Technical Job Postings: Know Your Audience

Spotted in a job posting for a technical position:

$Company is a values-based, social change platform that leverages individual and institutional leadership and investment to positively impact local and global communities. $Company pursues multiple, related strategies to promote this mission. From green nonprofit centers to programmatic consulting, donor advised funds to fiscal sponsorship, grants management to risk management and more, $Company gives members of the nonprofit and philanthropic community freedom to focus on the change it wants to see. For more information, please visit www.domain.tld.

I don’t know about you, but my eyes slid right off that description right around the word “leverages.” After investigating $Company more I can see that it’s a very respectable organization with a long history of assisting non-profits, both organizationally and financially. And, yes, if you take the time to play through the buzzword bingo in their description, it does actually tell you that. So…uh…why couldn’t they just tell us that?

When writing up a technical job posting (or any job posting, for that matter), keep your audience in mind. You are going to get better responses to a posting which uses clear, direct language than one which reads like it was written by a marketing intern looking to impress. Frankly, this sort of thing just scares technical people away. They read it and think, “Wow…is the entirety of $Company that stuffy and corporate? Is it one of those places where everyone wears suits and Casual Friday means a polo shirt instead of button-down? No flip-flops? Hrm… There are postings for other companies which sound more my style. I’ll put my effort into applying for those instead.”

In this case, I’d rewrite the description above to make it more casual:

Since $year, $Company has been helping non-profits with organization, logistics and finances, freeing them up to be the change they want to see in the world. There are $number non-profits of all sizes using our tools, including $np1, $np2, and $np3. We’re looking for a socially-minded $position to join our team.

That’s just a first pass and undoubtedly isn’t the best description possible but I’ll wager you a pint of good beer that you read it and found it more appealing than the original. Aside from improving on the stuffy tone, this version accomplishes a few things the first doesn’t:

• Tells you up front how long $Company has been around, establishing credibility and stability.
• As a programmer you now know that there are tools to be built. This gives you an idea of what you’d probably be working on. Also, who doesn’t like good tools?
• Gives you an idea of the extent and nature of the clientele of $Company, helping establish $Company’s identity and philosophies. For instance, if $np1, $np2, and $np3 are all institutions with which you strongly agree then you can be more confident in fitting in at $Company, which is willing to be publicly identified with these institutions.
• States outright that they’re looking for socially-minded people. If you’re just looking for a paycheck you probably should look elsewhere.

Bottom Line: Never forget that when you write one of these things you’re advertising that job position. Take the same care in audience discovery and wording as you would with any other marketing outreach. Be honest, be direct and use the language your audience expects to hear.