Every page on your website is selling something. Your service pages sell the work. Your careers page sells the job, and it rarely gets the same care.
Good people read that page closely. They're comparing you to the business across town, the way a customer compares quotes.
Keep the page up all year, and post jobs only when they're real
The person you want may already have a job, and he's not checking your site the week you decide to hire. Keep the page up all year. If you'll read a resume when nothing is open, say that on the page.
A job listing is a different thing. Post one only for a job you actually have. That's what job boards and Google expect, and a candidate notices when the same opening has been sitting there since spring.
Say what the job actually is
"Competitive pay" tells a candidate nothing. Every company in your trade says it, so people read right past it. What they read is the ordinary detail: what a day looks like, what equipment is waiting, what you hand a new hire, who checks the work, and what job comes after this one.
Your service pages have to pass that test, and so does this one. Vague writing makes a candidate guess, and good ones don't guess.
The honesty rule doesn't relax because it's hiring
Somebody will hold you to that page in their first week. List only the benefits you actually offer today. Describe the schedule the way it runs in your busy season. Print a pay range you'd honor. Say only what is true, and say when each benefit starts.
An application is a lead
An application sitting in a shared inbox is a candidate you already lost. The form should ask which location the person would work at. It should reach that location's manager and the front office together, and somebody should answer that day. Good people are interviewing you too, and how fast you answer tells them plenty.
Put Careers in the menu and the footer, and in the site map Google reads.
How we build ours
We build ours so the careers page stays up all year, written in the owner's own words, and so an application goes to the location it names and the office together.
What this means for your trade
- HVAC and plumbing: what an installer reads before the pay range
- Auto and boat repair: what a technician checks before applying
Frequently asked questions
Should I keep a careers page up when I have no openings?
Yes. The people you want aren't looking on your schedule. Save job listings for openings you actually have, and keep the page itself up between them.
Should I publish a pay range?
Check the rules where you hire first. Some states and cities require a good-faith range in a job ad. Where the law leaves it to you, publish a range you can honor anyway. It saves you interviews with people you can't pay, and stops good candidates from assuming the bottom.