Searching for an IT developer: what should a job post look like?
23.05.2019
Searching for an IT developer: what should a job post look like?
Many of us (recruiters) struggle with finding new, experienced people to join our teams on a daily basis. It is not an easy "piece of bread", especially when we are looking for candidates with rare skills and extensive experience. The situation becomes even more complicated if we are looking for people working in niche technologies or very responsible positions. One of the stages of each recruitment process (apart from more efficient ones such as direct search, hackathons, internal and external events, etc.) is a job post. What should it contain, what structure should it adopt in order not to alienate potential recipients? In the following article, I will try to bring you closer to the most important (from my point of view) elements that you should pay special attention to.
First, less mean more
Try to keep everything you describe as concise and clear as possible. A few sentences describing one issue can often be dressed up in a simple, laconic statement. Remember that programmers and people from the IT world (especially these people) appreciate specifics. Nobody has time to read marketing stories. Example (bulleted list):
"We're looking for people who:
- They want to be proud of the product they create
- They want to be proud of the code they write"
We can change to:
"We're looking for people who:
- They want to be proud of the code and the product they create."
The fewer bullet points and words, the more concise the job post is. Bold the most important information - your ad will be more readable.
Second, briefly describe your company
Take into account that if you are recruiting for a large company, a photo of smiling ladies from the "stock" will certainly not positively affect the reception of your advertisement. If you do not have good photos of the team or you are afraid of the GDPR - create graphics based on company colors with the company logo.
When describing the company you are recruiting for, pay attention to such aspects as:
- what makes the company an ideal place for the candidate (advanced projects, international team, modern technologies, development > maintenance)
- how many people does the company employ?
- what is the process/approach in project management
- why the company is looking for new people
- the company's greatest achievements (interesting from the perspective of a potential candidate, e.g. the application created by our team is in the TOP 10 of the German AppStore).
Third, requirements
When describing the requirements section, try to include only the most relevant information in it. Sentences like "accuracy and meticulousness in action" can be skipped. Do you really think a programmer can be careless and inaccurate? I hope the answer is no. Additionally, be specific.
Example:
"we require 1-3 years of experience in a similar position"
One year versus three years is a huge difference. Extremely visible in IT. A person with a year of experience is often a Junior, while Regular (mid) developers have 3 years of experience. They are often people with completely different skills. Therefore, when looking for people for positions with both one and three years of experience, consider splitting the advertisement into two others.
Fourth – versions of specific technologies
As I mentioned earlier, programmers and IT people like specifics. The mere information about the technologies used in the project is not enough because there are several versions of Java. If you use Java version 1.6 in the project - mention it in the job post. Do not hide the technology due to the fact that they are mostly outdated, it will come out during the first interview with the candidate anyway. We respect the time of both our own and potential employees.
Fifth - what do you offer?
A very common practice is to enter in the "We offer" section sentences such as:
"We offer stable employment in a professional environment of IT specialists."
Sentences like this are completely unnecessary. They create unnecessary hype and add no value from the candidate's perspective. If you don't have anything interesting to offer (e.g. training package, certificates), it's much better if you replace the previous sentence that doesn't add anything to a point like:
"We offer employment based on any form of cooperation: B2B, specific work, commission, employment contract."
Each point of your advertisement should bring specific value and convey specific information. You should remove the remaining "generalities" from your ad as soon as possible.
Summary:
Reading dozens of job advertisements every day, I see how much still needs to change from the perspective of employers. Many companies (especially tech startups) are already changing their approach and presenting offers in a very friendly way because they realize that everyone has limited time. However, the market still has the majority of poorly designed ads that are characterized by low conversion. Each position is different, so you should adapt the layout and structure of the advertisement to a specific specialization. The IT world is governed by different laws than, for example, the construction industry, and specifics are particularly important here. Without them, it is hard to find good and time-respecting programmers
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