Early Amazon employee Glenn Fleishman told Internet History Podcast that Amazon had a hard time hiring developers in its early days. We decided to run Amazon’s first known job posting (from August 22, 1994) through Ongig’s Text Analyzer software to see how his job description text scores using today’s best technology. Ongig’s Text Analyzer is… Read more »
Job posting wording has a direct impact on your quality applications. Here are 7 tips that should help you nail your wording. Job Posting Wording Tip #1: Keep Your Job Title Simple The most important first words of your job posting are those in its job title. The job title affects whether a candidate opens up the… Read more »
Using the wrong personal pronoun (he, she, his, her, etc.) can turn off groups of candidates. Here are 3 examples of personal pronouns NOT to use along with synonyms I recommend. Personal Pronoun/Job Description Tip #1: Don’t Refer to Candidate as “He” Check out this first job ad below. In the second paragraph it… Read more »
A talent leader asked me when she should use adverbs in writing job descriptions. It turns out using too many adverbs in your job descriptions reduces your apply rate (more on that below). Reminder on the definition of adverbs: adverbs are intensifier words that give greater definition to an adjective, verb or other adverb. Most… Read more »
Workday is the #1 ATS system used by Fortune 500 companies, narrowly beating Taleo. That’s what we found after a review of the 476 Fortune 500 companies that show their applicant tracking system on their public-facing career sites. 22.6% of these Fortune 500 companies use Workday versus 22.4% that use Taleo. Oracle is still the… Read more »
Masculine vs. feminine job descriptions remains a hot topic these days. Last week I shared The Top 10 Masculine Biased Words Used in Job Descriptions. If you’re trying to gender-neutralize your job ads, eliminating those top 10 masculine-biased words is a good start. Some of you then asked: “What about feminine words — which words in job… Read more »
What are the top masculine-biased words used in job descriptions? Knowing if you have masculine vs. feminine job descriptions is a hot topic these days. Most companies want to hire more women. This week, I used Ongig’s Text Analyzer software (the tool for gender bias in job descriptions) to find out. I had Text Analyzer… Read more »
Do your job postings have clinical-sounding words? Do they sound “prescriptive”. Perhaps they look like an attorney wrote them — full of “legalese”. Your job posting should, of course, be an ad…not a legal contract. Check out the beginning of this nursing job ad below (analyzed by Ongig’s Text Analyzer job description software). Ongig’s software… Read more »
When Kleenex (after 62 years!) scrapped its “Mansize” Kleenex tissues (see the below tweet that helped spark the social movement for Kleenex to change), it got me thinking about what else might need to get gender-neutralized. Hi @Kleenex_UK. My 4yo son asked me what was written here. Then he asked, why are they called mansize?… Read more »
How many bullets should you use in a job description? Does your job posting have too many bullets? Great questions. I’ve been asked a bunch of these job description bullet-related questions. I did my best to answer those and more below. It’s all the best practices I know about the most effective use of bullets… Read more »
On the heels of 7 Controversial Stories About Job Descriptions, here’s another cautionary tale of poor wording in job postings. It was discovered by Wendy Lu, a self-prolaimed “Proud Disabled Woman” (vocal cord paralysis). Wendy found a job ad posted by Newsday, the Long Island-based newspaper in New York, for a general assignment reporter. It included… Read more »
Poorly written job descriptions share certain things in common. I’ve analyzed (by hand) many thousands of job descriptions and created this checklist of the”worst job description practices” to avoid. 1. Poorly Written Job Descriptions Have Long Job Titles The job title is key. It’s usually the first thing a candidate sees. Job titles with 1… Read more »
Action verbs are the most effective verbs to use in job descriptions. What is an action verb? It’s a verb that expresses physical or mental action. Examples of action verbs: The CEO motivates his team. The developer writes code. The accountant approves the balance sheet An action verb is distinct from linking verbs (am, are, is, was,… Read more »
Job descriptions are in the news lately. A lot of controversy. I’m hoping you’re not in any of them. That got me digging. I went back a few years to find stories related to controversial job postings. There’s Uber, Abercrombie, Walmart and other lesser-known names as well. I’m starting a list here as a central… Read more »
Recruiting is like dating. Before Ongig, I had a great job as CEO of a dating advice company. We helped millions of single men (and some single women) become more successful at dating. Here are a few ways I found that recruiting is like dating: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken” Oscar Wilde is… Read more »
