How to write a great job posting for young graduates

Do people know and understand who you are when they read your job postings? Having a great company introduction can make the difference between your job offer and another, so you should work as dutifully on the company introduction as on the job description.

Did you copy and paste your usual social media bio? Did you add some recruitment-specific content? Alternatively, did you choose to focus entirely on your employer branding? Students often don’t want to apply for a company they do not identify with, even if the job description is appealing.

To stand out from the recruiting crowd, your company introduction should include two main parts:

• Why would the candidate want to work for you?
• Why would the candidate want to work with you?

Step 1: working for us

We once had a customer tell us, “I get some resumes from students who don’t realise that they would need to move to another region to work for us”. You can do much better!

What we would advise doing is speak directly to your Sales team and ask them, “how do you introduce our company to prospects?” Information that can be appealing to your prospective applicants is the number of countries you work in, the number of employees, a couple of growth indicators or your main company-wide goals for the year.

When you introduce your company, talk about your mission. Remember that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”: people don’t apply because of what you do, they apply because you have a sense of purpose. “Making the world a better place” has become a joke at this point, because so many companies use this catchphrase. Still, you are striving to make the world better. Show how and why your company improves your customers’ life.

After that, add the extra necessary information for applicants: for example, your city or district. You can add other details, like the closest public transportation stops or usual work hours if you are a local business.

Step 2: working with us

After this first paragraph, get into the second main subject of your company presentation: its culture. Again, there is just one paragraph. It is nonetheless a crucial one, because in just a few lines, you can make a whole roster of prospective applicants want to work with you.

As we said in our recent article on the 6 online employer branding keywords you need to know, more and more companies have a fantastic culture code. You should create yours and link to it in this part of your presentation, along with a concise summary of what your culture is. Do you value enthusiasm or expertise, would you rather “work hard, play hard”, or promote a sustainable life balance? There is so much to say about your company: pick two sentences, and add them to every job offer. Don’t forget to add your perks (everyone loves a nap room, working from home arrangements and free coffee) and rankings like Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work to the description.

If you feel up to it, create a new paragraph like this one for every department in your company and ask managers and employees from each team to tell you about their most important values.

Throughout the whole company introduction, make sure your tone is on point, and conveys the company identity you want to have. Are you playful, ambitious, driven? Show it in your copywriting.

If there is just one thing to remember, it’s this: keep in mind that you need to make sure your “About the company” section includes why people would want to workforandwithyou, and you will attract enthusiastic and qualified applicants.

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