Writing an advert: Best practice principles

Job title

Without a relevant job title, job boards will not know which candidates to serve your advert to and, therefore, candidates won’t find it.

Location

It is important to write where the role is based in the very first paragraph. No job advert will rank well on a job board unless you’re specific about its location

Salary

Make your advert more relevant by mentioning the salary in the first one or two sentences; the job board’s algorithms will recognise and reward this, and present your advert to candidates over adverts that don’t have a salary range..

Sell

Use the rest of the first paragraph to sell your company and the opportunity to the candidate. It’s important to make your business sound GREAT!

Sell the opportunity

Now that’s done, it’s all about selling the vacancy to the candidate, put yourself in a candidate’s shoes and consider what you’d want to know before applying for a job. 

Make it engaging

Use positive language that will engage a candidate and keep them reading.

Be clear and concise

We recommend you write a paragraph on the role, and what the candidate will get up to, and then, for clarity, write a bulleted list of the main responsibilities.

Who do you want to hire?

What specific experience or qualifications should they have? What type of character should they possess? 

Example

A fantastic opportunity is available for an experienced Architect to join one of the UK’s leading commercial and residential suppliers based in London, the successful Architect will earn £35,000 to £38,000 dependent on experience, in addition to company benefits, plus company car, iPad and pension scheme.

Reporting to the Managing Director, the successful Architect will work on large build projects, liaising project managers while managing a small but enthusiastic team of six, developing as a leader within a vibrant and supportive working environment that champions personal development.

As an Architect your core responsibilities will include:

• Creating building designs and highly detailed drawings, both by hand and by using specialist computer-aided design (CAD) applications
• Liaising with construction professionals about the feasibility of potential projects
• Working around constraining factors such as town planning legislation, environmental impact and project budget
• Working closely with a team of other professionals such as building service engineers, construction managers, quantity surveyors and architectural technologists
• Applying for planning permission and advice from governmental new build and legal departments

Architect will possess the following skills and experience:

• Superb communicator and promoter, able to quickly establish rapport and build relationships based on trust and sound judgment
• Demonstrable success in creating and executing campaigns and delivering against SLA’s
• Entrepreneurial, innovative and adaptable approach in dealing with problems

TOP TIP: Notice we’ve used the job title “Architect” a few times within the advert. This is deliberate, aimed at helping the job board’s algorithm understand what this advert is all about, so it will hopefully jump up the job board’s rankings. The better you optimise your advert for specific keywords like this, the more likely it is that job seekers will actually see it. And the more that see it, the better as the more applications you will receive.

Create a call to action

At the end of every great job advert is a strong call to action, to ensure candidates know what you expect them to do in order to process their application.

Ask for a covering letter to screen candidates

A classic call to action is to ask for a covering letter in addition to their CV. 

Portfolio 

For some technical roles (e.g. Architects) it’s worth asking for a portfolio of their previous work. whilst giving you an idea of their capability.

Example – The call to action

If you’re interested in the Architect position in London, please submit a covering letter/portfolio in addition to your CV detailing your specific experience and telling us why you believe you are the right candidate for this role.

TOP TIP: Drop in the job title and location in this paragraph again to ensure your advert ranks highly when posted on a job board.