How to Write a Great Job Ad

Job ads are your first communication tool with a candidate and if you want the best ones, you should treat job ads as a marketing item. A well written job ad not only gives you a pool of great candidates but also saves your time and budget. Therefore, consider the below points when writing your company’s job ads.

• Be concise and to the point: You have to first decide which skills this role requires. The worst thing you can do is to write a vague description and wait for all kinds of candidates to apply in order to find the candidate with the most skills. It is ok to be flexible in a job ad but don’t mistake being flexible with not knowing what you look for. Don’t forget that everybody has different skills that they are good at so it is wrong to expect from one person to do everything.
  
• List the Responsibilities of the Role: List between five to seven responsibilities and make sure to include the most important ones. This is not a full job description; it is an ad to attract candidates to apply for the job. Therefore, only include what you actually need and leave the details for the interview.
  
• Introduce Your Company: If your company isn’t a well-known brand, explain what business you are in a few sentences. You can also write about what your company has achieved so far and is planning to achieve. In this section, you can give a few hints about your company culture as well.
  
• Post the Ad to the Right Location: Just because a job board gets millions of hits everyday doesn’t make it the best place to post the ad. First, identify your audience and then, think like them. If you were to look for a job like this, where would you visit? Identify a few alternative places to post the ad and compare them with each other. If you have enough budget for recruiting, you can post the ad to more than one board in order to increase your candidate alternatives.
  
• Have Someone Check the Ad: When you finish writing the ad and ready to post it to the board you identified, have someone else read it through. In this way, you can understand how the ad might be interpreted by others. If there are uncertainties, rewrite your sentences and clarify these before posting the ad.

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