As we enter the final stretch of the final quarter of 2008, and especially coming to work each and every day after reading the morning headlines, I often find myself thinking of some classic proverbs. One of my favorites is “if we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting,” attributed to Stephen Covey. So true in business, and so true in life. Same goes for another one you’ve heard since you were a kid: “don’t judge a book by its cover.”

When it comes to recruiting Gen Y with targeted job postings, however, candidates – no matter the industry vertical – do tend to judge books by their covers. First impressions can make all the difference on whether or not the most qualified talent will even look at your opportunity, let alone apply for it.

Diving deep into the data on one of the most popular Experience.com job search terms, we’ve found some interesting results – results that all employers should consider when crafting messaging for their job opportunities. Millennials that searched for jobs using the search term “analysts” in early December 2008 were presented with hundreds of relevant titles. The top five performing related job titles, illustrated above in terms of click throughs, collectively represent 71.7% of all returned titles that were clicked on. The employers with these titles are seeing success on clicks because they know that they only have one chance to make that first impression – and they kept things simple.

Gen Y employers are most successful with job posting click throughs when their job titles match or are directly related to the terms candidates are searching on. Easy, right? But it can be tempting add a lot of noise into the title in effort to grab attention. And at the end of the day college students and young alumni see right through this. Using ALL CAPS or an abundance of exclamation points to garner MORE CLICKS will most likely BACKFIRE!!! Believe it or not, a good number of job titles that were returned in this “analysts analysis” used such tactics.

In our It’s Time for a Job Description Makeover whitepaper issued earlier this year, we analyzed what Gen Y values and what they’re not seeing in job postings. Whether you’re recruiting an intern or a full-time entry-level hire, make it your New Year’s resolution to reassess how you write job titles and their descriptions. Make sure your words clearly and concisely spell out key benefits for your candidates – because this is what will ultimately decide whether or not top talent will take the time to submit applications, connect with your company and tell their friends all about the experience.

Tags: analysts, Gen Y employers, job descriptions, job search terms, job titles

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 9:30 am and is filed under Search Terms, Traffic Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.