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Employer Help/FAQs: Job Posting

How much do job postings cost when I buy them through JobScore?

We do our best to offer job postings at the lowest possible price.  Some job boards have different prices for different geographies (i.e. Craigslist costs $85 in San Francisco and $10 in Albuquerque) – below we list the most expensive prices for each job board.  These are our current prices and they are subject to change at any time:


Writing great job descriptions

Job descriptions are marketing documents, and writing great ones is an art and not a science. Great job descriptions help the job seeker imagine what it will be like to work at your company... and inspire them to apply. Think of a job description as an advertisement, not a laundry list of skills you'd like someone to have. Like other advertisements, your response will be proportionate to the quality of your message and your ability to reach your audience (successfully market the job).

The hallmark of a successful job description is that when someone reads it they either want to apply themselves, or they enthusiastically recommend it to a friend. Great job descriptions cause people to want to act. Great job descriptions are viral.

Most great job descriptions, like most great advertisements, are short. Job seekers have a limited attention span. The purpose of your job description is to "hook" them so that they spend more time investigating your company and apply. Don't feel compelled to get every detail into a job description. No matter how much information you put in there, interested applicants are likely to do research elsewhere: looking at your website, reading about your company and leaders in the press, reading what your employees have to say about your company on sites like www.glassdoor.com, etc. So, don't feel pressure pack every detail into job descriptions, focus on writing descriptions that cause job seekers to want to learn more.

Don't try to write a job description from scratch! Start by searching a few of the larger job boards for positions similar to the one you are trying to fill. Check out your competition. When you find things you like, don't hesitate to incorporate them (read: steal) into your own. But don't do this too much, and never cut-and-paste directly: the uniqueness of your job description is often what drives great people to take action.

Start with information about your company:

Unless you work for a really large or successful company, most people reading your job description don't know who you are or what your company does. At the start of a job description,ideally in as little as two sentences cover the highlights of why someone might want to work for your company. Some things you might want to include:

    1. What industry you are in and what your company / product does
    2. Information about the work environment (closed office, cubicle, open floor plan, nerf balls flying around, library-like silence, etc.)
    3. Your mission / what your company is trying to accomplish
    4. Some relevant statistics about your success and/or market position
    5. How big you are (number of employees, revenue, years in business, etc)
    6. Bios of veteran leadership

The goal here is just the facts. Keep it short. These few sentences set up the context for someone to get into the "meat" of the job description. This is not your company history and a complete list of benefits... you are never going to get all of the information about what makes your company a great into a concise job description, so we strongly recommend that you create a separate careers website where people can learn more about your company. If you build a careers website make sure to include a link to it sure to it in all of your job descriptions!

Include some "big picture" information about the job itself:

Why is the job open? If it's for a good reason (i.e. growth, someone was promoted) definitely say so

Opportunity: Are you going to train this person? Do they get work with a great boss? Will they develop leading edge skills? IS there something unique or special about this team? Why should they want this job?

Lifestyle: How many hours will they need to work? Will they have to travel? Will they get to hire or manage other people? What are their days going to be like doing this job?

Team style: What are the common attributes of the top performers on your team? Make sure to include these adjectives in the description of who you are looking for.

Job Responsibilities:

List the things that this person is going to do on a day-to-day basis. Think in terms of specific, discreet tasks that the person will do in this job. This should help them visualize what they'll be doing all day long if they take the job. Don't hesitate to focus on some of the more exciting and interesting things they'll be asked to do, but don't fib or exaggerate.

Job Requirements:

This is not a laundry list of things you'd like someone to know. Try to keep it to under 4 one sentence bullet points that describe the absolute bare minimum requirements for the position. Think of these as "knock-out" criteria. These are the "if you haven't done these things, please don't apply" criteria. For instance, for an administrative assistant you'd probably want them to be personable, organized and have a can-do attitude much more than have 10+ years of administrative assistant experience or background working in the insurance industry. Rank your job requirements, listing the most important criteria first.

Nice to Haves:

This is the laundry list of things you'd like someone to know. You should have no more than 10 bullet points describing things that it would be great if the person had experience doing. Rank these nice to haves, listing the most important criteria first. This list should take up less than 1/3rd of the job description.

Keywords:

Don't forget your keywords. Most job seekers search for jobs on job boards using keyword searches. don't get too fancy with you job titles or omit too many of the most obvious buzzwords as this is how many job seekers will find you.

The most important thing is to focus on the first few sections of the job description- about who you are and why this job is great. These are the things that are going to help people visualize themselves or their friends in the job, not the laundry list of skills the ideal candidate will have. Remember, the purpose of job descriptions is to get people excited and to get them to apply, not to discourage them and make them feel under qualified. If you have a series of criteria you are going to use to evaluate candidates, build this as a separate document you use for interviews, not as your job description.

If I already have accounts and inventory with some job boards, can I still use JobScore?

Yes!  Each job in JobScore has a unique URL. If you already have inventory, keep posting jobs the way you do now, but instead of routing applications to your e-mail address (i.e. jobs@yourcompany.com), please select the "candidates apply over the web" option and copy and paste the unique URL for the job from your careers site into your job postings. This way your applicants are routed directly into JobScore. If you are having trouble figuring this out please don't hesitate to email support@jobscore.com letting us know which job board is giving you trouble, & we'll be happy to help out.

Unfortunately, if you don't purchase postings through JobScore, you can't get the full source-tracking benefits of one-click posting. We recommend that once you've used up your pre-purchased inventory that you switch over and start purchasing postings through JobScore so you get accurate source tracking reports.

How can I tell if my job postings are working?

Some postings take as much as a full day to show up on a job board. Visit the job board the day after you post to check if the job is posted and search for your job.  Another way to check is to visit the View Job: Job Boards page and see if any “views” are showing up for your postings. If your jobs aren't showing up after 24 hours, please email support@jobscore.com and we'll see what we can do.

Can I still get tracking data for my job postings if I don't buy them through JobScore?

Unfortunately, no. The data we collect on job views and applications is tracked based on unique tags that are inserted into the html of the postings we distribute. To get all of the benefits of our tracking data, you'll need to purchase your postings through JobScore.

How do I edit my job posting once it's been published on different job boards?

Unfortunately, you can't do this through JobScore. Each job board has unique rules about editing job postings, so you must edit each of your postings individually. In addition, some job boards don't allow you to edit your postings at all. For the job boards that do allow you to edit your postings, we route the posting receipts (which include the link to edit your postings) to the e-mail you entered in your billing information. Please contact the owner of this email address to get the link to edit your posting.

Because of these difficulties, we encourage you to closely review and edit your job advertisements before posting them to job boards. The best practice we suggest is first put the job posting on your careers site for your team to review. Once they have reviewed and signed off that the ad looks good & that they' are ready to refer it to their friends, then publish it on job boards.

If you are having a lot of trouble with editing job postings go ahead and e-mail us and we'll do what we can.

Will you send me an invoice for the Job postings I buy using JobScore?

Sorry, no. We don't send invoices for job postings because you aren't buying them from us... JobScore helps you buy job postings directly from job boards using the credit card information you provide. Your credit card statement includes charges directly from the job boards you post to, as well as from our job syndication partner SmashFly, which sometimes charges a small fee to post your jobs.

If you want to see what the total expenses are for posting a particular job, please visit the View Job page and click the Job Boards tab in the secondary navigation. You'll see a report of all postings you've made using JobScore including the total cost. This total includes fees paid directly to the job boards as well as to SmashFly. Users with administrative privileges can see the entire history of paid postings for your account on the billing information page.

Will JobScore send me a confirmation when my jobs are posted?

No. We don't send posting confirmations. However, you may receive confirmations directly from one or more job boards, as many of them send out email confirmations when jobs are posted. As often as we can we forward these confirmations to the e-mail address you entered on your Billing Information page, but how this works depends on a board-by-board basis. The easiest way to ensure everything worked is to visit the job board 24 hours after you post the job and make sure your listing is live.

Can I post a job in more than one category on a specific job board?

Usually:

  • Some job boards, like Monster, allow you to select a few different categories when you post...you can enter this information directly on the Post Job page in jobscore when you select the board.
  • Other job boards, like Craigslist, require you to purchase additional postings to list your job in separate categories. In these cases, you'll need to purchase multiple postings to list it in multiple categories. The way you do this in JobScore is after you post your job in the first category, go back to the Post Job page, click the "re-post" link next to that job board, select a new category and click "update" -- your job will be posted again in the new category. If you want to post it in three or more categories just keep repeating these steps.

Please don't hesitate to e-mail us if you are having trouble posting to multiple job categories.

Can I re-post a job to the same job board more than once?

By default, you can re-post to a job board once your original posting has expired, which is after 30 days for most boards. Once the posting has expired just go back to the Post Job page and check the "post" box next to the job board to post it again.

Based on customer demand, we now support re-posting jobs to Craigslist before the posting expires, also known as "refreshing" your job posting. After you post a job to Craigslist if you return to the Post Job page you'll see a "re-post" link which allows you to post the job again. When you re-post a job to Craigslist, your old posting will not be removed, your listing will just show up twice.

Please don't hesitate to e-mail us if you are having trouble re-posting jobs through JobScore

Can I refresh my job postings using JobScore?

Sorry, we don't support refreshing jobs at this time. However, you can re-post your jobs.

Can I purchase job postings that last more than thirty days?

Sorry, at this time we only sell 30 day postings, even if the job board offers options for longer posting lengths.

Can JobScore keep track of my job posting expenses for postings that I make outside of JobScore?

Sorry, we can't.

Who is SmashFly and what do they have to do with JobScore?

SmashFly is a partner company to JobScore. They provide a job posting API that we use to distribute your jobs to job boards all over the web.

How do I add specific JobScore URLs to my job postings?

Follow these steps:

  1. Make sure that you've checked the job board as active in the Direct Post Job Board list, or added it to your Custom Job Board list on this page. (this is so you can track applicant traffic from the specific source.)
  2. Find the URL from your careers site and paste it into your job posting. You can find URLs by visiting your Careers site, and clicking on specific job titles in the list. You should now see a page with your job description and a large apply now button. The URL you need is now in the address bar of your browser. Please select the entire text of the URL and paste it into your job posting.
  3. If you want the source to be pre-populated for all applicants, at the end of this URL add *exactly* this text: ?Board=(name of the job board in JobScore i.e. craigslist, dice, monster). So, for instance, for craigslist you'd just add 
    ?Board=craigslist
    to the end of the URL.
  4. Please make sure not to include an e-mail address *anywhere* in job postings (JobScore doesn't accept applications via e-mail) so that all of your applications flow through your careers site. If you leave an email address anywhere in your postings applicants will email you directly, creating more data entry work that we know you don't want!

If you are still having trouble adding JobScore URLs to your postings, please email support@jobscore.com and we'll be happy to help you out.

 

If you can't find what you are looking for here, please feel free to e-mail us at support@jobscore.com or drop us a call at 415-904-9900. Please post suggestions for additional help topics in the JobScore Forums.