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Biggest Job Spec Turn Offs!

Following a survey carried out by job board Monster, here are some of the major bugbears reported by job seekers and employers alike.

Job Ad Jargon:

Three quarters of job seekers surveyed said they see jargon in job ads, but what do they think of it?

57% of respondents say this puts them off applying for a role with three in five finding it annoying

One in three said they find it confusing and 14% of those surveyed claim it is intimidating.

The biggest industry culprits are:

• Marketing, PR and Media 85%
• Management and Consulting 82%
• Sales 80%
• Banking, Finance and Insurance 79%
• IT 78%
• Engineering 78%
• Production, Manufacturing and Maintenance 72%
• Transport, Post and Logistics 70%
• Administrative 70%
• Accounting, Tax and Audit 70%

Job seekers are no angels either!

54% of employers surveyed are regularly irritated by CV jargon with one in five saying it is their biggest bugbear. Interestingly, 41% of those surveyed claim that men are the worst CV jargon culprits!

Spelling Mistakes in Job Ads:

23% of people complained about spelling mistake in job ads and here are some the genuine mistakes that were reported:

• Resauce Manager
• Sioux Chef
• Contempary Office
• Manger
• Ales Manager
• S**t Manager
• Purrchaysing
• Leed Engineer
• Human Rescourses
• Someone capable of ruining an office
• Secatorial Job

Confusing Job Titles

Two in five respondents regularly see job titles they don’t understand and 64% said they would not apply for the position if they didn’t understand the job title.

What do you make of these…..?

• Cockroach Wrangler
• Turkish Tester
• Hopitality Manger
• Community Animator
• Penetration Tester

Cheesey Cliches in job descriptions:

We’re all guilty of trying to ‘jazz’ up a job description, here are some of the more common words and phrases that annoyed the job seekers surveryed…

• Self-starter
• Need an idea ‘with legs’
• Leverage
• Execution
• Linkage
• Penetrate the market
• Hit the ground running
• Blue sky thinking (‘brainstorming’ is now very non-PC)
• Viral
• Granulisation
• Bottleneck
• Laser-focused
• Learnings

Bizarre CV Blunders:

The following are genuine statements and CV blunders reported by employers surveyed…

• A CV claiming they have experience in Arctic Warfare
• Going in great lengths to explain knowledge of origami
• Skills: "excellent upper body strength” for a PR account executive role
• Skills: "nice to children, animlas and old people”
• A full CV written in text speak
• Inclusion of ear size measurements
• CV sent in a dirty, used and smelly tennis shoe, with a note saying "does this mean I have my foot in the door?”
• Achievements: "successfully putting daughter to bed over 100 times”
• A CV written entirely in the third person
• A suggestive picture of a scantily clad young lady (the role was a Foundry Maintenance Team Leader)

Some employers also complained of inappropriate email addresses. toorudetomention@email.com!