The following article is the third part of three articles on – How to Post a Job Online. The first article is Job Titles. The second is Job Tags and Keywords.This third article concentrates solely on the Job Description.
Job Description
Do not start your job description with:
Your job title – since it is probably printed above it on your Jobs Page in larger font.
An advertisement – We are the best company for…
Do start your Job Description with a sigle sentence that is 3 – 5 second sales pitch for your position. When a job seeker gets to the page your job is advertised you have a few seconds to get his attention to read the full long page and apply to your job. That is why your first sentence of a Job Description is crucial. Remember that a job seeker have seen the Job Title already, and that message brought him to the job advertisement page. The first sentence have to be the natural extension of the Job Title, so do not repeat it in full again, but tell the job seeker more about your job.
Under your first sentence very short paragraph use the headings to name the following parts of the job specification. Do not use more than 4 or 5 headings. Use the combination of the lists and the text in every job specification. It makes the page easier to scan and digest in seconds.
Do not end your job specification with jet another advertisement. Apply button is where you want the job seeker to end up, as quick as possible. Your conversion rate drops a single percent with every word too many in your job description. The unnecessary words at the need of the job description have even worse effect. A pure branding sentence about your company can reduce the conversion rate of a page where the job is advertised more than 10%, especially if it contains a hyperlink to another page (your home page).
A job description advertised on a web site has a function. When writing the content for that page – a Job Description, have that in mind. Be aware that the goal is to get the right candidate to the page (write relevant content) and get him trough the content as quickly as possible (headings, lists, formatting) to the application form. Your advertisements and branding messages have its place in your Company Profile (on jobs sites or anywhere else on your own web site. Their effect on the job advertisement page is just the reduction of applications.