First let me say, I read through a business development job ad today that was fairly well-written.  The ad did use many second person questions – Do you enjoy closing deals…?  I’m not a huge fan of that approach, but I suspect it engages the readers at some level.

The part I wanted to call out was towards the end of the ad when the author calls out the requirements for this position:

To be a successful candidate for the BDM position, you should:

· Hold a Bachelor€™s Degree, preferably in Packaging

· Have 8 years sales-related packaging experience

First, the B.A. degree should be a preference and not a requirement.  I googled the “Packaging” degree and it appears to be related to Packaging Design.  If that is crucial to successfully selling in this market, fine (I personally don’t know).  However, I am of the conviction that sales cannot be taught in school.  Successful salespeople have a blend of abilities that have been refined by sales experiences.

Second, “Have 8 years…” is sloppy.  8?  Not 7, not 9?  The better form would be “Have a minimum of 8 years….”  Still, I would say this experience is desirable but not required.

I’ve never understood how companies come to the conclusion of how many years is ideal.  What if the candidate has 8 years of industry experience but it was basically the first year repeated 8 times?  What if another candidate has only 5 years of industry experience but it was 5 years of unique growth and development?  This ad’s requirement would discourage or eliminate the candidate who actually had better experience as opposed to tenure.

We never use the minimum years’ experience requirement in our ads.  I do not recommend that you use it in your ads either.

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