Competitive Analysis

© 2015 Ameriprise Financial, Inc. All rights reserved.
Competitive Analysis
Join.com
Jaime Brown

Overview
• Competitor Overview
• Top Four Competitors – Analysis
• Quick review of other companies outside of
Finance ***look at MBDA – one pattern in particular / Barratt Future Hires -
Interactive Map
• Top Four Competitors - Comparison Matrix
• Findings
• General Recommendations
For internal use only. Not intended for inspection by, or distribution or quotation to the general public. 2

Goal
Evaluate the effectiveness of each individual company’s
career sites. The categories addressed were:
• Content
• Advertising
• Navigation
• Design

Companies
Financial Industry
• Charles Schwab
• USAA
• Scottrade
• American Century
Other Industries
• Barratt – Developments
PLC
• MBDA Missile Systems
• National Trust Jobs

Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab
• Above pic – the entire card/quote is the link
to their “financial academy”

Charles Schwab
Analysis:
• From the public Charles Schwab page, access to the ’careers’ page is obscure and
located in the footer.
• The focus is similar to ours but they highlight “diversity” and have a clean display.
• Navigation:
- Top level is minimal – three options for the header nav – Our story, Work, and Community
- Rightnavigation is clearly displayed,still at the top but kept minimal. Content links,no buttons.
- Overall page navigation – infinite/continuous scroll.
- Content– Card display below the banner
- As users scroll, navigation is displayed with cards. Images and descriptions are given equal importance and used
well.
• CTA – emphasis on text links, and a few cases of overlay / full card page links.
• Diversity is a prime focus, not just for “women” but for all other minorities. Veterans are
another group and the only company aside from USAA that calls attention to that
demographic.
• They focus on the user and make the career search “participatory”. Headers like “find out where
you fit in” and “find the area that fits you” takes focus off of the company and makes it a user
journey.
• They highlight their awards and recognition.

USAA

USAA
Analysis:
• From the public USAA page, access to the ’careers’ page is obscure and located in the
footer.
• Once on the Career site – the focus is on the military aspect and emphasis on “reward
and investment”. They know their target demographic and make it clear to the user.
• Career Site Overview:
• Navigation:
- Top level is simple – with a general focus the benefitof working at USAA, work-life balance,“our stories”, Career
Areas.
- No left/right nav
- Carousel banner atthe top, each with CTA
- Content– Card display below the banner
- Alternate images and descriptions to maintain consistency butallow for clear distinction between each topic.
• CTA – avoid buttons and focus on text links. Generic labels, “learn more” is the most often used.
• “Our Stories” is the only top level nav that doesn’t dropdown – the user has to navigate to that page
but it creates a sense of authenticity.
• Search Jobs is is the only obvious button, and is prominently displayed in the top right corner of the
page.

USAA
Cont’d:
• Career areas does not focus on one
category and investment careers are
downplayed.
• Locations are easy to locate and are
included in top level tray, as is a section
focused on the “application process”.
• The primary “careers” page employs
accordion style content display with left
navigation to easily show users the
career area options.
• The advisor careers page is minimal.
They focus on videos to convey the
environment, otherwise there is only one
quote used for advertising.
• “Kevin” is the only info about this advisor,
a continuation of the “authentic” goal.

Scottrade

Scottrade
Analysis:
• From the public Scottrade page, access to the ’careers’ page is obscure and located in
the footer.
• Once on the Career site – the focus is on the overall culture and emphasis on ”team”
environment.
• Overall page navigation pattern- Continuous scroll
• Navigation:
- Top level is simple – with a general focus on what they do, benefits,culture, and how to get started.
- No left/right nav – remaining navigation is embedded within cards thatusers access by scrolling.
• Content – Card display
• CTA – Buttons with clear objectives, i.e. – “Find Leadership, Find Corporate….”. Users will know
exactly which career options are presented.
• Emphasis on graphics with minimal label use.
• “Connect with Us” – prominent and leads to standalone social media page.
• ”Search” box clearly displayed in top header bar.

American Century

American Century
• Content Focus:
• Career Opportunities
• Student Opportunities
• Professional Growth

American Century
Analysis:
• From the public American Century page, access to the ’careers’ page is obscure and
located in the footer.
• Once on the Career site – the focus is who ”American Century” is, what they do, and
minimal breakdown of career categories.
• Overall page navigation pattern – standard responsive, no scroll.
• Navigation:
- Top level is simple but unclear to new users. ”Prosper with Purpose” seems out of place on the Careers site and
the Press option does not immediately connectwith the careers aspect.
- Rightside navigation
• Content – Card display
• CTA – Buttons with standard labels related to content, i.e. – Student Opportunities, Career
Opportunities.
• Clean design but the spacing of the content cards and right side navigation is uneven.
• ”Contact Us” options are clearly displayed on right navigation. Emphasis is on “Join” and “Stay
Connected” through use of hyperlinks, and the “Videos About Us” is poorly displayed.

American Century
Cont’d:
• Once on the user clicks on a particular content card (ex: Career Opportunities), they are
taken to another page displaying more specific content, but requiring them to continue
navigating to reach any specific information.
• This requires the user to navigate to
additional pages, with unnecessary
steps to reach their end goal.
• Once reaching a page (ex:
Professional Growth), the pattern
switches to text format.
• Growth is broken out clearly but
the user has to scroll to read,
with no option to jump to a
particular topic.

Barratt – Developments PLC
Website: Barratt – Developments PLC
Future Hires: http://www.barrattfuturetalent.co.uk/
Company Focus: Construction/Engineering
Quick Hits:
• Thorough navigation – header/top level
• Covers all major categories of employment, features search/apply/ and
leaves room for “about” and “working here.
• Scroll nav/grid layout
• CTA – standard – buttons with common label “find out more” / “View”
• Job search page – employs filters for quick sorting and easy access.
• Simple/minimal style. Users can search on the left side and scroll
through the center/remaining space to view card designed “available
jobs”.
• “Future Talent” has it’s own page and different design.

• “Future employees” site:
• Interactive map – takes potential hires on a
“journey”. It’s an experience.
• Top level nav, while lopped on the right side, is
through with each dropdown presenting
necessary info and clear navigation.
• Interactive map - this is fantastic.

MBDA Missile Systems
Website: MBDA Missile Systems Careers
Company Focus: Technology
Quick Hits:
• Thorough navigation – header/top level
• Covers all major categories of employment, features search/apply/ and
leaves room for “about” and “working here.”
• Standard Scroll design (home page)
• Locations has a unique display.
• CTA – both button and text link. The call to action labels are standard
“Find out more”.
• Imagery is used consistently
• Mixture of patterns, including dropdown filters/breadcrumbs/grid
sectioning for certain content, and an example of missile construction
that I think should look at.

National Trust Jobs
Website: National Trust Jobs
Company Focus:
Quick Hits:
• Design emphasis individual ‘stories’
• Continuous Scroll Page
• Central page navigation – unique Content display
• Call out for “latest jobs”

National Trust Jobs

Metric Matrix
Company Content Advertising Navigation Design Total
Charles
Schwab 2 1 2 2 7
USAA 1 0 2 2 5
Scottrade 1 0 1 1 3
American
Century 1 1 0 0 2
• Metric scale = 0 to 2
• 0 = Poor / 1 = Acceptable / 2 = Good

Findings
• Charles Schwab is the clear winner. They’re the only company reviewed that made a point of
focusing on advisors but not calling them out.
• They’re also the only company to call out Veterans, Women, and overall diversity.
• Their patterns were clear, site content was clearly structured, and overall navigation was
clean.
• American Century had the worst overall score, but that’s primarily due to the navigation and ease of
use. They clearly display the content but force the user to continue navigating to various pages to
reach their final destination of chosen topic.
• In Comparison:
• Our navigation is clear and content is solid.
• We should do more to emphasis women, and possibly diversity in general, from the join.com
page and in the overall top/side navigation levels.
• The structure of content (outside of the navigation) is okay but could make use of new
patterns, or just different patterns.
• We offer more options then other companies (in terms of banners and overall adv) such as
“work for an advisor”.
• We’re the only ones I researched that broke out “Experienced” and “New”.

General Recommendations
• Join.com – Careers Home:
• Leave the existing left side page nav, but restructure media.
• Header Tray Nav – add dropdowns displaying topics/pages.
• Addition of other patterns, either carousel or card/grid.
• On the Careers Home page – add/emphasis “contact a recruiter”.
• CTA – the button labels – make the CTA label less generic.
• Instead of “Get Started” make the CTA direct. Should reflect what
the user is going to find when they navigate and make it actionable.
• Interactive Map (Game Play/Story Telling) – Takes the user on a journey.
They’re not just looking at a career, we are literally offering (at least one
example per category) or just for students/ new advisors a ‘map’ of
possibilities.
• Reference:
• https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/04/maps-in-modern-web-design/

Competitive Analysis

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Competitive Analysis

Similar to Competitive Analysis (20)

More from Jaime Brown

More from Jaime Brown (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Competitive Analysis