Can anyone advise for the benefit of those of us recruiting and trying to attract the best Management Consultants what it is you look for in a job ad that makes you read on?..... TopConsultant offer great advice in this area through their workshops and seminars of course however wondered if any consultants out there can advise based on personal experience? Thank you.

Hi Recruiter,Here's my tips, from a candidate's view:1. Avoid exaggeration and flowery language. In other words, try not to use the "You must be a dynamic self-starter with a powerful record of extreme success in the first rate strategy space with a global reputation for excellence" approach that so many ads contain. I get put off by these ads because I think "Oh man, they're gonna be trouble to work for... they want superman".2. Specify the salary if possible. "Attractive salary" or "Competitive" is just too vague. It makes me think they don't really know what they want.3. Be honest but emphasise what the job can do for the employee. Too many ads focus on what the employer wants (superman). What's in it for us? Tip: Offering a decent work life balance, if it is truly on offer, will make your ad stand head and shoulders above the rest.4. Be realistic with what you can expect. Too many ads seem to be looking for people that basically don't exist. Nobody's gonna join a company for £80K/year and bring a £10M order book with them.5. Give a telephone number, and answer it when they call.6. Accept CVs. Do not insist on having us fill out an application form. We're busy people and simply can't be bothered.7. Give dates about when you will make decisions. Ads that lack specificity just look speculative.8. Don't ask for stuff you don't need. If you really do want somebody with "extensive experience of radically transforming corporations single-handedly whlist at the same time developing a £5M pipeline of new business" then fine. But if you're looking for a competent project manager or suchlike to roll out a few IT systems or something, then just say it.9. Tell us in plain English what they will want from us.10. Give the ad a 'human' voice. Avoid HR-speak.

Hear, hear Cynic!Oh, and answer every application, no matter how unrealistic or bad. It really gets on my teats when I hear about an application that goes completely unanswered. It takes but 2 minutes to send an email that politely declines to invite someone to interview.EC

EC - That's why I don't advertise positions anymore. I don't want to be the person that isn't replying. You have to realise though that some adverts will be really latched on to and might get a couple of hundred responses. 5/10 might be worth answering, so answering the rest at 2 mins a time would take 6 hours. It annoys me more when someone clearly hasn't read the advert, just title & location.

And then we get the whole 'put me in front of your client and I'll prove myself' conversation, or the 'you're discriminating against me' conversation or 'tell me who your client is and I'll go direct' (as if!) conversation, or the "ok, I'll chase you, hound you and pester you week in week out for other roles' conversation...With some no mark with a degree in computer science from a uni no one knows in the outer hebrides, no relevant experience, on £20K and thinks he should be considered for an engagement level role on 100K++.

Thanks v much - Very useful.I also feel that if a potential candidate were to actually read and understand whats needed it would help too! - The number of people who apply for a role which clearly states "Having worked for a known Consultancy" and have never left the big corporate they are in can be very very frsustrating! I personally, ALWAYS acknowledge my applicants though, no matter how bad they may be!!

As a candidate, I agree with most of Cynic's points.For me, it's crucial that the advert conveys what the selling points are for the candidate. Nothing is as big a turnoff as an advert which simply states "Big 4" as if that should be enough of an attraction in itself. The Big 4 are different and within them each team, practice and group offers different opportunities. I think it's important to remember that people are different (for example I'm not interested in work/life balance). Therefore, there's no point in throwing buzzwords into the advert - I'm suspicious of ads that promise everything to everyone; I'm more likely to respond to an advert that's been written with a clear view of both the challenges and opportunities of the job in mind.Given that consulting as an industry generates a whole lot of flowery language and jargon, I'm not entirely bothered if the job advert reflects this. There are some client specifications which are going to be impossible to translate into plain English.

I agree, a yay or nay response will help. so as a recruiter what do you prefer, responses to advertised positions or a generic submission of a cv to the recruiting organisation (online)? i have done the latter and am still waiting on a response so not sure if that was a good approach to takeAlso, if you don't advertise, how do you get candidates? referrals?