Firstly I have to apologise. I would like to apologise to all of my previous clients over the past 8 years that I have given advice to, on how to write an online job ad. I would also like to apologise on behalf of all of the job boards that are spewing out the same information day in day out on how to write the perfect job ad to attract candidates. Over those 8 years I towed the company line and gave the advice which for all intensive purposes is sound. The Internet allowed us to write as much as we want and we put a framework around it.

Whilst I never led any of my clients astray, or told them something that wasn’t beneficial, that framework is now broken. Today’s internet job ads are clones of each other and if they are not, then there is nothing in the ad itself that tells you anything about what the job actually is (yes I can see you nodding your heads candidates)

Today, this is how it roughly goes.

1. Job Title – Write something that is the ACTUAL job title or something that is along the lines of the job title but catchy.
2. Short Description – Think 140-160 characters depending on the job board, those who use Twitter should be getting the best out of this now. While I’m on it why don’t job boards tweet all short descriptions into relevant silo’s. Who is going to be first to jump on that, or has someone already, if so, speak up, we want to hear the results.
3. Job Ad……………………

This is where my frustration begins. Ok, so I was trained as a recruiter a couple of moons ago, that a good job ad consisted of 4-5 paragraphs. 1. Introduction of the company. 2. Explanation of the job title and who you will report to, team structure etc. 3. Overview of job role and purpose. 4. Qualifications and maybe just maybe salary. 5. Please Please Please Apply now.

The problem is, it is so structured, and so drummed into the minds of advertisers that seek professional help from the job boards, that all creativity has gone out the window. Where has the every day language and realism gone, it seems now that job ads are just rehashed over and over again, and not just from recruiters, who are constantly doing it, but corporate’s as well.

And it’s not just me, Thomas Shaw from Recruitment Directory has noticed as well and highlighted these 2 great ads on http://shar.es/aaPMp. Great ingenuity.

So who is to blame? Do we blame the job boards, who over the last 10 years have not redefined and re-developed more functionality for job postings other then some fancy imagery (god knows video would add a wonderful dimension to each job, a 1 1/2 min advertisement from HR or the hiring manager showing you not only is this job real but we have a personality, flair and culture);

Or do we blame ourselves, for sticking to this format so rigidly, that we have now no other way of writing an ad. Print was restrictive due to cost and space. The Internet has far more capabilities to advertise, why has it not developed?

I hear every day that recruiters and corporates are swamped with applications. Most of the time the candidate doesn’t even know what it is that they are applying for, the ad is written that vaguely. We can’t blame them, every job ad sounds and looks the same, why not apply to them all?