The number of job openings have reached a 15-year-high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, there are an estimated 15 million active job postings on LinkedIn alone. With so many postings online, it can be a challenge for yours to stand out—especially as it’s currently a candidate-driven market. Just having a simple job posting is not enough to attract a suitable candidate. Rather, you need to be smart and creative about how you write your posting. By following the provided best practices, you can ensure that your job postings will stand out and attract qualified candidates.

Effective Job Posting Guidelines

A job posting may be the first interaction that a candidate has with you. For that reason, it’s important that your posting is concise, descriptive and well-written. To help your postings meet those standards, review the following guidelines:

• Don’t use any extra words with the job title. For example, Graphic Designer.
• Don’t use “spammy” job titles, as these can cause you to be flagged by some job boards and restrict how many posts you can make. For example, “URGENT NEED !! Project Manager !! Boston MA !! Long Term contract”
• Don’t use special characters (such as &, ! and $), as these can prevent the posting from being identified by search queries.
• Don’t use buzzwords as part of the job title, such as “Wizard”, “Guru” and “Ninja”, as candidates are less likely to search for those terms.
• Don’t use internal titles, which could mislead or confuse candidates. For example, using Senior Graphic Designer instead of the in-house title of Graphic Designer III.
• Don’t use job titles that are connected to a “general application” posting, as these can impact how your posting is ranked on the job board. The keywords to avoid include the following:
  • Opportunities
  • General interest
  • General application
  • Inquiry

Job Descriptions

• Be concise and provide enough information in a job description to avoid ambiguity or follow-up questions.
• Capture the personality of your client’s business (such as why the staff enjoys working there and the kind of work that they do) and why the position is worthwhile (such as what sort of projects and impact will it have) within the first paragraph.
• Be honest about the expectations and responsibilities of the position, as this will reduce potential turnover. This should include details about how the position operates within your client’s business and who the candidate would report to.
• Include all education, years of professional experience and certification requirements that are necessary for the position. In addition, ask that candidates only apply to the position if they meet all the requirements, as if they don’t, their application will not be considered.

Job Locations

• Be specific about the job’s location. Most free job boards will not accept the posting if you do not include the country, city and state, which would make the job board unable to index your job posting in its search results.
• Don’t post multiple identical jobs to different cities in the same state, as many job boards will flag this as location spamming and can result in your jobs being blacklisted.
• If you post telecommute and work from home positions, some job boards require that you use the following guidelines:
  • The job title and description must clearly indicate that the job is “telecommute” or “work from home”.
  • The job needs to be advertised in a specific location.

Job Post Formatting

• Include line breaks between paragraphs.
• Use section headers (such as “Job description”, “Day-to-day responsibilities”, “Company description” and “Qualifications”) to help break up the flow of information.
• Use bullet points to easily list required education, professional experience and certification requirements.
• Include a link to your client’s website.

An Example of a Well-written Job Posting

How an ATS can Help with Job Postings

A staggering 60 percent of job-seekers say they stop filling out an application if it takes too long, according to employee engagement software company Officevibe. This drop-off in potential candidates can exacerbate the already lengthy recruitment process, making it even more difficult to find the best candidate for the position. Designed to automate your recruiting process and dramatically reduce your time-to-hire, your applicant tracking system (ATS) should be able to help your job postings to stand out.

The most effective applicant tracking systems are those that have a career portal integration. Which a career portal, you are able to craft effective and well-written job postings and distribute them to various job boards. While each career portal integration may include different features, the most beneficial include the following:

• A mobile-friendly job portal, which can enable candidates to find and apply to your job postings using any device.
• The ability to tailor job applications with specific questions to help you collect all the necessary information to find the ideal candidate.
• The ability to automatically post to Google for Jobs to ensure that your job posting is seen by as many candidates as possible.
• The ability to swiftly parse information from a candidate’s resume to complete their application.

If you’re curious about what features TAM offers that can help with your recruiting, you can view our features page.

Ensure that Your Job Postings Stand Out Every Time

There are millions of active job postings online and unfortunately it can be far too easy for yours to get lost. If you want candidates to not only see your postings but apply for them as well, you need to be smart and creative with how you handle them. With the right practices, you can ensure that your postings are effective and well-written.