “Please upload your resume.”

Arrgh! And once done, you start the next one.

Based on our research, it’s not only the sheer time-wasting frustration that bothers professionals; there’s a sort of belittlement often described; a tinge of humiliation. After all, if somebody has the verve, vision and tenacity to create a business, then decides that experts in various fields are needed to cover specific areas, it’s a straightforward proposition. “Hi, I need somebody great to cover this area of my business.” “Your business looks interesting to me and I’m an expert in that area.” It reads like a conversation among equals, right? A deal is being struck that will benefit both parties. So far, so good.

Endless job application forms – forever?

“The only sure thing in life is death, taxes, and job application forms.”
— Benjamin Franklin

Ok, the last part of that quote was added on, but it will make perfect sense to millions of career-minded people. So why are you filling endless job application forms? If you’ve worked hard on your resume, or sought out experts who optimize resumes, why are you painstakingly recreating it on business websites for companies you’re not employed by? Shouldn’t they do it themselves, if they get such a kick out of it?

Why are you constantly expected to perform drudge work free of charge, simply on the off-chance your resume might make it through the application process? It would be easy to become cynical (many do), and think: “They don’t want experts as much as they want people willing to demonstrate subservience, or eager-to-please desperation, rather than people who see their expertise and experience as having inherent value.”

That view is almost certainly incorrect, but it’s hard not to empathize with people who’ve spent years honing their skills, then worked hard day and night for years, only to spend precious spare hours laboring over such nonsense. And, of course, it is mindlessly one-sided in favor of the companies who do it. And you are certainly expected to give your labor freely, if you want to get your foot in the door – regardless of your experience, your position, or your sheer brilliance.

All underlying intentions or issues aside, it falls on you to jump through hoops with a fixed smile on your face. The bottom line is: “You have no choice, so you’d better get on with it.”

So the question is, is that true?

Of course it isn’t. This is still (at time of publication) America. Free choice, innovation, and respect for hard work and unique talent are still what it’s all about. At Ladders, anyway. That’s why we decided to listen to our members and start working on a solution. And that solution has proved to be a hit for us.

Apply4Me – we apply to jobs for you

It works like this. You fill one form, one time – made up of 18 questions – and our expert team completes your job application forms on your behalf.

Members with a 1-month, 3-month or 6-month subscription can use the service a massive 100 times each month. So in a Mon-Fri working week, 25 job applications are covered with a single click. Or 5 each day. Members with a 12-month subscription have no monthly limit, only a limit of 1,200 applications annually! Not bad for busy professionals, right?

On your Ladders jobs search page, you see the Apply4Me button next to virtually every job – there are always low-level outliers, maybe a couple of dozen among the 40,000+ on Ladders. You read the job description, think it could be a good fit, and click the button.

With that, our team gets the notification and you also receive a notification in your inbox, then they go to work. Not only that, they review the application to ensure all those electronic form errors that mangle your resume are fixed, before applying for you.

If the company website needs an account to be created, the team does that for you, too, using your Ladders email address. Once done, they send you the information and the application is recorded on your “Jobs Applied” page, along with company name (and link to website), application date, application type and current status. If you want to check your application, you simply click the company name, then, using your Ladders email, change the password using “forgot password” (for security), and it’s securely held by you.

As mentioned above, we did our research and it showed that Ladders Premium members save an average of 18 minutes per job application. When it was first rolled out, many careful professionals preferred to fill their own job applications for companies they were particularly keen on, then use Apply4Me for companies showing jobs, salaries, and benefits they liked, but weren’t sure that a long, drawn out application would be worth it. Some surprising results helped turned that round for many of them. Here’s an example:

“First, I wanted to say thank you – Apply4Me did exactly what it was advertised to do: it saved me a ton of time and eliminated the drudgery of filling out the same forms over and over.

I wanted to add that this feature is the specific reason that I have the job that I have now. When I first saw the job listing, it did not look like the ‘perfect fit’. In the old way of applying, I would have moved on and not taken the time to apply. 

With Apply4Me, it was just a single click, so I didn’t have to be as picky, and I could include some of the ‘outliers’. This led to a callback which clarified the position was actually a great fit, then interviews, and then an offer.

When ‘finding a job’ was my full-time job, being able to apply for significantly more jobs in a lot less time was a game changer.

I’d be more than happy to provide more details, but I wanted to make sure I could tell you personally how grateful I am for Apply4Me and what it specifically meant to me.

Thanks again!”

— Josh Carpenter, Knoxville, MD

We’re delighted to say that we’ve received many letters like Josh’s and you can see more testimonials from members happy to go public about the service on our Apply4Me page. But aren’t we guilty of having our Premium members fill out a long form (17 questions!), just to use Apply4Me in the first place? Well, yes. The thing is, once that’s done, all that’s needed afterwards is a single click of a button, time and time again. In that sense, it’s the difference between drudgery and investment. If endlessly filling out long forms isn’t part of your expertise, you shouldn’t be doing it – especially free of charge.

That’s why we’re here to apply for you.