What Job Advertisements Actually Need (And What Not)

Why you can’t find the right candidates with overloaded job advertisements – What is written in job advertisements is more often a free imagination of what candidates should be like. The result is: Job advertisements often appear as fantasy novels. If you text novels rather than concrete job advertisements, you better forget your job search directly. No one will read too long job descriptions, and moreover no one will be able to see which of those hundreds of skills are really asked. So, what does good job advertisements actually need?

Finding the Right Candidates With Good Job Advertisements

Do you want to find the right candidates for your open vacancies? Then you have to keep in mind that none of them needs to have each useful skill that comes to your mind. At the end, the best candidates are those who show the right vigour. After a certain time of induction, these candidates will fulfill all tasks most conscientiously.

You definitely need to give up the idea that the perfect candidates don’t need any induction. Such candidates do not exist! Even if managers of great corporations are switching positions, they always need time to get to know all processes.

Job Advertisements Are Marketing

The timing of a job posting doesn’t matter! There are always millions of job offers on the market. Therefore, your job advertisements have to stand out against others. It`s marketing!

Your job offers should not be overloaded with every small skill. You should rather give a general overview of the requirements for the job and also stay transparent by listing all essential ones.

What Does Marketing for Open Positions Mean?

Candidates write their CVs as if they want to sell themselves. Equally, job advertisements should aim to sell open positions as well as the company. However, the target group is smaller than in classical marketing. Depending on the sector, the target group can be very small.

You should also keep in mind that not every product detail is praised in marketing. A campaign is successful, if excellent features and therefore the core of the offer are presented. Thus, you catch the best candidates, if you present only the most prefered skills.

Why Shouldn’t All Job Requirements Be Listed?

This question has two answers: 1. The candidates stop reading too long job advertisements and in the end, they don’t apply. 2. It can happen that the best people don’t apply, because they fear that they are not able to fulfill all the job requirements.

In other words: With every requirement the chance of an application shrinks. On the other hand, with less job requirements the amount of applicants rises as well as the chance to find the right candidate.

The Ability and Willingness to Learn

Companies are constantly changing. Therefore, you need people who are flexible and willing to learn, because every single employee has to adapt new skills constantly. The skills that are asked today can be totally different tomorrow. So, recruit people who are able to adapt new skills at any time.

The question is, how to identify this willingness and ability to learn. In principle, everyone with a finished education shows learning ability. No matter what kind of education! Moreover, candidates, who have already switched job positions, show clearly that they are able to learn new things.

Let’s say it like that: Almost everyone can learn new things. If candidates really wanted to learn something, you can discover this in the job interview. Then the candidates can show how they learn new things, how they handle a job change and which training they already had.

Conclusion: Concentrate on What Is Essential!

Job advertisements definitely don’t need to cover everything that a position possibly requires. The aim is rather to give a general overview. You should see it like a marketing document for your open vacancies. That is the only way to stand out against the millions of job advertisements. So, focus on the basic job requirements and never write fantasy novels.