Job Advert Tips

Friday, November 27, 2015
Your job advert is competing with hundreds of others. What you write and how you write it will make a big difference to the response you get.

Use our experience to get results:

Job title

Take care over your job title. It’s the first – and often only – thing candidates will see. Make sure it describes the role, and if possible, the field of work. For example, ‘Events Administrator in PR’ is likely to get more interest than ‘Administrator’.  Keep it factual though. Candidates are put off by job titles that read ‘Earn £££££’s’ etc.

Salary

Offer a decent starting salary (we recommend a minimum of £17,000) and state it explicitly in your advert. Candidates are wary of jobs where there is no salary information. Don’t offer a salary dependent upon experience as this may discriminate against younger candidate.

Training and development

Candidates look for training and development opportunities. Tell candidates what they can expect. It doesn’t have to be a formal training programme but some indication of your commitment to training and development will attract candidates.

Location

Be clear where the job is located – it’s often a deciding factor for candidates. Please don’t specify where candidates should live – we think that if they meet your criteria, that’s for them to decide.

Benefits

You know what you want from candidates but have you been clear about what you can offer in return? List the benefits you offer – they don’t have to be monetary – it could be free parking, flexible working etc.

For more of our recruiter tips visit: http://www.gradsouthwest.com/recruiters/

 

Dr Deborah Watson
Deborah is a graduate and a Director of Gradsouthwest.  She has worked with universities and businesses for a number of years, building partnerships to support innovation, economic development and to get graduates into great jobs.