Writing an effective job description is a crucial step in attracting the right candidates for a role. With the average job ad getting just 118 clicks on job sites, you need to make your listing stand out from the crowd. This guide will walk you through the key elements of crafting an engaging, informative job description that presents your company culture in a compelling way and motivates high-quality applicants to apply.
What is the purpose of a job description?
A job posting has two main goals:
1. Attract qualified candidates by clearly explaining the role, required skills, and what your company can offer.
2. Screen applicants by providing details that allow unqualified or poorly matched candidates to self-select out of the process.
In addition to those core objectives, an excellent job description also:
– Reflects your employer brand and workplace culture to entice suitable candidates.
– Sells the value of working for your company to motivate applicants.
– Provides a positive, authentic portrayal of the position to set appropriate expectations.
How to structure an effective job description
While the exact job ad format can vary, most job descriptions include the same key sections:
– Job title and overview. Begin with an appealing, descriptive job title and high-level overview of the role.
– Company description. Provide a brief intro to your company, including your mission, values and culture.
– Responsibilities and duties. List the core functions and responsibilities of the position.
– Requirements and qualifications. Outline the hard and soft skills, abilities, and credentials required or preferred.
– Benefits and perks. Highlight the compensation, benefits packages, and other perks offered.
– Next steps. Explain the application process and next steps for candidates.
Following this basic structure ensures you cover all the essential information applicants need to determine if they’re a good fit. Let’s explore each section in more depth:
Craft an attention-grabbing title and overview
The job title and opening paragraph are your first chance to capture interest. Follow these tips for an impactful introduction:
– Choose a compelling, descriptive job title that conveys the essence of the role. Stay away from generic titles like “Accountant” in favor of something like “Staff Accountant – Tax and Audit”.
– Keep the overview paragraph short, specific and focused on the position’s value. Include critical details like location, department and core responsibilities.
– Use energetic, action-oriented language like “lead”, “drive”, “create”. Avoid filler words.
– Speak directly to the ideal candidate by describing what they will do and accomplish.
Here’s an example opening for a Marketing Manager role:
Digital Marketing Manager
As our Digital Marketing Manager you will own the development, execution and measurement of comprehensive marketing campaigns to meet lead generation and pipeline growth goals. You will lead our digital marketing team and oversee campaign ideation, production and analytics across our paid, owned and earned channels.
Highlight your employer brand
The company description section is a valuable opportunity to communicate your employer brand and distinguish your workplace culture.
– Keep it brief. 2-3 concise paragraphs or 3-5 bullet points. You can provide links to longer descriptions on your careers site.
– Focus on the aspects of your culture that will matter most to candidates in that particular role. What will get them excited to work for you?
– Emphasize your mission, values, diversity and inclusion practices, workplace atmosphere, career development opportunities, leadership style, community initiatives – anything that captures your organization’s personality and sets you apart.
– Avoid generic corporate jargon and keep the tone friendly, conversational and proud.
Here are some examples:
Our rapidly growing fintech firm is obsessed with making personal finance and investing accessible for everyone. We’ve built an exceptional team of creative, collaborative problem-solvers committed to empowering people with financial knowledge and tools. Our flat, transparent culture encourages new perspectives, bold ideas and ownership at all levels.
As a certified B Corp, our bottom line includes our social impact. We offer flexible work options, volunteer time off, dog-friendly offices, and learning/development stipends for every employee. Join our mission to create a more financially literate, equitable world!
Describe the role’s core duties
This section forms the meat of the job description. To write an informative overview of the position’s responsibilities:
– Carefully review any existing job documentation to identify key objectives and functions.
– Interview managers to collect additional details about day-to-day duties. Take thorough notes.
– Group related tasks and responsibilities into 4-8 broader categories or focus areas. These become subheadings to organize the information.
– List out core responsibilities and activities under each subheading. Start sentences with active verbs like “lead”, “develop”, “oversee”.
– Use bullet points for easy skimming. Short 1-2 sentence descriptions are ideal.
– Order categories logically based on importance, sequence or relation to broader goals.
For example, a Project Manager role might be structured:
Core Responsibilities
– Project Planning
– Develop detailed project plans, including scoping, scheduling, budgets and staffing plans.
– Continuously monitor project progress and adjust plans as needed.
– Lead planning meetings and track action items/follow ups.
– Communication & Coordination
– Facilitate collaboration and communication across project team members and stakeholders.
– Serve as the central point of contact for all project-related information and updates.
– Work closely with leadership to provide status reports and flag potential issues.
Specify the required qualifications
This section allows you to clearly state the education, experience, skills, abilities and attributes candidates must have to succeed in the job.
– Hard skills: Specific technical skills, knowledge, certifications and education required to perform the duties of the job. These are absolute must-haves.
– Soft skills: The interpersonal and behavioral traits ideal for the role and your workplace culture (teamwork, communication style, work ethic, problem-solving abilities, etc). These skills are often just as critical as hard skills.
– Level of experience: How much directly relevant work experience is required or preferred? Be as specific as possible.
– List requirements in order of importance. Lead with the critical ones all candidates absolutely need.
You can organize qualifications using bullet points or short sentences. For example:
You have:
– 5-7 years experience leading dynamic engineering teams
– Expertise optimizing campaign performance across Google AdWords, Facebook and Instagram
– Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. Ability to derive insights from data.
– Strong project management abilities. Highly organized with stellar attention to detail.
– Exceptional relationship-building and communication skills. Proven history of establishing trust and credibility with key stakeholders.
– B.S. degree in Computer Science or related field. MBA preferred.
Highlight your employee value proposition
The benefits and perks section allows you to promote your overall employee value proposition – the tangible and intangible benefits you offer in areas like compensation, health, career development, work-life balance and company culture.
– Lead with the most impressive and competitive differentiators that will grab candidates’ attention – like unlimited vacation time, high pay, exceptional benefits plans, etc.
– Keep the list brief and scannable with bullet points and short descriptions. Avoid vague or generic perks. Focus on specifics that get candidates truly excited.
– Spotlight culture and programs supporting areas like diversity, equity and inclusion, learning and development, work flexibility, employee recognition and wellness. These give a sense of your values in action.
For example:
What we offer:
– Competitive compensation packages including stock options
– Unlimited PTO and flexible work arrangements
– Comprehensive health, dental and vision benefits
– 401k retirement plan. We match 100% of employee contributions up to 5%.
– Professional development stipend for continuing education and training
– 9 company-paid holidays plus a week off between Christmas and New Years
– Inclusive, supportive culture with ample growth and leadership opportunities
Wrap up with clear next steps
Conclude your job description by directing candidates how to apply and outlining the next steps in your hiring process.
– Provide specific application instructions tailored to the role – i.e. “Email your resume to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])” or “Apply through our careers page at [company.com/careers](http://company.com/careers)”.
– Set expectations around timing – when applications close, when candidates will hear back, anticipated interview stages and timelines, etc.
– Close with an enthusiastic call to action! Let your passion and excitement about hiring for the role come through.
Here are some final paragraph examples:
The Digital Marketing Manager role will remain open until Friday, October 28th. Qualified applicants will be contacted to schedule initial video interviews the following week.
We look forward to hearing from you – and welcoming our new Digital Marketing Manager – soon! Please email resumes and cover letters to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
Ready to lead our next stage of hypergrowth? We can’t wait to review applications from exceptional candidates passionate about our mission. Apply today!
Optimize for applicant tracking systems
To ensure your job description is searchable for candidates and readable by application tracking systems:
– Include common industry keywords candidates will use to search for relevant roles. Target essential hard skills (programming languages, tools, methodologies) referenced in the qualifications section.
– Break up lengthy paragraphs and blocks of text with white space, subheadings and bullet points.
– Use text formatting like bolding and italics to highlight important terms and job-specific keywords. Don’t go overboard though.
– Avoid tables, text boxes and columns. Stick to a basic left-aligned document format.
– Provide an HTML, text-only or .txt version of the job description if possible. Some older ATS can’t read .PDFs.
Optimizing your job posts for both candidates and machines takes a bit more effort – but pays off in increased quality applicants!
Post and promote the job ad
Once your job listing is polished and complete, get it in front of as many qualified candidates as possible:
– Post the position on your careers page and key external job boards like Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn Jobs, Glassdoor, AngelList, etc.
– Promote the opening across your social media channels. Don’t just post the ad itself – create special content like behind-the-scenes photos and videos, employee testimonials and Day in the Life features that bring the role to life.
– Send to relevant professional groups, alumni networks, associations, Meetups and potential referral partners. Leverage your professional and personal networks.
– Consider targeted advertising on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google to reach passive candidates who aren’t actively searching.
– Share, share, share! The more fresh eyes that see your openings across multiple platforms, the better.
Casting a wide net boosts your chances of connecting with great candidates quickly. Monitor performance carefully and double down on your most fruitful sources of quality applicants.
Refine and reuse your descriptions
Develop master job description templates that allow you to plug in role-specific details for future openings. Maintain a library of customizable descriptions for consistent, high-quality listings.
Regularly review your postings and make updates to:
– Reflect changes in responsibilities.
– Fine-tune requirements based on successful hires.
– Update new benefits and company growth.
– Modify language to increase diversity.
– Replace unengaging, stale wording with fresh language.
Take the extra time to perfect your job postings. Your future team members – and next company superstars – are worth it!
Conclusion
Crafting compelling job descriptions that attract top talent requires thoughtful planning and purposeful writing. By following the strategies outlined, you can:
– Introduce your company culture in an authentic, engaging way
– Concisely explain roles and requirements
– Promote the value of joining your team
– Reach more qualified candidates across multiple platforms
Investing in excellent job descriptions gives you a critical edge in finding, engaging and hiring the very best people to drive your organization forward. The effort pays exponentially greater dividends in building truly outstanding, successful teams.