Stop What You're Doing and Take These Phrases Off Your Careers Page

October 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM by Rob Stevenson

Your careers page is a prime recruiting tool that never takes a vacation, calls in sick, or even sleeps. Any serious Careers Page Facepalmcandidate is going to have a poke around, and inbound interest might not have anything else upon which to base a decision. As a result, it needs to be sharp, succinct, and demonstrative of your company values. More important than this are those troublesome "scoffers". I'm talking about those tiny, seemingly insignificant details that make you immediately delete an email, dismiss a resume,  close a blog post (yikes!) or otherwise ignore some form of communication. Just as one of these scoffers can instantly torpedo your attention, if you have one on your careers page, you can forget about getting that inbound application. Here are some cliches and cringeworthy career copy that you must eliminate from your company site at once!

You Say You Want a Revolution

"We are revolutionizing the cream cheese industry by changing the way you smear your bagels forever". Listen, it's great to believe you're forging boldly ahead and completely re-thinking a problem, but if you use this phrasing, the only thing you'll revolve is your candidates' eyeballs. Instead of making a base claim like this, substantiate it by proving that there's a problem in your industry and how your company is positioned to fix it. 

Strategize, Streamline, Collaborate

These action verbs often kick off a list of bullet points both on resumes and job descriptions. The need is real but the more creative someone gets with these, the less substance there tends to be. I'm sure when you're looking at a resume, you don't want to know someone "Collaborated across teams to optimize processes", you want them to tell you exactly what they did. Don't be vague and buzzwordy, tell candidates what they will do.

Excellent Communication and Interpersonal Skills

Even highly technical and completely internal roles will require candidates to work within a team and communicate. No company is hiring hermits who have no idea how to convey an idea in a professional manner, so it goes without saying that every single role will require communication and interpersonal skills. If something goes without saying, then don't say it! Axe this bullet point and replace it with something more illuminative.

Obsessive Attention to Detail

Again, this is necessary for every single role. It might make sense to include for some non-technical roles, but is it really necessary in your Data Scientist job description? Someone interested in a technical role isn't going to get to the bottom of a job desription, see "attention to detail", and have their conception of the what the job entails affected in any way. This is a great rule of thumb for any careers page: if a bullet point doesnt serve to explicity explain the role in a meaningful way, it's got to go.

There ya have it, recruiters. Vet your careers pages and eliminate those awful scoffers that are turning off your candidates!

What are your careers page or job description pet peeves? Leave a comment or tweet at @EnteloRob!

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