can we put some effort into job ads for senior roles, please?

It's around this time of the week the public transport press becomes available to view online, so I'll often grab a coffee and have a skim through.

The format is a familiar one - intro from the editor, a round-up of the week's news, a series of articles on topical issues, reader's letters, a classified section of vehicles for sale etc all rounded off with a selection of the latest jobs.

It's the last bit that continues to disappoint me.

Assuming the adverts are supplied by the advertiser as opposed to set by the publisher, the standard is dire. These are quite often ads for very senior roles in the transport industry - managing directors, commercial directors etc - yet their execution looks like a Friday afternoon afterthought someone that has given to the work experience kid.

No imagination, no real thought about how the brand is represented in a national publication, no real belief about what it stands for. It's often just typeset in Word, at a resolution that is too low for print - meaning not only is it a crap looking ad, but it's also an out of focus ad too.

Can you imagine respected retailers like John Lewis or Jigsaw recruiting for senior roles in such a way? Not a chance. Their brand police wouldn't let poor work leave the building let alone represent them to potential employees. Yet somehow it's par for the course in public transport.

If the bus industry (in particular) wants to see itself a retail product, it needs to start behaving like one.