Veterinary Voices — Episode 273

Vanilla Job Ads From Vanilla Clinics Get Vanilla Applications

Julie South [00:00:05]: If your job ad lists requirements like "must be a team player", "must do one weekend in four", and "must thrive in a fast-paced environment" — this episode is going to explain why those requirements are doing the opposite of what you intended.

Welcome to Veterinary Voices — culture storytelling conversations for forward-thinking vet clinics.

I'm Julie South and this is Episode 273.

Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs — helping forward-thinking clinics get applications from Their Kind of People.

Stay to the end — because today I'm going to reframe what self-selection is, and why it matters more than any requirement you'll ever put in a job ad.

Since the pandemic, vet clinics have been asking their job ads to do more and more work to attract applications from suitably qualified, good culture-fit vets and nurses.

This is the fourth episode in a series looking at the load being put on job ads — and why job ads aren't designed to carry that load.

Today we're talking about self-selection — and identification.

Julie South [00:01:30]: Here's how clinics think self-selection works.

They write a requirements list. Must be a team player. Must thrive in a fast-paced environment. Must have excellent communication skills. Must be passionate about continuous learning. Must do one weekend in four. And the list goes on.

The idea is that vets and nurses who don't fit will read those requirements and opt out — and those who do fit will read them and apply.

Reasonable in theory. In practice, it doesn't work.

Here's why.

Julie South [00:02:06]: Every vet or nurse who reads "must be a team player" believes they already are one. Every vet or nurse who reads "must thrive in a fast-paced environment" pictures their current workplace and thinks — yep, that's me.

The requirements aren't filtering anyone out. They're just words that every vet or nurse maps onto themselves — because as people, we're wired to see ourselves in a positive light, especially when we're looking for a job.

So the list of requirements does almost no self-selection work at all. Everyone passes. And you get applications from people who were never going to be a fit.

There's a deeper problem as well. And it's this.

When every clinic uses the same words, the same descriptors, the same blah — they all look vanilla. Identical.

Julie South [00:03:08]: And you can't self-select — you can't identify — against vanilla. Because there's nothing to select or identify with.

Self-selection requires information. Specifically, it requires information about you — the clinic.

A vet or nurse can only self-select, only identify with your clinic, when they know what it's genuinely like to work there. What the pace feels like. What the team dynamics are. What happens when something goes wrong. What kind of cases you see. What the practice owner is like — dare I say it — when they're having a bad hair day.

Your job ad doesn't tell them any of that. It tells them what you want from them. It says nothing real about what they'd be walking into.

Julie South [00:04:09]: So you're asking vets and nurses to assess fit — while withholding the information they'd need to do that.

That's not self-selection on their side. It's a guessing game. Except you're both playing it.

Here's the reframe that might shift how you think about this.

The goal of a job ad isn't volume. It's not to get as many applications as possible. It's to get the right application — from a vet or nurse who already knows that you are their kind of clinic, who's already identified with what you stand for, who's applying because something in them went: yes, that's me. I want to work there.

One application like that is worth more than fifty from people who are guessing.

Julie South [00:04:59]: Most clinics are fishing with a net — cast wide, haul in everything, sort through later. But the sorting is expensive. In time, in energy, and in the cost of a wrong hire.

You may have identified with warm body hiring — anybody will do. And it ends up backfiring.

Fishing with a line means the right person finds you before you've even started looking for them. Because you've given them something real to recognise and identify with — outside of the job ad.

Julie South [00:05:49]: That's not a volume problem. That's a recognition and identification problem. And a requirements list won't solve it.

Recognition and identification don't happen through a requirements list. They happen through voice. Through specificity. Through the lived experience of real people describing a real place.

A vet or nurse is scrolling, reading, listening — and something lands. A specific detail. A moment someone describes. A way of talking about patients, or about the team, or about what matters at the end of a shift.

And something in them goes: yes, that's my kind of clinic. My kind of people.

Julie South [00:06:46]: That moment — of yes, that's me, that's where I'd belong — that is what self-selection and identification is.

It doesn't travel on a list of bullet points.

Super quick interruption.

If you're wondering what a vet or nurse finds when they search for your clinic right now — how about booking a one-hour consult with me? We'll look at it together and you'll be able to see what's showing up through fresh eyes.

Email me — julie@vetclinicjobs.com.

Now back to today's show.

Julie South [00:07:48]: The vet or nurse who is genuinely your kind of person — the one who'd fit your team, share your values, stay for years — they're not going to be tipped over the line by words like "must be a team player."

They're going to be tipped over the line by something specific. Something that tells them — before they've ever set foot in it — that you are their kind of clinic. And they're your kind of people.

Here's what I'd like to invite you to think about this week.

Look at your most recent job ad. Find the requirements section.

Ask yourself — honestly — is it vanilla?

And if you're not sure, I'd hazard a guess and say it probably is.

If you'd like to talk about what that looks like — email me. julie@vetclinicjobs.com.

Next week in Episode 274 — the next job your job ad was never built to do: carry your ongoing visibility.

Please remember to hit the follow button and it will land in your feed automatically — auto-magically.

This is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self.

Thank you for listening to the end.

And remember — when vets and nurses can see that you are their kind of people, you stop hiring strangers. You start welcoming people who already feel like they belong. Because you're their kind of clinic.

Julie South [00:09:15]: Until next week.