WANTED: Marketing Manager.

Must be a brilliant writer, talented designer, video editor, social media expert, data analyst, confident salesperson and experienced project manager.

Must thrive under pressure, work independently, love teamwork, manage competing deadlines and bring endless enthusiasm to a fast-paced environment.

Experience in everything essential.

Salary: Competitive.

Competitive with what? The electricity bill?

Welcome to the modern job advert, where some employers appear to be searching for three employees, a miracle and somebody happy to bring their own laptop.

And then wonder why nobody suitable applies.

How the unicorn gets invented

It often starts innocently enough.

A business needs someone to manage its marketing.

The owner writes down a few responsibilities.

Then somebody suggests adding social media.

Another person mentions video.

The sales manager would quite like the new recruit to help generate leads.

Someone else thinks a bit of website maintenance would be useful.

By the time the advert goes live, the business isn't recruiting a marketing manager.

It's recruiting an entire department.

The problem isn't ambition. It's clarity.

If a capable applicant reads the advert and thinks, “I can do most of that, but not all of it,” they may decide not to apply.

Meanwhile, the person who confidently claims to be an expert at everything might deserve a few extra questions.

Does your receptionist really need to be a graphic designer?

Some skills are genuinely essential.

A qualified electrician needs the appropriate competence.

A specialist accountant may need particular qualifications. A driver may require the correct licence.

But plenty of job adverts mix essential requirements with things that would merely be nice to have.

An office administrator who can learn a new software package might be a better hire than someone who knows the software but struggles to deal with customers.

A good salesperson might learn a product range quickly.

A reliable team member can develop new skills with proper training.

Before advertising a vacancy, try dividing the requirements into three groups:

Must have: Skills or qualifications the person genuinely needs from day one.

Can learn: Things the business can reasonably teach.

Nice to have: Extras that would be welcome but aren't necessary.

If the nice-to-have column is longer than the job description, you've probably discovered where the unicorn came from.

The mysterious competitive salary

Now for two words that deserve their own retirement party.

Competitive salary.

Competitive with whom?

The business next door?

London?

The candidate's current job?

The cost of a weekly supermarket shop?

Employers sometimes have legitimate reasons for keeping an exact figure flexible.

Experience, responsibilities and the final shape of a role can affect pay.

But giving applicants no indication of the likely salary makes it harder for them to judge whether the opportunity is right.

A realistic range, with an explanation of what affects the final offer, can make the conversation more straightforward.

It also saves everyone from reaching the end of an interview process only to discover that their expectations were several thousand pounds apart.

Nobody enjoys that conversation.

Especially after three interviews and a presentation.

Your interview is an advert too

Here's something businesses sometimes forget.

The candidate is assessing the employer.

While you're wondering whether this person will fit into your team, they're wondering whether they want to spend a substantial part of their week working with you.

Did the interview start on time?

Could the interviewer explain what the job involves?

Did anyone answer questions properly?

Was the recruitment process clear?

Did the business follow up when it said it would?

A company can spend a fortune developing its brand and then undermine the whole thing by leaving applicants wondering whether their interview disappeared into a filing cabinet.

You don't need a lavish recruitment experience.

You need to treat people as though their time matters.

Small businesses have something big companies can't always offer

Not every Cambridgeshire employer can compete with the salary, benefits or brand recognition of a large organisation.

But smaller businesses can have advantages of their own.

A new employee may get to know the owner, see the impact of their work and take on responsibilities that would be spread across several departments elsewhere.

There may be opportunities to learn quickly, influence decisions or work with a close-knit team.

Those things won't compensate for an unsuitable salary or poor working conditions.

But where they're genuinely part of the job, they're worth explaining.

“Join our friendly team” tells applicants very little.

“Work directly with the owner, help shape our customer service and receive training on our booking systems” gives them something more concrete to imagine.

The strongest recruitment adverts don't simply describe what the employer wants.

They explain why somebody would want to work there.

Perhaps you don't need a full-time unicorn

Sometimes the problem isn't the advert.

It's the role itself.

If a business needs a designer for a few hours, an accountant at month-end and somebody to help with marketing, combining all three into one full-time vacancy may not be the cleverest solution.

Depending on the work, a part-time employee, appropriately engaged specialist, freelancer or external provider might be more suitable.

That isn't an excuse to misclassify workers or avoid employment responsibilities.

The arrangement needs to reflect how the work is actually carried out.

But it is a reason to ask whether the business has designed the job around its real needs.

Recruitment becomes much easier to think about when you stop assuming every problem requires another full-time person.

Rewrite the advert before blaming the applicants

Before publishing your next vacancy, ask somebody outside the business to read it.

Can they explain what the person will actually do?

Can they distinguish the essential skills from the extras?

Do they know where the job is based, what the working arrangements are and what pay to expect?

Does the advert explain why the role might appeal to a good candidate?

And, most importantly, does the job sound like something one human being could reasonably do?

If the answer is yes, you're already ahead of the adverts asking for an energetic, adaptable, commercially minded, digitally fluent superstar with twelve years' experience in software released last Tuesday.

You might not find a unicorn.

You might find something much more valuable.

The right person for the actual job.

The Business Pulse Question

What's the most ridiculous phrase you've ever seen in a job advert?

“Competitive salary”?

“Must thrive under pressure”?

“We're like a family”?

Tell us in the comments and if you've seen a genuinely brilliant job advert, we'd love to hear about that too