Job advert vs. Job description
The market is reopening and you will be looking to attract the bests talent from a wide pool. So how do you make sure that you are selling your company and role to the best of your ability? Creating a job advert and job description that sells is a great first step. But what is the difference between an advert and a description?
Your job advert is designed to entice candidates to apply, while a job description should inform candidates of their role.
Sell vs. Tell
Job adverts sell while job descriptions tell
A job description is designed to inform employees of exactly what their job entails. It is used during appraisals as a base of what the employee should be achieving.
What a job description doesn’t do is sell the role and the company to prospective candidates. It doesn't tell them why they want to work with you, the benefits, what they will achieve and how they will grow. This is where a job advert comes in.
Consider the length
Job adverts should be short and punchy. Summarising the duties that the successful candidate will be doing and providing a general overview of the role. They need to describe the hard and soft skills needed to succeed in the role.
As tempting as it is avoid putting job descriptions on job boards. They will be too long and some candidates may be put off by an overly long advert.
Company information
While you do not need to highlight the company information on a job description, the person reading it is likely to already work for the company, you do however need it on a job advert.
However, on a job advert, company information is a big selling point. You not only want to highlight the history of the company, the CEO/Founders but also describe what it is like to work their, what the culture of the team is like and the benefits the company can offer.
Avoid internal jargon
While we all love an acronym, we do not always know what they stand for until we are within the company. Save these for the job descriptions and leave them out of your advert.
Try and keep the job advert straightforward, if you use a certain CRM software such as Salesforce, mention that experience using customer relationship management is essential, Salesforce desirable.
Who is reading it?
Most job descriptions are written in the third person. For example; ‘the employee will take minutes within meetings’
While in a job advert you will be looking to engage the candidate and make them imagine you are talking directly to them. You can do this by using YOU.
Job title
Whilst your company might love fun and creative job titles, this is fine on a job description. However, for advertising purposes, it’s important to choose something a bit more searchable and generic so that job seekers are able to find it easier. For example, in-house might be People Officer, while the role, in essence, is an HR Manager. You will increase the number of applications by using more searchable job titles. You can still mention the creative title within the job advert, however, limit its use to once, for example, HR Manager (People Office).
Useful resources & articles
Resources