A well written job ad is critical for finding great staff. No surprise there, right? When done properly, a job ad accurately reflects what you as an employer are expecting from a candidate: skills, qualifications, training, education and credentials. The idea is to set and meet the expectations of both the employer and the potential employee.
Did you know that a good job ad can also make the recruiter’s job easier? If it’s done right, the ad will attract qualified applicants with its overall appeal. 44% of candidates ignore poorly written job ads. Who can afford to miss that many potential applicants?
To help you get started, we found some tips on writing a great job ad on GitHub Help.
If you’re still struggling, or need some help spicing up the language and appeal of your job ad, get in touch with us. Daeco can help!
Title
Give your job post a title that sets it apart from others. Try to mention the language or technologies the job requires.
For example, instead of writing Looking for a good developer
You may want to try something more descriptive: Seeking bad-ass Ruby specialist for working on rockets
Job description
Position
It’s important to the reader of the job posting to understand everything they can about the position before contacting you.
Try to answer the following questions in your job description:
- What is the position all about?
- What are the intriguing aspects to the position?
- What will the candidate be responsible for?
- Will the candidate work with a great team or use some new tools?
Company
You should try to describe what makes your company stand above all the others. What kind of culture do you have?
For example, at GitHub, everyone manages their own time. Similar qualities could be something to include in your job post.
When talking about your company, don’t be shy. You should mention anything you are proud of and that differentiates your company from others.
Benefits
Mentioning benefits will help demonstrate how much you care for employees. Talk about any health benefits for employees and their partners, as well as any general benefits to working for you.
Skills
When listing skills, avoid including every available technology. Simply listing the main ones in order of importance will help potential candidates scan the list quickly.
Ideally, someone who already does the job should proofread your posting and be able to answer the following questions:
- What is a list of skills that makes sense considering the skill level of the candidate?
- What skills are mandatory?
- If there are secondary skills that you’d like candidates to have or to learn, how important are they?
Length
The total length of the job post is something you should definitely think about. Shorter is always better. After writing your description, edit it down.
Format
The format of your job post really matters. GitHub Jobs supports writing in the standard Markdown format. You should consider using bullet points, links, and headers to make your post more legible.
