Insights

Job boards should stick to what they’re good at.

What they’re good at is processing job ads. What they’re bad at is giving advice on how to write those job ads. Do you know why most of the advice from job boards about writing job ads is wrong? It’s because their primary concern is to have the job ad repeat as many of the…

The “Nice to Haves”

On many job postings, straight after an often impossibly long ‘Required Experience’ list, you’ll often see another list of ‘Nice to Haves’. What I think the ‘Nice to Have’ list does is put off potential candidates who met the criteria in the ‘Required Experience’ list but don’t have the ‘Nice to Haves’. I can imagine…

Not all jobs sell themselves.

Here’s an informal (and I should add, convivial) conversation I once had in a pub with the owner of a recruitment agency; Me: “What are you in the business of selling? You know, when you break it all down.” Agency Owner: “Talent.” Me: “Fuck off, seriously…” Agency Owner: “OK, OK… Candidates.” Me: “Who pays for those candidates?” Agency Owner: “Clients.” Me: “OK.…

Small Margins

The other day I posted something on LinkedIn. This particular LinkedIn post was drawing attention to what some people complained was a minor and insignificant aspect of a recruitment advert – namely that of the Call to Action. The Call to Action (CTA) in any advert, is where the reader can see what they need to do…

Stupid Candidates

Do you want to get a lot fewer unsuitable job applications? Of course you do. What are you, a masochist? Here’s what you need to do. Make your ads shorter. Much shorter. Three hundred and fifty words is easier (not to mention more inviting) to read than seven hundred and ninety-eight words. As is 350…

The anatomy of a recruitment advert

Judging by all the job ads and status updates we see, it would be easy to assume that recruiters, HR and hiring managers have no basic understanding of human nature – which would be surprising given that the first two groups work in a people-centric job discipline. More generously, maybe they just don’t understand how…

The marketing advice branding experts don’t want recruitment agencies to hear.

There’s lots of marketing advice out there telling recruiting agencies to differentiate themselves. Most of it is ignored for two reasons: 1. The advice is rubbish. 2. The agency realises they aren’t any different to any other agency and so just do what they’re all doing. This is called Me Too Marketing and basically means the agency…

The numbers don’t lie.

You may have noticed an ad campaign I recently ran on LinkedIn. It was targeted at recruiters to encourage them to think about improving the quality of their recruitment marketing. The first one (in the picture above) was accompanied by a short story about an accountant called Trevor to illustrate the point being made in the ad.…

The phrase “top talent” is meaningless.

I wish our industry would stop using the phrase “top talent” in their content marketing. That’s because I think for most agencies, using it raises the expectation bar to a height that can’t be met. It’s ironic because “top talent” isn’t what most companies are looking for – and if they are, that’s probably the…

What does a Purple Squirrel really look like?

In case you don’t know, here’s a definition of the term “Purple Squirrel”, according to urbandictionary.com: “For all practical purposes, there is no such thing as a Purple Squirrel; not in nature and not in the job market. It is a metaphor used by recruiters to identify the unrealistic expectations of a client company. The…

The Road to Damascus

If you’re a recruiter and you’ve ever invested time, money (or both) in improving how you write, either through books or formal training, there comes a moment when you know for sure that the effort was worth it. That moment comes the first time you get an email from a qualified candidate saying something along…

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