Decoding Job Descriptions

The more time you spend searching job boards and scanning through job postings, the more you may start to recognize certain phrases and terms that appear over and over again. Some of these terms may be a little confusing or open to interpretation. Here’s a simple guide that can help you make sense of a few of the most common phrases. Continue Reading

Six Ways to Sell Gen Y With Your Job Description

It’s no secret that most job descriptions are awful. They make the hiring company sound boring and the work tedious.

This could be a real problem for employers when they try to hire Generation Y Millennials. While some managers and recruiters are fed up with the stereotypically whiny and self-entitled “Trophy Kids”, Generation Y is predicted to comprise nearly 75% of the world’s workforce by 2025, according to a study by the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation. Companies will eventually be fighting for the best of them, so start using the job description to court talented millennials.

Here are six ways employers should tweak job descriptions to attract Gen Y: Continue Reading

What’s the Difference Between a Job Posting and a Job Description?

As one of the owners of CollegeRecruiter.com job board, we get feedback from our clients and even other job boards on a wide variety of job postings for a wide variety of organizations. We hear that some postings generate a huge number of views (job seekers reading the posting) and applications while others generate few views, few applications, or both.

The response rate to jobs posted to general and niche job boards varies considerably and is primarily driven by the job posting ad itself. In short, job postings which are more attractive and are for more attractive positions far outperform job postings which are unattractive or are for unattractive positions or both. On average, about 10 percent of candidates who run a search at a job board will read a relevant job posting ad, about 10 percent of those will click the apply button, and about 20 percent of those will apply. So if you want to generate 20 applications for a position then you need 100 apply clicks, 1,000 job views, and 10,000 job searches. Continue Reading

Surviving the Fake Resume

How can you recognize the phoney resume? Excellent question. There was a recent debate about the practice of recruiters’ posting fake resumes on job boards in order to assertedly test the waters and evaluate the interests of hiring managers. The recruiter also seemed to admit that this was actually a technique for getting job requisitions. There was an argument that this is an honest practice and carries absolutely no taint because of the research value, potential for building connections, and a “take it or leave it” opportunity.

Many recruiters who saw the admission decried the practice citing the fact that these ruses are a major waste of time. The time to cull a database, read and evaluate, and then do outreach is time that could have been spent on a real person who is legitimately looking for employment and is willing to entertain a potential situation. Even more vexing was the realization that the discussion was drummed up in order to draw attention to an article that was published the next day, to make innuendoes about a start-up business, and to promote the formation of a new discussion group. But those are somewhat tangential issues. Drawing all three together, however, is honesty about what is presented. That was what stirred up the most controversy — honesty, credibility, ethics, trustworthiness, and respect — respect of and value of one’s time.

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