Thank goodness I’m not looking for a job! I look through so many recruitment websites and see the same old lines “Fabulous company,” “Passionate team”… How do you know what my kind of “fabulous” is? What exactly are they “passionate” about?
These statements tell me absolutely nothing about a job that I might apply for. Finding a new job is potentially one of the most stressful things I might do in my life (besides buying a house and getting married) and terrible job adverts are not making it any easier.
If you are given a rubbish job brief by your client, which makes it very hard to write an advert – STOP… how serious are they about getting the right person for their business? You need to meet your client, understand the dynamics of the team and get a feel for the working environment, is everything in the job spec as essential as they say it is?
Back in my recruitment days I would pretty much guarantee to fill the job once I had met the client and visited the offices first hand. Without a visit, I was purely skill matching and not matching people with their ideal careers.
“Excellent people skills,”
“Good organiser,”
“Proven track record in…”
How many of these terms do we see in job adverts over and over again? I would skip these terms and actually look for real details about the business, the people I’d be working for or anything that will tell me if this job will suit ME – I’m often disappointed… which would put me off from applying at all.
The fact is recruiters work in an industry where attracting the right candidates to the right jobs is absolutely crucial. You need to get that shortlist to your client ASAP. You don’t want to have to spend half of your time replying to candidates who have applied to the job because you have not been specific enough in your requirements.
The idea of a job advert today is to inspire someone to apply to your job, help them imagine themselves in your job and make it as easy as possible for them to apply.
- Be creative
- Push the boundaries
- Make mistakes
- Be interesting
- Encourage people to take a risk
- Give people multiple ways to contact you
Some of the best adverts I’ve seen really describe the personality that will suit the role, giving an idea of your colleagues and the working environment.
For Example;
“You’ll be working alongside Sarah who has been with the business for 5 years. She really knows the business inside out and will be your mentor from day one – but don’t touch her stationery draw, that’s a step too far.” This helps the potential candidate to imagine the working environment and creates a bit of personality.
Taking recruitment to a new level, you could even make a video and give a real insight into the business. This technique is favoured by some of the larger brands who have multiple vacancies and are continually growing, so I know it’s not feasible for everyone. That said, I just wanted to share one of my favourites videos produced by Twitter, which should be called “How not too.”