Honesty: advertise real jobs, and be yourself on paper

Why it matters

Adverts for jobs that don’t exist, or were filled weeks ago, waste hours of people’s time and teach them that applying is pointless. CVs that overstate what someone did waste interview slots and teach employers to distrust every CV. Both make hiring slower for everyone who’s being straight.

For employers

Only advertise a role you mean to fill now. If you’re collecting CVs for future roles, that’s fine, but call it a talent pool in the title and say when you expect to hire.

Close the advert within 5 working days of someone accepting an offer. Tell the people still in the process, too (see commitment 7).

If a role is paused or cancelled, take the advert down and tell everyone who applied.

For candidates

Describe what you did, at the level you did it. If you contributed to a project, say what your part was. If you led it, say that.

A good test: could you talk for five minutes about every line on your CV? If not, rewrite the line until you could.

Using tools to write is fine (see commitment 6). The facts still need to be yours.

Questions

Is a talent pool advert against the standard? No, as long as it’s labelled. The problem is a pool presented as a live job.

What about adverts reposted automatically? If a role is still open, reposting is fine. Check that old adverts on other sites close when the role does.