Recruiting Tips: Creative Job Descriptions

Today I was speaking with an HR Director at one of our portfolio companies and we discussed the idea of writing more creative job descriptions for several of their searches.

While a standard job description which outlines the role, responsibilities, and qualifications necessary for an applicant may yield the candidates you are looking for, job postings with some flair will communicate your company’s personality and may actually yield more qualified, interested candidates. If you do not yet have a recognizable name behind your company, this extra push may be helpful in garnering top talent for your startup recruitment initiatives.

I came across a posting on the FourLabs Blog which tested the posting of a standard and a creative job description on Craigslist to see how different their applicants would be. Their standard job posting for an Office Manager was posted one week prior to their creative job posting, and overall their results were that while the standard job posting received more applicants, the creative job posting received more personalized letters/resumes. To me, this means fewer people applying blindly to the role, and more who have researched the company enough to apply with something more than a form cover letter and resume.

Will a creative job posting help your competitive positioning?
Test it for yourself…

Start with an imaginative title. As an example, see Zmags’ below…

Particularly when looking through title after title which are the same, a slight tweak to a title in your job posting will make yours jump off the screen.

Make it SEO friendly. Think of what your ideal candidate is searching for… then make sure those words are in your job postings… or maybe even in your title!

Enable social media sharing. If you can, have a feature on your Careers page which enables viewers to immediately forward the job posting or share it with those on their social networks. Make it easy for people to spread the word about your job posting!

Include audio or video. This goes back to my last post about our Jobs page revamp (which is in progress)… but all the new media tools are making it easier than ever. If you cannot embed video or audio on to your site, include a link so potential candidates can have more interaction with your company.

Describe your company. This should be in a small paragraph, or in bits sprinkled throughout your posting, depending on your format. Describe what your company does, what its mission is, and what type of people make up your company.

Describe the hiring manager.  It’s often said that people quit their boss, not their company. So, what is it like to work for this hiring manager? What type of person will work best with them, and what is their management style and professional background? You may want to include a link to their LinkedIn profile, if it is detailed and contains recommendations.

Show your flair! For some examples of creative posts by OpenView’s expansion stage portfolio companies, check out Kareo’s Superstar Sales Support Analyst and Zmags’ Kick-Ass Flash Designer.