Let's be real, there's a lot of annoying things about job adverts that we all kind of ignore because we need jobs and telling someone what's wrong with their ad won't do us any favours. But that doesn't mean we can't moan about them just a little...
1. The Typos
Well clearly nobody read your job advert considering the number of typos in it. Or is this a challenge for me and if I pull you up on them in my cover letter I get extra points? A lot of the jobs I'm looking at are for roles where spelling is important, the use of good grammar is often highlighted in the 'requirements' section, so seeing spelling mistakes within the advert itself looks incredibly unprofessional. If you can't take the time to write the advert properly, why I should I respond properly?
2. TBH abbrv. are annoying AF
[To be honest, abbreviations are annoying as f***]
I appreciate that a lot of industries have abbreviations. I'm sure some of them are necessary, and to those in the know very easy to read. It's a lot like slang or text speak. However, for someone at entry level, or someone looking for a job in a new sector, it can be really hard to read a job advert when the role description or experience requirements contains nothing but abbreviations, acronyms, or initialisms. It comes across as elitist, or at least unwelcoming to those outside the industry.
3. Do You like Rhetorical Questions?
Because reading them makes me feel like I'm back at primary school. This one might just be me, but it feels nothing but patronising to have a job sold to me in this 'fake-fun' way. I'd prefer you just laid out the role in plain terms rather than opening with inane questions which I skim read anyway. I get that you're trying to make the role sound fun and your advert stand out, but that's not what I want from a job ad - I just want an honest description of the role.
4. Generic Person Specification
Yeah, there's a lot of skills that are very generic and needed for all jobs but stop listing 'self-motivated' and 'hard worker' in your person specification. It should be a space to list skills, yes, but they should be skills specific to the role being discussed. Everyone wants you to be motivated and hard working, that's a given, but can we focus on the hard skills which relate directly to the position.
5. "Competitive" Salaries
I know I haven't done maths for about 3 years now but I didn't think "competitive" was a number. Is it so hard to give me a figure? And if you're waiting to see how much experience the person you hire has, at least give a ballpark range. I promise you're putting off more people than you're attracting by being vague about what you want to pay them.
6. Are you Entry Level or Not?!
Yeah, I made a whole post about this. No, I'm not done complaining about it. Why write and/or tag a job as 'Entry Level' if you actually want candidates to have experience? It doesn't make sense. You can have one or the other so pick.
7. Attempts at SEO making the Job Title Impossible
I understand the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), especially for job adverts which get pushed further and further down the list as more companies advertise for staff, but that doesn't mean it's not irritating to open a job advert and half-way through realise you've already been here, only it was labelled as a different job title previously. "Re-branding" the job ad if you've had no luck with applicants does make sense, and finding the right words to for the title is so important, it's just worrying to think I might have applied to the same job twice because it had been given a different name.
8. Telling you nothing about the company
The company is low on my priorities list when I'm looking to apply to a job - but that's because I'm a graduate. For many people working for the right company is important. The use of recruiters and a desire for confidentially is all well and good but if you're not going to even tell me the industry of the job role, how do I know if I should apply? A little something about the focus of the work or the culture they promote would be a real help here.
So there you are, 8 of the most annoying things about job adverts - and that's not even to mention the application process. If there's anything else that irritates you about job ads feel free to vent about it in the comments, I'll be there sharing the feeling! Until next week...
Good Luck with the Job Search!
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