Job+Advertisements

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//**"Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does." ~Steuart Henderson Britt **// = =

//__Introduction__//
Job advertisements are announcements about specific job openings. Job advertisements are usually created by human resource managers of companies, executive search firms or employment agencies. Job advertisements can include any type of job, including factory workers, printers, retail managers, sales reps or accountants.

The purpose of a job ad is to find one or more individuals to fill a specific job opening. Companies usually target specific types of individuals when placing job advertisements, as they want to find the most-qualified applicants. For example, a pharmaceutical company may want to find sales representatives that have at least five years of experience in the industry. Therefore, the pharmaceutical company would indicate that qualification in the job advertisement. There are times when companies place job advertisements just to determine what types of candidates are available in the market. Subsequently, a company may or may not always hire someone when they are just monitoring the experience level of available job applicants.

Job advertisements can appear in newspapers, magazines, college alumni newsletters, online and even on the radio. Job advertisements typically run each day in most major newspapers.

Background Information
//**Job advertisements usually appear as classified or display ads. Classified job advertisements usually fall under certain sections or headings, such as "Professional," "Sales and Marketing" or "General." HR managers must decide which section is most appropriate for their classified job advertisements. Display job advertisements may appear under certain headings. Someone looking for a marketing job may find a display job advertisement by itself in another section of a publication. Most display job advertisements are larger than job classified ads and have thicker borders. Companies may use display job advertisements to potentially attract more job applicants.**//

**Job advertisements checklist**

 * ** job title **
 * ** employer or recruitment agency/consultancy **
 * ** job base location **
 * ** succinct description of business/organization/division activity and market position and aims **
 * ** to whom the position reports - or other indication of where the role is in the structure **
 * ** outline of job role and purpose - expressed in the 'second-person' (you, your, etc) **
 * ** indication of scale, size, responsibility, timescale, and territory of role **
 * ** outline of ideal candidate profile - expressed in 'second-person' **
 * ** indicate qualifications and experience required (which could be incorporated within candidate profile) **
 * ** salary or salary guide **
 * ** whether the role is full-time or permanent or a short-term contract (if not implicitly clear from elsewhere in the advert) **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** other package details or guide (pension, car etc) **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** explanation of recruitment process **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** response and application instructions **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** contact details as necessary, for example, address, phone, fax, email, etc. **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** job and or advert reference (advert references help you analyse results from different adverts for the same job) **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** website address **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** corporate branding **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** quality accreditations, for example in the UK, Investor in People **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** equal opportunities statement **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: 24px;">How to design and write effective job advertisements - tips and techniques
//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">The best techniques for writing effective job advertisements are the same as for other forms of advertising. The job is your product; the readers of the job advert are your potential customers. The aim of the job advert is to attract interest, communicate quickly and clearly the essential (appealing and relevant) points, and to provide a clear response process and mechanism. Design should concentrate on clarity or text, layout, and on conveying a professional image. Branding should be present but not overbearing, and must not dominate the job advert itself. This article relates mainly to designing and writing job adverts to appear in printed newspapers an magazines media, although the principles apply to other media and methods. The information must be communicated effectively one way or another to the target audience. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Job adverts and recruitment processes should follow the classical AIDA selling format: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">This means that good job advertisements must first attract attention (from appropriate job-seekers); attract relevant interest (by establishing relevance in the minds of the ideal candidates); create desire (to pursue what looks like a great opportunity), and finally provide a clear instruction for the next action or response. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Job adverts written by people who fail to follow these vital principles will fail to attract job applicants of quality in quantity. Positive examples generally work better than negative ones, however it is useful to point out some common pitfalls for writing and designing job adverts - the quality broadsheets are littered with examples every week, and you will do well to avoid these traps: //

Job advertisements no-nos

 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">over-designed graphics (distracts and slows reading)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">extravagantly presented layouts and words (distracts and slows reading)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">difficult to read quickly or at all for any reason
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">font (type-style) too small or too large
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">capital-letters (upper-case)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">lots of words in italics - they are a lot more difficult to read quickly
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">strange-looking or fancy fonts
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">printed in daft colours or tints against a coloured, patterned or picture background
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">clever or obscure headlines
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">coded and idiosyncratic communications
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">too much technical detail about the job or the company
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">too many words - they are a real turn-off - keep it simple
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">uninspiring, boring descriptions of roles and ideal candidates
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">too much emphasis on the job and not enough on the person
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">adverts in reverse (mirror) or upside-down (not permitted anyway by most media)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">weird advert box shapes, for example wide and flat or tall and thin
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: initial; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">huge half-page or whole-page or double-page spreads - a waste of money

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Here's a reminder of the essential writing tips for advertising and for clarity of business communications, in the context of writing and designing effective job or recruitment advertisements:

Job advertisements writing tips
//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Use one simple headline, and make the job advert headline relevant and clear. Normally the logical headline is the job title itself - this is after all what people will be looking for. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">If the job title does not implicitly describe the job function, then use a strapline to do so. Better still, if you find yourself writing a job advert for a truly obscure job title which in no way conveys what the job function is, then consider changing the job title. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">An effective alternative main headline - especially for strategic roles with a lot of freedom - is to describe (very succinctly - and in an inspirational manner) the main purpose of the role, which can then be used with the job title and organization's name serving as secondary headings. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">If the organization is known and has a good reputation among the targeted readers then show the organization or brand name prominently, as a strapline or main heading with the job title, or incorporated in the job advert frame design, or in one of the corners of the space, in proper logo-style format. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">N.B. Some organizations prefer not to tell the whole world that they are recruiting, in which case, if this is your policy, obviously do not feature your organization's name in the job advert. On which point - if you use a recruitment consultancy, examine the extent to which your job advert is promoting the recruitment agency's name, and if you think they are over-egging things perhaps suggest they contribute to the cost of the advert, or reduce the size of their corporate branding on your advert. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Make the advert easy to read. Use simple language, avoid complicated words unless absolutely necessary (for example if recruiting for Head of Rocket Science), and keep enough space around the text to attract attention to it. Less is more. Giving text some space is a very powerful way of attracting the eye, and also a way of ensuring you write efficiently. Efficient writing enables efficient reading. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Use language that your reader uses. If you want clues as to what this might be imagine the newspaper they read, and limit your vocabulary to that found in the newspaper. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Use short sentences. More than fifteen words in a sentence reduces the clarity of the meaning. After drafting your communication, seek out commas and 'and's, and replace with full-stops. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Use bullet points and short bite-sized paragraphs. A lot of words in one big paragraph is very off-putting to the reader and will probably not be read. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Use simple type-styles: Arial, Tahoma, Times, etc, or your house-style equivalents or variations. Serif fonts (like Times) are more traditional and more readable. Sans serif (like Arial and Tahoma) are more modern-looking, but are less easy to read especially for a lot of text. It's your choice. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Use 12-20ish point-size for headings and subheadings. Try to avoid upper-case (capitals) even in headings - it's very much slower to read. Increase prominence by use of a larger point-size, and to an extent emboldening, not by using capitals. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Use ten, eleven or twelve point-size for the main text; smaller or larger are actually more difficult to read and therefore less likely to be read. Definitely avoid upper-case (capitals) in the 'body copy' (main text). // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">For the same reason avoid italics, shadows, light colours reversed out of dark, weird and wonderful colours. None of these improve readability, they all reduce it. Use simple black (or dark coloured) text on a white (or light coloured) background for maximum readability. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Get the reader involved. Refer to the reader as ‘you’ and use the second person (‘you’, ‘your’ and ‘yours’ etc) in the description of the requirements and expectations of the candidate and the job role. This helps people to visualise themselves in the role. It involves them. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Try to incorporate something new, innovative, exciting, challenging - people are attracted to new things - either in the company or the role. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Stress what is unique. You must try to emphasise what makes your job and organization special. People want to work for special employers and are generally not motivated to seek work with boring, run-of-the-mill, ordinary, unadventurous organizations. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Job advert statements and descriptions must be credible. Employers or jobs that sound too good to be true will only attract the gullible and the dreamers. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Remember AIDA: The **Attention** part is the banner or headline that makes an impressive benefit promise. **Interest** builds information in an interesting way, usually meaning that this must relate closely to the way that the reader thinks about the issues concerned. Since job advertisements aim to produce a response you must then create **Desire**, which relates job appeal and rewards to the reader so that they will aspire to them and want them. Finally you must prompt an **Action**, which may be to call a telephone number or to send CV, or to download an application form from a website address. Your job advert should follow this step by step format to be effective. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Your main heading, strapline and main message must be prominent. Do not be tempted to devote 75% of the space to a diagram of your latest technology or photograph of your new manufacturing plant in Neasden. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Headlines do not have to be at the top of the frame - your eye is naturally drawn to a point between two-thirds and three-quarters up in the framed area, which means you have room above the headline for some subtle branding, or - heaven forfend - for some blank space. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">The best position for adverts on a job page is 'right thumbnail'. That is, top right corner. Right-side sheet is better than the left because your eye is naturally drawn right on turning over the page, which reveals the left-side sheet last. Top-right corner is the first part of a double page spread to be revealed. Top of page is better than bottom - obviously - we read from top down, not the other way around. //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Resist the temptation to buy a half-page or a full page (unless the page size is very small) - you do not need it. A quarter of a page is adequate and optimal in most publications, indeed arguably even unnecessarily large in broadsheet newspapers. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">People assume that big adverts produce a big response - they don't unless they are good. A good moderately sized advert will produce just as good a response as a good massive advert. Added to which you can run more insertions of sensibly sized adverts than big ones. //

//**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Alternative job advertisements and recruitment methods **//
//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">An alternative approach is to place the advert with application form, instructions, job description, candidate profile, etc., as downloadable pdf or similar files on the internet, and use a smaller advert in your chosen media, containing far less detail, which acts as a signpost to direct people to the website URL. This enables a high-impact relatively low-cost small printed media advert. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Consider also: // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Out-placement organizations. (Which help place people in jobs who have lost theirs for one reason or another - often very high-calibre people lose their jobs, for no fault of their own. Also, organizations commonly use out-placement companies to help find jobs for staff who have been made redundant, and this route offers a rich pool of talent and experience). // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">And in a similar vein, armed forces resettlement programmes. (The armed forces produce a constant stream of highly trained, highly disciplined, technically very competent people. So do the police and fire services. Many of these people retire early, or leave the services before retirement, in which case they often pass through resettlement programmes, which can be a very worthwhile recruiting pool.) // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Universities, colleges and schools. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Trade associations and membership bodies. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Internet recruitment resources. // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Using headhunters for middle and senior positions. //

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">References

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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Contributors
<span style="color: #661e66; font-family: Georgia,serif;">//**Valean Carla-Alexandra - Images, Video , Quote , Introduction ,Background Information, Principal Concepts,Topics , Current Issues**//