It’s a tough job market today. Career paths were once simple and straightforward. The good news is that choices now abound for job seekers. But the bad news is that choices now abound for job seekers. Recruiters are asked to find THE candidate in a sea of candidates after being handed an ambiguous job description or set of requirements from a program manager.
Before you post a job description with a quick copy and paste, meet with the program manager and/or the candidate’s direct report manager to identify the candidate’s needs to haves, nice to haves, and home run skills, backgrounds, and characteristics, and then define what has to be included in the job description. Start with the previous employee or the contract’s job descriptions, but tailor it from there. An internal job description should look different than a job posting.
Working with the hiring team to understand what are industry terms, what are company terms, and what are project/program specific terms will go a long way in pulling in the top talent. The job description speaks volumes about your company. A confusing and vague job description could cause a candidate to think twice about applying to a company that does not have thorough and clear communications.
After you have a better grasp of the terms in the description versus the real needs, here are some additional tips to help clean up your job descriptions:
Avoid personality descriptions of the candidate you want.
Instead of saying that you want them to be amazing (don’t we all), define how the team is expected to operate. Indicating that the candidate should be energetic, awesome, upbeat, or any other descriptors could cause some to count themselves out when they shouldn’t…and unfortunately, it could cause some to count themselves in when they shouldn’t. Here’s an example of defining the characteristic of the team so the candidate understands the expectations for operation:
Our team values include:
Going the extra mile by…
- Holding ourselves accountable…
- Being proactive in…
- Building teamwork…
- Committing to continuously improve…
Consider a paragraph style description that paints a picture as opposed to the typical bulleted list.
Bulleted lists that spout off company and/or contract specific jargon are hard to understand, and it is easy to skim a boring list. Perhaps some think that boring lists will help to weed out the under-qualified, but it could be encouraging only the desperate to apply instead of the desired top talent. Dust off your creative writing skills and engage your reader. Paint the picture in a succinct and easy to read style. That’s not to say there isn’t a place for bulleted list – easy to skim is often a good thing in job descriptions. But if you want to attract the best candidates you should pair lists of required skills and certifications with paragraph descriptions of the duties and ideal candidate.
