The Story

Relish was started at the Darden School of Business at UVA in 2014, where Sarah and Zach (the cofounders) spent their first year experiencing firsthand the frustrations and inefficiencies of the MBA recruiting process: a firehose of opportunities with companies around the world, but little time to effectively explore, target, and pursue more than a fraction of the available positions. With a decade of experience in technology platforms and strong feedback from dozens of interviews with students and recruiters, they decided to launch a small pilot program to test the viability of a customized MBA recruiting platform - called RelishMBA.

That pilot program attracted the majority of the Darden student body and 30 MBA recruiters, ranging in size from Fortune 50 corporations recruiting over 100 MBAs a year to early stage start-ups looking to make their first business hires. With this proof of concept, the Relish team set to work rebuilding and expanding the platform to students, schools, and companies, launching version 1.0 of the software in June 2015.

In 2016, with two years of success facilitating recruiting for MBA and other masters business degrees, the team expanded the platform to support many masters degrees, including expansion to graduate engineering and data science degrees  – and RelishMBA was rebranded to RelishCareers.

In 2018, to continue RelishCareers’ growth and traction expanding beyond its core MBA market, Relish acquired TransparentCareer, a cloud-based recruiting platform that provides role-specific compensation and cultural data for students and alumni from top universities. With over 400,000 user submitted compensation and culture data points on over 10,000 employers, the TransparentCareer platform offers the Relish network an unprecedented level of granularity, allowing candidates to compare and contrast career paths, potential employers, and even similar functional roles to find the best fit for their specific preferences.

Today, Relish helps employers, job candidates, and universities with the career search and job process for many mid-to-senior level positions globally. Relish’s goal is to help job candidates and employers streamline their recruiting processes and make more informed hiring and career decisions. The platforms combine an exclusive professional network of top candidates and employers from around the world, with data driven tech and high-touch team support. Think of us like the perfect dating site for mid-to-senior level talent and the companies who hire them. Match.com for hiring.

Our Values

Mission: To bridge the gap between high-tech and high-touch hiring

Vision: A hiring experience that is personalized and evolves with the changing needs of individuals and society as a whole

 

Everyone should relish their career
We’re the sort of people who do our best work at jobs we enjoy, and we think most employees are the same way. Fit matters!

Transparency is important
Information about jobs and other career opportunities should be easily accessible to candidates and relevant to their experiences and preferences.

Relationships matter
We focus on giving candidates and employers the tools and resources they need to inform and strengthen the personal connections they make during the recruiting process.

Technology is here to help
We wanted to make sure that Relish helped students and recruiters find more and better qualified recruiting leads, so we customized our technology to make the process more effective, less time-consuming, and user-friendly.

The Leadership Team

Sarah Rumbaugh
Chief Executive Officer

Sarah began working on Relish in the first semester of her First Year at Darden after discovering the inefficiencies of the MBA recruiting process first-hand and seeing the opportunity for a technological solution. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in business and communications, Sarah was an Information Security Engineer Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton where she helped federal clients implement cybersecurity solutions (she even has top secret clearance). In her spare time, she enjoys running with Relish's Chief Fulfilment Officer Baron, shopping for the latest (and most vintage) fashion trends, and exploring rural Virginia by road.

Zach Mayo
Chief Operating Officer

Along with Sarah (and Baron), Zach was part of the Relish team during the launch of its first pilot program in the summer of 2014. He heads up product development, technology, and marketing. Zach is a Double Hoo, graduating from UVA with a BA in Philosophy before returning to attend Darden for his MBA. In between, he spent two years in Uganda with the United States Peace Corps, three years in the burgeoning tech start-up scene in his hometown of Chattanooga, TN, and he cofounded and served as CEO for a fair trade cosmetics startup called Argania1640. When he’s not working on product development or marketing for Relish, he reads way too much about sports and current events online and watches old episodes of Park & Rec on Netflix.

Brandon Bunch
Director, Marketing & Digital Engagement

Brandon leads user acquisition efforts at Relish and also servers as the resident data-wrangler. A graduate of Old Dominion University, Brandon resides in Lynchburg, VA with his loving wife and his completely insane dog. Prior to joining the Relish team, Brandon started and ran his own successful sports analytics firm, and he remains a devoted follower of the NFL, NBA, and MLB.

Laura Bagwell
Associate Director, Accounts & Partnerships

Holding multiple higher education degrees, Laura began her career in education as a World Language teacher for middle and high school students. Eight years later, she decided to transition from the classroom to account management at an educational travel company. Wanting to explore new ways of engaging with students, she joined RelishCareers where she personally related to the company’s mission from her law school days. When Laura is not working, she loves to be with her husband and dog, travel (over 30 countries and counting), and cook!

Moses
Chief Fulfillment Officer-in-Training

The youngest member of the Relish team, Moses is part of our Canine Leadership Development Program, which aims to introduce puppies and younger dogs to the rigors of corporate life. In his current role, Moses assists with scaring birds and other small woodland creatures away from the Relish headquarters. While he shows promise, it's likely that Moses will remain in the training program for the foreseeable future, or until he is no longer scared of his own shadow.

Spartan
Director, Employee Morale and Leisure Time

Spartan joined the Relish team in 2018 after a long and successful career as a field trials and show dog. As the elder statesman of the Canine Leadership Development Program, he protects the office from laser pointers, sunbeams, and other dangerous light-based intrusions, and he provides mentorship to Moses. He sleeps a lot.

Interested in joining the Relish team?

We like being entrepreneurs and we’re looking for other people who are enthusiastic about building and expanding the Relish platform. We’re currently hiring for roles in:

  • Software Development

  • IT/Infrastructure

  • Sales/Marketing

  • Account Management

Email recruit [at] relishcareers.com to submit your resume and cover letter.