Creating a New Position

The position summary is the applicant-facing preview of your job. The position summary is a marketing tool and should not be a job description.  The first sentence or 300 characters is critical to draw an applicant’s interest to want to learn more about your position.

When writing a position summary, it is important to create a summary that markets the job effectively and is welcoming to applicants from all backgrounds. In an increasingly competitive market, it is key to keep position summaries brief with broad qualifications to ensure a broad and diverse applicant pool can be considered. When crafting your position summary, consider the following:

• Make the most of the first 150-350 characters
• Use bulleted lists to describe the essential job duties (5-10 bullets max)
• Avoid using gendered language; when referring to the candidate, use ‘you’ – for example, “in this position, you will…”
• Make text understandable to external applicants – avoid UB specific language

Minimum and preferred qualifications play a huge role in developing a pool of qualified applicants to consider. It is important to understand that narrow qualifications can unintentionally limit the diversity of your applicant pool. When defining qualifications, be sure to:

• Be clear and realistic about the requirements
• Focus on competencies rather than experience
• Talk about successes as a qualification
• Avoid listing number of years and instead, define specifically what the best candidate needs to have accomplished in their experience
• Consider using qualification equivalencies to consider candidates with a variety of educational and experience backgrounds

• Make the most of the first 150-350 characters
• Include a marketing paragraph or use a department specific paragraph if one is available at the very end
• Include a statement highlighting the value the department places on diversity and inclusion
• Write a posting that describes a normal business day to the applicant

Consider using some of the statements below as a guide to craft a statement that demonstrates the university’s commitment to diversity and encourages applicants that diversify our workforce to apply. Ideally, a diversity statement should be thoughtfully developed by the department to reflect their own values.

• The university is especially interested in qualified candidates who can contribute, through their research, teaching or service to the diversity and excellence of the academic community.
• Women, minorities, individuals with disabilities and veterans are encouraged to apply.
• The university seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce as a reflection of our commitment to serve the diverse people of Buffalo, to maintain the excellence of the university and to offer our students richly varied disciplines, perspectives and ways of knowing and learning.
• The school/department is interested in candidates who have demonstrated commitment to excellence by providing leadership in teaching research or service toward building an equitable and diverse scholarly environment.
• We welcome candidates whose experience in teaching, research or community service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence.

Use a marketing statement at the end of the position summary to highlight your department or the university. Consider using a mission statement from your department's website. Copy and paste one of the following marketing statements to include a marketing statement with a hyperlink to the UB website.

The University at Buffalo is SUNY’s most comprehensive public research university, and an outstanding place to work. UB amplifies ambition for faculty and staff by offering endless possibilities to achieve more. Here, people from all backgrounds and cultures challenge and inspire each other to discover, learn and succeed. Dedicated staff and engaged faculty collaborate to further knowledge and understanding, and develop tenacious graduates who are valued for their talents and their impact on global society. Visit our website to learn more about the University at Buffalo.

Working at UB comes with benefits that exceed salary alone. There are personal rewards including comprehensive health and retirement plan options. We also focus on creating and sustaining a healthy mix of work, personal and academic pursuit - all in an effort to support your work-life effectiveness. Visit our benefits website to learn about our benefit packages.

Show these positions in your organizational chart:

• The proposed position
• All positions reporting to the position in question, including vacant positions
• All position reporting to the immediate supervisory, including vacant positions
• The reporting chain up to the president
• Student positions including work study, students, interns, student assistants, graduate assistants