One of the most effective ways to make a great first impression is by developing an effective job posting. Many times, it is your first contact with a job seeker who could potentially become your employee and you want to make a good first impression. This post will provide tips and guidelines for developing a successful job posting.

Importance of a Title

One of the major differentiators that can attract more responses to your posting is to make sure the title draws in your potential candidates. Instead of just stating the exact title of the job such as JAVA developer, you might consider something more descriptive, such as “Senior JAVA Developer for High Growth Company in New York City”. This gives the viewers a considerable amount of information built into the title and can motivate them to read further.

Remember, you have a very small window of opportunity to keep someone’s attention when he or she is viewing 10, 20, 30 or more job postings. You want to stand out from the crowd and that can start with a well-developed title.

Company Image/Description

It is important to develop a company description and image that expresses who you are as an organization. This “brand” can also be featured in your job postings. Some of the major qualities that contribute to branding a company include:

• Specialists in a particular industry or service area
• Size of company
• Location

Job Description

Your job description should include an overview of responsibilities, requirements of the position such as skills and experience, education or special certifications and whether the position is full, part-time. To learn more about how to create a well-developed job description, read my blog post.

How to Apply

Provide specific steps for applying to the job such as emailing a resume or phone number to call. You may also want to link to your website recruitment section.

If you are interested in a person who pays special attention to detail, the following is a useful tip. Within your job posting, include special instructions to copy and paste a specific line such as “Attention to detail is a very important part of the job.” If the candidate includes this sentence when applying, you know they are paying attention to the details of the job posting.

Be Sure to Proofread

It is very important to proofread your job posting for spelling and grammatical errors as well as accuracy. These types of errors will reflect poorly on your company and may result in less candidates applying. Be sure to read your job posting several times and have at least one other person proof the posting. Also, be sure to spell check the job posting one more time after you have completed the proofing process.