4 Ways To Improve Technical Job Adverts and Attract More Candidates

Job adverts for technical roles can often seem like they all blend into one. So many of them are just a list of every technology the company uses and maybe a token statement about how you’ll get to work on some cool stuff.

It’s a buyer’s market right now — software engineers, SREs, and other technical professionals are in high demand and have their pick of the jobs on offer. So as someone looking to hire great engineers, among a whole bunch of posts on LinkedIn or Indeed, it’s important to make sure your role sounds as attractive as possible to as many people as possible.

You want to attract more people and a more diverse range of candidates. Candidates want to know more about the role before they are convinced to start the intense application and interview process.

You might be surprised by some of the relatively small and subtle changes that can really make a difference.

Start With Why

Simon Sinek gave a seminal TED Talk about how to inspire people by talking about why. He says:

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

That applies just as much to job adverts as it does to companies trying to sell a product. Tell people why the role matters. Tell them why they will be making a difference in the world and contributing in their own way to your noble mission.

People increasingly care about the impact of their work. They want to know that what they are doing is making a difference and has some higher purpose.

You might already talk about how the job will involve working on XYZ system for your customers, building a modern microservice architecture, or something similar. But that’s still the what. Tell people why. Inspire them. Make your role stand out.

Perhaps you’re building a collaboration tool that will revolutionise the way teams work together.

You might be creating the next generation of transport and digital services that connect people’s worlds in new and exciting ways.

Maybe you’re building a product that will make something accessible to more people or promotes equality.

This is what folks want to hear about and is what will make them want to come work with you.

Technical Skills

We’ve all seen them. Those ads where it’s just a wall of a hundred different technologies. You must know this frontend framework, this backend language, this database, these testing tools, this cloud platform, and so on.

Let’s be clear. Nobody is an expert in every technology in your whole stack.

This is an industry plagued with imposter syndrome where people already feel like they don’t know enough. Seeing a big block of technologies listed in a job advert can immediately deter someone if they assume they will just never be good enough to match your expectations.

There is even research suggesting that female candidates, in particular, will be put off from applying for a role if they don’t meet the vast majority of the criteria listed.

Instead, make it clear that people don’t need to be an expert in every single part of your tech stack.

Call out and prioritise those one or two key things that really matter. If there are deal-breakers, then sure, make those clear. But for everything else, be open to people learning on the job. The best engineers will be great at learning, and personally, I’d much rather hire someone with a real growth mindset than someone who thinks they already know everything.

Consider where you can be flexible here too. Is it OK if someone doesn’t know Java but has worked with similar object-oriented concepts in C#, for example? Do you really need AWS experience or would someone who’s worked with GCP for a couple of years be able to get up to speed quickly enough?

Also, be realistic and accurate to ensure you remain credible. Don’t ask for ten years of experience with Kubernetes, for example. If you’re working with recruiters, then spend the time validating the technical aspects of any job adverts. Recruiters can be worth their weight in gold, but they are not technical experts, so always make sure they know what to look for when talking with candidates.

It can also be helpful to call out any nice-to-haves or things that will make a candidate stand out. This gives people a chance to shine in their application and feel confident they could sell themselves to you better.

Avoiding Bias

There is, quite rightly, a large focus on increasing diversity in the tech world right now. Teams, in the Western world at least, are still overwhelmingly made up of white male engineers.

We already touched on the fact a lot of women could potentially be put off if they don’t feel they meet the vast majority of technical criteria for a role. But even some of the wording you use in the ad can have a subtle impact and make a role sound less attractive to female candidates.

Certain words can sound more aggressive, whereas others will be interpreted as being more compassionate.

There are some great tools available online for analysing text and highlighting keywords. Check out the Gender Bias Decoder from Totaljobs or the Gender Decoder offered by Kat Matfield. You may be surprised by what they call out in a seemingly innocuous piece of text.

Gender isn’t the only potential bias, of course. Consider the subtle language cues that can also cause racial bias. Do you talk about your teams holding regular “Brown Bag” sessions? Consider referring to them as “Lunch & Learn” sessions instead.

Your team will only ever be enhanced by adding a more diverse range of people to it. Don’t put them off at the first hurdle.

First 1/3/6 Months

Strong candidates will likely ask about this at the interview stage anyway, but it can also be really useful to give some indication of what success would look like in the role by setting out what the first, third, and sixth months are likely to involve.

Some people will love to hear about any onboarding and training, while others will relish the idea of being thrown into the deep end and being able to contribute and ship product features from day one. Whatever the case for your team, it can help to set it out clearly for people in the advert.

This doesn’t have to be super detailed but can help to set expectations and be another opportunity to inspire an application.

First Step

Of course, the job advert is only the first step. It’s just your shop window to attract people to apply.

But with some small improvements at this stage, you should really stand out and end up with a much wider range of awesome people to talk to at the interview stage to ultimately enhance your team.