How do I advertise an IT Job Online?

Advertising a job role online has become common practice and a default route to sourcing potential candidates for open positions.

You’re more likely to get a quicker response rate online than you would in a newspaper ad and there are many specialist websites where you can advertise an IT job online too.

However, some job placements can often appear more attractive than others and you may miss out on that ideal candidate if they miss your advert due to its lack of appeal or interest. So how do you create an effective job placement? Here are a few things to consider when advertising an IT job online.

Identify Competitor’s Job Postings and Keywords

Do some research into similar job postings and see how they have been structured and laid out. This isn’t to copy their style but to see what the standard is for job postings when it comes to certain roles. It’s also important to identify the keywords best associated with the job role too. If you’re posting a web developer role, you would want to make sure you have appropriate keywords e.g Python, PHP, SQL to make sure you get better coverage on search results.

Creating the Job Posting

Your first point of action is to structure the job description into a simple but effective statement that not only adds as much detail as possible to the job description but also highlights the key selling points of your company and the salary/benefits that come with it. Always try to keep the advert short but sweet - posting a long job description may cause the candidate to lose attention or interest.

Common Job Title and Subject

It may seem obvious but always use the appropiate job title in the subject line of the placement by using the industry standard title. Creating your own title for a web developer role may not help in terms of search rankings on job boards and may not be recognised by those searching. You should also include the location(s) and salary too.

Example: PHP Web Developer | Central London | £35,000

Salary and Benefits

It’s always best to include an actual salary in the job placement instead of using terms like ‘Competitive Salary’ or ‘Excellent.’. An ‘Excellent’ or ‘Competitive’ salary may mean something entirely different to a potential candidate than what it means to an employer so if you already know what kind of wage you intend to pay someone you should state it as it could potentially attract more candidates and more importantly the right ones too.

It’s also important to mention any company benefits and perks that the company offers.  It’s not just the job role you’re advertising, it’s the company as well.

Introduce The Company

Describing the business or organisation as well as the industry it's in is very important. You should explain what it does, the key selling points, the company aims/focus and even a little snippet of history if you think it's worth adding. You need to sell the company to the candidate as an ideal place to work for and a place to make a career.

Job Description and Responsibilities

Write an engaging and punchy job advert that highlights the details of the job role, its purpose and contribution to the business and the ideal candidate you're looking for. You should also use bullet points or a separate paragraph to note the responsibilities that the job role entails since it's easy to understand and is the standard for majority of job postings. Formatting the advert correctly makes it clearer and more appealing to the candidate.

Don’t forget to include the appropriate keywords throughout the job posting. This helps optimise it and push it to the top of relevant search results.

Key Skills/Experience

As previously stated you should use bullet points to describe the skills and qualities you’re looking for in a candidate. As much as you want a good response rate from your job posting, you want to make sure you’re attracting the right and relevant candidates.

Depending on the position, experience is another key factor to specify as well.

Other Details

Be sure to include a closing date, the ideal job start date and whether it’s an IT contractor or permanent position. Try not to make the job posting too long as you want to capture the interest of the potential candidate in the first paragraph and not have to make them scroll too much.

Be sure to proof read it and have maybe have colleagues review the post for spelling and grammar.

Mechanism to Accept Applications

Smaller companies may just use an email address to accept job applications or C.V’s where as a larger company may have its own online process to do so. Either way, you should make sure you have a functional mechanism to accept job applications so the online jobs board can easily send through candidates.

Choosing the Right Job Board

There are a range of different job board websites where you can advertise positions for your company. There are a few factors to consider when trying finding the right website to advertise your job.

• How many jobs do they currently advertise?
• Does the website target a specific industry or area?
• Do they have strong corporate brands advertising roles there?
• How long are the jobs posted for?
• What is the cost of placement?
• How long has the website been operating and what support do they offer?
• Do they offer additional services such as CV database searching?

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Advertising your job with Technojobs offers a variety of benefits and qualities and has over 16 years of experience in IT and Technical online recruitment. For more information about advertising with Technojobs please click here.