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The longer a UK job advert gets, the less of it is about the job
The median UK job advert is 408 words. We opened up 505 of them and counted what the words are spent on. As adverts get longer the perks section grows 5.2 times over while the requirements section barely moves, and in the longest adverts benefits is the single biggest thing on the page.
1 in 5 UK job adverts asks you to be five different people
We read 5,977 live UK job adverts and counted the personality traits each one asks for. One in five wants five or more at once, and the most demanding asked for eleven. The traits employers ask for most, and what to do about it.
A receptionist advert gets 45 applications. A nurse advert gets 2.
We analysed 1,657 live UK job adverts and the applications each had received. Competition varies more than twenty to one between occupations, and the "easy to get" jobs are the hardest. Where the queue is shortest in 2026.
Civil Service behaviour questions: how your answer is actually scored (2026)
Civil Service behaviour answers are marked against a published key: the Success Profiles markers for your grade. Most applicants have never read it. Here are the real markers, how the same behaviour changes between grades, why polished answers score badly, and the method that writes to the key instead of past it.
Making Effective Decisions example answer: a full EO walkthrough (2026)
The most-searched Civil Service behaviour, worked properly: the real Executive Officer markers, a realistic answer that fails against them, the follow-up questions that surface the missing evidence, and the 250-word rebuild from the same facts. No invented achievements, just the detail the writer forgot to include.
The most overused UK job advert phrases: we read 5,975 and the classic cliches have almost vanished
'Self-starter' appears in 0.2% of UK adverts. 'Go-getter' turned up once. 'Rockstar', 'ninja' and 'guru' not at all. We read 5,975 live UK job adverts across 29 occupations and ranked the cliches. The corporate buzzwords have gone, and what replaced them is a feeling that clusters on frontline jobs. Full leaderboard and role-by-role breakdown inside.
'Fast-paced' in UK job adverts: we read 5,982 and the busiest jobs barely use it
'Fast-paced' appears in 54% of UK retail adverts but only 4% of waitressing adverts, one of the busiest jobs there is. We read 5,982 live UK job adverts across 29 occupations. The phrase tracks habit, not workload. Here is the full per-occupation breakdown, what it really signals to candidates, and how to read past it.