This document provides three tactics for improving weak IT job postings: 1) Speak like a native by accurately describing the technologies used and projects candidates will work on, 2) Rack up cool points by selling the company culture and how candidates will contribute, and 3) Make it about the candidate by highlighting what they will gain from the role rather than focusing on what the company wants. The goal is to attract top talent by creating buzz and compelling candidates to take action by addressing what really matters to IT professionals in a job posting.

1. Making Weak IT Job Postings Say “Wow”

2. Making Weak IT Job Postings
Say “Wow”
By Jenifer Lambert
Three tactics that will make candidates take notice,
and take action
With the economy showing healthy signs of recovery and IT hiring steadily
increasing, it’s time for HR professionals and recruiters to rethink their methods
for attracting top talent. Most put too little thought into their job postings and
the results show it. Consider this—one IT professional said, “Half of the job
postings I see don’t make any sense. It’s obvious that the recruiter just wants to
get some bodies through. I won’t respond to those.”
Job postings are to the
IT recruitment process
Job postings are to the IT recruitment process what a powerful Super Bowl ad
what a powerful Super
Bowl ad is to marketing is to marketing a product. A well-crafted job posting creates buzz and causes
a product. A well- great candidates to not just take notice but to take action and respond. Your goal
crafted job posting is three-fold when writing a job posting: attract the right fit (including passive
creates buzz. candidates), strengthen the brand of the company as an “employer of choice,”
and “make them bite.”
Apply the following three key tactics to create job postings that work.
1. Speak like a native
In speaking with IT professionals, the most common complaint about job postings
was that it appeared the person who wrote the posting knew nothing about the
actual job. A Senior User Interface Engineer said, “I assume the same person who
wrote the job posting is the same person who is going to screen my resume. If
that recruiter doesn’t really understand the job, it’s going to be a nightmare going
forward. Unless the company is one I know I’d want to work for or the pay is
really high, I’m not going to bother.” Here was the advice from candidates:
Only include technologies that I’m really going to use. If the laundry list
includes old and new technology or competing technologies, I assume that
either you don’t know what you’re talking about or the job isn’t important
enough to the company to take time to write a quality posting. Example: ASP.
net, C#, SQL make sense (companies generally work with one technology
stack—these are all compatible). ASP.net, PHP, Oracle, MS SQL Server don’t
(unless this is a consulting firm where you’ll be working with multiple
companies using various technologies).
Tell me what I will really be doing. I want to know more about the projects I’ll
be working on, how the organization works, the pace of the dev cycles, etc.
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3. 2. Rack up cool points
A quick scan of IT job postings reveals a surprising lack of anything resembling
selling the company or, just as bad, meaningless buzz words in an attempt to
make the opportunity sound cool. Strong job postings will give the candidate
some sense of your company culture and get them to visualize working there.
In an effort to be brief, you may be diluting the secret sauce that makes your
company special. Candidates want to know more than just what technical skills
are required. They want to know that this company is a place where they can do
their best work, make a contribution and fit in.
The way you describe
Weak Wow!
your company can
have a push/pull effect
so make sure the Work-hard, Hard work but at the same time serious fun.
words you choose are play-hard culture Something about laughing makes the work
magnetizing the people come easily.
you mean to attract and
only repelling those Casual work We’re casual with lots of t-shirts and flip flops (but
who would not fit. environment if ties and high heels are your thing, that’s o.k.
too). Meetings are short and infrequent.
You will be Our software engineers develop the next-
building cool generation technologies for which we’ve become
products world renown. In addition to revolutionizing
search technology, we use our world-class
programming skills to innovate in a number of
other areas as well.
Work for an Our site is one of the top 10 consumer
industry leader destinations in the U.S. with millions of unique
visitors monthly. Your work will contribute to
making a better experience for the consumers
who are beating down our door.
A word of caution: The way you describe your company can have a push/pull
effect so make sure that the words you choose are magnetizing the people you
mean to attract and only repelling those who would not fit. If you’re not careful,
you could turn off candidates you’d like to hire. As one Solutions Architect
explained, “I’m a father to three kids under the age of five. If a company talks a
lot about happy hour keg parties and video game tournaments, it’s probably not
the right place for me. I want to do good work, make great money and go home
and play with my kids, not my co-workers.”
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4. 3. It’s all about the technology candidate
The problem with too many job postings is that they are written from the
company’s point-of-view and not the candidate’s perspective. For example, if the
posting starts with “Company X is looking for…” or “Candidate must have the
following skills…” you’ve already turned off top candidates. Instead talk about
what you have to offer.
IT candidates don’t
expect you to know Remember the best candidates have options and, more often than not, one of
everything about the them is to stay in the job they already have. If you want to convince them to take
job, but when you a risk and leave the security of the known, you need to show them clearly how
don’t take time to they will be better off in this new role. The only candidates who are attracted
write a job posting to “company-centric” postings are candidates who are unemployed and less
that makes sense discerning about where they apply.
to them, they feel
disrespected or just
plain disinterested. The good news is that IT candidates don’t expect you to know everything about
the job, but when you don’t take time to write a job posting that makes sense to
them, they feel disrespected or just plain disinterested. Enlist the hiring manager
to assist you in developing technical specs that make sense. Run any posting by
the hiring manager and/or people actually doing the job to make sure that your
posting resonates with them and will attract the candidates you want. Your value
as an HR professional or recruiter comes from your ability to deliver talent, not in
bluffing your way through a job description.
Jenifer Lambert is a VP with Terra Staffing Group, a Pinnacle Society
recognized Executive Recruiter, and President of Elevate Performance
Systems, LLC, a consulting and training firm that helps third-party
recruiters grow their business. www.ElevatePerformanceSystems.com
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