Choosing the right job title for your job ad Choosing the right job title for your job ad can make the difference between success and failure when you advertise your job on a job board.

The importance of the job title

In a newspaper there are usually only a small number of job ads. Job seekers can take their time and browse down the page and look at them all —that is for the few people who still look in newspapers for jobs. On job boards job searching in this way simply isn't possible. There are too many jobs on a typical job board for a job seeker to browse. 

On job boards, candidates actively search to find the right jobs for themselves. Or they set up email alerts so that they get notifications when jobs that match what they are looking for are advertised. One of the most common way to search a job board, or set up jobs by email alert, is by job title. If a candidate were looking for a .net developer job, then would search a job board with the search term ".net developer." 

Call a spade a spade

Just because your internal HR department calls a Personal Assistant a "dedicated staff administrative enabler" doesn't mean that anybody else does. And you most certainly shouldn't advertise it as a "dedicated staff administrative enabler." If you want relevant job seekers to find your job, use the job title that they will most likely use to search for it. So if a "dedicated staff administrative enabler" is a Personal Assistant, advertise it as a Personal Assistant.

By choosing a commonly-used job title, your job ad will be found by far more people —and far more relevant people too. By using a commonly-used job title you will get your ad in front of more eyeballs and, in the end, make a success of your job vacancy advertising.

When it comes to online recruitment advertising the more clarity you offer the job seekers in your job title the better are your chances of finding the right person for your vacancy. In other words, call a "sturdy digging tool having a thick handle and a heavy, flat blade that can be pressed into the ground with the foot" a spade.

Next step? Read articles

• First things first: write a Job Specification
• Writing job ads for job sites
• Candidate screening or filtering on job boards
• Salary and salary ranges on job ads
• Search Engine Marketing for Recruitment

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