There's a certain art to listing a job, from posting to the right websites to using the right language that will attract the right candidate. This can be especially difficult when trying to find the best tech talent.
Depending on the exact wording of the job listing, your company could potentially receive tons of applications from candidates who aren't right for the job. On the other hand, many talented potential applicants may pass by your job listing if it doesn't appeal to their unique skill set and career goals.
To help, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members offered their best advice for optimizing your tech job listings.
Find the Best Tech Talent Using These 13 Job Posting Tips
- Share your company culture.
- List the salary.
- Ask your current tech team for help.
- Incorporate social recruiting.
- Promote your company values.
- Separate required and preferred skills.
- Use keyword strategies.
- Use different job titles for the same role.
- Make listings clear and scannable.
- Pick the right place to post your job.
- Avoid common buzzwords.
- Create an engaging headline.
- Get as specific as possible.
1. Share Your Company Culture
The job listing is about reaching out with a message that will add new blood and feed the culture of your company. Therefore, be very specific about what your culture entails so that you can attract true contributors. This approach will increase the average stay at your company and employee loyalty. Avoid making promises you can’t fulfill later: Doing so may result in bad PR and the loss of current team members. —Dmitrij Żatuchin, DO OK
2. List the Salary
Clearly list the pay and benefits in the subject heading. This tactic does several things. First, it filters people who are looking for a certain salary. For our positions, we list salaries that are competitive for the job, so we get high-quality applicants who match the necessary skill level. Second, money is an automatic attention-getter. Third, it answers the most commonly asked question about a job immediately. —Shu Saito, Godai Soaps
3. Ask Your Current Tech Team for Help
Tech talent needs clarity. They don’t want to see the problem dressed up, and sometimes the best of them don’t respond well to hype. As a job lister, you should include a little bit of technical acumen. Pull your existing tech team aside and take dictation while they describe what the candidate needs to do. —Tyler Bray, TK Trailer Parts
4. Incorporate Social Recruiting
Use social recruiting to find top talent. Employers need to build their presence and clearly articulate their values, network with specific people and search hashtags to recruit candidates. Employers who take time to build their presence on social media have an advantage. Job seekers look at companies’ profiles on social media and want to feel aligned with how prospective employers articulate themselves. —Libby Rothschild, Dietitian Boss
5. Promote Your Company Values
When posting a job listing, you already know what the company is all about, and so, you tend to focus more on the role. But job seekers don’t know the company, and they’ll want to learn more about it. Explain the company’s vision, focus on your mission and really emphasize those things in the job listing. That will help to create a description that draws in the kinds of people who will get hooked on your company. —Cody Candee, Bounce
6. Separate Required and Preferred Skills
One way companies can optimize their listings is to separate the required skills and abilities from the preferred ones. Too often, companies lump both into the requirements category. In turn, this dissuades a huge percentage of qualified candidates from applying who might otherwise excel at the job. —Stanley Meytin, True Film Production
7. Use Keyword Strategies
Use keyword strategies to optimize your job listings based on your competitors’ listings. Is a competitor getting better talent? See what they are advertising, where they are advertising and who they are hiring, then optimize your hiring strategy using similar keywords. It is a difficult hiring climate, so you need to be competitive. —Matthew Capala, Alphametic
8. Use Different Job Titles for the Same Role
You should realize that there are jobs where the same role is given different titles. For example, someone may look for a “lead developer” role while another looks for a “senior developer” job. Although these titles are different, the work is largely the same. You can create multiple job listings with different types of job titles for tech roles, and you’ll be more likely to find people. —Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
9. Make Listings Clear and Scannable
To optimize your job listing, make sure to add all the qualifications and skills you’re looking for. You should use bullet points to make the skills more scannable. That way, candidates can quickly scan and assess their eligibility before they apply for the position. This technique also helps you make your listing more SEO-friendly. —Josh Kohlbach, Wholesale Suite
10. Pick the Right Place to Post Your Job
A lot of people use major career sites like Monster, but there are better, more specialized ones. For instance, if you’re a tech startup, then AngelList is actually a better place to post your job and attract talent with the right experience since a lot of tech startup workers flock there. —Andy Karuza, Base64.ai
11. Avoid Common Buzzwords
Companies can better optimize their job postings by avoiding buzzwords and keywords that don’t have any meaning in the real world. Using a phrase like “SEO Ninja” doesn’t give users a clear idea of what the role entails, what its responsibilities are and so on. You’re setting yourself up to receive applications from unqualified candidates. —Jared Atchison, WPForms
12. Create an Engaging Headline
The best way to optimize your job listing is to make sure you include key details in the title of your post. You spend plenty of time focusing on your blog headlines, right? This situation is very similar. If you want people to click on your job post, make sure to write a clickable, engaging and informative headline and description. —John Turner, SeedProd LLC
13. Get as Specific as Possible
To optimize your job listings, be as specific as you can about what you expect for the role, responsibilities, skills, experience and more. The more vague your description is, the less likely you’ll find relevant candidates who match what you’re looking for. Clearly state the expectations you have for candidates. —Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
