What Do Your Job Postings Tell?

I used to be quite particular with my staff when it came to posting jobs on the web.  Whether they posted it on our job portal or on an external site; this could very well be a first (and possibly last) impression to a prospective applicant or even customer.  Not only does it matter how the job is presented, it matters what information you are presenting.

Go ahead, take a look at your own postings and see if you spot any of the following:

One or two sentence descriptions.  I know it’s a posting for a TIG Welder and what you really want is to find someone with previous TIG experience.  However, the reader wants to know more about what it might be like to work for this particular company.  What kind of projects will they be working on, what type of benefits (other than traditional) might they expect?  Does this position have the possibility of going long term or even a direct hire?  Think about what is going to attract the right person that you want for the job.  I hear it all too often that people just “apply” to every open position.  Maybe you aren’t giving them enough to think about before applying?

Job Descriptions that are copied word for word from the client. First of all, I used to love this – on my competitors web sites.  Why?  I would simply take the first few lines, copy and put them in Google and search to see who they were recruiting for.  Next, I would call the client and see if I could work on the order.  Your professional level applicants are smart too; don’t think they aren’t trying to figure out who you are recruiting for.  We both know that an applicant would, in most cases, rather work directly with a client than go through a recruiter.  In most cases this is an applicant who is not aware of the many benefits of working with a recruiter.  In any case, try to use your own wording for the job description.

I thought about posting some samples, but then all of you would Google and see who it was, thus reveling the not so innocent.  So instead, take the time to check out your own postings.  Could they be better?  Are you attracting the right type of talent with your job postings?  What changes can you make right now?