I’m a white man — so what do I know about diversity? Perhaps not as much as you. But I’ve studied it. Closely. My super-niche Ongig business has one focus: job descriptions. And Ongig has built diversity tools to make your jobs gender-neutral, higher in positive sentiment and more readable. Our software helped 4X the… Read more »
Posts about Writing Job Descriptions
Why I Write my Job Postings at the 8th Grade Reading Level (or Lower!)
The goal of a job posting is simple. It’s to capture the right candidate’s attention with truthful content to help them decide whether to apply. Note: Check out our free Job Descriptions Guide — it tells you everything we know about writing job descriptions! What if I told you I could improve the effectiveness of your… Read more »
The 8 Key Stakeholders in a Job Description Rewriting Project
A head of Talent Acquisition asked me the other day: “Who are the key stakeholders that need to be involved when rewriting job descriptions?” Here’s a quick-and-dirty list that might help you: 1)The Head of TA The head of TA should typically oversee this. If you’re lucky enough to have a head of recruitment marketing… Read more »
How to Write a Job Description Like an Ad Copywriter
You have to do better than a “copy-and-paste” of an old job description to write a job description that stands out and engages the best talent. Many of you still use job descriptions written by someone with little to no marketing skills. Or perhaps copy-and-paste the JD from an unknown source. Let me give you… Read more »
10 Tips for Writing Effective Job Descriptions
A few tips from my 20+ years of writing job descriptions: Note: If you’re lazy like me, a lot of the principles below are built into software such as these: The Top 6 Augmented Writing Tools for Job Descriptions. For more tips on writing job descriptions, check out How to Write a Job Description — Best Practices & Examples. Put First… Read more »
3 Common Formatting Mistakes to Avoid On Your Job Descriptions
Formatting is a top priority in job description writing because formatting affects readability which impacts the candidate experience. Making a job description easier to read exponentially increases the probability of a job seeker reading the entire job description — and that increases the chance of an apply. Note: Check out our free Job Descriptions Guide — it… Read more »
7 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Job Description
Words matter…especially in job descriptions. Update: Since writing this article, our team here at Ongig launched a new version of our Text Analyzer software for writing job descriptions. For more tips on writing job descriptions, check out How to Write a Job Description — Best Practices & Examples. Here are 7 mistakes to avoid when writing YOUR job description: 1)… Read more »
7 Easy Tips for Writing a More Effective Job Description
1. Job Description Length In our research, the optimal length of a written job description is 550 to 750 words. Many candidates lose interest after that. One exception to this: If your job description copywriting is truly incredible, you can get a quality candidate to read 1,000+ words. Note: Check out our free Job Descriptions Guide… Read more »
How to Write Job Descriptions that Attract the Right “Persona”
In a society flooded with job applicants and a low unemployment rate, I look for any edge I can get when writing job descriptions. I have a policy to write my job descriptions at least as well as a candidate writes their resume! But reorganizing and updating an outdated, stiff job description is no easy task. Even… Read more »
How Much Time Will Candidates Spend On Job Descriptions? (Our Top 10)
Some of you have asked Ongig: “How engaged are job candidates with the next-gen job descriptions you’re building?” One metric we look closely at is “average time on page.” Below are the top 10 job descriptions based on time avg. spent per page (note: all are Ongiggitized jobs).We’ve included a few bullets on why these job… Read more »
