Warning: Worst Job Advert Ever Produced
By Amy @BubbleJobs
If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you’ll already know that poorly written job adverts are one of our biggest bugbears here at Bubble. It’s not that we’re overly protective our our job seekers, it’s just that we know that our clients won’t get the best response rate if they put up badly written, poorly formatted job adverts which don’t actually tell the candidate all that much about the job in question – that’s why we keep banging on about it!
Now, we know we’ve covered this topic before, but we’ve never actually looked at an example and picked out every single mistake that could potentially put a candidate off applying – remember, it’s all about the tiny details! At this point I should probably point out that the example I’m going to use is one I’ve completely made up but, be warned, there are some out there on various job boards that bear more than a passing resemblance to this fake job advert!
Recruiters and direct employers – if you notice any of these mistakes in your live job adverts, you may want to start making some edits… and fast!
Don’t think it actually looks that bad? It’s time to go through every single mistake in there and just to warn you, this could get painful!
First up; it’s the job title:
What’s wrong with it? Well, what’s the job? Yep, this title might tell you what type of company you’re going to be working for but it doesn’t tell you what you’re going to actually be doing – D’oh! If you don’t give candidates some clue as to what the job is from the off, how do you expect them to click through and read the rest of your ad? The job title is supposed to be the thing that catches candidates’ attention and makes your job stand out from the crowd. Make sure it’s descriptive and accurately reflects the role in question.
Next up, it’s the big one – salary:
While it makes sense that recruiters and employers put a pretty wide salary bracket in the job ad so as not to discourage any candidates, not listing a more specific salary can actually be just as off-putting. If you don’t want to put salary details into the initial ‘admin’ part of the ad, that’s OK but don’t be afraid to list a more specific salary in the body of the job advert. The more specific you are in your ad, the better chance you have of the right candidate finding your ad and applying.
Next up; location:
Oh, would you look at that; this employer hasn’t even specified a city – oh dear! Candidates aren’t psychic – they can’t read your mind so you need to tell them where the job is! And try and be as specific as possible – it’s no good putting a pretty broad region in and then not specifying a city. Remember, by being too generic, you’re running the risk of alienating the ideal candidate!
Next; job categories:
OK, it’s great to list your job in multiple categories but you need to ensure that it actually fits! While ECommerce and Online Marketing are both great fits for this job, a PPC Manager role could never come under the category of Web Development. By including your job in the wrong categories, you could give the impression that you don’t actually know much about the role and where it belongs in the industry.
Next it’s the intro:
The intro should be exciting, fun and compelling – after the job title and salary, it’s the thing that draws candidates in and makes them want to read on. There’s nothing wrong with starting an intro with the example above (provided you don’t miss words out and the sentence makes sense!) but you then need to go into more detail about the employer in question, why an employee would want to work there and what an employer can offer them. The more detail you can give and the more exciting you can make the role sound, the more candidates you’ll have to choose from!
Key tasks are next:
This is your opportunity to really ‘sell’ the job in question so don’t make it sound really dull like the example above. Don’t state the obvious (if you’re advertising for a PPC Manager they should already know that they’ll be expected to manage PPC campaigns) – instead try and make the job sound versatile by listing all the different tasks the candidate will be expected to undertake and make it clear that there’s an opportunity to develop their skills and career within the company.
It’s time to look at Experience and Qualifications:
First up, there’s no excuse for bad spellings! Next, is this really all the experience the ideal candidate would have? Try and break experience and qualifications required down into two categories: essential and desirable and list them both! Make it clear exactly what kind of experience they need (agency or in-house?) and what qualifications you’d like them to have – if experience might be accepted instead of a degree, make sure you tell candidates! Last but not least, this is the part of the job ad where you can list required skills and desirable personality traits – don’t waste it!
Last but by no means least it’s the all-important outro:
This is the part of the job ad where you really want to convince a candidate to apply. Looking at the example above, would you apply for this role? Hmm, thought not! The last paragraph should round up why the candidate should apply and want to work for your company and should leave them in doubt that this is the ideal job for them. A sentence like: “If you think you’d be our ideal PPC Manager, please click ‘Apply’ today – we can’t wait to hear from you!” can make your company sound warm, welcoming and appealing to any candidate – remember it’s all about leaving a positive first impression!
See – I told you the job ad was pretty terrible. If you’re still feeling a bit stuck when it comes to writing your digital job ads, get in touch with us or leave us a comment below – we’ll be happy to give you a few pointers! 
About the Author
Amy Edwards Amy Edwards is the SEO Manager for Bubble Jobs. With a strong background in online content and copywriting, Amy is responsible all the on-site and off-site SEO of Bubble Jobs and the Bubble Jobs blog. You can follow her on Twitter here or add her to your circles on Google+ here.
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Badly-written job adverts are a pet hate of mine. They expect you to show attention to detail but don’t offer you the same courtesy? Forget it!
Unbelievably, even some very high-profile organisations that I’ve applied for have sloppy adverts. I won’t name and shame them, but suffice it to say they’re high-profile and very well known. One of the most annoying errors in these is the incorrectly-written bulleted list, found frequently in person specifications. E.g:
You must be:
- a good team player
- organised
- ability to work weekends
“You must be ability to work weekends”!! Why can’t people READ what they write? Or, if they’re too stupid to know that it’s incorrect, why can’t they hire a proofreader to check it? Can’t they see how bad it makes their organisation look? Can’t they see the hypocrisy in asking a candidate to be organised when they can’t even organise a bulleted list??
And… rant over.
Nice rant Elisa!
As you know, here at Bubble we totally agree and feel your pain! Just interested to know if badly written job adverts ever actually put you off applying?