Now, basically
Recruitment writing, pt 6
The greatest acting performances of all time are indubitably:
#2 Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins
#1 Mike Kraft, Rockwell’s Retro Encabulator
Mike presents what appears to be the quintessential tech product sales video of the nineties.
You can believe hydrocoptic marzlevanes have a part to play in malleable logarithmic casings, so sincere is his performance. Click the link above - it’s hilarious/boring (ymmv).
It seems to make sense and you might come away thinking its customers will lap up the rich descriptions of its thingamabobs and wadgemacallits.
Yet it’s bullshit, based on a satirical advert in the 50s for the turbo encabulator, a non-existing product filled full of techno features and babble benefits.
It’s an example of “obfuscation by excessive jargon” typically found in tech marketing, where a lack of meaning is hidden by words you can’t understand. In this case, because they don’t exist.
I wonder how many tech buyers would prefer if these technobabble adverts were written plainly, in their language, rather than the language of the writer?
This brings me to the subject of how many job descriptions are written in the language of the employer.
Job descriptions whose context is known by existing staff, able to anchor jargon to their knowledge of the business.
Yet whose same content may not actually describe the job to people that may be candidates for employment.
A friend of mine transitioned a few years ago to a parallel career in a large organisation.
He was keen to break away from his dead end job, and knew the new company was a great incubator for careers, having talked to former colleagues that had already made the leap.
“That’s great”, I said. “So, what is it you’re going to be doing?”
He didn’t know!
And he still didn’t know going into day one.
He knew the job title and the broad overview of that role, but not the team structure, operational context or day to day responsibilities. Crazy, eh?
In a time where many employers experience boomerang hires, counteroffers, attrition and ghosting, wouldn’t giving clarity to prospective employees be a minimum?
And if a potential employee doesn’t know what a role will entail, how will a 3rd party recruiter know, especially if they aren’t given access to the hiring process?
“Ah, that’s why we use specialists!”
Specialists in what?
Key words and jargon?
So they can send you CVs with the same key words and jargon?
I can’t wait for ChatGPT generated CVs to be send to ChatGPT generated job-descriptions-as-adverts.
What a great match they’ll be on paper… what about in real life?
Why not, instead, have a job description which describes the job in the simplest terms, giving meaning to both existing staff and prospective employees?
It’s true that a job description has performance and compliance-related components, but doesn’t simplicity allow easier clarity?
Part of my role as a recruitment partner is to make sure documentation is fit for purpose – I describe it as true and fair, and suitable and sufficient.
Where job descriptions can’t be amended, such as within fixed corporate structures/job families, I supplement this with an Executive Summary that fills in the blanks for candidates.
This is an interpretation document, that translates the employer’s lingo into digestible, clear language to enable better decisions from candidates.
No candidate of mine will ever go into a job not knowing what it entails.
That interpretation isn’t limited to the responsibilities – it covers the job title, skills/experience / capability required and person specification.
My role is to simplify the employer’s requirement into a minimum viable definition – which is to say the core set of candidate profiles that can fulfil the role with minimum satisfactory performance.
And from that minimum viable definition, build up full candidate profiles with the different iterations of what good might look like.
I mentioned in the last edition the ‘Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning Manager’ vacancy.
The candidate who went on to take that job, a few years back, told me on review of the job description – “I don’t have any of that experience! Are you sure I’m right for this?”
That was a contingency role, and I hadn’t even been able to speak to the hiring manager.
Such was their rush to get to market, had I tried to do my best work I may not have filled it, competing as I was against the behemoth of Michael Page’s Supply Chain division, and one other.
Fortunately, they were a company I knew well, having filled many exclusive vacancies, so I could talk about what I knew they wanted to achieve – cost reductions across complex multinational logistics and supply chains were an initial priority.
I coached him on questions to ask at interview so that he could gain clarity on this obfuscated opportunity.
And so it was that a ‘Supply Chain Manager with Logistics experience’ candidate was their preferred candidate, and they paid him 10% above budget.
Even though the #1 essential skill was something he hadn’t heard of.
A skill that appeared readily on a CV submitted from another supplier, who I had chosen not to submit because he wasn’t right for the business.
That’s the lesson for me – simplify every component to meaningful essentials.
Where simple meaning doesn’t make sense – such as SIOP, generic AI when you mean NLP, or 5 years+ in a skill that has existed for 3 – go back to the root and build a minimum viable spec.
Clarity for me, for candidates, for the process – with the outcome of filling vacancies more straightforwardly.
The next newsletter is about understanding how your words are experienced and using that for better effect. It’s called ‘…see more’
Regards,
Greg
p.s. While you are here, if you like the idea of improving how you recruit, lack capacity or need better candidates, and are curious how I can help, these are my services:
- commercial, operational and technical leadership recruitment (available for no more than three vacancies)
- manage part or all of your recruitment on an individually designed basis for one client
- recruitment coaching and mentoring
- recruitment strategy setting
- outplacement support
Just hit reply to check if my approach is right for you.