We've parsed through hundreds of internship and job listings while building our database For the Lost Creative, and we wanted to share some of the biggest issues we've seen that make your opportunity unclear and/or unappealing.
1. Not Specifying Pay
Whether your job/internship is salaried, paid by the hour, paid by stipend, or even unpaid, people want to know what they're getting into before they spend time and energy applying for your opportunity. By withholding this information, you may be losing out on valuable applicants and/or wasting your time (and the applicants' time) interviewing people who are ultimately going to turn down the position. If the pay is negotiable based on the applicant's experience, post the full pay range.
2. Not Setting a Deadline/Start Date
Without clues on when you would like applications to be submitted and/or when you would like the applicant to start working, potential candidates may hesitate to apply because they are unsure if the position is still open. Many official internship and job listings are found as a blog post or on a "careers" page on an organization's website with the deadline listed as "until position is filled," implying that if the post is still up, you can still apply; however, applicants don't know how regularly your site is updated, and there are enough organizations out there who are not diligent in taking down their filled positions that candidates have a right to be suspicious. It's probably best to list an ideal deadline and/or start date, and extend this if you haven't found the right candidate yet.
3. Leaving Up Expired Listings
Similar to our previous point, if a potential applicant opens up your website and sees a bunch of listings from a long time ago, they are not going to trust that your current opportunities are still available. You can leave up old listings for the sake of the archive if you wish, but PLEASE update them to make sure it's immediately clear that they're no longer available.
4. Giving Inconsistent Information
It's a great idea to post your opportunity on job boards and social media to help you reach more applicants. HOWEVER, I can't believe the amount of times I've traced the links back to an organization's website to find that the information on the site is different from the other listings I found. Triple check all of your listings (especially if they have been re-posted by third parties) to make sure you aren't deterring applicants with mixed messages and wasting your ad-money & resources.
5. Not Having a Home-Base
Speaking consistency, make sure your opportunity can be traced back to an official website or account! While job boards and social media can help you reach more applicants, the thorough ones will be looking for a reliable source to learn more about your organization. The last thing you want is for someone to see your opportunity shared by a third party and not be able to find information provided directly from your organization.
Have a creative opportunity to share that follows these guidelines? Submit it to our database of FREE opportunities for creatives!