When I was 20 years old, I quit a job 4 days after I started. I decided to stay in my college town for the summer between my junior and senior year instead of going home. As I was applying to jobs, I saw this job post. They paid almost double what most of the other jobs did. I didn’t catch any red flags in the job post. During the interview, I asked them for a realistic job preview. I mean, I wanted to know what the catch was. They told me there wasn’t one.

The catch was this was a job working in a call center. That person was clearly an extrovert. They didn’t see the pain in this role. Picking up the phone and calling strangers only to have them be mean to you and being held accountable to some number I had very little control over felt like hell. I remember getting halfway through the second day of training and thinking, “this is definitely not for me.”

At lunch on the day we were going to dial on our own, I saw that I had missed a call. I stepped into the bathroom to listen to the voicemail. I was being offered another job that didn’t require me to drain my social battery every day. I’m sure I did some kind of joyful but silent fist pump in the stall. Then, I grabbed my stuff and walked right out.

Data Driven: Realistic Job Preview Results 

While I would never just walk out during lunch again, the problem here wasn’t quitting as much as the fact they sold me a lie. No one told me I’d be working on the phone. No one told me I’d be held to a quota. The list goes on. The expectations they set were wildly different than what was in the job post. That bait and switch is always going to cost you talent. 

According to Gartner, alignment between the job post and job applicants’ skills and interests is the greatest influence on applicants’ decision to apply for a job (59%). Factors typically owned by employer brand and recruitment marketing teams like an organization’s mission and purpose (17%), the description of the workplace culture (16%), or online reviews of the organization (8%) have significantly less influence.

Providing realistic job descriptions up front saves time and resources for both organizations and candidates. The catch? If you’re not telling the truth - it doesn’t matter how specific you get. People are still going to quit when they realize the truth about this job.

Telling The Truth: 3 Things You Must Post In A Realistic Job Preview

This is where most high volume recruiting teams get scared. They know the job sucks for some specific reason (think things like hot temps, crazy hours, etc.), but naming the suck in a realistic job preview feels like sending candidates running. News flash: you want candidates who won’t be happy with some specific circumstance about the role to run. You don’t want to go through the entire hiring process with anyone who is going to quit in 4 days like I did.

Instead of burying the lead in their job posting, teach your team to explain the reason most people quit in the first paragraph. Sometimes even the first sentence. But it’s not “this sucks.” Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean someone else will hate it. It means we have to communicate explicitly - especially these 3 things.

• If the job isn’t remote, say that in sentence one. “As our (job title) you will come into the office in (city name) every day…” Please don't say it's hybrid if you're in the office 4 days and home 1. That's on-site.
• If you function in hot temperatures, include that in the mandatory requirements. “You must be willing to work in hot environments where temperatures exceed 90 degrees.” Then, explain what work they’re doing that keeps them outside. Walking from one building to the next vs lifting 40 pound boxes in extreme temperatures are 2 different disclosures.
• Hours. If it’s a split schedule, say so and explain why. “It’s a split schedule because we’re working with school age children that have school from 8 to 2.” It's not just what makes the job unique, but why.

Trust and transparency start with a realistic job preview. Be explicit. Be clear. Tell the truth - especially if you don’t want to spend your time rehiring the same roles you already hired.