Job Advertisements

You may believe you should only answer advertisements that match your qualifications, experience or personality exactly. In practice it is quite rare for an advertisement to match your qualifications and skills precisely — which is why choosing which ones to answer matters.

Analysing advertisements so that you can pick the ones best suited to your situation allows you to:

Avoid dismissing out of hand an offer that might actually suit you
Give yourself more opportunities
Prepare your case before answering an advertisement that interests you

A company that needs to recruit uses:

The "hidden market" — contacts, or candidates recommended to it
The "open market" — published advertisements

In the second case, the company chooses between several channels:

The public employment service (DYPA, formerly OAED)
The press
The internet
Specialist publications

Through advertisements, a company expresses its needs:

With targeted advertisements designed to catch the attention of a particular audience, stating the job title, or the role and its main duties, or the company name and its objectives. An advertisement of this kind attracts a specific group of candidates.

By setting out "the profile" of the ideal candidate: the requirements of the role, the selection criteria, the qualifications, previous experience and the particular skills required. This profile lets companies shortlist the candidates of interest more quickly.
By giving more information about the company's activities.
By stating the company's details or the details of the person responsible for recruitment.

Many companies draw up a profile of the ideal candidate knowing that such a person may not be available on the market at all. Candidates who answer the advertisement will not necessarily have every characteristic described in that profile. It is therefore important to learn how to analyse advertisements and identify what the company actually needs.

HOW TO ANALYSE JOB ADVERTISEMENTS AND CHOOSE WELL

Find the right channel

Depending on the sector you want to work in and the role you are looking for, the channels worth consulting differ: the printed press, broadcast media, the internet and so on. Be clear about which ones matter for you.

Identify the areas that interest you

Advertisements at DYPA offices and those published in the press are grouped by subject. Before you start searching, decide which areas interest you.

Select the advertisements

A job advertisement generally contains four categories of information:

Information about the recruiting company (its name and/or address, and/or the sector it operates in…)
Information about the profile of the candidate sought
Information about the role itself
How to make contact (telephone, address, email, the person responsible, and so on)

Not all advertisements are alike. To tell them apart, keep two kinds of criteria in mind: objective criteria and subjective criteria.
Objective criteria describe a fact or a specific characteristic, such as "holds a particular qualification" or "holds a driving licence".
Subjective criteria rest on personal judgement and are open to argument. For example: "good communication skills", "organised and methodical", "manages teams effectively".

Pay attention to the weight and importance of an employer's requirements. Some are fundamental — where a formal qualification is required, the candidate must hold it. Others are secondary and are stated as such, for instance "experience desirable". A candidate who does not meet a criterion of that kind may well compensate for it with other strengths.

To judge whether you can answer an advertisement, do not hesitate to reorganise the information it contains:

Information about the role
Information about the company
Information about the candidate profile

Ask yourself the following questions:

Which criteria are objective and which are subjective?
Which are essential, and which are secondary and could be offset by another strength?

Not all advertisements contain the information you need. Some may leave a great deal out. There are ways to find it:

Look for the information before you reply, by approaching the company itself or professionals who know it well
Try to obtain more information during the interview

MISTAKES TO AVOID

Leafing through advertisements passively, hoping one will "jump out" at you
Ignoring advertisements that contain little information
Taking the stated requirements for qualifications and experience literally: they describe the company's ideal candidate, who may well not exist
Choosing advertisements without checking whether you meet the objective criteria — holding a particular qualification or a driving licence, for example
Rejecting an advertisement because it is being published for a second time. That means the candidates who came forward did not meet the selection criteria. Your application may be a better fit.
Replying late. Even if you hear about an advertisement late, reply anyway: you cannot know whether someone has already been hired.

BASIC RULES FOR HANDLING ADVERTISEMENTS

Choose the right channel for the advertisements that interest you
Read every advertisement relevant to your occupation, or to work you have experience in
Consult advertisements as early as you can, so that you are among the first to reply
Do not reject an advertisement automatically because it mentions a qualification you do not hold
Read each advertisement you have selected carefully, to work out what matters and what does not
Try to understand the company's needs from the advertisement, so you can judge whether a weakness on your side can be offset by a stronger point
Find out about roles you do not know well: what their responsibilities and duties involve