Wanting to stand out amongst the corporate crowd is almost always a great way to grow your business.
One method that companies will use to attract talent is through inventive and original job titles. Whilst advertising for the vacant position of a ‘social media guru’ may seem appealing, it can actually be off-putting to potential candidates. Essentially, choosing the wrong job title could be one of the key mistakes you could be making when writing your job advertisement.
Remember, the whole point of your job advertisement is to attract talent not deter them. Advertising the wrong job title can lead to a lack of clear communication in your advert.
Be Clear
First and foremost, your job title should clearly define what your actual role is.
Choosing something unorthodox and vague will only leave a potential applicant confused. Job seekers don’t like having their time wasted, they like straightforward titles that they can interpret straight away. Therefore, simple titles such as ‘digital media manager’ are ideal.
A job title should also coordinate with the skills, expertise and status of the job itself and position within the company. More traditional titles are much better at conveying this information to the applicant. It means they know what they’re getting into before they even read the full job description.
Be Fair
Current members of your company will hold great value in their job title, it provides a status within the workplace. Your current director of marketing will compare their performance with others who hold that position within another company, for example.
Job titles also tend to hold significant salary values. A ‘public relations specialist’ will expect a higher pay than a regular ‘public relations assistant’, even if the responsibilities are the same. Choose your wording wisely and ensure that your title and offered salary match up.
Generally, if you are unsure of what title to give your employee, a good tip would be to “Give your current employees the same title that their replacement would demand”. Employees want to feel valued and important to the company. Appointing the right job titles achieves this.
Attract The Best Applicants
Essentially, you need to make sure that your job title not only attracts the best candidates in the most efficient manner, but also doesn’t undermine your current employees.
Here are some of the more adventurous job titles we found through a bit of research;
- Wizard of Light Bulb Moments
- Education centre nourishment consultants
- Senior Social Media Capability Architect
- Blogger-in-Chief
- Digital Dynamo
- Light Bender
- Brand Evangelist
- Marketing Rock Star
- Grand Master of Underlings
- Dungeon Artist
It can get a bit out of hand.
Having needlessly unique titles like in these examples can come across as unprofessional and actively discourage quality candidates from considering your opportunity.
The best candidates won’t be looking for a role as a ‘dungeon artist’. They’ll be looking for ‘concept and graphic designer’ roles. In most cases dressing up the vacant job with a catchy title seems like an attempt to sell a job that is not that important or interesting. Ask yourself, if you were seeking a job in marketing with a good amount of experience beforehand would you be searching for the role of a ‘brand evangelist’ or ‘marketing assistant”?
Titles that are too unique aren’t well-optimised for searching. When applicants go to a search bar and type in ‘sales manager’, that’s what’s going to come up and these are the ads they’re going to click on.
If you tried to search for a job in digital market managing would you find an opening as a ‘conversational architect’? Most likely not. In a working environment, top-tier talent will know what they’re looking for, anything else will be ignored as they simply aren’t looking for that.
Essentially, whilst unique job titles certainly stand out, it’s often best to stick with what people know, and be as clear and straightforward as possible regarding the role.
If you want to improve the quality of candidates you receive from your job ads, give us a call at Hiring Wizard on 0161 696 8899. We provide premium job advertisement services for your role on all the major job boards.
