How to Write a Job Ad for Your Trade Business That Doesn't Waste Your Time
Most trade job ads get ignored or attract the wrong candidates — people who misread what the job is, don't have the licences you need, or apply to anything with 'construction' in the title. The result is a week of screening calls you didn't need to make, an interview with someone who clearly can't do the job, and the same post back online a fortnight later. The problem is structural. A job ad has two jobs: attracting qualified candidates and filtering out unqualified ones. Most trade job ads fail at both — they're too vague to attract good people and don't disqualify the wrong ones before they apply. The fix isn't a longer ad. It's a more honest one, built in the right order.
The opening line is almost always wasted
'ABC Builders is a growing construction company looking for an experienced tradesperson to join our team.' That sentence is on a hundred job ads. Nobody reads it and thinks: that's the company for me.
The opening line of a job ad should tell a candidate one specific thing about why this job is worth reading. Not in a marketing way — in a factual way. 'We run two or three residential builds at a time, we finish at 3pm on Fridays, and the same crew has been with us for four years' gives a good candidate something to react to. It's specific enough to be credible and signals the kind of shop you run. The builder bible includes a job posting prompt that starts here — the one-sentence pitch that makes the right candidate pause before moving into pay, day-to-day, and requirements.
Lead with pay — every time
The single biggest reason experienced tradespeople skip a job ad is that the pay isn't listed. Workers who know their worth aren't going to apply and negotiate from a position of ignorance. 'Competitive salary' or 'pay based on experience' means one thing to a tradesperson who's been in the industry for a decade: this company doesn't want to tell you what it pays.
Listing the pay range solves multiple problems at once. It pre-screens before a single call is made — candidates expecting more than you offer exclude themselves. It tells candidates in the right range that their application is worth making. And it signals that your business is transparent about money, which matters to the kind of worker you actually want. For trade hires, the range works better than a single figure. '$35-42 an hour depending on experience and tickets' is honest, specific, and filters both directions.
Describe the actual day, not the role
'Assist with construction activities' describes almost every labouring job ever posted and tells a candidate nothing concrete. Three or four honest bullets about the actual week is what works. What are they doing Monday morning? What machinery or tools are they operating? Are they on one site all week or moving between two or three? Is there client interaction or head-down fieldwork?
The more specific the description, the better it performs. Qualified candidates can picture themselves doing the work; unqualified candidates can see it isn't them. Specific descriptions also prevent the expensive problem of someone starting the job and being surprised by the reality. A hire who thought they were doing finishing work but ends up doing formwork cleanup three days a week is a churn risk within a month — and the job ad is partly responsible.
Must-haves and nice-to-haves are different lists
Most trade job ads fold required qualifications and desirable ones into a single list under 'requirements.' The effect is predictable: candidates with 80% of what's listed assume they don't qualify and don't apply, while candidates with 30% of it apply anyway on the assumption it's worth a shot.
Splitting the list changes who applies. Label one list clearly: must-haves. These are the things you genuinely won't hire without — the licence, the certification, the white card, the physical requirement. Label the second list nice-to-haves — experience with a specific system, familiarity with a particular trade, a background in a related area. Candidates who hit the must-haves and most of the nice-to-haves will apply. Candidates who hit none of the must-haves will read the first list and self-select out. Two separate lists also make screening calls faster — you check must-haves first and, if those are clear, move to the rest.
Tell people exactly how to apply — and what happens next
The application process communicates something about how you run your business, and the right candidates pay attention. A concrete process includes what to send (resume, copies of trade licences, references if available), who to send it to, and what happens next. Will they get a reply within a week? Is there a phone screen before an interview? Is there a trial day?
For trade hires, a phone-first process often works better than a resume-first one. Some builders ask applicants to call between specific hours on a specific day — it tells you immediately whether the person follows instructions, and that first call does more screening than most cover letters. Others ask for a brief three-line message: what they've done, where they're based, and when they're available. Both approaches work; the point is to make the process concrete rather than open-ended. An open-ended application instruction produces both more applications and more irrelevant ones.
A good trade job ad takes about the same time to write as a bad one. Lead with pay, describe the actual day in honest bullets, separate must-haves from nice-to-haves so the right people self-qualify before applying, and close with a clear application process. The result is fewer applications from candidates who can't do the job and more from candidates who can — a faster path from posting to hire, and less time spent on calls that go nowhere.
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