Do your recruitment adverts stand out or blend in?

Jackie Barrie

Written by: Jackie Barrie

Here are some of the common descriptions used in 614,670 jobs advertised on Indeed today.

  • Team player, team-player or teamplayer 148,580 (over 24% of all ads)
  • Passionate 145,967 (nearly 24% of all ads, argh!)
  • Motivated 120,492
  • Proactive 63,006
  • Self-starter or self starter 28,675

I don’t even know if those are the most common words used on Indeed. I guessed.

When every role is described the same way, how is the reader supposed to recognise themselves?

Posting ‘ads’ like this means applicant CVs will all say: “Hire me because I’m a passionate, motivated, proactive self-starter who’s a team player who also works well on my own.” They apply like that because they think that’s what you’re looking for. But if you read something like that in a CV, do you believe it? Well, when they read those clichés in an ad, they don’t believe them either.

If you want someone who is all or any of those things, find a more interesting way to say it. Then your ad will stand out and get noticed.


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