Have you used a government website lately — like the IRS or DMV? I swear it seems like these were created on someone’s laptop as some kind of ruse. Every time I have to enter personal information, I triple check the code and Google “is this real,” just to make sure I’m not giving my identity away to someone who figured out how to redirect a domain. 

As someone who created their own company website and a few others for friends, I don’t quite understand why a government with billions in funding can’t figure out how to create a website experience that doesn’t look like I could have created it in an eighth-grade class.

Hell, most eighth-graders today could create something more slick. 

Sure, when I was 16, we were used to clunky websites with simple HTML. Today? My expectations (and everyone else’s) are a little higher. When we see clunky digital experiences, the first instinct is to think that you’re going to end up with a Comcast account in some rural town you’ve never heard of before. 

Bad Job Post Template? Bad Candidate Experience  

So tell me why, when companies want to hire “top talent,” they create  a terrible experience, downgrading the one piece of marketing that will be seen on more than just the careers site. Yeah, you guessed it — I’m talking about the job posting. Companies  default to a job post template that tells people what to say instead of the information that is most important to convey and can’t figure out why people aren’t dying to work there.

Or worse, companies  start every single post with the exact same content, damaging both their reputation and SEO. Don’t think that matters? Try searching a generic word like “sales” on your careers site and scroll down the list. Do you see 15 jobs all with the exact same preview sentence?

Now, put yourself in the seat of your consumer — the candidate. How can they easily decide which job is for them with your About Us taking up this important real estate? How do you help them self-qualify? Open 18 windows and carefully read each and every one? I think not. 

Google reads it the same way. Multiple pieces of content with the exact same opening paragraph won’t ever rank in search. When Google scans this content, it  sees a duplicate and ranks it accordingly, so you’ll end up spending more every year on your posting, especially for high volume hiring where you use the same post year after year.

Start Your Job Posts With A Job Pitch Instead

If you want a better job post template, don’t create a system where every single post begins with your templated (read: lame) About Us paragraph. No one reads that anyway and at this point in the job search experience aka discovery, most people are just trying to find the job that’s right for them. They don't really care who you are.

Start your posts with a job pitch that can help your candidates identify the most important information for them, not your company story. That first sentence should include the job title, location, and salary. Then, write about every day activities and mandatory requirements. All of these are key details to making a decision about if someone even wants the job and can help unqualified candidates understand they shouldn’t apply.

After that, I don't really care what you write - as long as you're not copying and pasting from some other posting.

Give your candidates the information they need to make a decision about their job first, not about your company to see more (qualified) candidates apply to your jobs.