How to Write Killer SEEK Ads (Part 2)
Like Paul, myBRC and the Small Business Owner blog don’t endorse or have a relationship with SEEK.
The advice in Part 1 was fantastic, and Paul’s advice in Part 2 is just as good! Naomi. 
Many are called, but only 1 is chosen.
Part 1 covered summary, bullets, title, ad body & reward.
Today we learn to separate the goats from the combine harvester.
Better to spend an hour reviewing 5 perfect people than all weekend sifting dross.
Job duties
What the successful applicant will actually do.
If the job description is non-existent or dry as dust, ask the client (or yourself) what’s special & exciting about the job.
Then start with something like:
Working on a stimulating suite of projects, you’ll:
And list the duties in order of interest to the reader.
Use present, infinitive verbs to keep it short & punchy for passive, time-poor job seekers, e.g.:
- Scope (projects, assignments, capital works).
- Build (relationships, business cases, networks).
- Deliver (service, advice, results, support, campaigns).
- Coordinate (teams, resources, junior staff).
Selection criteria
What the reader must have.
Concentrate on mandatories & only add desirables if you expect a big response & need filters.
Start with something like:
You have a relevant degree plus:
And try to cover:
- Experience (some, significant, substantial).
- Expertise (6 Sigma, air conditioning, hedge funds).
- Exposure (dust extraction, consulting environments, large projects, ‘Big 5’ firms).
- Software (MS Office, 3D, AutoCAD, MicroPay).
- Skills (leadership, negotiation, budgeting, networking, mentoring).
- Traits (concern for environment, results orientation, preference for teams).
- Attributes (initiative, ambition, energy, versatility, resilience, tenacity).
Call to action
Insert the job title into a standard summary para (that will vary according to your business). Try to use a third permutation (e.g. electrical engineering) to improve keyword search results.
End with something like:
Inquire or apply in confidence by DD/MM/YY to info@company.com or call 1300 000 000.
Things to avoid
These all-too-common mistakes can impair even the best message:
- Lack of data (especially benefits) that are interesting & relevant to the reader.
- Incorrect & inconsistent use of ‘K’ (e.g. ‘$80 k’ rather than ‘$80K’).
- Redundant words (e.g. ‘Nth Sydney location’).
- Closed (i.e. yes/no) questions (e.g. ‘Do you have …?’, ‘Are you interested …?’, ‘Would you like …?’).
- Padding (e.g. ‘overall’, ‘to succeed in this role …’).
- Worn-out words (e.g. ‘dynamic’, ‘self-starter’, ‘outside the box’).
- Passive language (e.g. ‘your flair will be rewarded …’, ‘you will be responsible for …’).
- Long words (e.g. ‘utilisation’ rather than ‘use’).
- UNNECESSARY & inconsistent CAPITALS.
- Unfriendly tone (e.g. ‘the future incumbent’ rather than ‘you’).
- Illogical flow (e.g. ‘fire, train, hire’ rather than ‘hire, train, fire’).
- Ads that tell rather than show (e.g. ‘fantastic company’: EXACTLY HOW is it ‘fantastic’?).
- ‘Shouting at the crowd’ rather than ‘speaking to one person’.
Ta da!
Well, there you have it: all I know about writing SEEK ads.
May you use this advice for fun & profit.
If you have more (or different) ideas, I’d love to hear them.
And if you taste success (or failure) from reading this post, please let us know.
We’d love to hog your pearls.
Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire
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Thank you Paul for sharing these pearls of wisdom. Fantastic advice!
You’re welcome, Naomi. It stung a bit to get them out, but I’m glad they’re on the table.
Though the cliche has been done to death, people really are a firm’s greatest resource.
If some of our readers can use this advice to find and keep red-hot staff for their next growth wave, we’ve done a real good thing. Best regards, P.
Thanks Paul,
I love it! This is without doubt the best job ad advice I have ever seen. Straight to the pool room, err I mean the company procedures manual.
And to think I have paid consultants for a lot less than you deliver in two concise posts – you really walk the talk!
Really great stuff!
Priceless content these last two posts Paul. Keep it up. Many thanks indeed.
You are both very kind, Malcolm and Adam.
Now that my life’s work has finally been put to useful purpose, I can withdraw to edit my last headline (to be wrought in molten basalt).
I’m toying with: ‘Discontinued’.
What d’you reckon?
Great information Paul in both part 1 and this post. I certainly could have used this when I was in recruitment.
Thanks for sharing
Thank YOU for reading, Susan. It’s kind souls like you who give these posts meaning.
Thanks for really great information Paul… I know that when you’ve applied these principles to adverts for my clients the result has worked its backside off. Of, course, I still reckon the best and easiest way of getting a great recruitment advert written is to have you do it! But now you’ve provided a timely check-list for my clients to ensure that the advert you’ve written for them sticks to your principles.
Thank you, Winston. It’s always great to hear from you. Especially when you say such nice things!
Of course I agree with you that hiring me is the best possible path. I have found, however, that some clients simply can’t afford $300-$500 for me to write a killer ad.
This is often because they’ve spent $3000-$5000 on a piece of newspaper space about the size of a cigarette pack!
They then fill this space with their words, which often fail. So they have to spend another $3000-$5000 for a second ad. This is a common time for new clients to approach me.
So, while I do believe clients can’t afford NOT to hire me, I feel duty bound to make their efforts as effective as possible. And if they can pull it off and save paying me, all power to them!
I suppose technically that ‘wrought’ implies working such as beating or hammering, and it would be tough to manipulate molten rock as such. Perhaps one could knead molten basalt, dependent on viscosity? And some good gloves.
But ‘discontinued’ is nice.
Carry on.
Thanks for your analysis Adam.
I liked the image of an Icelandic smithy, forging lava headstones for wealthy ecotourists as a side business until his clients’ horses can return to their pastures in safety. Change = opportunity. Perhaps it can be done! 
And here’s the bloke to do it!
Image from http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html
Naomi, do you know how to reduce this pic so it fits?
Yeah, noble thoughts Paul but I like that idea of clients paying you so that you can keep wife, life and limb together by eating well and living expeditiously so that you can continue to provide your wise words!
That would certainly be preferable, Winston. Some weeks, even the dogs look tasty …
… or the horses in the picture above!
Those horses are so damn cute! Makes me want to open an Empire office in Snaefellsnes.
Gosh! Had too go to Wikipedia to find out about that! Now I gotta find out how to say it!
Hi Paul. I’ve had a look at the image but hit a technical snag. I’ll have a chat to our WordPress experts!
Thanks a lot for trying, Naomi. It’s such a lovely pic; maybe it’s meant to stay big.
If the picture is uploaded in wordpress you can usually set the size. Perhaps the default is set to full size istead of thumbnail and for this picture a smaller setting was not selected.
You can also adjust the settings of a picture in the media library to what you want.
Yeah, Naomi; what Susan said!
Thanks Susan.
Hey all,
Thought I’d pop in briefly to say hi. Seems that everything is as lively as ever here
As an aside, the plug-in that allows you to add pix to comments drops them in at the full size from wherever they’re being stored (in this case, a third party website). The best thing to do is to copy the image, make it smaller and upload it to the image library. Then you copy the image URL into the window when it pops up. To find the image URL, click on it from the library and then right click on the image when it appears within a page, and go to Properties.
Assuming there are no copyright issues, of course
That was very nice of you, Megan.
May we have a pic of YOU in your nice new digs?
Cor!
It worked!
Thanks, Megan!
Works every time!
Gawsh, now I’ll have to start attaching photos. So here’s one that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject but is a great shot of my dogs and their mates at a misty lake one Sunday morning. It beats hoses doesn’t it?
That’s “horses” not “hoses” and don’t ask me why the photo didn’t upload… you’ll have to imagine it or go to http://blog.winstonmarsh.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Lake-Shot-600×300.jpg
Testing …
Hmmm. Sorry you’ve been having trouble with this, Winston. Not working for me either. Let me just try the Megan Shuffle.
Ta daaaaa!
That is a ripper, Winston! I think the problem was with the file name. I simplified it and … woof! It fired!
Many thanks for sharing.
Bewdy Paul. Eswen says “Ah, yes maybe his add on doesn’t like dashes or something!” so we’ve learnt. Bravo!
Megan – love your work!
Thank you.
Paul and Winston – nice work!
Thanks Naomi and Paul!
Sorry guys I gave the wrong suggestion and thanks to Megan I learnt something new.
Love the pics.
Life imitates art?
http://www.theage.com.au/world/iceland-volcanic-ash-sells-like-hot-cakes-20100514-v22t.html