Most Job Posts Suck

That was the basic premise of a talk I recently gave at the Minnesota Recruiters' Conference earlier this month. The presentation was titled, "Winning The Talent War With Effective Job Posts."

I thought I would share the main point of the talk...

Typical job posts do not affect a potential candidate's desire to apply.

Our job posts are all about our companies and what we want - they are totally focused on us. We need to flip this and make our job posts about what is in it for the target/ideal candidate. Think of a job post as a direct mailing sales letter or a direct marketing ad. We need to be selling and marketing in our job posts. Learn some copywriting skills.

This is important because (for example) there are hundreds of java or .Net job openings within ten miles of my home. You do not want hundreds calling you (if you are good), so if you were in their place you would not apply to all of them. You would be selective. Why would they apply to your post?

Just something to think about.

Also, if you would like to read a summary of my talk, it is on Staffing Talk at http://staffingtalk.com/winning-talent-war-effective-job-posts/

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Comment by Ivan Stojanovic on March 23, 2012 at 10:32am: It kinda helps when there is a fat salary range mentioned….

Comment by Alasdair Murray on March 23, 2012 at 10:34am: Amongst other things, as a copywriter I write lots of recruitment copy. Trust me, a good job post shouldn't focus on the company. It should, as you suggest, sell and market the job, just as other forms of advertising sell and market their product. What has happened is a lot of recruiters have become lazy. It's so easy to cut and paste and upload an 'ad', many don't even consider the 'sell'. Big mistake!

Comment by Brian D on March 23, 2012 at 12:19pm: Thanks Eric! Great post!

Comment by Bill Bargas on March 26, 2012 at 6:05am: You nailed it ! Employers use our site to recruit STEM caliber diverse professionals. Not an easy task but when coupled by using "only" HR approved boilerplate job descriptions it almost guarantees lack of job seeker interest.

The negative branding impact of bad postings lingers for a long time afterwards since it's unlikely these turned off job seekers will invest energy viewing future jobs posted by the employer.