FAST FACTS

• Andrew Hudson is the founder of Andrew Hudson’s Job List, a trusted jobs board in Colorado that he launched in 1998.
• He spent more than two decades in a number of prestigious communications roles, including as the spokesperson for the Regional Transportation District and the head of marketing and advertising at Frontier Airlines.  
• Hudson was also the press secretary for former Colorado U.S. Sen. Timothy Wirth and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.
• He is also a professional bassist and performs at jazz clubs and festivals throughout the state.
• Hudson is a third-generation Coloradan who lives in Englewood with his wife, Christine. They have three children.

Colorado Politics: How would you describe the job market right now in Colorado, and in Denver specifically? Is it hurting, thriving, bouncing back? 

Andrew Hudson: It is difficult to imagine that a year ago, our state was as close to “full” employment as possible. Throughout the past 12 months, the pandemic job numbers have been dreadful, as Coloradans – like so many others around the country – have faced layoffs and furloughs. Countless small businesses, particularly in the food and hospitality industry, have had to shutter.

Saying that, there ARE definitely more jobs being posted today. Seasonally, January and February are typically strong hiring months, and companies as well as nonprofit organizations today are posting more jobs in anticipation of a hopeful, post-pandemic Spring.

CP: How (if at all) has the pandemic affected the number of job posts, or perhaps types of job postings, listed on Andrew Hudson’s Jobs List? 

Hudson: It has been a whiplash! There was a definite decrease in the number of job postings that really began last spring and lasted through the early summer.  Summertime I started to see a jolt of new job postings, but in mid-fall, when the pandemic began its second wave, the job postings started to decrease again. 

Employers have been forced to experiment with work-from-home environments and it has remarkably been the big success of the pandemic.  Productivity for most employers I have spoken with has been as good, or in some cases even better, as employees work via Zoom and group chat. It also has provided a great amount of flexibility for working parents whose kids have been relegated to online learning.

It will be interesting to see in the coming year if work-from-home becomes the normal.  I fear for commercial real estate and for the future of central work areas, like downtown, if work-from-home is embraced post-pandemic.

CP: Let’s take one giant step back, if you don’t mind, and revisit the moment you decided to part ways with your career working in a variety of prestigious communications roles to launch your job board in 1998. How did you come to that decision, and do you have any regrets about making that choice today? 

Hudson: I started Andrew Hudson’s Jobs List in 1998 as a “pay-it-forward” hobby.  I was working for Mayor Wellington Webb and had built a massive email list where I would send out regular communications about the Mayor and the City of Denver.

I started getting folks asking me to send out job opportunities, and I soon found that there was a need for a hyperlocal, online jobs platform that connected talented professionals with local employers. So, I would send a weekly email to subscribers featuring all of the jobs that employers would send me. After about 5 years, the list had grown to about 20,000 subscribers and at that point, I was fortunate to have a local company provide me with a free web platform with automation that made it a lot easier and more efficient. 

For the first 10 years, AH Jobs List was free to everyone and I would spend my free time managing and building the network. 

In April 2008, my mother passed away and left me a small inheritance that was enough to convince me to take a risk and become an entrepreneur. I re-branded the site and let everyone know that I would soon be charging employers for postings. I never wanted to charge the job seekers, as I thought that was unfair. 

In August, 2008, I started charging employers to post jobs with the goal to leave my full-time job in 3 months. The response and success was so immediate, I left my full-time job in three days. MORE jobs were being posted when I started charging $250 per-posting! It was my first lesson as an entrepreneur: a price tag gives your product credibility.

A week later the stock market collapsed, and massive layoffs started. But I was fortunate that I had built a reliable and trusting following for the past 10 years and, despite the recession, companies were still hiring. My site became more popular because of the great amount of laid off talent that was now looking for work. 

I’ve been running AH Jobs List as a full time business since 2008 and my only regret is that I didn’t start running it as a full-time business sooner. It is the best professional decision I’ve ever made.

I’ve been able to manage my website from cafes in Paris, beaches in Costa Rica, restaurants in Argentina, wine bars in Spain and even have posted jobs from my phone while on a chairlift in Winter Park. I get to spend a ton of quality time with my kids, and it also allows my wife the freedom to pursue her professional passions. The freedom of being an entrepreneur and being able to use every ounce of marketing and PR skill into my product has been a massive blessing. But most rewarding is hearing from the job seekers who have used my site to find a job.

CP: While we’re looking in the rearview mirror, could you share one of your fondest memories working as the former press secretary for Denver Mayor Wellington Webb? What was it like being the mouthpiece of one of the city’s most revered mayors of all time? 

Hudson: I was all of 29-years-old when Mayor Webb took a risk on me. It was the greatest honor of my life to walk up the steps of Denver City Hall my first day of work. Completely overwhelming, and I still get chills thinking about it today!

I had been the spokesperson for a U.S. Senator and the head of communications for the Regional Transportation Department during the opening of Denver’s light rail system and the crazy Jon Caldara/Ben Klein RTD Board era so I’d paid some dues, but city government was a beast unto itself. 

After I’d worked for him a couple of years, I asked him, “Why did you hire me?” and he said, “You did a better job apologizing for RTD then we did for DIA!”

Mayor Webb and his wife, Wilma Webb, are my all-time heroes whom I look up to for so many reasons. Dignified, calm in crisis, dreamers and doers. It is impossible to talk about modern-day Denver without acknowledging the immense contributions they have made to building Denver into one of the most admired cities in the world. 

The fun and excitement of working as his press secretary was that there was never a boring moment. We had two thriving and competing newspapers, and the local television and radio stations covered the city as if it were a full-contact sport. Every day, I was managing a new media issue. I loved the give-and-take of the reporters, many of whom had covered the city for more than 30 years! I did my best to be transparent, honest and accessible, and most importantly, I tried to make sure the public understood Mayor Webb the way I did: As someone who deeply, deeply understood and cared for Denver.

CP: Currently, AH Jobs does a lot more than just serve as a trusted job board in the state. It also holds job fairs, job seminars and even “boot camps” for job seekers. At the helm of all that, we have no doubt you’ve got some good advice for professionals on the hunt. Do you mind sharing some wisdom? 

Hudson: Networking through professional and personal contacts and job seeking through online job boards are the two most common ways to find a job.

A lot of job seekers I work with haven’t had to look for a job in a while and get easily frustrated. Job seeking is still a skill that requires knowledge, practice, focus and red-hot confidence. 

Gone are the days of having one really good resume and searching for a job in the newspaper. In today’s hiring world, it requires customized resumes for the jobs you are applying for and an understanding of HOW to apply for a job in a world of recruiters who are relying on complex applicant tracking systems (ATS) to rank candidates who apply online.

When I was the head of advertising and marketing for Frontier Airlines, we had a tremendously successful advertising campaign that used the animals on the tails as our “spokes-animals.” But our brand slogan was “A Whole Different Animal,” which meant that once we convinced you to fly us through the cute animal ads, we had to actually deliver a different and better experience at every touch point of your travel experience so you’d become a loyal Frontier traveler.

Applying for a job is the same concept. You have to have a consistent job-seeking brand that is represented at every touch point in the job search: the resume, the cover letter, the interview, etc. And your brand has to be backed up with confident, convincing, real-life experiences and accomplishments that represent differentiation and value.

CP: With a new administration entering the White House, and with so many people out of work due to the pandemic, what would you say to President Biden if you could speak to him directly on behalf of Colorado’s workforce? 

AH: President Biden needs to concentrate on income inequality.

The American dream used to go like this: Do well in high school and you have a good chance of going to college. Do well in college, and you’d have a good chance of getting a well-paying entry level job after graduation. You’d spend your 20s growing professionally and financially, and any college debt you incurred was manageable. By your 30s, you could begin saving and thinking about marriage, a family and buying a house. In your 40s and 50s, you could start building your retirement nest egg, take vacations and start saving for your kid’s college and planning your post-retirement life.

Today, the American dream is being suffocated by huge student debt incurred as a result of the rising costs of college.

I regularly see job postings with entry-level salaries between $30,000 and $50,000 – levels from when I started my career 30 years ago! Take-home pay for young professionals is being gobbled up by the increasingly high costs of living, including college debt, rent, health care and transportation costs.  The dream of marriage, a family, home ownership and retirement is out of reach for a huge percentage of our population.  

The pandemic shed light on the widening gap between the wealthy and the poor. There is no better time than now to have honest discussions and develop policies addressing income inequality.