Employment Services

Professional - Writing the Ad

1. CONSIDER WHERE TO ADVERTISE
   Where are you most likely to reach qualified candidates and get a positive response? In addition to newspaper ads, are there other avenues available such as a professional journal? Have you considered low-cost approaches such as a targeted listserve?
2. CONSIDER AVAILABALE FUNDS
   Your allocated funding for recruiting is either $500 (local search), $1,000 (regional search) or $1,800 (national search). The following are typical costs for an average-sized ad: Maine Sunday Telegram ($550), Boston Globe ($1,300 ), Chronicle of Higher Education ($1200).
3. STICK TO ESSENTIALS - sample ad
   Keep the text as brief as possible. Do not use long sentences. Stimulate sufficient interest for the candidate to take the next step of accessing our Employment Services and USM websites for more information. The following statement must be placed in your ad: We hope to attract staff who share a commitment to diversity, tolerance and an active examination of ideas that can provide our students with a greater understanding of the richness and complexity of our society.
4. DON'T INCLUDE REQUIREMENT YOU CAN'T LIVE WITH LATER
   Put more in Apreferred@ and less in Arequired@ qualifications to preserve your flexibility. Ask yourself: if a candidate was superior in every other way (even in some ways we may not have thought of but are helpful in top performance), would we really want to have to reject his/her application for failing to meet this required qualification?
   
   If a doctorate is involved, don=t fail to specify that you will consider ABD if that is the case.
   
   Remember: you must stick to the "letter" of the ad. Putting things in Apreferred@ still allows you to screen on those criteria but preserves your flexibility.

Note:  Send ad as an email only and include a list of publications and their addresses and phone numbers.

For problems with this page, contact: Linda Boody