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Tips for writing a job posting.
Some will say that the hiring manager should be the one to write the job posting. Sure, they may know their area better than a recruiter, the recruiter needs to know how to sexy it up and market the position. In this episode I list 8 things you need to address when posting a job.
Short and to the point
There are certain parallels in the recruiting industry. Candidates use resumes to get hired into an organization. Organizations use job postings to attract and get candidates to apply to their jobs. In this example its important to understand job seekers spend a limited time reading your posting. Get to the point.
Search Engine Optimized
Your posting may be picked up by different job website aggregators. Make sure it can be found and indexed appropriately. Not everyone is an SEO expert, but read the posting and if a pronoun can be substituted with the job title, do it. However, readability must take a front seat to any force of SEO!
Job Titles
Indie pop – industry popular job titles are necessary. They tie into SEO, will get you the right applicants, and be easier to understand. A business system consultant is relevant to only your organization, but you really want is an application developer. The former may get you ‘consultants’ and not a coder. Sometimes the default is NOT the way to go!
Benefits
I’m a firm believer that recruiters need to be more marketing than human resources. Benefits tend to be standard offerings here in the US. I didn’t say they’re always great benefits, but many organizations offer some type of health, life, retirement and paid time off. Those benefits are nice to list, but make sure you highlight the benefits that may be considered perks! Free lunches. Ability to bring your pet to work. Ping pong tourneys, bean bags and hack-a-thons will set your company above others and grab the attention of the job seeker. They also provide some insight into your organization’s culture!
Readability
While we touch on this in ‘Search Engine Optimization’ above, what we’re really talking about is formatting. Ensure it’s not one big wall of text. Use bullets to lump requirements in a nice list. Use bold text for highlighting different areas of the posting to include summary, requirements, responsibilities.
Salary
Consider posting the salary range. Many organizations prefer not to and many handle it as taboo. It will convey a sense of transparency. It will also express the level of professional you want for the position and it certainly makes salary negotiation much easier near the end of the process.
Proof It
There’s nothing worse than a hiring manager calling the recruiter to inform them that there is a spelling error within the job posting. Sometimes we can look at text, read, and reread it, but still can’t see an error. Have someone else take a look. Pay extra attention to industry acronyms. A spell check will flag them, but we often anticipate it only to ‘ignore’ them and the error.
Categories
Depending on the platform you can typically post to more than one category. There is the industry that the organization falls under and then there is the industry the job resides. An information technology position within a financial services company is just one example of posting to both of these categories.
Have you come across any creative job postings? Let me know, email me sean@talentjockey.com
