Job adverts
Why is my job advert getting no applications?
Usually one of four things: the salary is below the local market and not stated, the job title is an internal one that nobody searches for, the advert asks for a list of essentials that rules out almost everyone, or it is on the wrong board for that role. Reach is rarely the problem — across 46 vacancies we filled it took a median of 26 candidates worked per hire, so a role that produces nothing at all is usually a positioning problem rather than a volume one.
Check these four first, in this order
1. The title is one only your company uses. "Customer Experience Champion" is not a search term. Nobody types it, so the advert is invisible however much you spend promoting it. Use the title the market uses and keep your internal one for the offer letter.
2. The salary is missing or below market. See should I put the salary in a job advert. If it is stated and still nothing arrives, the number is the problem and no advert fixes that.
3. The essentials list rules everybody out. Seven "must haves" is a wish list, and strong candidates who meet five of seven do not apply. Pick the two or three that genuinely disqualify someone and move the rest to "helpful".
4. It is on the wrong board. The board that works for a care assistant in Hull is not the one that works for a management accountant in Reading. A multi-board package hedges that; a single board is a bet.
When the advert is fine and the role still will not fill
Some roles genuinely have no pool. Two sales engineering vacancies we filled make the point: one took five candidates in total, the other took 152. Same effort, same process — the difference was whether the person already existed in a recognisable form nearby.
If you are on your second advert with nothing to show, the honest conclusion is usually that advertising is not the right instrument for this role and somebody needs to go and find the people directly. That is what Guaranteed Hire is, and on a role that has already burned two adverts it is normally cheaper than a third.
What good looks like
Across our 46 filled roles: 1,542 candidates screened, 235 presented, 51 hired. A median of 26 worked per hire and about 15% good enough to present. If your advert produced twelve applications and none were right, that is not a failure — that is a normal week. If it produced none at all, one of the four things above is wrong.
Sources
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