The key aim for every recruiting process is to find the best candidates for your open roles. But the big question is: how can you attract the right talents to your company in the first place?
The best way to start is by creating a strong job advertisement that clearly portrays the responsibilities, the requirements, as well as the benefits you will offer to your new employee.
This job advertisement will be the foundation of your recruitment process: You will publish it on your website, upload it on job portals, and distribute it your external recruitment agencies.
In this blog post, we will take a closer look how to write a strong job advertisement. Plus, we will provide concrete examples of job advertisements that have helped companies hire candidates in only 4 weeks.
How to write a job advertisement that stands out
To start, we want to provide an overview of the key building blocks of a job advertisement. Make sure to have a structured job advertisement that is easy to be scanned by potential candidates and find a way to stand out from the rest.
We therefore recommend a job advertisement to follow this structure:
- The Job Title
- Short Introduction
- Top 3 Job Highlights
- Company Description
- Tasks
- Requirements
- Call to Action
You can of course use more different names for each section e.g., “Get to know us” instead of “Company description”. The most important rule here is to remember for whom you write the job posting. You should address it directly to your ideal candidate and use their language.
Let’s take a closer look at each section and some examples.
1. The Job Title
To attract candidates, your position should have a job title that is both interesting but also common.
Why? It needs to be interesting because it’s usually the first thing a candidate reads. If they are bored, they will scroll to the next job offer.
But it also needs to be common so that candidates understand it fits them when they search on job websites. And it needs to show up as a search result in the first place!
Examples:
- Good: Web Developer
- Bad: Web Ninja
Tip: If after the first weeks you find that you are not receiving enough applications from the right candidates, you can also adapt your job title once more. Always ask yourself this question: “What job title would my ideal candidate be interested in applying for?”.
2. Short Introduction
After setting the job title, we should start with a short introduction. You can either be super straightforward by only naming the job name and company name, or you can add a personal touch in regards to the mission of this specific role.
Examples:
- For our company, we are now looking to hire a …
- We are looking for a new team member to help us to…
3. Top 3 Job Highlights
Let’s spice things up! Most job advertisements make the mistake that they don’t tell the readers what’s in it for them. And are thus losing their attention. That’s why we’re going to tell them right upfront!
Dont skip this step – doing this will make you stand out from all other job advertisements.
Pick 3 specific benefits that are really interesting for your ideal candidate, e.g. information about salary, remote work, or development opportunities.
Example:
Your Benefits on this role:
- Attactive Salary: 60.000€ / year + performance based bonus
- Individual Development Budget for your personal growth
- Work in the office or remote – whatever you prefer and fits you best
4. Company Description
Next, describe in 2-3 sentences what your company is all about. If you are unsure what to write, try answering some of these questions: What industry are you in and what is the value you bring for your customers? How big is your team, and what are you proud of regarding your company culture? The more personal, the better.
Example:
We help our B2B partners reduce customer churn with predictive analytics. Our team so far consists of 25 team members and we’re looking to grow to 50 employees until 2025. We’re a diverse and international team with people from over 10 countries that all share the same goal: Continuously improving our product while enjoying work.
5. Tasks
Now it’s time to tell the candidates what awaits them on the job.
Here, it’s not about listing up every single task the candidate will be working on. Rather focus on the main things the person needs to do on the job. Write 3-5 specific tasks and be transparent about it.
Be strategic about which tasks you mention first and the wording you utilize. Remember it is also about selling your job role to the best candidates out there.
Examples:
How you will contribute to our mission:
- Further develop and maintain the web frontend for our Monolight web application together with our CIO
- Work to improve the user experience of our customers, especially when first signing up to our platform
- Coordinate with your teammates from IT in projects about deployment, payments, and IT Security
6. Requirements
Next, we write what we expect from the candidates.
Our recommendation is to write 3-5 specific skills that the person should have.
Why not more? Because it forces you to truly think about the most important ones the person needs to bring to the table.
Given the current market situation, where at least in Germany there is a lack of skilled workers, make sure to truly challenge the image of the ideal candidate you have. Prioritize the requirements that are essential from the ones that are rather nice-to-have and consider what can be learned on the job (e.g., language skills).
List only the must have requirements here and at most 1 nice-to-have skill.
Examples:
What skillset you need to thrive in this role:
- Very good frontend programming skills, especially JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
- Good eye for design and understanding of modern UX and UI principles.
- Very good communication skills in English – no German needed.
7. Call to Action
To close, we tell the candidates what they should do next if they are interested in the role. You should make it as easy as possible for them to apply.
Tip: Also inform what candidates can expect from the recruiting process. Be transparent about the steps and the time-frame, as this can make you stand out from your competitors.
Example:
Sounds exciting? Then apply now via our online job form – no cover letter needed! We’ll then review your application, and if you fulfill our criteria, invite you to a first phone call with our HR & Recruitment team.
Conclusion: How to write a job advertisement
Writing a job advertisement means thinking about the ideal candidate and creating an ad that truly stands out to that person. In this article, you learned about the 7 necessary steps to write a strong job advertisement. They key: be transparent to make sure your company stands out from competitors and challenge yourself on the requirements you ask from the talent.
Did you like what you read and now want to create a new job advertisement for your future roles? Then we recommend you to download our free job ad template. With this template, you can get started in seconds and save valuable time. You will also find even more examples for great job ads for different roles in different industries.
