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How to write a job advert that attracts your dream hire?

In this post, we’re going to show you how to write a good job advert – one that attracts great
candidates, whilst also making sure you receive only high-quality and highly relevant
applications.

What is a job advert?

A job advert works as an announcement that a certain role is open to applications. It’s what
you post on jobs boards or upload to your own company hiring page when looking to grow
your team.
A well-written job advert is your chance to ‘sell the role’ to potential applicants. It's an
opportunity to show off the vacancy to candidates and make sure you’re attracting only the
right people to the role.
Remember – a job advertisement is not the same as a job description or a job spec. A job
advert is outward facing, designed to attract and excite the right kind of candidate.
A job description is more for internal use, where the full responsibilities and expectations of
the role are laid out more comprehensively.

Getting started on your job advert

To do that properly, you’ll need to bring in the other stakeholders involved in the hire (that’s
the alignment part) to make sure everyone is on the same page. You’d be surprised how
easy it is for people working in the same office to end up with very different ideas of what a
new role will encompass!
I’m not going to cover that stage here – it's a whole blog post in it's own right. I’m going to
assume you’ve already identified the company’s needs and got everyone aligned on the
role, so we can focus on the process of writing the job advert itself.

How to write a job advert

Before we get started… let’s think about your dream candidate.

Licenciada Miriam Acosta Mezarina CORREO: miriam.acom@hotmail.com

You might have heard marketers talk about focussing their efforts towards an 'ideal buyer persona'
– the same principle applies here.
What does your ideal hire look like?
If you’ve completed that process of identification and alignment, then you should already have a
really clear picture of the tasks and responsibilities to be carried out by this new role.

That's a great place to start.

You’ve already got a comprehensive list of what that person is going to be doing day-to-day – now
you just have to find the person that fits. You do this by working backwards.
Get that list up in front of you.
● What would somebody need to do those tasks well?
● What hard skills would they require?
● What personal characteristics would be useful?
● Would a certain professional background be a good fit?
● How many years of experience would they need? Is it an entry-level role or is more seniority
required?

Once you’ve got those characteristics down, you need to rank them in order of importance.
Visualizing the ‘dream candidate’ is a useful focussing exercise, but in reality, that person doesn’t
always exist.
You usually won’t get every single thing on your list, but ranking them allows you to determine
which characteristics are the most valuable and which might be just ‘nice-to-haves’.

How do I structure a job advert?

The traditional job advert format looks a bit like this:
● Job title
● Salary
● Location
● Introduction to your business
● Role and responsibilities
● Key requirements (qualifications and skills)

1. The job title

In today’s hiring landscape, job titles are strange things.
Think about how applicants look for jobs today... mainly, it’s by searching for them online.
Job titles aren’t just job titles anymore – they’re an important part of SEO-optimising your advert so
that it shows up in the right search results.
Think back to that dream hire, and imagine what they would be searching for online. What are they
typing into search bars? What keywords are they using?
Don’t be afraid to test a couple of variations, either. Keep an eye on your pipeline – if you see the
pipeline filling up then you know you haven’t got it quite nailed.
Just remember...you’ve got to temper this SEO-optimised approach with some common sense!
Whatever job title you use, make sure it’s also a faithful representation of the role.

Licenciada Miriam Acosta Mezarina CORREO: miriam.acom@hotmail.com

2. Salary
In an ideal world, every job advert should include a salary bracket. There’s a couple of reasons for
this:

1. It helps to save you a lot of time on any needless back and forth with candidates, trying to
figure out salary expectations and whether it fits in with your budget.
2. From a candidate’s viewpoint, including a salary bracket is just the right thing to do. It gives
them some welcome clarity over what can often feel like a frustratingly opaque process.

3. Introduction to your business

There’s an old saying in marketing that says people buy with their emotions first, and then use logic
to rationalise their purchase afterwards. I don’t think it’s much different in the world of hiring.
Applying for a new job is an innately aspirational act – so take this opportunity to communicate
what is aspirational about a move to your company.
What is exciting about working for you? What makes it a good opportunity? Why should your dream
candidate apply to work with your company, when there are so many good openings elsewhere?

4. Role and responsibilities

This is probably the most important section of any job advert. If you’re going to spend extra time
anywhere, then make it here.
A ‘Head of Marketing’ job title really gives no indication of what that person is going to be doing 9-
to-5, Monday to Friday. It could mean something totally different from one company to the next.

Before applying to any job, candidates will want to see that it is the right fit for their professional
and personal development. Will they be spending time developing the skills they want to perfect?
Will they find the work they do engaging and challenging?

I don’t know personally what gets a Product Designer excited about a new role – but I can talk to
people at Charlie who do, and use their understanding to inform the advert. This is a great way of
making your job advert genuinely exciting for candidates.

The job ad below is a great example. Look at how much detail the advert goes into on the specific
responsibilities – you can tell that it was written with a high level of input from the wider team.

5. Key requirements (qualifications and skills)

Remember that list you drew up, detailing your dream candidate’s background and skill set? This
is where it comes into play.
If there’s anything on your checklist that’s an absolute dealbreaker, then don’t be afraid to
communicate that on the job advert.
You want to make sure you’re getting applications from candidates who are right for the role – if
you're convinced your new hire will need a certain qualification, then communicate that desire.

REFERENCIA:

Cowpe, A. (2019, 22 de marzo). How to write a good job advert that attracts your dream
hire. CharlieHR Blog | The Workspace. https://www.charliehr.com/blog/how-to-write-a-job-
advert/#:~:text=A%20job%20advert%20works%20as,the%20role'%20to%20potential%20

Licenciada Miriam Acosta Mezarina CORREO: miriam.acom@hotmail.com