What are the most important factors to you when looking for a job?

Job boards and career pages are swamped with hundreds of thousands of job vacancies so how can you choose which ones to apply for? They nearly all look the same. This got us thinking, how could we be different. How could we make sure that our adverts stand out from the crowd? We decided that we needed to ask you, the candidate.

We ran a survey over a period of one month, with the main purpose of finding out what factors were important to you when looking for a job. As an incentive, we offered one lucky person the chance to win an Amazon voucher.

We intend to use these results to write better job adverts that will help you make an informed decision when applying for our jobs.

A link to the survey was posted on our social media platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) and a widget placed on the job search page of our website.

When asked,

“What are the most important factors to you when looking for a job?” (Tick all that apply) 

The results showed that out of 59 respondents, the general consensus was that salary and location were important, closely followed by career prospects and benefits.

With so many great responses, I have included some below:

“When viewing job advertisements online how do you decide which ones to apply for?”.

'Salary is important, but it also has to be a good fit with the company culture and actual work so that there is satisfaction and enjoyment.'

One person said that for them to work in a place they didn't like, the salary would have to be significantly increased.

'Visible salary. I won't apply for anything where this isn't transparent as it implies inequality of salaries between staff, or that the company doesn't understand what the role entails.'

'Good detailed descriptions of the tech used and type of work. Many are very vague (eg: Backend developer required).'

“Which of the above factors are important to you when making the decision about accepting a job offer?”

One respondent mentioned that clarification about contract and details such as hours, salary, healthcare, sick days, etc.

‘First is the technology, because I want to enter a company where I can learn more. I want to grow together with the company. Then comes the salary and flexibility. I'd like to be paid fair depending on my skills and experience.’

‘Benefits. as a job should be benefiting my life, not making it harder to live. Company culture. a job will be my life so therefore culture will be important.’

‘What can the new job do for me that the current can’t?’

‘How the whole recruitment and interview process has gone (as this is an indicator of how the company handles themselves), terms of the offer and there being no surprises.’

‘The technologies are primary - I won’t give a second thought to a role that is using redundant or uninteresting technologies. The salary and location are also very important - a job in the wrong location or for the wrong salary won’t hold my attention for long. The job spec itself is actually of the least importance, as it rarely gives much of an accurate depiction of how a job will be, compared to the tech stack, which gives a pretty good idea of the work involved.’

Overall, our results showed that the important factors to candidates are salary, location and career prospects with companies offering a good company culture, flexibility, training, development and career progression as well as a good mix of new technologies. Not much to ask for really!