Getting to Work: Long Valley Natives Launch Online Job Search Platform

Starting a job search company together in California 13 years after graduating was probably the last thing on their minds while strolling through the halls of West Morris Central High School.

But for Terrence Cummings and Anuj Shah, it was sort of a natural fit.

The friends and Central alums, class of ’00, left Long Valley after graduating and headed for more education – Cummings to the University of Colorado via NYU for finance; Shah to Temple University for political science, then Vanderbilt for law – and successfully meandered their way through the professional world, all the while staying in touch.

Fast forward through the digital age and a heap of experience between them, and the idea sparked between the two: let’s help others the way we’ve been helped.

“There’s always been someone there to help me, to show me the right path,” Cummings told Patch. “But how could I use that? How could we package that serendipity?”

And so Traba, or www.traba.co, was born.

Back to that serendipity, though.

Cummings, now Traba’s CEO, calls it his nonlinear path. Raised in Long Valley, Cummings was verbally issued a full academic scholarship to New York University, thanks to someone his aunt was doing business with. After the first semester, that promise was broken – actually, it never even materialized in the first place – and Cummings was left holding the single semester $25,000 bag that he nor his family could afford.

He pulled himself up by the bootstraps and headed to Boulder, Colorado, where he began working while he figured out what to do with his young life. While flipping burgers and serving customers, Cummings met and later became friendly with Jim Collins, business writer and author of Good to Great, Built to Last, How the Mighty Fall, and Great by Choice.

Cummings enrolled at University of Colorado to continue his education while maintaining a close relationship with Collins, who bequeathed to him a wealth of knowledge and a foot in the door at McKinsey & Company, which spurred several career moves over the better part of a decade between Colorado, Boston and San Francisco.

Political Science, Law, Business Founder?

Shah’s road to becoming Traba’s co-founder and Chief Operating Officer wasn’t the same as Cummings’, but similarly incongruent.

The Long Valley native, whose parents still live in town, said he was passionate about business even in high school, thanks to working with his father during the summer months.

Even still, Shah headed to Philadelphia for his political science degree. While there, a trusted professor urged the undergrad to head off for law school, which he did at Vanderbilt. Thanks to the education, Shah spent the last half-decade working in law.

But it was his time working with his father’s business that opened his eyes to the world of employment.

“I had access to two sets of clients both in India and here,” Shah said. “I saw so many smart people, great people, that may have had one misstep in their career and sent them on a totally different path than where they wanted to be.”

From Econ to San Fran

The hometown feel at Traba doesn’t end there, however.

Shah and Mike Flynn, a Central grad of ’99, had also stayed in touch over the years. When Flynn’s wife landed a job with Apple in California earlier this year and the two were set to move to the west coast, the Villanova and Duke business graduate began his job search in what would be a new hometown. He connected with Shah and the connection was an easy one.

“I can remember sitting in Mr. Walsh’s economics class with Mike in high school,” Shah said. “Now we’re working together in San Francisco. It’s pretty incredible.”

Getting to Work

Pulling their experience together is what led Shah and Cummings to start Traba, an online platform that aims to help job seekers and employers find not just the right occupational fit, but help train them on how to get there.
“The job search process is broken,” said Shah. “The majority of jobs are still filled by networking. Potential employees are just littering their resumes out there with no direction.”

Traba’s website is more than just finding openings. It offers tutorials on proper preparation for job applications and interviews, and connects coaches and mentors in specific industries with prospective employees for training.

“[Traba] offers a step-by-step guide on placing people in the right occupation,” Cummings said. “We’re a brand people are going to trust.”

The site includes a wealth of free resources along with paid portions; a premier value at an affordable cost, Cummings said.

Traba now has a five-member team, with the majority hailing from Long Valley.

“I like the progress we’ve made,” in little over a year, Cummings said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better team.”

Their old high school classmates and hometown wouldn’t expect anything less.

Photo: Terrence Cummings, left, with Anuj Shah. Courtesy Traba.