Category Archives: Job adverts

Job adverts, management advice, project management recruitment

Writing a job advert

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How many times as a hiring manager have you engaged in to recruiting a new employee – most organisations have some form of HR process which you must adhere to and typically this means liaising with HR to draw up a job description and a job advert to advertise externally. As you are busy you arrange a meeting to talk through the role with a HR representative and leave them to write the JD and an advert. Often this is a mistake, after all you are the one who knows what you need and leaving your description open to interpretation from the HR person can lead to old job descriptions being reworded (sometimes not even that) or a JD being written by someone who is unsure what the role really is.

Writing a job description is good practice for you to really prioritise your wish list and give a little background to the team and department the new employee will be working in. Once you have written the document you need to think about how to take the core competencies and write them into an advert which will attract applications. No matter how difficult the role may be to fill due to constraints such as budgets you can still attract good strong candidates with the right kind of information.

In project management recruitment it can be the case that a well experienced project professional is required to join a project or programme at a crucial point, the salary offering is below market rate for someone with so much experience but none the less your needs are just that. So making the advert as attractive as possible is key to drawing in interest.

Not all project professionals are gunning after the big ££’s – in fact in my experience most are after a gripping challenge and looking to expand their experience. Therefore giving information about the challenges and why you need the more experienced candidate is not off-putting (if it is to some, then you don’t want them on board anyway), it can be the reason for applications. Something experienced project professionals gain from joining a challenging environment is further experience but also they just love to rise to the challenge and are not fazed by failing projects – they take pride in bringing projects back into scope.

A big mistake when writing job adverts is to not give any real detail about the projects to be worked on – now I know some pieces of work are sensitive and so you cannot name them but giving an idea of the type of project in context will help you gain applications from candidates with the right backgrounds.

For example here is a small piece which can introduce the role in a nutshell:

An experienced project support professional with a background in PMO and exposure to supporting circa 10 concurrent projects with interdependencies and good knowledge of manufacturing required to join a small established team to deliver a variety of business change projects ranging from new system roll outs to cultural change initiatives.

This can then lead into a little about the business and the challenges it currently faces such as; globally dispersed teams, cultural challenges, adversity to change etc. Then lead into the core competencies required such as; risk & issue management, planning, reporting, workshops, coaching etc. Finally talk through the advantages of joining such a team, talk through the maturity level of the PMO and how you envisage this person to help drive forward practices and really be a part of the organisation.

By writing a generic but informative advert you will not only hit keywords for those searching online for new roles, but also avoid dozens (if not hundreds) of applications from those who are not suitable for the role. Of course you will always get a few applications from unsuitable candidates (unfortunately I have yet to find a way to stop this completely) but on the whole you will be attracting the right calibre of candidate.

Job adverts, Job Applications, Job Hunting, project management recruitment

Reasons why your project management job applications fail

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I have been approached literally hundreds of times over the years by job hunters asking why they are not getting calls following on from job applications – each case is usually slightly different but on the whole it comes down to a few reasons listed below:

  • Incorrect matching for job – in the current climate, most employers are less flexible with what they will accept in regards to skill-set and experience. If they are asking for a professional with specific product knowledge or project management method of delivery then they tend to stick with this requirements list and interview those who already have a close match. Remember, you need to meet at least 90% of the role requirements to be in a position to be considered for the job.
  • Poorly written job adverts / job descriptions – this comes down to recruiters and HR staff either not understanding the role or using old job descriptions to create new ones which are often out of date and not relevant. Therefore when you see an advert which doesn’t give any real detail about the organisation / projects in hand you are taking a leap of faith with your application.
  • Generic CV – alongside the generic job descriptions, these rarely give enough detail about your experience and specialism. As employers want project professionals who are closely aligned to their requirements it can be difficult for them to gauge you and they will naturally pick out the CVs which spell it out.
  • Job is closed – yes, a lot of roles are already closed when they go to advert. Why do it then you ask. A good recruiter will already have some candidates in mind for a role as they are qualifying it; as such they will have made contact with the candidates and will have sent in a shortlist to their client before writing up and publishing an advert. This is because there is a lot of competition for these roles with recruiters and time is of the essence, the advert will go online after, which will generate interest and more CVs for next time. Also the recruiters know that the best way to generate further business is to be seen to be publishing lots of new roles – the busier the agency appears to be the more likely they are to get more leads.
  • Fake job adverts – there are still a number of job adverts placed out and about which are “fishing” adverts, usually generic in their form and not unlike the above scenario. But these tend to be nonexistent jobs purely used to help build a recruitment database.
  • Too slow – not all roles are filled when published online, especially the harder to fill positions, but with competition high from your peers, you must be quick. I have published roles which have generated hundreds of applications within the first few hours, I have interviewed and shortlisted before the day has ended.

Looking for work

It is not uncommon to believe your CV is saying all the right things and reads clearly to others but all too often the common trait is that you know your job inside out and assume others will understand this. The CV becomes a document so in tune with what you know rather than a clear communicator of your exposure to different elements, difficulties you have faced (this sets you apart from others), core competencies (as you assume the reviewer will know you covered all aspects) and the types of projects you worked on (believing that leaving out the technical element will make you a more transferable candidate). My advice is to first address your CV, ask for a review – make sure it is honest! Then when you are confident it is good, keep an eye out for roles which look genuine and apply swiftly.