How to Choose Where To Post Your Job Ad

“What job board should I use?” The simple answer is to just to remember to ask yourself this question before you post any position. Too often employers fall back on what they know and what they are comfortable with. Back in the day that was the traditional ad in the Sunday paper. Now that the ‘classified section’ is no longer the end-all-be-all, don’t allow any one site to become your only source. No site, despite what they tell you, works for everything.

Every type of job board has its place. In general, there are four options to advertise your position. National boards, Regional General boards, Industry/Trade Specific boards, and non-employment sites that offer career sections as ancillary content.

Factors that should affect your decision:

1. The position. You should advertise for a seasoned, high-end professional in a much different manner than you would for a lower-level position.
2. Your budget. Assuming you can afford $500 for a campaign, a good approach is to target a national site, regional site, and industry site.
3. Your timing. How quickly do you need this filled? If you proactive you can take a more conservative approach and test the waters on fewer boards.
4. Are you going after active or passive job seekers? (Falls back on the position and the likelihood of qualified candidates finding your job on a board)
5. What’s worked in the past? If you are doing it right, you’ve been tracking what sites have been working best for you, by position. Over time, you’ll see that every site produces different results for different positions.

If you are Life Science Company looking to add 50 employees in the next six months, unless they are all the same position, you should not run out and buy a 50-pack on xyzjobs.com and call it a day. Putting all your eggs in one basket DOES has advantages…can save you time, money, and headaches – but making your life a little easier isn’t the point. What will REALLY make your life easier is accomplishing what you set out to do - which is to attract the best candidate for the right position. Sorry folks, that tends to involve a little more effort.

In the next coming weeks I will be spotlighting advantages / disadvantages of each of the board options.

Writing an Effective / Compelling Online Help Wanted Ad

The most common mistake that Employers make when posting a job ad online is forgetting the medium. A big advantage of online job boards is that they allow unlimited ad text in most cases. In other words, you’ll pay the same $475 on Monster.com for a 200 word ad as you would for a 2000 word ad. That is not to say that you need to go hog wild on content because it’s free (after all you want the job seeker to actually read what you have posted). It is to say, however, that there are some key points to include to make the ad work…and work well.

• Grab the job seekers attention. If you have a headline / slogan you can use, put it at the top of the listing…especially if it is relevant to the position.
• Give a little history. Summarize what it is your company does and what make is unique.
• Give enough details about the position to make it clear what the candidate will be doing.
• Keep ‘requirements’ brief…only listing the most important qualifications. Also, remember your audience…if you are hiring a Sales Manager with 12+ years’ industry experience, it’s safe to assume that they have computer skills….no need to list that in the ad.
• Outline what makes this position / company special. What are you going to offer the employee in terms of compensation or benefits? What is the culture / environment of this company? What’s in it for them?
• Make sure that your ad is ‘keyword rich’. Most job board search engines will search content, as well as titles / job categories. The more relevant keywords that your ad contains means better positioning in candidate search results.
• Make it easy to apply. If you want the candidate to apply directly into your applicant tracking system, have a direct link into your ATS system (As opposed to having them go to you site to find the career page).

In order for an ad to be effective, you need to do more than copy and paste a posting from your internal site. It does take a little effort to do it properly, but the results are well worth it.