Thread by @jmspool

I see the same mistake repeated across many of the UX job ads I review.

The job ad describes the JOB, yet highly-qualified candidates want to learn about the WORK.

These are very different things.

1/

What we hear from candidates:

Tell me what I'll be working on.
Tell me how my work will have an important impact on people.
Tell me what makes the work challenging, especially for someone at my experience level.
Tell me what makes this work unique.

This is the WORK.

2/

UX job ads rarely talk about those things. Or maybe they give 1-2 sentences about it.

Here's one example I just found. They give 1 sentence to what the company does. The rest of the paragraph could be describing any company on the planet.

3/

This is the only other paragraph about the team the new hire will be working on.

This could describe any design system effort at any of a thousand different companies.

There's nothing in here that makes this a special job.

4/

This ad is for a Sr. UX Design Manager position. Could you tell that from any of the description I've shared so far?

Nope.

Nothing about the team you'd manage.
Nothing about the work of the team.
Nothing about the impact you'll have as their manager.
Why should you apply?

5/

It gets worse.

Here's all the bullets that describe "the role."

Can you find 1 thing that doesn't describe what every manager everywhere should do?
Can you find 1 thing that is unique to this position?

They could replace this with just:
• Do what every manager does.

6/

Here's a quick way to get highly-qualified candidates banging down your door to join your team:

Actually describe the WORK.

Talk about what you love about it.
Talk about why you come to work every day.
Talk about the pride you take in a job well done.

7/

What does that work look like?
Why is it motivating?
What change are you making in the world by doing great work?

This is what every top candidate wants to know.

8/

Pretend you're hiring a Sr UX Designer.

Imagine the ideal person sat down next to you and you're trying to convince them to apply for your position.

They ask "What would I be working on?"

9/

Would you answer:

"Develop and manage user experience design documentation repositories including UI standards, personas, workflows, and research data."

No, of course not.

That's the JOB. Not the WORK.

10/

You'd describe the cool products your team delivers.
You'd describe how those products improve your users' lives.
You'd describe the really tough problems your team is up against, that someone like this person would have to solve.

You'd describe the WORK. Not the JOB.

11/

I'm hyper aware of this problem because my team and I help market all the positions on our UX Centered Careers job board (uxcareers.uie.com).

We try to write tweets and short ads to promote to our 230,000 followers, subscribers, and community members.

12/

If you follow me, you've probably see these tweets.

We're trying our hardest to share what makes each job uniquely cool. What makes it a unique challenge? What makes it ideal for exact right person?

Job ads that don't talk about the WORK make that really hard.

13/

With some ads, it's such a struggle.

And it shouldn't be.

If you're writing a job ad, don't fall into this trap.

Describe the WORK, not the JOB.