The career page that really brings applicants – eight building blocks
Table of contents 5 sections
Why eight building blocks are the minimum framework
A career page that consists of nothing but "We're looking for YOU" plus three bullet points hardly brings applications any more. Applicants have learned to recognise quickly whether there is a real business with answers behind a page, or just a shell. And they decide in the first seconds whether they read on or go back to the Google result list.
Stefan, a plumbing and heating contractor in Carinthia with 14 employees, noticed this on the second attempt at his career page. The first version was pretty, but delivered too little. The second version had eight clearly separated building blocks – no more and no fewer – and brought more consistent applications in the following months, without anything being changed in the ad budget.
The following eight building blocks are not "nice to have". They are the minimum framework that decides whether an interested person becomes an applicant. Each building block answers a concrete question applicants ask themselves while scrolling. Anyone who leaves one out leaves an open question standing – and open questions statistically lead to clicking away rather than to an application.
The eight building blocks in detail
Building block 1: Open positions, clearly named
Applicants do not search for "careers" – they search for "plumber Villach" or "seasonal service staff Carinthia". The first task of the career page is to mirror their concrete search query. A visible list of open positions, each with job title, location, and one sentence on "what it's actually about", is mandatory.
At Stefan's it reads at the top: "Plumber with experience – Villach – full-time – company car and tools provided". Three lines, all the decisive information visible, without anyone having to click first. If you have three different positions, list three positions. If you have nothing open, write that too and offer a speculative application – instead of leaving an empty career page standing.
Building block 2: Conditions, not embellishments
Pay, working hours, special allowances, company car, tools, company phone. Exactly these things the applicant wants to know before applying. And exactly these things are absent from most career pages.
Practical form: collective-agreement minimum plus concrete overpayment as a range. "Gross 3,200 to 3,800 euros depending on experience, plus allowances for standby and away assembly." Anyone who advertises bare minimum wages should write nothing. Anyone who takes the research off the applicant's hands builds trust immediately. The fear that "the competition sees everything" rarely holds up to the test in practice – the competition knows anyway.
Building block 3: Real team photos
Stock photos are burnt. Applicants recognise them in two seconds, and from then on the credibility of the whole page is compromised. What works are real photos: the boss in work clothes, the apprentice on the first day, the team in the break room.
At Stefan's there are three photos under the positions: himself in front of the company car, two employees during a heating replacement, the apprentice on the building site. First names underneath, a short description of the work. No photo shoot needed – a smartphone in daylight is often enough. More important than the image quality is that the people are real and have consented to GDPR-compliant publication.
Building block 4: The first working week, concrete
A question every applicant asks themselves, but hardly any career page answers: what happens on Monday. Who do you work with, where do you meet, what do you do in the first week, who shows you the tools.
Three to five sentences are enough. "You start at 7:00 in the workshop in Villach. Stefan shows you the ongoing building sites, you ride along on maintenance tours with Markus in the first week. Your tools are waiting for you, you get your company car at the end of the second week, once you have the route overview." Concrete, calm, honest. That is more than most career pages ever deliver – and it costs ten minutes of writing.
Building block 5: An application form that works on the phone
Applications today come predominantly from the phone. If the form is cumbersome on the phone, you lose the applications exactly where the majority of your target group sits.
Minimum set: name, email, phone number, a "what is it about" field, an optional CV upload. No more. Date of birth, gender, hobbies, previous salaries have no place in the application – much of it you are not even allowed to ask. The upload has to work from the photo gallery and from the mail attachment. Mandatory fields clearly marked, no asterisk riddle.
More on the question of why the wrong applicants often get in touch – or none at all – is in the article on why the wrong people keep applying.
Building block 6: A contact person with photo and phone
An info@ address is not a contact person. Applicants want to know who they will concretely be dealing with. Photo, first name, role, phone number, direct email address – compact next to the application form.
At Stefan's that is himself. Photo, "Stefan, owner", mobile number, mail. Three sentences beside it: "If you have questions or prefer to call directly, I pick up myself. Weekdays from 6:30 to 18:00." That measurably lowers the barrier – especially for applicants who experience the application form as a hurdle and would rather just ask.
Building block 7: An answer promise you also keep
One of the most common applicant complaints about SMEs: no response. That applies even when the application does not fit – a "doesn't fit, thanks anyway" is often highly appreciated, because it comes so rarely.
A concrete statement on the career page that you will get back within three working days is a trust lever. Prerequisite: you have to do it too. If you break the promise three times, the credibility of your career page is damaged in the long run. A simple system – applications are mirrored into your mail inbox plus your calendar to-do – is enough for most businesses.
Building block 8: What you do differently as an employer
The last building block is the most differentiating, and it comes at the end of the page – not at the beginning. Three to five concrete sentences on why it is different with you than at the standard business of the industry.
At Stefan's: "With us there are no weekend shifts except the emergency standby, which rotates. The business provides tools and work clothing in full. The company car is yours – privately too. Further training is paid; last year three of us did the master craftsman exam." Four sentences, concrete, without marketing speak. That is more than many "we offer a young, dynamic team" phrases will ever deliver.
In which order you tackle the building blocks
The eight building blocks do not all have to be created at once. Anyone starting from zero begins most sensibly in this order.
First the positions including conditions (building blocks 1 and 2) – that is the substance, without which everything else has no effect. Then the contact person and the answer promise (6 and 7) – so the applicant has a channel at all and knows what to expect. After that team photos (3), the first working week (4), and the difference to the standard business (8) – these are the trust levers that turn the page from a board into a point of contact. Finally the clean application form (5), which translates the whole structure into the concrete.
Anyone who builds in phases has, after each phase, a page that is already better than the industry average. Anyone who waits for the big throw has no career page for two years.
What happens if you leave building blocks out
Each omitted building block leaves a concrete question open. Without conditions, the applicant researches themselves – and their research is mostly more pessimistic than your honest information would have been. Without team photos, the page stays anonymous, and anonymity loses against every competitor with real faces. Without a contact person, the applicant does not write – or writes to a mailbox they cannot later place.
An omitted position is not a neutral absence. It is an active loss of trust, because the applicant wonders why exactly this question stays open. Career pages are read in detail, especially by people changing their job – that is one of the most important decisions of their year. Anyone who competes with fewer than eight building blocks competes with half the ammunition against businesses that have understood this.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do all eight building blocks really have to be on an SME career page?
At minimum, yes. You can develop the building blocks to different depths – a five-person business needs no whole team gallery, a photo of the boss plus "and four colleagues, all on board for at least three years" is enough. But every building block has to be visible in some form, otherwise a concrete applicant question stays open.
What happens if I state salaries and the competition sees that?
The competition knows anyway what is paid on the market. What you gain are applications from people who fit your price range – and you save yourself first conversations with applicants whose expectations are far apart. Practice shows: career pages with salary information get fewer, but more relevant applications.
How long does it take to build a career page with all eight building blocks?
In terms of content you need one to two half-days to bring the texts and photos together. The technical implementation depends on what exists – as an extension of an existing website usually between 5 and 15 hours of work. Anyone who has it done externally is realistically between roughly 2,000 and 6,000 euros for the first version, depending on scope and photo material.
What do I do if I currently have no open positions?
Write exactly that on the career page – honestly and with the note that speculative applications are welcome because the business is growing. An empty career page or a hidden "careers" page looks worse than one that honestly says: nothing open right now, but we are glad to hear from you. Plus the eight building blocks stay – just without the current position list.
How often do I have to maintain the career page?
Job openings at every change. Team photos at the latest every two to three years, or when someone important joins or leaves. The rest – conditions, contact person, answer promise, difference to the industry standard – read through completely once a year to check it all still holds. Anyone who invests half an hour once a year has a page that does not feel frozen.
What you can do this week
Print out the eight building blocks as a list and go through your own career page with it point by point. What is missing, what is thin, what is clearly there. That is the most honest stocktaking you can have in half an hour – and it shows you concretely where the next investment has the biggest leverage.
Anyone who wants to take the step from the stocktaking to the structural rebuild will find the bigger picture in the overview of career pages that bring applicants – including the question of which model fits your business.
