Why the wrong people keep applying – and what your website has to do with it
Table of contents 6 sections
- 01Why the wrong people keep applying — the invisible filter
- 02What advertising language attracts in applicants — and what it misses
- 03What plain language attracts — and why the application rate becomes more honest
- 04Where plain language stops working — Thomas and the language trap in B2B
- 05Four questions before every job ad that sharpen your applicant rate
- 06What you can do today
Why the wrong people keep applying — the invisible filter
There is a complaint you hear in almost every managing-director conversation: "We do get applications, but they're the wrong ones." The position is clear, the need is concrete, the ads are running – and yet again and again people sit at the first interview who obviously do not fit the task. Career changers without prior knowledge for a specialist position. Experienced people for an apprentice role. Applicants who have never held a spanner, for a position as a journeyman.
The quick explanation is: "The market is just empty." It is not wrong, it is just incomplete. The more honest explanation is: your career page filters your applicants – and in many cases it filters out exactly the right ones.
Language is a filter. What you write on the career page decides who feels addressed and who clicks on. Most SME career pages write a certain kind of language by reflex – and unconsciously sort the wrong ones in and the right ones out.
Stefan, a plumbing and heating contractor in Carinthia with 14 employees, went through this himself. Three years of applications, three years of frustrating first interviews. Only when he rewrote the job ad – not raised the ad budget, not changed the channel – did the applications he was looking for arrive.
Language filters — who reads "young, dynamic team" and who reads "cuts mineral wool"
On practically every second SME career page stand the same sentences. "Become part of a young, dynamic team." "We offer a modern working environment with flat hierarchies." "Independent work in a future-proof industry." The sentences seem harmless, even positive – and they are the actual problem.
This language addresses a very particular group of people: those who read career websites like marketing material and are drawn in by an atmospheric self-image. It does not address another group: people who want to know what they will concretely be doing at half past six tomorrow morning. But for a plumber position, a hotel kitchen, a workshop, the applicants you actually want sit precisely in the second group.
The sentences on your career page are unconscious searchlights. They shine in a certain direction and overlook the rest. Anyone who understands this can turn the searchlights.
What advertising language attracts in applicants — and what it misses
Advertising language speaks in attributes and promises. "Modern", "dynamic", "future-proof", "independent". These words are interchangeable – a thousand other career pages use them the same way. Anyone used to speaking in attributes from CV-writing feels addressed by it. Anyone used to doing keeps looking elsewhere.
The result: many applications from people used to selling themselves well. Few applications from people used to working well. This is not to be judged morally – self-marketing is a discipline like any other. But if you are looking for a plumber, a service worker, or a tool mechanic, you need doing, not talking. And you need a language that mirrors that.
A second effect: applicants who take your advertising sentences seriously come to the first interview with expectations the real business cannot fulfil. "Flat hierarchies" meets a boss who makes the decisions alone. "Modern working environment" meets a workshop not renovated since 1998. The advertising sentences produce disappointment – and that produces resignations during the probation period.
What plain language attracts — and why the application rate becomes more honest
Plain language means: concrete sentences instead of attributes. Instead of "dynamic team" it reads "four colleagues, all on board for at least three years, Stefan is the youngest at 31". Instead of "modern working environment" it reads "workshop with two lifting platforms, heating being renewed this summer, break room with coffee machine and microwave". Instead of "independent work" it reads "after onboarding you drive your own maintenance tours, plan the order yourself, only check in with Stefan on bigger decisions".
This language attracts different applicants. Those who want to know what they will be doing, and who are looking for exactly that. It deters others. Those who can do nothing with "you drive the tours", because they have no driving licence or do not trust themselves with their own tour. Both are good – the wrong ones do not even come, the right ones apply because they recognise themselves.
At Stefan's, after the switch fewer applications came per month – but of the applications that came, considerably more fit. The number of first interviews that led to an employment rose visibly in the following quarters. Plain language lowers the application quantity and raises the application quality. Anyone looking for staff wants quality, not quantity.
Where plain language stops working — Thomas and the language trap in B2B
Plain language does not mean "simple language" or "tradesperson language". Plain language means: the language of the target group. At Thomas's, the managing director of a special-purpose machinery business in Carinthia, that looks different.
Thomas is looking for design engineers, welders with a pressure-equipment certificate, and programmers for the machine control. If he writes "you program the machines" on the career page, that is plain language, but it is too unspecific. His applicant profile – someone with experience in PLC programming, Siemens TIA Portal, maybe Codesys – only understands from the technical terms whether the position fits them. "You program" is not wrong, it is just not selective.
The translation is: every industry has its own plain language. In the trades it is "cutting mineral wool", "heating commissioning", "solar connection". In the technical mid-market it is "PLC programming", "welding to EN 287-1", "CAD with SolidWorks". In hospitality it is "service in the breakfast room", "six-day week, days off plannable", "tips are shared". Anyone who writes in the language of their target group filters the right ones in and the wrong ones out.
What does not work: advertising language plus a few technical terms as a side dish. That feels tacked on and filters nothing. What works: the whole job ad in the language of the target group – plus a short, clear explanation for the conditions that count regardless of the industry.
Four questions before every job ad that sharpen your applicant rate
Before you write the next position text, let four questions guide you.
First: which people should apply to this position – not in the CV sense, but in the doing sense? What did they last do, with which tools, in which environment? Collect three to five such profiles before you start writing.
Second: which words would these people use if they described their last field of activity? Ask, if you have employees with a similar profile in the business. Listen more closely in interviews. Read relevant forums or industry magazines. You are looking for the self-description language, not the marketing language.
Third: which words would deter these people? "Dynamic team" often comes across as unattractive rather than appealing to an experienced tool mechanic – because he knows that dynamism in the workshop means either chaos or pretence. Strike the words your desired target group experiences as hollow.
Fourth: which concrete statements can you make that other businesses do not make like that? Not "company car", but "company car privately too, including fuel card". Not "further training", but "master training is paid and you get time off for it". Specificity is what ultimately triggers the trust lever.
These four questions give you the substance from which a job ad emerges that filters what it is meant to filter. They do not replace HR knowledge and they do not make filling positions easier by themselves. But they ensure that the effort you put into first interviews is not undone in advance by your own language.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does that mean I may not have any advertising sentences on the career page?
You may – they just should not be the only content. An introductory sentence that positions the brand is acceptable. But it has to be accompanied by concrete statements about the working day, the conditions, and the business. Anyone who has only advertising sentences filters the wrong ones in. Anyone who combines plain language with a short brand opener has the best of both.
What if my real working conditions don't sound particularly attractive?
Then honesty is all the more important. Applicants you attract with embellishing language resign during probation because the reality is different. Applicants you attract with honest language come with realistic expectations and stay. What does not sound ideal you can supplement with what there is in exchange – "no air conditioning in the workshop, but Fridays you finish at 2pm". That is a trade, not a deficiency.
How much does a proper job ad in this plain-language form cost?
If you write it yourself, it costs two to four hours of work – plus the preparation of making clear to yourself who you are actually looking for and which language they speak. Commissioned externally, a well-made job ad is in the order of 200 to 500 euros. The effort pays off because afterwards you need less ad budget to reach the same number of fitting applications.
Does plain language also work for apprentice positions?
Especially there. Apprentices aged fifteen to seventeen read advertising language with scepticism – they are in a life phase where they want to see concrete reality, not promises. "You start in the workshop, you first learn the tools, after three months you ride along to your first building sites" is considerably more convincing than "become part of our young team and shape your future".
How long does it take before I notice a new language changing something?
For ongoing positions often after four to eight weeks. For seasonal or hard-to-fill positions it can take a quarter. What matters is not the quick rise in application numbers, but the gradual improvement of application quality. Anyone who measures that sees results earlier than anyone who looks at the raw count.
What you can do today
Take your currently advertised job ad, read it aloud, and strike everything that sounds like an attribute. What remains is your substance. If that is little, you know why – and you have a clear next step: add concrete sentences, in the language of the person you are looking for.
Anyone who wants to take the step from individual job ads to the structural rework of the career page will find the bigger picture in the overview of career pages that bring applicants – with a note on which building blocks your language carries and which it cannot replace on its own.
