Vault Unveils New Site With More Content, Broader Reach

From ERE Net  by John Zappe  Jun 23, 2009, 8:00 am ET

New Vault

The new Vault came out of the vault this morning, and while it bears
a family resemblance to the old site, it's got deeper content, greater
breadth, easier navigation, and enough improvements big and small that
collectively they make the site more useful to more job seekers at a
time when they need it most.

"Today, Vault is taking a major leap forward to provide our
ambitious, educated audience with a faster, more comprehensive and
personalized experience," is how Vault president and CEO Erik Sorenson
announced the release of the new Vault.

Founded in 1996, Vault has ever since served professional school
students, recent grads, and, in increasing numbers over the years,
mid-career professionals in the fields of finance, law, accounting, and
consulting. Before consumer-generated content became a buzzword, Vault
tapped into employees at major firms and companies in the U.S. who
provided insider views of the work environment. They also helped Vault
compile its salary information, its numerous surveys, and its famed
company rankings.

Now, the new Vault maintains that same approach, but has expanded
its reach to 400 professions, and the industries it covers from 40 to
200. Its company profiles have grown even more broadly.

The discussion groups remain, as do the blogs that have been added
in the last few years. The discussion board is where questions about
the software developer culture of a company to the financial stability
of another company can be asked and where users will get answers.
Curiously, Vault did not jump into the Web 2.0 networking stew. That
was a deliberate decision, Sorenson told us, in answer to our emailed
question:

"Our main focus as a company is to gather and distribute valuable
exclusive content as efficiently for our users as possible, as with My
Vault, so that's where we put our resources to start. Our discussions
and message boards remain popular. However, we look forward to
continual improvement of the user experience and we expect that to lead
to increased social media functionality over time."

Here's what else he told us:

The former Vault.com homepage

Q: What were you looking to achieve with the redesign?

A: Vault's delivery of "insider" career information has been very
successful for more than 12 years. However, this is the first major
overhaul of the site since it was introduced in 2001, and it was clear
to us that the current site had become a barrier to continued growth.
The new Vault features an entirely new approach to navigation,
functionality, and branding. Our goal was to provide a much faster,
more comprehensive and personalized user experience. At the same time,
we are providing a better environment for our recruitment branding and
advertising partners.

Q: You've expanded the content offerings significantly. What drove that decision? What do you expect will be the result?

A: Two reasons:

First, Vault historically has been very strong in certain core areas
- law, accounting, banking, and consulting. Our goal is to build on
that core by providing our users with the same quality and depth of
information in a vastly expanded number of other industries and
professions. We are especially focused on expanding in areas that are
very active today - government, green/energy, healthcare, and
pharmaceuticals.

Secondly, we are providing our users up-to-the-moment news and
commentary about companies and industries. The news about certain
companies - and how that news impacts recruitment - is very important
to both passive
and active job seekers. We feel that the combination - in-depth,
insider information curated by our editors, and timely, topical news -
is an exceptional benefit for our consumers.

A: Who are your users and how do they use Vault?

Vault.com has about 2.5 million monthly users, and our content is
available to more than 5 million additional consumers through
universities and libraries. Our users are educated, ambitious, and
talented. That's why hundreds of premier corporate recruiters like
Goldman Sachs and Deloitte have partnered with us for years, and 75 new
company recruitment leaders have signed on since the first of the year.

Q: Has Vault's business model changed? What is it and how does it
work today, in an environment where so many resources are available.

Vault's business model has not changed. We have a very diversified
model, which has driven our stability and success for years. Vault has
three primary revenue streams: 1. Recruitment advertising; 2.
Subscriptions (Note: Vault charges $9.95 a month for its premium
content); and 3. Licensing of our content to institutions, like
libraries and universities. Of course, we also offer career services,
like resume review and career coaching.

Regarding the number of resources available today, we feel that
Vault is unique in the marketplace. We have breadth and depth of
insider content - gathered from nearly fifty thousand surveys each
year. Importantly, it is curated by our experienced team of editors -
not just raw content with no context or credibility.