For the first time in half a century, the official number of job vacancies is higher than the number of unemployed people. Between January and March this year, the UK unemployment rate was a mere 3.7%.

Recruiters may have to work harder to fill job roles and hit their targets. However, even when someone starts a new role, a recruiter’s work may not be over, as the number of people moving between jobs also hit a record high earlier this year.

Since the pandemic, people have shifted their priorities. Family, free time, and mental health now take greater precedence, and work, for many, is at the bottom of the pecking order. When going for a new job, young people especially are weighing up their options and going for the role that offers the best benefits and work-life balance.

With so many choices before them, young people can afford to disregard a vacancy that doesn’t immediately pique their interest. Certain phrases in job descriptions are red flags for a potential toxic workplace, or a stressful role that offers little guidance.

Phrases like ‘fast-paced environment’ and ‘must handle stress well’ likely mean you’d be rushed off your feet. ‘Willing to wear many hats’ and ‘responsibilities may include those outside of the job description’ could indicate that your duties will be unclear, and that you’d be lumped with anything and everything. If they expect you to ‘hit the ground running’, you’ll likely have no training at all. A workplace that likens themselves to ‘a family’ might have a toxic workplace culture that could result in multiple complaints to HR. And no one really knows what a ‘self-starter’ is.

This comes as the phenomenon of quiet quitting picks up traction. Quiet quitting is just one element of the growing ‘anti-hustle’ culture—some people don’t want to be millionaires or CEOs, they just want employers to realise their worth and to be compensated accordingly for the work they do. If a job description carried a lot of these red flag words and phrases, the role certainly wouldn’t appeal to them.

Jobseekers might also avoid applying for a certain job if it has the potential to be a complete waste of their time. A job description with no salary range is an inconvenience for many—an applicant could secure an interview and go through the entire recruitment process before finding out it pays less than their current role. A job that is ‘remote but requires the candidate to come into the office once a week’ is not really a remote job. Similarly, a role that is ‘part-time but requires full flexibility’ isn’t effectively part-time—it’s far from it.

Other time-wasting elements include having to fill in the company’s own application form—which will require all the same information your C.V. already contains, but which takes more than an hour to complete. Furthermore, questions like ‘If you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?’ are largely irrelevant and could discourage jobseekers from applying.

Some job descriptions require more years of experience in a certain area than is humanly possible. Sebastián Ramírez tweeted that he was put off applying for a job that wanted 4+ years of experience in FastAPI. He didn’t meet their requirements as he only had 1.5+ years of experience in the software. However, it was impossible for him to have gathered more experience, as he was the creator of FastAPI and it had only been in existence 1.5 years! Recruiters may automatically plump for an arbitrary number of years’ experience for job descriptions, rather than understanding what pre-requisites would be necessary to succeed in that role.

Though the phrases and buzzwords mentioned above are red flags for younger jobseekers, there may be certain terms that could put off older applicants, too. For example, older candidates that didn’t attend university would automatically be rejected from roles that require a degree—yet they could have decades of experience actually doing that job and could easily outperform a university graduate who’s fresh into the job market. 

Video applications could put a lot of candidates off if they’re unused to the relevant technology or they’re happily introverted. It makes sense to accept video applications when recruiting aspiring actors or TV presenters, but it isn’t necessary for an accountant’s role. By all means, use video as an option, but not as a requisite element of the application process if you don’t want to risk excluding some groups.

As specialists in recruitment website design, we’ve seen our fair share of terrible job adverts. With more vacancies than jobseekers, recruiters need to ensure their job descriptions are eye-catching, attractive to candidates, and worth everyone’s time.

Because red flag words and phrases could turn applicants off before they’ve even read the full job description…