By: Paul Croteau
Date: November 8, 2009

Have you paid attention to the job ads recently? How many of you have read a job ad, yet still can’t determine what the employer was looking for? How many job advertisements have you read where the job sounded like heaven? In fact, a job that sounds too good to be true? How many ads have you read where a number of key details were missing, leaving you wondering, “What kind of job is that anyway?”

That’s the problem with many advertised job profiles… they aren’t written very well. In some cases, senior level jobs are devalued because the advertisement is too short and doesn’t describe the opportunity well. In other cases, senior level jobs are placed in the wrong reader section. Typically, newspapers have a “career” section and a “classified” section through which different levels of jobs are advertised. For instance, the career section is geared to professional job roles, while the classified section is directed toward front line workers, administrative assistants or technical trade’s personnel.

There is usually a cost difference for the different advertising sections as well. Employers that are overly concerned with costs often fail to place their advertisements in the right newspaper section. As a result, the message regarding their interesting and rewarding job does not reach the candidates they had hoped for. The candidates fail to see the advertisement because it is in the wrong section.

In addition, one of the most frequent failures in writing job advertisements is the use of difficult language that misleads or confuses readers. Big words elevate the job to a level higher than reality. Then instead of reaching the appropriate candidates, those who apply are often overqualified and are interested in a much higher salary than the employer had expected.

Another challenge for job seekers is to clearly understand who the employer is and/or might be. Some employers prefer to “hide” the identity of their company. While confidentiality is often the reason for this secrecy, most often the descriptions of the company are once again so “flowery” that there is often a big “disconnect” when reality hits the candidates.

With that in mind, here are a few guidelines for writing your job advertisements.

• Use every day words and a direct style to describe your organization and your job; avoid popular clichés and industry specific buzz words.
• Keep sentence structure simple and uncomplicated; avoid unnecessary words.
• Avoid words that mean something different to each reader, such as interface, facilitate, proficient, substantial, etc.
• Be precise in your words; avoid using words such as “may”.
• Be honest, forthright and clear in describing your organization.
• Ensure that your job title is appropriate for your industry and the level of the job within your organization.
• Identify the reporting relationships and supervisory responsibilities.
• Provide a brief narrative describing what the job is all about using nontechnical language where appropriate.
• Describe the high priority job duties in order, so that candidates can get a good picture of their workload.
• Provide the measureable first year objectives.
• Describe the ideal candidate; the skills, knowledge, competencies, etc.
• Outline the personality characteristics that are most suitable to your job.
• Identify what motivators would attract a candidate to your job.
• Describe the characteristics of the ideal candidate needed to succeed in your job.
• Keep the job advertisement to a reasonable length.

Job advertisements continue to be an important mechanism for connecting with candidates. However, if the job ad is not effectively written and fails to attract the right candidates, then the job search will take more time and energy than anticipated. As well, there is nothing worse than interviewing your select candidates only to find they had completely misunderstood the job and/or are under or overqualified.  Unfortunately, if this is the case, you will find yourself back at square one!

Paul Croteau is Managing Partner of the Legacy Bowes Group, Manitoba’s leading executive search and HR consulting firm and is a partner with the national Waterhouse Executive Search firm. He can be reached at (204) 943-8821 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .