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Soon Lee
Director, People Operations at Directly, Inc.
Professional Background
Soon Len Lee is an accomplished team builder and talent acquisition professional dedicated to connecting extraordinary individuals with opportunities that allow them to unlock their potential and thrive. With a wealth of experience in Talent Acquisition and People Operations, Soon has played key roles in various organizations, driving initiatives that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) values.
Throughout her career, she has worked tirelessly to create environments where diverse talent can flourish. Soon's roles have evolved impressively from a Senior Technical Recruiter at Systems Integration Solutions, Inc. to becoming the Director of People Operations at Directly. This remarkable journey showcases her commitment to fostering inclusive workplaces and her expertise in identifying and nurturing top talent.
In her capacity as the Director of People Operations at Directly, Soon has been instrumental in shaping the organizational culture and enhancing employee experiences. Her leadership has driven a strategic focus on recruitment processes, workforce development, and employee engagement, ensuring that the company's values resonate throughout every level.
Education and Achievements
Soon Len Lee holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Business Administration with a specialization in International Business and Management from Oregon State University. This solid educational foundation has equipped her with unique insights and skills that she applies in her daily work. Her academic achievements have laid the groundwork for her extensive career in talent acquisition and people operations, enabling her to navigate the complexities of workforce dynamics in various corporate environments.
As she advanced in her career, Soon held multiple significant positions before reaching her current role at Directly. Notably, she served as the People Operations Lead, where she honed her skills in developing talent strategies that align with organizational goals. Her previous roles as a Senior Recruiter at Tolfrey Group, a Recruiting Manager at Kanjoya, Inc., and a Recruiting Manager at Robert Half Technology have provided her with a wealth of experiences that inform her current practices and strategic approach to talent management.
Soon's expertise doesn't just lie in filling positions; it encompasses the broader landscape of creating inclusive workplaces. Her focus on DEIB values allows her to devise talent acquisition strategies that prioritize diverse perspectives, ensuring that the organizations she works with benefit from a variety of ideas and backgrounds, promoting innovation and collaboration.
Achievements
As an industry expert, Soon Len Lee has gained recognition for her innovative approaches to talent acquisition and her ability to build cohesive teams. Her significant contributions have resulted in increased employee satisfaction, elevating the overall workplace culture within the organizations she has been part of.
Her proactivity in implementing DEIB strategies has led to successful recruitment initiatives that not only attract diverse talent but also engage and retain them effectively. By advocating for inclusive hiring practices, Soon has promoted a culture of belonging that resonates with employees and fosters innovation across departments.
In her previous role as the Recruiting Manager at Exponential, she developed systems and processes focused on sourcing and retaining top talent, which helped streamline hiring efforts and maximize efficiency. Similarly, her tenure at Kanjoya, Inc. saw her leading efforts to revamp recruitment strategies, ultimately resulting in significant improvements in the quality of hires and employee retention rates.
Throughout her career, Soon has become known for her strong communication skills and her ability to foster relationships with candidates and stakeholders alike. This has enabled her to effectively represent her organizations in the talent marketplace, ensuring a positive candidate experience from the very first contact.
Overall, Soon Len Lee embodies the essence of a modern talent acquisition professional, leveraging her expertise to build teams that thrive in inclusive and equitable environments. Her ongoing dedication to professional growth and commitment to uplifting others make her a key player in today's competitive landscape of people operations.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
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Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.