Carol commits herself to greatness

Carol, Yodle’s recruiting lead in Scottsdale, commits herself to greatness.

We recently learned of some incredible work that our teammate Carol is doing out West with the Homeward Bound organization.  Homeward Bound’s mission is to assist homeless and domestic violence families with children achieve economic independence, secure long-term, safe, decent, affordable housing and break multi-generational cycles of homelessness and domestic violence. 

We asked Carol about her experience working with Homeward Bound and immediately sensed her passion and excitement around the cause. 
For the past 6 years, Carol has been helping women in the program get back on their feet by providing career advice including resume writing, mock interview and communication skills training.  She informed us that the Yodle Scottsdale office donated a closet full of business attire so the women will really have all the tools they need to land that job. 

The Case Manager who She partnered with at Homeward Bound sent us the following data:
She’s been involved in co-facilitating training for approx 112 women and  of these women who have gone through the workshop 108 found some type of employment! Feedback from the women is that they love the workshop. They said it’s very helpful preparing for a good interview and makes real interviews MUCH easier… 

The Case Manager said this about Carol : “It was cool going back and seeing how successful the workshop has been and the HUGE positive impact you have had on so many of our families lives!!! Thanks for being awesome!!!”

Awesome indeed.

Yodle’s IDEA Committee Brings Smiles & Warmth to the Community

IDEA (Inter-departmental Events and Activities) is committed to building morale across departments and locations through social events and community outreach at Yodle.

The Yodle year in review : twenty eleven, eleven, two thousand eleven

In January 2011, Yodle CEO, Court Cunningham, kicked off the year and emphasized that in order for us to reach our goals and continue to be a leader in the local online marketing space, we have to remain agile, embrace change and continue to move quickly.  2011 brought change and excitement galore.  Here are some highlights:·        

• Yodle acquires Profitfuel to create largest independent local online marketing company
• Microinterns visit Yodle HQ to get an inside look at NYC Tech Startup     
• Yodle Display and FranchiseSEO are launched
• Yodle’s Austin and Charlotte offices are voted best places to work
• In 2011 over 140 Yodle employees were promoted to new positions! Now that’s growth!
• Yodle ranks 21^st on the Deloitte Fast 500, makes the Inc 500 list for the 2nd year in a row, and is voted to Forbes’ Most Promising Companies.

A big thank you goes out to all the Yodle employees for making 2011 such an exciting year.  We are looking forward to even greater things to come in 2012!

Brown bag lunch ….and lets talk tech

At our most recent tech talk, Andrew led a presentation on backbone.js (http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/).  Backbone.js is a framework that has been quickly gaining attention in the software development world, helping to add structure and legibility to JavaScript UI code.

I asked Andrew why he chose the topic.  He explained that he feels encouraged to explore new technology that will improve our development process and pointed out that all of our developers end up working on UI at some point so why not introduce a tool that will make things better.

Andrew presented the pro’s and the con’s and it looks like we’re going to give it a try!  Nice work Andrew! 

Yodle Spotlight: Butch

Sitting on the blue couches at Yodle Headquarters in New York, Butch recalls his very first day at ProfitFuel** almost 3 years ago. He started as a Sales Representative and immediately became a top producer for the Austin office. Because of his success and the confidence they had in his abilities, management allowed Butch to work remotely for about a year. In that year, he found the key to the next big idea.

Butch returned to Austin and approached David Rubin, then CEO of ProfitFuel (currently SVP of Sales for Yodle), with an idea that would end up breaking every single sales record in ProfitFuel history. Comprised of 19 Sales Reps taking direction from Butch’s new innovation, “Team 19” was born.  “We did something that was unheard of for phone sales. They thought it couldn’t be done, but we did it.” Because of the processes he put into place, Team 19 set forth to outperform the rest of the sales floor and increase ProfitFuel’s revenue by 150% within their first month of selling together. They would become famous for their proven method that eventually everyone would learn and follow.

Today, legends of Butch & Team 19’s success precede him. Many members of Team 19 have since been promoted, including Butch himself. Now, as Director of Sales for Yodle Austin, he hopes to share all that he’s learned to benefit and shape the future of Yodle by playing an active role in the Sales training program and mentoring his reps on an individual basis.

“My favorite part of the job is the opportunity to work one on one with the sales reps and teach them the fundamentals of selling that will make them successful. We’re helping to impact their life financially and provide better stability for their family, and that is very rewarding.”

Before ProfitFuel, Butch was in the car business for six years. “It’s a tough environment and very different from Yodle. You have to perform in order to keep working. Here, we expect the same kind of high-performance, but there is also a strong support system. Managers genuinely care to have others thrive and you have a CEO and SVP of Sales really thinking about our future by putting things in place to create an amazing work environment, a place to not just work, but also to escape to like a second family. With a sales gong, sales contests, sales games. This is not a typical call center. It’s not a typical job. It’s your new life.”

If he could take one valuable lesson from his experience here, Butch cites humility as the one. “I’m confident in what I do and I know I can come across as very arrogant. I’ve learned when you’re successful, you have to stay humble. When you’re not successful, you can’t freak out or get angry.  We’ve gone through ups and downs, but you stay humble when you’re up and you stay positive and supportive when you’re down.”

“Some days, people wake up and they’re really tired and think, ‘Oh man, I have to go to work today.’ This is the only job I’ve ever had where I’ve never had that feeling in the 3 years I’ve been here. Every single day I’m excited to be at work and it’s a direct reflection of the people I’m surrounded by from the ground all the way up to management. When Court flew down to Austin, it was clear that he cares about his people just as much as David does. They truly care about their employees and want them to be successful, to feel a part of something special. I’m here because I want to make it even more special.”

Butch’s commitment to greatness was not only heard in his voice, but also felt through the stories of his experience. Excited for the future of Yodle & our goal towards Total Local Online Domination, Butch might have another key to the next big idea. “People will eventually know that Yodle is the company to market with. We will take over the world. Total World Domination! A King and Queen of Yodle that will run the Earth.”

—— 

Hailing from Texas, Butch joined ProfitFuel** in December of 2008 as a Sales Representative. He is currently Director of Sales for Yodle Austin. On his spare time, he likes to relax and catch up on his favorite TV shows Dexter and Boardwalk Empire. He is also a proud champion of several eating competitions. Notable accomplishments include 18 plates of crab legs (that’s about 4.5 pounds of shelled crab) and a 3 pound burger in a 20 minute sitting. After discussing this, we were both hungry, but as Butch explains, “I’m always hungry.” Yodle Recruiting wants to wish Butch a Happy 3-Year Yodle-Fuel-Versary! 

**In May of 2011, Yodle brought on ProfitFuel, an SEO company out of Austin, Texas, making Yodle the largest online marketing provider for small businesses in the US.

The goal of Yodle Spotlight is to share personal development & professional success of Yodle employees.

C4 - Developer Challenge

Dennis, our Historian and Tech Lead, posed a new challenge to our developers recently. Developer Challenges are a fun way to solve algorithm puzzles that are non work related and allow you to use languages that you may not use on a daily basis.

He built a C4 web app in javascript (http://yoc4.no.de/) and asked developers to produce an Artificial Intelligence solution in the language of their choice - to view the state of the board and determine the next best move.

Game board

The team was excited to develop a solution to a favorite childhood game.  Solutions were developed in javascript, C, python, ruby, java and a tournament was born.  The number of moves it took to win a game of C4 determined the seeding for the tournament.  3 rounds later a King was crowned. David, Yodle Tech Lead and C4 Champ, created an implementation in C that was clearly capable of thinking further ahead than any other agent.

 

I wish I had his AI solution when I was in elementary school!

Yodle Field Day

Each of our cities participated in Yodle’s first annual Field Day.  Employees spent a day outside of the office at local parks and played kickball, ate loads of BBQ, competed in tug of war, ziplined, ran relay races and enjoyed a couple cold beverages.  A great time was had by all.  Cant wait for next year!

Our Values

When Yodle employees walk in on their first day, they’ll find a bunch of Yodle SWAG on their desks :  Yodle t-shirt, mug, water bottle, squishy ball…..

Nested in the middle of all that SWAG is a card that lists our Yodle Values.

We get chills reading through them.  Do you?

Yodle Spotlight: Huanlei

Coming up on his 3 year Yodle-versary, Huanlei, Director of Product Management, sat down to tell us his Yodle story.“We are all putting our best forward, to do what we can to put the company forward… to make Yodle a better place.” Because of his determination and strong work ethic, Huanlei has had the chance to do just that.

When he first joined in October of 2008, he was a team lead for our Optimization group, making the natural transition from an algorithm-finance world to an algorithm-media world. Within a year, he worked his way up to manager and together with his team, was able to bring our media optimization to a level that was significantly better than before.  Transferring his skills across teams, he moved on to also manage our product performance and marketing operations team before making the transition to product management. 

“The opportunity to become a manager at my tenure and seniority level gave me the opportunity to mentor and develop an already talented group of people. It has made me a better media optimizer, better product manager, better manager, better person in general. I’ve improved my own skill set and experience in order to become a better professional. I learn something new every day from both my peers and my direct reports. Sometimes [I learn] too much.”

Huanlei has been fortunate enough to work within several different environments from financial services & investment banks to non-profit organizations. There were positives to each of those experiences, but having an impact at a large organization can feel difficult to make and the type of work is not necessarily tangible from a personal satisfaction level. Yet at Yodle, Huanlei feels he has found the best of both worlds. 

“We’re not your typical start-up. We are building something unique and innovative and becoming an industry leader, but still remaining what feels like a small and flat enough organization, where on a day to day basis, you can feel the impact you have on your team, the company, and the thousands of local businesses that are our customers. To hear about the success stories from these business owners and see them experience the impact of change from a new product release is very fulfilling and makes me happy.”

Helping local business ‘Yodle’ is just one of the reasons Huanlei enjoys working here. “There are exceptionally talented, intelligent people, working towards one goal to make this a successful organization. Not to say everyone is always in agreement, [but it’s the] intense, challenging, and difficult conversations that get us in the right direction. At the end of the day, if you see something you’re not happy with, or something you don’t think is the right thing to do, if you’re willing to make a difference, there is absolutely that opportunity here.”

———

Huanlei joined the Yodle family in October of 2008. On his spare time, he is a fan of freestyle hip-hop and enjoys both watching artists, as well as participating in freestyle battles.  Yodle Recruiting wants to wish him a Happy 3-year Yodle-versary!

The goal of Yodle Spotlight is to share personal development & professional success of Yodle employees.

The Anatomy of a Yodle Employee

We take hiring seriously at Yodle. Two years ago we had 250 employees, and today we have 700+.  So far in 2011, we have interviewed 2000+ candidates and we hire 1-2 people every business day! 

Sure, our products are best in class, but that’s because of the people behind them.  If you were to meet our employees, you’d most likely agree that there’s just “something” that they’ve all got. But it’s a lot of things that come together to make up the anatomy of a Yodle employee.

What is it about the people who make it through the interview process that sets them apart? 

Passion: Passion is important at Yodle. We are all passionate about helping small businesses grow and the work we get to do every day. And we show our passion by having lots of energy.

Drive:  Meeting expectations isn’t enough; we want to crush them. We’re driven to exceed goals, to rapidly develop our careers. We want it all and we’re not afraid to work for it.

Confidence: We believe in what we can bring to our clients and our company. We’re also confident enough to admit when we’re wrong and learn from our mistakes. Employees at Yodle aren’t afraid of taking risks because there will be a learning opportunity. We hire people who are not afraid to speak up, voice their opinions, and stand behind those opinions when they have the data to support it.

Hunger: We’re hungry at Yodle, and not just for the yummy snacks we keep stocked in our kitchens. All of us here have an innate urge to be successful, and that drives us to take action without waiting for direction. A true member of the Yodle team goes above and beyond without being asked.  

Entrepreneurial Spirit: We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves; it’s what drew us to work for one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. We want to be a part of an organization that changes online marketing as we know it. We’re okay with ambiguity because we can figure things out on our own.   We’ll dig and keep digging until we find the right answers.  In fact, we embrace challenges and strongly believe that nothing is impossible.

Diverse:  A typical Yodle employee has a lot of interests. In our spare time, we’re artists, performers, avid runners, hikers, ping pong experts, and pop culture enthusiasts, to name a few. At Yodle, we’re creative and curious by nature, and no one works in a silo—we like to know what our fellow team members are up to.

Positive Attitude:  The Yodle “can do” spirit is palpable from the moment you walk through our doors.   We act with our customers in mind; continually asking for feedback as a means for improvement.  As “glass half full” kind of people, we’re able to inspire each other to succeed.  We communicate openly and don’t skimp on encouragement, even when faced with obstacles. Employees at Yodle aren’t afraid to help each other out even if it’s “not their job”.  And we love the fact that when we come in each day and say “good morning,” we most certainly mean it. 

Sound like you? Then reach out to one of our recruiters and let’s discuss a career opportunity for you.