Six Figures has always advocated having detailed job ads to attract both professional and passive talent. When you are targeting more senior people who are already employed you certainly have to work very hard to get their attention. They will not be lured by brief, vague or poorly written job ads that fail to include the basics, which unfortunately is where too many job ads fall short. Recruiter Daily recently ran a good article by Luke Carolan from Aspire Solutions International titled Top candidates need more detail in job ads that offered an informative read and was terrific to see that others in the industry realize that to get the best, you have to start with the best, most detailed job ad you can. Luke makes the valid point that
“as a recruitment consultant it can become easy to see each advertisement as “just another job”, he says, but it’s important to keep in mind that from a jobseeker’s perspective it represents the next step in their career and might involve a life-changing decision.”
Carolan highlights that job seekers want more detail, not less, which certainly makes sense. At Six Figures we know that our members are very discerning, they like detail and will research the position, company and leadership involved before submitting an application. If there is not enough for them to go on, they either become skeptical about the job or leave it alone as it is all too hard. Remember, the job seeker is the consumer. When you’re taking a job brief, Carolan advocates not just taking the information about the job, but really asking the key questions such as “What’s different about you?” and “Why would the best people in the market want to work for you?”
Carolan adds a frequent ad writing mistake made, whereby you need to think about the response you are looking for and who you are looking to respond – active or passive. Are you looking for a targeted audience to respond or are you looking for volume and a broad response? This will certainly determine how you write the ad and where you place the job ad. Do you select the generalist job sites and channels or niche or a mixture? If you are not attracting the right applicants then, before jumping to the conclusion that it’s the job market, it is important to look at your role in this – your ad, your advertising strategy, your understanding of your organization/client’s needs and the people you are looking to attract.
The article covers various aspects of the job ad writing process and the need for detail. It is well worth a read for those wanting to refresh or improve their job ad writing skills – as let’s face it we all can get a little stale.
Six Figures offers advertisers a comprehensive Job Ad Writing Guide to assist in writing targeted and details job ads to Executives and Senior Professionals. If you are a registered advertiser, you can login and access the Job Ad Writing Guide in the resources area. Or, for more information about the guide, please email info@sixfigures.com.au.
One Comment
Totally agree. The more detailed and specific the ad, the more credible the ad and therefore the greater the chance of gaining a quality response.
The more general and vague the ad, the more it sounds like a speculative attempt to gather resumes for sending ‘on spec’ or floating to a client.
No matter how basic this advice appears to be, you only have to take a look at a random sample of job ads, no matter where they appear, to see how infrequently this principle is applied.