Why Job Adverts Suck?

So what do you actually do?

First, accept that your job spec and your advert are not the same thing. The job spec is the ingredients list on the back of the Coke can. The advert is the bit that says “delicious and refreshing”. One exists to document, the other exists to make someone care.

A lot of adverts read like HR sneezed into a jargon dictionary. They technically describe the job, but they don’t make anyone want it.

Take something like

“Develop scalable Java applications”.

It’s not wrong. It’s just… obvious. Of course a Java developer will develop Java applications. Of course they’ll be scalable. They’ll also use a keyboard and push code to production. Your ad is currently interchangeable with a hundred others.

Compare that to something like:

“You’ll be building Java services that sit behind a platform moving €Xbn, where latency and accuracy actually matter.”

Same job, completely different impact. One says the can contains a beverage, the other sells it.

That context is what senior people are looking for. They want to know the scale, the stakes, and where they fit into it. They have options. You need to give them a reason to care about job.

Do you include years of experience?

On paper, years of experience are a useful filter. In reality, you can have ten years of doing the same thing badly, or five years of doing varied, complex work and be far stronger. Experience is not a perfect proxy for ability.

It’s also where a lot of people unintentionally filter out strong candidates. Rigid requirements tend to favour people who’ve had the most linear, uninterrupted careers, which is not everyone.

That said, at senior level, experience still matters. There’s a difference between someone who is talented and someone who has seen systems fail in five different ways and knows what to do without panicking. That judgement takes time.

If you set a hard number, you risk filtering out someone excellent who falls just short on paper. If you don’t set one, you open the floodgates to people who have touched AWS once and feel spiritually aligned with senior engineering.

This TikTok is actually a great example of what I mean.

On balance, it’s still worth including a rough guide, but be clear it’s not a hard gate. Something like:

“Not all strong applicants will tick every box. If you’re missing a few things but can clearly do the job, it’s still worth applying.”

That line does more than you think. Some of the best candidates will opt out before applying if they don’t feel like they meet 100 percent of the criteria.

I want vs I need

Which brings you to the uncomfortable question. Do you actually need everything on that list?

If someone walked in with 70 to 80 percent of what you’re asking for, could you realistically get them the rest within six months? Or are you holding out for a unicorn while the team carries the gap?

Be honest about what is genuinely required on day one versus what can be learned. Overloaded “must have” sections tend to shrink your talent pool fast, and not always in the way you intended.

Also worth sanity checking your requirements for hidden barriers. Do you actually need a specific degree, or just the skills? Do you need someone onsite three days a week, or is that just habit? Small decisions like this quietly exclude people.

Little tweaks that help:

When it comes to posting the role, small things matter more than people think. If you keep reposting the same LinkedIn job, it carries the baggage of all the previous applicants. People see “200 applicants” and assume it’s either a mess or already gone. Posting it fresh gives it a second life and gives you a chance to fix what wasn’t working.

More importantly, tell people the problem they’re being hired to solve. Not just the stack. Nobody senior is motivated by a list of technologies. They’re motivated by impact, ownership, and interesting problems.

If your advert boils down to “you will use these tools”, you’ll attract people who have those tools on their CV, not people who solve problems.

And while you’re at it, be upfront about the bits that might turn people off. If it’s three days a week on-site, say it. If there’s technical debt, say it. If your interview process is long, say it.

Clarity here matters more than people think. Candidates who need flexibility, structure, or predictability are often the ones who will opt out early if they don’t see it. If you support things like flexible hours, remote working, or accommodations in the process, say that too. Otherwise people will assume the default, and the default doesn’t work for everyone.

What applicants do you want?

A useful thing to add is a “what good looks like” section.

You can write “strong Java skills” all day long, but strong means different things to different people. What does this person achieve in six months? What’s better because they exist?

Senior people don’t just want to do tasks, they want to win something. If you want someone to move the company forward, tell them what success looks like.

Also, look at how you’re describing that success. If it assumes one type of background, one type of career path, or one way of communicating impact, you’ll get a narrower group than you think. Broaden the picture and you’ll get better signal.

It’s also worth being transparent about how people will be assessed. If you’re doing a take-home, say how long it should take. If there are multiple stages, outline them. If you care about things like collaboration or communication, say how that’s evaluated. The more visible the process is, the less it relies on inside knowledge or guesswork.

If you get this right, you don’t just get more applicants. You get a better mix of applicants, which is the whole point.

Senior hiring isn’t a volume game. It’s a signal problem.

Right now, most adverts are noisy, vague, and quietly filtering out the exact people you’re trying to hire.

Tighten the message, be honest about the role, and stop writing specs for a mythical perfect candidate. You’ll spend less time sifting nonsense and more time talking to people who can actually do the job.

If you’re hiring and your inbox is a bin fire, send me the ad. I’ll tell you why.