How to experience a job advert. Jobseeker Basics XIX

Greg Wyatt • March 2, 2026

This might seem a weird chapter.

Surely you look at a job advert, maybe even read it, then decide to apply or not?

Yet a job advert is more than just what's presented on a job board.

It's a microcosm of everything in recruitment, including everything wrong, and you can learn a lot about what to expect in your job search by the least intentional of words.

And when you do read a job advert, in its entirety, there are only two questions you should ask of it:

Am I qualified?
Should I be interested?

It's somewhat odd that 99% of job adverts don't actually try and help you answer that.

But maybe that's why employers say job adverts don't work.

And why you don't think they do either.

While you're here, why not check out A Career Breakdown Kit in its entirety?

This series of always free chapters is an advert, after all.

But it was never supposed to be an easy book to read, just accessible and comprehensive.

I expect most readers are over 50, ND, or other marginalised demographics, considering these will likely be the longest out of work in our 'diverse and inclusive' world.

If you're 'in demand' though, you'll probably click apply and wonder what the fuss was about.

44 - How to experience a job advert

This chapter is about job adverts, what they are and aren’t, how you might experience them, how they might inform your decisions and your responses.

I say experience rather than read because not all adverts are written or read.

What’s a job advert?

A job advert is the first step in a multichannel commercial approach to filling a vacancy. It’s the inverse of your job search taking a multichannel, through-the-line approach - we go where the candidates are.

It’s the first step because it’s the first thing you experience of that vacancy irrespective of whether it’s a:

Listing on a job board
A post on social media
A DM from a recruiter
A phone call from a hiring process
A referral
Or any other means by which you become aware of a vacancy

Each of these is a marketing or sales channel that may result in a candidate's application.

It’s regrettable employers don’t necessarily see it this way because of the transactional nature of much recruitment process.

They think it’s sticking a job posting up on LinkedIn.

Employers forget that when you experience such an advert you first make the choice to entertain that advert rather than a yes or no to ‘Should I apply?’

Indeed much advertising neglects the psychology of a job move, which principally relates to problem awareness.

How you experience an advert, what may encourage you to progress an enquiry and what you are prepared to put up with in the process relate to your situation and the problems you currently face.

Are you out of work, needing any job to pay the bills?

Are you in work, desperate to escape a toxic culture?

Are you gainfully employed yet wouldn’t mind a bit more flexibility to pick the children up from school?

Are you apparently smashing it, with that missing something you don’t even know about, and the right vacancy might improve your lot?

And everything in between.

The answer to these questions informs your experience of any advert.

Because many employers don’t consider what informs an experience and think people would be lucky to work there, it’s rare that more than the minimum acceptable skill will be applied to an advert.

As discussed in Better use of job boards, the emphasis is on more rather than better. It’s often thought that ‘if we can reach more candidates, we might fill the job.’

Rather than appeal to the right people for the right reasons.

And so we are in a market where an advert attracts hundreds if not thousands of applications, most of whom are wholly unsuitable.

What isn’t a job advert?

A job advert isn’t a fake job, although many of these are listed.

They aren’t Job Descriptions either - the next chapter explains why this distinction is important.

While you may spend much time perusing job boards and talking with fellow job seekers, reading their posts on LinkedIn - I’d expect most employers have little awareness outside of their own sphere of what happens in the job seeker community.

They’ll advertise how they advertise, instruct agencies how they instruct agencies and run their process how they run their process.

I wonder how many great employers use Workday as an ATS, fill their jobs suitably, and have no knowledge of how Workday is viewed by job seekers who have dozens of Workday accounts, one per application?

It’s true terrible employers might do the same.

In one of my job advert consultations I had a detailed conversation with a Talent Acquisition Manager of a local technology consultancy. I can say that they are a jewel in the crown of technology development in the UK, have top 1% compensation, offer career development, and are a fantastic place to work.

I know this because I have spoken to many people who have worked there. All speak highly of them.

Yet the advert we reviewed had a number of red flags:

£Competitive salary
Generic company first text
Confusion around job titles

If you were an ideal candidate who decided not to apply because of these red flags you’d have missed out.

There are two considerations in how an advert might be put together.

The first is whether it is a product of a transactional process or whether the hiring team recognises potential candidates are driven by selfish reasons and seek to understand ‘what’s in it for them.’

(I’ve mentioned WIIFM (What’s in it for me) a few times now - answering that is key to good marketing)

The second is the direction of travel - are you reading a job board advert or have you been contacted proactively about the vacancy?

A transactional process is defined by information transactions with a focus on speed and volume.

It places less emphasis on qualitative measures such as accuracy, specificity, relationships, and empathy.

Instead you can define the process by a series of information transactions and exchanges:

Job description
Advert
Suitable number of relevant applications
Suitable number of interviews
Offer
Starter

The goal is to fill a vacancy.

A non-transactional process recognises the importance of relationships and that to build trust the right information needs to be put forward.

Though the steps are much the same, at each stage the question is asked: ‘Does this give the candidate the right information to make an informed decision?’

Here a candidate is everyone who interacts with the vacancy outside of the hiring end - even a reader who chooses not to apply.

The goal is to create a process that draws the right person forward while leaving everyone with a good experience.

It’s not just about decency - it’s about long-term commercial outcomes.

If you want the right person to thrive over the long term the process has to reflect this goal.

While all the ‘nos’ might be commercial opportunity in future - future candidates, future customers - who knows?

These are the archetypes. In reality, recruitment falls somewhere along this spectrum, often changing at different stages in the process.

Intent matters even if the execution is flawed.

Why does it matter?

Because a healthy rule of thumb is to reciprocate the level of care you experience.

If you come across a transactional process - treat it transactionally. This isn’t inherently bad - it’s just the way of the process.

The employers may still be good to work for.

When and whether to apply

Irrespective of how a role is recruited, there will be non-negotiable essential criteria that inform whether or not you are suitable.

If you can establish these criteria you can confirm whether to apply.

The problem is these criteria aren’t always stated.

Sometimes they are implicit to the context - if the role is employed by a rapidly growing scale-up, it’s likely they’ll need someone with that experience.

Hopefully this context is alluded to in the advert. It will need critical thinking to parse.

Sometimes these aren’t defined at the outset and become mandatory when there are too many candidates in view.

Sometimes these are hidden by Goldilocks or illegal discrimination - not too experienced, not too inexperienced, not too old.

Sometimes the employer can’t divulge essential criteria.

The other problem is that some essential criteria aren’t essential, such as when a company writes unrealistic shopping lists.

Yes, it’s a FUBAR situation given it’s pretty hard to tell whether you’re a suitable candidate or whether you should even apply.

Nonetheless - if you choose to apply your application must show how you can meet any essential criteria you can identify.

If that’s the only thing your application does - it must do this.

In my experience, transactional processes are the hardest to unpick, with adverts going something like:

Here at genericorp we are proud to be recruiting for a <job title> in our market leading innovative environment.

You’ll be doing

You’ll need

In return you can expect a £competitive salary.

Apply with a full cover letter and updated CV.

Only successful candidates will be contacted.

Familiar?

Whereas the rare non-transactional adverts give more of a narrative about why the right person might think to apply or give you avenues for finding more information.

A note on inbound enquiries.

With automation allowing volume outreach the effort to produce transactional DMs, emails and messages is pretty low.

You might think when you receive such a message that you are already in the running - in many situations you are a transactional prospect.

I’ve even heard some recruiters InMail #OpenToWork profiles only to improve their response rates.

While not all messages are this way these are potential reasons you might not hear back when you reply to a recruiter.

It’s not quite the case with phone calls which have yet to be executed through automation (some platforms promise AI call automation already).

Again, you can separate transactional from non-transactional straightforwardly.

Transactional leads with selling the job.

Non-transactional seeks to explore if you are the right candidate. If the vacancy isn’t right it’s best to find that out as early as possible and save everyone time.

Inbound enquiries are still adverts, in a different medium.

Try not to treat your job search transactionally by default.

Your goal isn’t to apply for hundreds of jobs. Your goal is to start conversations that count.

By prioritising adverts in the right way you’ll improve your odds with high stakes applications. You’ll gain time and energy for other activities, including taking time away from your job search to recharge.

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My new book - A Recruitment AiDE

By Greg Wyatt • April 30, 2026

I'm thrilled to announce the publication of A Recruitment AiDE. A guide, philosophy and discipline for effective key hire recruitment. The timing’s perfect, given the deluge of AI content that floods our feeds. Imagine how these similarly produced generic adverts land with people you want to talk to. "We're thrilled to announce we want, we need, here’s our shopping list, why aren’t you responding and oh what’s this flood of AI CVs?" It doesn’t have to be this way. This has taken twenty-five years of hard graft - talking to job seekers, researching the market and recruitment practice, learning about candidate resentment, problem awareness, marketing, copywriting, and the psychology of what moves people. With the evidence that backs this up. The result is something that may make you rethink your approach to recruitment. That will improve the number of qualified candidates, while reducing the total number of applications. It's too early to prove, but my expectation is this will reduce the number of AI CVs too, given there is less for AI to grab when you speak to professional identity. You’ll have to be bold, go against the grain, do something that feels counterintuitive, especially if someone has their hand on your shoulder saying "This isn't the company style!" But then, what does it take to stand out from the crowd? And if you really want to attract the best people, shouldn’t your first step be focused on them, and not you? Kindle version out now. Here's the link: https://amzn.eu/d/03idlAVM. Paperback in two weeks. If you don’t like Evilcorp, let me know and we can work something out.

Content strategy and philosophy

By Greg Wyatt • April 27, 2026

What follows is Chapter 40 of A Career Breakdown Kit , and part two of a three part series on Personal Branding. Except it isn't. There are various definitions I revolt against, with good reason, in a job search. Personal branding, hidden jobs markets, ATS compliance, and all the others. Terms that seem to hide secret wins, not replicable steps, especially when hidden behind a paywall. I call it the title that's expected because of the questions job seekers ask me. You may recall my article on the Hidden Jobs Market breaks it apart and rebuilds it into a cohesive multichannel marketing strategy that allows you to access the whole of your jobs market. And so it is with my personal branding series. This isn't about your brand. Or even about your reputation. It's about pushing content that starts conversations with relevant people - such as peers, former colleagues, recruiters with a vested interest in these content areas, and even people that can put you closer to a job. Not forgetting fellow job seekers you can share experiences with - as long as you don't dwell on the negative. And it's also about writing in a way that is both true to you and your profession - because conversation has to follow in the same voice as you write, and should support your work, when in work. It's a strategy and philosophy that mirrors earlier chapters on networking, doorknocking, getting found and converting interest. It isn't about writing credible statements in a content savvy way that shares unprovable anecdotes, hacks that lack substance, and where a funnel means more than a lesson. That way is the way of social media marketing - this is about conversations that matter. 40 - Content strategy and philosophy While a personal brand might be the goal, your content strategy should be the priority. It can be applied even if you don’t like the idea of branding. Much is made about LinkedIn’s algorithm and how you need to do this that and the other to get engagement. You can look at it differently, ignoring the algorithm on the whole, and still achieve much the same. These are the outcomes I aim for and see when writing content: Start conversations Help others Sharpen and spark ideas Raise awareness and trust Have a laugh and a chat I’ve gained friends I’ve never spoken to and friendly acquaintances I only know through ‘comments.’ As well as paying clients who have benefitted from my service. Just as importantly, I have more credibility with candidates who place weight on LinkedIn content. Content makes it easier for me to start conversations. It’s important for me that I either enjoy the content and its consequences or find it fulfilling. I don’t talk openly about my personal life, family or challenges. Something I agreed with my wife when I started publishing content. Instead, I show all of myself in my words - quirks and all. So that if we ever speak in real life, there isn’t much of a disconnect. Start with other people’s content Find content writers who inspire you and use them as a catalyst for your own words. There are two ways to do this. Firstly, if you’re thinking about writing on LinkedIn, you are presumably already reading content. What inspires you? What do you enjoy reading? Which authors resonate with your career, your values, your goals and the problems you solve? When you read their content, do you engage and comment? Do you connect with them? Do you ask them who they recommend as writers in your field? Secondly, look within. What do you want to be known for in your career? Maybe it’s procurement or your CIPD membership. React or agile. 5 Whys or Gemba. If these are areas that interest you, use the LinkedIn search bar to find posts on these topics. Now filter the results by ‘Posts’ and ‘Sort by’ latest. Read through the results both for posts that interest you and those that have high engagement (less likely on a niche topic). When you’ve found inspiring content, what next ? One first step in content creation is to respond to these posts with your own ideas. Less ‘Agree’ and more how you might respond in a real-life conversation on this topic. Commenting on other people’s posts is a good way to find your voice, particularly if the conversation continues. Like any skill, writing takes practice, and comments are a low-friction way of developing your tone. If a comment sparks interest from other readers, it can be a concept to build on as a post in its own right. The other benefit of this kind of niche content is that those who engage are likely to have similar interests to you. Make sure to read other comments and see if there are more conversations to be had. The comments you build with them can be the start of a mutually beneficial relationship. Check out their profiles - do their interests and values reflect yours? These are people to connect with, then DM to continue the conversation. Check out their posting history, which will be available on their profile - there may well be a lot of interesting content to absorb. With conversation comes content. Ideas and discussion that grow are an effective way to share your voice. Here’s a suggestion for how you can do this in practice: Look for 5 posts daily that interest you professionally - manually, using a search, or checking what your valuable connections are up to Engage and comment on each Check out new relevant profiles - connect and follow their content On each post, look at who is engaging and respond naturally Try to connect with 5 new relevant people from these interactions Perhaps follow up with a message Take note of the most interesting conversations and at the end of the week pick at least one to inspire your own posts You don’t need to publish them if you aren’t comfortable - save for later if not I’d avoid the viral content that combines relevance + relatability + entitlement + readability. These writers are more interested in engagement numbers than your specific interest. You can see the truth of their words in how they respond in the comments sections. From a marketing perspective, different types of content have different places in your lead generation: Awareness Interest Consideration Evaluation Purchase Each post, comment, DM and real-life conversation can relate to these steps and support your goals, even if you aren’t treating these as a marketing activity. Time and time again There’s a lot of investigation into optimal times to post. It’s more important that you are available to reply attentively in the first hour. The course of a post is often dictated by the performance during this time. I actively reply to comments for around an hour a day with LinkedIn on in the background of other work. How much time can you set aside per week and per day for content? Even if you only write a couple of posts a week, this will probably take a couple of hours. You can expect low performance initially, with some exceptions, as it takes time to build inertia. Set aside a sustainable amount of time each week and commit to it over a period - try for 10-12 weeks and track how things have developed. You may find it becomes an enjoyable task. Try not to get distracted by engagement for its own sake and keep your goals in mind. Types of content to try Engagement on LinkedIn is built primarily on relevance and relatability. Even ragebait, given it drives strong feeling. You can write a 100% relatable post that everyone takes relevance from and see massive engagement. Though that engagement may not serve your goals. Or you can write a post that is 100% relevant to the problems you solve in your career, and the people who will find it relevant are from a small niche facing the same problems. This is why a photo of you with your dog will fly, while a carefully thought out post about the optimisation of widgets in a byzantine setting will appear to be shouting into a void. Or you can blend the two through storytelling, pivoting observations into business content, and copywriting formulae like AIDA (attention interest desire action) and PAS (problem agitation solution). Everyone will have different forms of content that will be effective for them. What do you want your ideal readers to experience? What would ‘you five years ago’ would find helpful? Do you want readers to see you as a credible expert? Someone who is authentically vulnerable? Your warts and all personality? Someone who stands out in a sea of competition? Someone who is thought-provoking, helpful, or altruistic? The answers are much the same if you posed these questions of interviewing. This is no coincidence, given your message should be consistently delivered no matter where it is received. With that in mind, here are some content ideas you can try: How you might solve a problem specific to your industry Stories from your everyday life The challenges in your job search Observations on a news story and how it relates to your work A flair post highlighting your availability Asking for thoughts on an idea you are interested in Sharing insight you find fascinating, whether that’s films, video games, science or sport Stories from your career where you can show growth (everyone loves a hero’s journey) Business frameworks, processes and techniques you find useful - Pomodoro Technique, scientific method, STAR, what do you use? Equipment you use for work Developments in your workplace and culture Thoughts on content you find inspiring Memes, humour, satire Google content ideas for LinkedIn or ask ChatGPT, Claude and others. I wouldn’t use AI to write articles. I do use them for ideation and to sense check. ‘Write me a post for LinkedIn that shows the link between Tesla cars and how to develop an HR strategy.’ The vulnerability of writing You can be a content creator without ever publishing a post if you continue conversations through comments, connections, DMs and real-life. This avoids sticking your head above the parapets and is low risk, but misses the gain of publishing your own content. I know that some people are held back for fear of failure. I can tell you that clicking ‘send’ is always a high point of anxiety for me in sending newsletters. Imagine how I felt when I clicked Publish for this book. What’s the worst that can happen with a carefully thought-out post? Tumbleweed? If no one reads it, you can always post it again another time. Disagreement? Loads of people disagree on my posts - you’ll see from my comments that I am always constructive in my dialogue and typically this supports the intent of my post. Everyone has an opinion and they are welcome to theirs - as long as it’s constructive, there is always a learning opportunity. Trolls? These people exist and will at some point rear their ugly heads. I imagine them naked on the Underground, which takes the sting out of their vitriol. I’m sure it’s their unhappiness that drives their behaviour. Marriage requests? Unfortunately, dubious and toxic behaviour isn’t uncommon. Don’t be afraid to block and report if you receive harmful messages. As long as you are constructive in what you write and you work to build a conversation, it’s unlikely anything bad will happen. You will open yourself up to the opportunity of new relevant people starting conversations with you: hiring managers, recruiters, peers, fellow job seekers, and friendly strangers. Weight and depth of opinion A couple of years ago, I had a message from an out-of-work Sales Director asking for some feedback. He’d shot a video for LinkedIn where he talked about why he should be snapped up and received a lot of praise for the post. However, he was confused because a CEO he trusts told him it was poor and made him look boring. He knew I’d give him unvarnished feedback, which was what he needed to find some clarity on what had happened. Truthfully, the CEO was correct. What had happened? All of the positive engagement was from fellow job seekers and people who wanted to support him. That he’d done it was praiseworthy in itself and was rightly celebrated, rather than the quality of what he had produced. None of them had hiring authority or were in a career similar to someone who would be his line manager. The video didn’t show him how he comes across in person either. While the positive feedback was fantastic for validation, his video worked against him. What might happen if a hiring process thought his video was boring when the role being recruited for has persuasion as a key requirement? I’m pleased to say his redo was excellent, showing off his charisma while delivering the same message. Who can you rely on to be this CEO for you in your career? Why you should start now, even if you don’t see any benefit for months. Starting cold on LinkedIn can take time to get traction. When your first post bombs you might never think to do a second. Going in with the expectation of little impact for the first three to six months is healthy in making a sustainable habit. If you’re out of work though, three to six months may seem too far off to be worthwhile when there are many activities that offer a quick turnaround, such as applying for jobs. I’ve spoken to many job seekers who’ve been out of work for more than six months and had decided not to write content at the outset of their search. If they had, they might now be seeing the benefit of their work.