Lazy Recruitment Job Advert Writing

I realise this is probably a pretty pointless rant but I actually couldn't believe this job "description" that I found earlier:

 

When your R2R can only write two sentences to describe your organisation, the role, the type of individual required.... well it wouldn't give me much hope for their ability to successfully place someone!

Comments

[Rich Johnson (@JobRich)]

It's not as uncommon as you may think.
Part of my online job advertising business http://www.JobAffair.co.uk has recently partnered with a large job distributor and when we advertsie their jobs on our sites, we sometime get only 2 lines of info very similar to the one above. Often with this info still embedded etc
Surprisingly we send this job distributor over 100k visits every month so I guess the jobseekers sometimes need just a snippet of info for them to decide if they want to apply.
On the otherhand, when I write job descriptions for my recruitment agency, I really try to be a little different. It is hard work though!

[Louise Triance]

Rich
Whilst it's great that you are passing lots of jobseekers over I would question the quality of an application from someone who has only two lines of text to go on!!

Also, I understand that writing job adverts is "hard work"... the whole process is hard work - that's what your fee is for! :)

[@paulatvoyager]

I totally agree with you Louise.

It's amazing people bother writting the adverts AND that they expect a response!

[Jeremy Snell]

This is far too common and is driven by consultants considering that advert writing is "admin" plus the race to get a job out there without consideration for the quality of application. I was taught to write job adverts before there was job boards and internet advertising. When you had to wait up to 2 weeks for your response you made sure you got it right first time.I went to see a prospect client recently and part of my preparation I reviewed the quality of their adverts. Spelling mistakes (3 adverts for project mangers) no locations, spelling mistakes and empty fields where you would expect a job profile/spec/presentation.

[Deb]

This is scant by anyones standards, however things have changed and whilst we may blame laziness and speed above quality there are other factors.

If you are working in a highly competitive market you may not want to give too much information for your competitors to have their resources then searching and sourcing the position from your client.

Some agencies scan and lift jobs from boards and then send CVs without speaking to the candiates.

Not all clients provide job descriptions or details - very common in our industry.

In the past candidate's may have sat and read a vacancy posting in a trade magazine or newspaper, now they may get a message alert on their smartphones, androids etc and just reply simply by clicking apply and releasing their CV to the agency. After all at this stage all they are doing is sending their CV to the agency, once the agency receives it they will then call the candidate and discuss the position in full.