What is a career page?
A career page is the place where you can brand your company as an attractive place to work and make a career. This is your opportunity to tell candidates why they should choose your workplace and – for heaven’s sake – not apply to your competitor.
Therefore, a careers page functions as the extended arm of the job ad, where you can elaborate on all the things that you cannot find space for in the job ad. Our data shows that 80% of applicants visit career pages before applying for a job. And research from LinkedIn shows that candidates especially want to know something about your company’s culture, values and career opportunities before applying for a job.
So what should a great career page contain? We have 8 suggestions for this. They are as follows.
#1 A little about you as a company
Tell us about who you are, what you do and what your purpose in the world is. But keep it short. No one wants to read a novel about your company. You run the risk of the reader losing interest and moving on. Instead, find the main point and write a maximum of 3–4 lines. Short and sweet. It works.
#2 Images and videos – use visual aids
To brand yourself as best as possible, you should use images and videos. This way you can easily show who you are as an employer. Candidates are incredibly curious to get a sneak peek behind the facade so that they can imagine life with you. And here the visuals play a crucial role.
Because it increases credibility to show images and videos of future colleagues if they seem to be doing well and thriving. We automatically think: If others are happy to be here, then there is a high probability that I will be too.
#3 Culture and values – make them come alive
And now comes the hard part. Are you ready? Because this is the part that worries most companies. The section that describes your culture and values. Formulated correctly, it can attract the right candidates who fit in with you. Phrased incorrectly, it can scare them away or leave them with a tame sense of indifference.
“Come up with specific, living examples from your everyday life”
Let’s clarify this with an example. Imagine for a moment that you are the job seeker. It’s Tuesday afternoon and you’ve clicked on the careers page of the company IT forever (granted, it’s a made-up company, but the example is extremely realistic). You have found an exciting job, and now you are keen to see if the company is for you. With a coffee in your right hand and a doughnut in your left, you must, full of anticipation, read about their culture and values. You are greeted by this:
“We have 5 values that we live by in everyday life. These are responsibility, helpfulness, respect, innovation and professionalism.”Ok, honestly: How do you feel now?
Are you also sitting there with a strange empty feeling? That it all sounds very good on the surface, but you don’t understand what it means to you?
I can understand that because this sentence says absolutely nothing. Instead, describe how you live out the values in everyday life. Is the helpfulness expressed by the first person who comes in and makes a fresh pot of coffee? Or can you always knock on the door and ask your colleague for advice? And is professionalism expressed because you wear ties and white shirts? Or by high professional skill because you have some of Denmark’s leading specialists in, for example, IT?
Come up with specific, living examples from your everyday life. These are the ones the candidates want to hear about.
#4 The social – take us behind the facade
In continuation of the culture section, you should also talk about your social environment. Some call it the soft sides of your workplace, and they show how you get along as colleagues. Let’s give an example from our own everyday life.
At the Jobindex bureauet, for example, we like to have a beer on Friday when the week comes to an end, and we chat about everything from TV series and cute dogs to politics and the Second World War over lunch. And then we’re a pretty diverse team, where you will find two pretty cool DJs, a handful of knitting enthusiasts, a trumpet player, hardcore Instagram experts and a few home brewers.
On our last team day, we started by talking about strategy and ended up playing ice hockey, riding in a party bus and eating a nice dinner. And both the former national team player and the Bambis had a good day. We don’t all have to be the same to have fun together.
How is it with you?
#5 Career and development opportunities
Most candidates would like to hear a little about what the future looks like for them in terms of development and career. Is there an opportunity to grow in the position and move around internally after a while? Do you support their development with courses? Or something completely different?
Mention as many specific possibilities as possible. This shows the candidates that you care about their personal and professional development. And that they can stay with you for many years to come.
#6 Onboarding of new employees
The first few days in a new job can be tough. You have to adapt to a different everyday life with new colleagues, tasks and bosses. Therefore, it seems reassuring to know that the company welcomes you when you start.
So tell us a little about the onboarding. Do you get a mentor? Do you go around the various departments to meet everyone? Are there courses? Do what you can to make candidates feel welcome.
#7 Use quotes from employees
It is an excellent idea to include quotes from your employees. It helps to create credibility and underpins your social proof.
In short, social proof is about providing evidence that many people do something specific. Because when many people do the same thing, they must be right. It’s a herd mentality left over from primitive man, where we learned to copy the behaviour of others to avoid danger.
So, quotes from one’s future colleagues are an extremely good idea. Because if others say they are happy to work for you, then you are more likely to think: It’s probably also something for me – I’ll apply for the job.
See an example of the use of employee quotes here.
#8 Link the career page and job ad
Remember to link your job ad and the career page. Because it’s important that they reflect each other as one and the same universe. If you sit and read the job ad, you should be able to easily look up information on the career page, for example, about your culture. And vice versa, somebody should be able to easily find your job vacancies if they are on your careers page and interested in sending you an application.
“Remember that your content must always be adapted to your company and target group”
And we know that people click when there is something to click on. So, make it easy for them to find what is interesting to them.
Finally: Remember your target group
Last but not least: Remember that your content must always be adapted to your company and target group. Therefore, you may have to pick from the sections we have listed here. What is relevant for an IT developer is not necessarily relevant for a salesperson. And it is possible that a newly graduated 25-year-old is more interested in onboarding than a seasoned 45-year-old.
Need help?
Then please get in touch with one of our employer branding experts right here: bureauetsblog@jobindex.dk. Then together we can look at the possibilities to create a great career page for you. For example, just like this one, which we made for Kemp & Lauritzen..
You can also learn more in:
- Daniel Kahnemann: Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Morten Münster: I’m Afraid Debbie From Marketing Has Left for the Day
