Here's what November at Himalayas looked like at a high-level:
- 🚦 Traffic: 17,988 users (up 96.7% MoM)
- 🌱 Organic traffic: 5,925 users (up 140.5% MoM)
- đź“ť Job applications started: 2,836 (up 126.0% MoM)
- đź’¸ Revenue: $67.74 (down 48.7% MoM)
If you're unaware, Himalayas is a three-person bootstrapped team (Jack, Jordan, and Abi) building a remote job board.
As we said last month, we think of Himalayas as a flywheel. In this month's update, we'll be diving deeper into how we're thinking about it and a few of its component parts.
You'll notice there is no real change in what we're doing, changes in direction reduce the momentum of the flywheel.
Turning an infrequent flywheel
The jobs to be done that Himalayas fulfills for our customers aren't daily.
Most people aren't constantly looking for a new job and most companies hire in bursts.
We also have built-in churn. The better job we do matching job seekers with companies, the quicker people will stop using us.
This is a good thing!
It means they've landed a job or filled the role they posted.
People also tend to be in the market at different times. Even when we do a great job, there isn't necessarily a reason for someone to tell their friends about us.
Unless, of course, their friends are also looking for a new job or have open remote roles.
Nor do we have complete control over the user experience. A critical component of the process–the job interview–is completely out of our control for both the job seeker and the companies who use us.
To make matters worse, predicting when someone is looking for a new job or hiring their next employee isn't easy. Nor is it something that we can influence.
All these factors make us easy to forget, hamper word of mouth growth, and make it hard to win customer loyalty. Â
In short, it's difficult for people to build a habit around Himalayas.
This all sounds bad, but it forces us to act in the best interest of job seekers and companies. Otherwise, there is no reason for them to come back.
Our only real option to retain customers over the long term is to build a strong brand that people remember, and the only way to do that is by creating something that people love. Â
Nothing else will work.
November brought more evidence that we're on the right track when a number of content creators share Himalayas with their audiences:
- @twinkyhustle: 75k+ views, 7k+ likes, 130+ comments, and 1k+ shares.
- @findfulfillingwork: 19k+ views, 1.6k+ likes, 20+ comments, and 360+ shares.
- @thesavvymillenial: 2k+ views, 130+ likes, 6 comments, and 16 shares.
The fact that people are organically sharing us when we have everything outlined above against us is proof that our approach is resonating. Â
Power to the job seeker
Beyond improving the core job search functionality, we can improve the customer experience, drive retention, and make the flywheel spin faster by increasing usage by adding adjacent use cases.
If people use Himalayas more often, we reduce the amount of time between visits and increase the likelihood that people will remember us.
We want Himalayas to not only be the place to find remote jobs, but the place to find out which remote companies are great employers.
The issue is that it's hard to figure this out before you're an employee. Â
Back in 1970, the economist, George Akerlof wrote what would become a seminal paper on a concept called information asymmetry. It's work that won him a Nobel prize in 2001, that paper argued that used car sellers have an information advantage over buyers.
This asymmetry creates an imbalance of power in transactions. When the seller has more or better information the transaction will more likely occur in the seller's favor.
We think the same concept holds true for companies and job seekers.
Companies have control over what information is shared with the public, and even if you talk to a current employee, they have little incentive to say negative things about their employer. Unless you're a close friend.
Because companies have more information than job seekers, they almost always have the upper hand.
That's why we created our remote company profiles.
They make it easy for job seekers to research companies and learn about the company, its culture, and tech stack before applying
The first iteration displayed information about what each company does, its size, the markets it operates in, and the countries where it has employees.
In October, we added tech stacks to outline the tools and technology each company uses to build its products and services. This made it easier for job seekers to find companies where their unique skills and experiences would be valued, or just where they used the tools and programming languages that they preferred.
In November, we added remote employee benefits and perks. Not only does this help job seekers see whether a company values its remote employees, but it also helps good employers attract talent.
We haven't made these pages public yet, but we will as we gather more data. Â
Over time, we'll add more information to our company profiles with the ultimate goal of giving more power and information to the job seeker.
Instead of keeping information hidden until after they've been hired, they'll be able to see everything they need to make an informed decision ahead of time.
This might seem overly hostile to companies, it's not.
By providing more information ahead of time, companies filter out candidates who aren't really interested and reduce the time they spend interviewing people who aren't right for the job. Â
If we do this well, we'll earn job seekers' trust and make Himalayas the go-to place to find remote jobs and research companies. In turn, this will make it easier for companies to find and hire the talent that they need to scale.
Serving customers through content
Another way for us to increase usage and drive retention is to serve customers when they aren't looking for a job or hiring.
As we mentioned last month, editorially generated and SEO-optimized content is a core part of our flywheel.
Our strategy is to serve four audiences:
- Job seekers: Teaching people how to find a job, ace their interview, negotiate their salary, and get hired. We hope that over time this content will also serve as a way to get more people interested in remote work.
- Employees: Improving productivity, how to get promoted, finding your zone of genius, and embracing work-life balance.
- Managers: Teaching managers to increase the output of their team and the teams they influence, enable asynchronous work, and scale a remote company.
- Companies: Helping companies learn how to attract, hire, onboard, retain, and engage remote employees as well as how to build a better company.
In November, we started to see our efforts pay off both in terms of organic traffic and anecdotally on social media. We're excited to see the engagement that our content is getting as it's more proof that we're providing value.
Content-driven growth may seem outdated, but we think it is still underestimated. The power of consistently producing great content over the long term is one of the best ways to build a strong brand. Â
SEO and content are also two of the only truly scaleable forms of marketing that can have compounding returns. Like many investments, the return starts out small and earns incrementally.
Over time, the investment compounds and becomes large but only if you create great content and earn people's trust.
The most common mistake we see is people creating content to serve search engines instead of people. The only reason something has search volume is that people are typing it in looking for answers.
Creating good content is about delivering compelling, valuable, and differentiated information to those searchers, and the best content is produced by people who truly care about the topic which is why we're so focused on it.
In December, we'll be doubling down on content and releasing a new design for the blog. The new design will make it easier for people to find relevant content and to jump to the parts that matter to them.
In November, we published 84,557 words across 17 posts:
- October 2021 Monthly Update
- Four-day Work Week: Impact, Origin, Pros, Cons, and More
- 16 Remote Job Interview Questions (Sample Answers Included)
- 124 Fully Remote Companies Hiring in 2021
- Compressed workweek: Definition, Types, Pros, Cons, and Tips
- How and Why to Write a Remote Work Cover Letter (With Tips, Template, and Example)
- 92 Remote Employee Perks & Benefits Ideas for 2022
- How to Work From Home: Tips and Companies Hiring Remotely
- 13 Best Employee Handbook Examples for Remote Companies
- How to Write Your Remote Job Resume (Templates + Samples Included)
- 45 Essential Remote Work Best Practices
- Head of Remote: What Is It, Responsibilities, and How to Hire or Become One
- The Ultimate Guide to Managing Remote Teams (20 Tips)
- How to Answer "Why Do You Want To Work Remotely?" (Sample Answers Included)
- Remote-first Vs. Remote-friendly: Definitions, Benefits, and Differences
- Working Across Time Zones: Pros, Cons, and Best Practices
- Remote One-on-Ones: Importance, Best Practices, and Template
If you have any feedback on any of these posts or have a remote work-related topic you'd like us to cover, please let us know.
Other fixes and improvements
- Improved the experience for creating and editing company profiles by adding autosave
- Added support for bumping jobs to the top of search
- Fixed issue causing employers to be unable to create a new company
- Updated Elasticsearch to OpenSearch
- Updated OG images for the changelog and homepage
- Removed unverified hiring managers from job form
- Updated autocomplete to work again on JavaScript elements
- Fixed issue causing autocomplete to filter out companies with the same name
- Added comma as a delimiter to numbers on the homepage
- Changed background color of transparent images to white
- Fixed incorrect chevron color in nav dropdown
- Fixed caching bug causing new companies to not be found in dropdowns
- Fixed issue causing JavaScript to not work on the changelog
- Enhanced automated process for refreshing jobs and removing expired jobs
- Fixed issue causing the incorrect canonical link to be chosen on company profile and tech stack pages
- Fixed issue with overflowing lines in nav dropdown
- Updated redirect for old stack URL
- Removed incomplete companies from search autocomplete
- Changed minimum job description to 100 words
- Added placeholder text to rich text boxes
- Fixed bug causing blog post to not show up on the homepage
- Improved URL validation for LinkedIn URLs
- Added Head of Remote to job categories
- Fixed issue causing images to be deleted when clicked on in company profile form
- Removed incomplete companies from search suggestions
- Polished the UI of the perks modal for employers
- Company link on company profile form now opens in new tab.
- Added more perks: Flexible working hours, disability insurance, fertility benefits, company retreat, and get paid in crypto.
Find your next remote job or hire your next remote employee on Himalayas
Himalayas is the best place to find remote jobs and hire remote employees. We’re focused on providing a job search and hiring experience that has great UX focused on speed and efficiency.
If you're a job seeker: Apply privately to 2,000+ remote jobs and discover 1,400+ remote companies. We make it easy to filter by time zone, visa restrictions, and roles so you can easily find remote companies that want to hire you based on where you live and the role you're looking for.
If you're a remote company: Create a free company profile. Tell your story, build up your remote brand, and recruit the best. Share your culture, tech stack, and get seen by remote candidates looking to make a move. Then post a job and use our sophisticated job listings to specify time zone or visa requirements and rest easy knowing that qualified candidates will see your job listings.
We'd also love for you to join our free remote work community.
