Whose fault is it?
Many of you blame generalist job sites when faced with the quantity and poor quality of applications received following a job posting…The source of the problem comes in part from the way in which job offers are written. The majority of job offers are composed in such a way that any candidate who has some Office knowledge, speaks English and believes that they have good social skills, can think they have sufficient requirements for applying. When there are more candidates than there are positions to fill, the job offer must be more explicit on the specific requirements needed to stand a chance of being considered. Not adapting the way in which the job offer is written to the current job market situation is the best way of getting yourself inundated with applications when there is an abundance of candidates and receiving nothing when there is a shortage.
The composition of a job offer is too often neglected, hastily “consigned” to the person in charge of job postings. Unfortunately, the necessary qualities for posting job offers via an internet application form and the necessary qualities for composing an appealing and marketable job offer aimed at a designated pool of candidates – and only those candidates – will rarely be found in the same person. If you want results don’t cut corners. One person copies a neighbor’s advert who themself copied from their competitor and you find yourself with job offers which all resemble each other, “standardized” offers, unoriginal. Have you ever spent two hours reading job offers? After half an hour you don’t really read them anymore, there are so many and they are all so similar that you just end up skimming them before applying.
On the Internet, it is quicker for a candidate to apply than to read the advertisement. As the majority of adverts don’t make the written matter the main subject of attention, it is understandable that the candidates don’t pay much attention to the content of your advert…Composing a job offer subject to the company’s culture, the position to fill and in support of the current job market situation and it’s destination is a true art which merits more attention or at least a minimum budget to be able to consign it to professionals. Candidates hardly pay attention to the content of job offers…whose fault is that?