Top 10 Feminine-Biased Words Used in Job Descriptions (2024 Update)

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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. So, are there loads of feminine-biased words in job ads? Some of you… Read more »

Top 10 Helpful Augmented Writing Tools for Job Descriptions (2024 Update)

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Augmented writing has taken off and employers have taken notice. You could hire a copywriter to write your job descriptions but wouldn’t you rather give your ENTIRE hiring team (recruiters and hiring managers included) augmented writing tools? So, one of the biggest challenges is writing job descriptions that are gender-neutral and free of other bias…. Read more »

The Top 10 Masculine Biased Words Used in Job Descriptions (2024 Update)

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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… Read more »

7 Free Fixes to Remove Gender Bias from your Job Postings

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If you want to attract more female candidates, a good place to start is to eliminate your job description bias. Job description gender bias is the easiest lever for you to pull to hire more women. The 80/20 Rule is in effect here. Well, almost. You can remove about 70% of job description gender bias… Read more »

Virtual Assistant Job Description Template

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Need to hire a virtual assistant? I’ve hired 5 in my career and thought I’d  share the virtual assistant job description template I use for these hires. I like to think I get better each time I write a new JD to hire a VA. And special thanks to my friend Ramit Sethi of I Will… Read more »

7 Examples of the Questions Top Brands Use to Start Their Job Postings

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Starting your job posting with a question is smart and effective. Just like it’s proven in sales that asking questions can convert customers at 10X the rate than average (see the SPIN Selling book), so too does asking questions in your job ads. The reason? Yep, I just asked YOU the reader a question. 🙂… Read more »

Caution: Avoid These 3 “Exclusionary” Personal Pronoun Mistakes in Job Descriptions

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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 reads:… Read more »

The 50 Most Used Adverbs in Job Descriptions (and which ones you should delete)

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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 »

50 Phrases to Avoid So You Don’t Have Clinical-Sounding Job Postings

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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 »

7 Best Practices for Using Bullets in Job Descriptions

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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 »

Newsday Gets Hammered On Disability Language for This Job Posting

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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 »

12 Examples of Poorly Written Job Descriptions

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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 for Job Descriptions: The Comprehensive List [2022 Update]

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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 »

7 Examples of Well Written Job Descriptions [With Tips!]

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Well written job descriptions aren’t easy to come by. Most JDs are written by busy hiring managers or recruiters. They read more like a legal contract than clean ad copy. Below are 7 tips based on examples of well written job descriptions I found on the web. For more tips on writing job descriptions, check… Read more »

5 Lessons I Learned from Cynet’s “Preferably Caucasian” Job Posting Debacle

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When Cynet Systems, an Inc. 5000 company out of Ashburn, Virginia, had its job posting debacle last month, I decided not to write about it. Cynet CEO Nick Budhiraja and his team had reached out to Ongig (we have software that helps avoid such issues). I thought I’d hold off on giving my take on… Read more »