How to craft compelling job descriptions
- Claire Baker
- Jun 20, 2023
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 22, 2023
Most job postings tell the candidate what they’ll do if they get the job, not why they should want the job.
Make your job description stand out by describing why your company is the best place in the whole wide world for your ideal candidate to perform the requirements and responsibilities of that job.
Your job description is the candidate’s first introduction to your culture, and what they can expect when performing their job at your company. Only candidates for whom the job is a stretch will be motivated by a description of the requirements and responsibilities alone. If you’re trying to attract experienced candidates who have done key parts of the job before, it’s important to craft your job descriptions to address what motivates the candidate, not just what you want out of the role.
When crafting job descriptions, think about the following:
🙋 Autonomy: One of the most exciting aspects of startup life is the autonomy each team member has within their role. When you describe the responsibilities of the role, play up the aspects that will give your ideal candidate creative freedom.
🫂 Support system: Even though autonomy is motivating to many candidates, the idea of stretching yourself in unfamiliar areas can be intimidating, and many candidates may be wary that they’ll be asked to do too much without the support they need. This is especially true of candidates from underrepresented groups or nontraditional backgrounds, who may feel that their work will be judged more harshly. That’s why it’s important to include language in your job description that tells the candidate about the support available for that position.
🪜 Career advancement: “Getting in on the ground floor” is a huge attraction for startup applicants, and one you should play up in your job descriptions by including the possible career trajectories that this position could lead to. Imagining themselves in next-level roles will be motivating for the growth-minded candidate, and help them imagine the fast-track opportunities that the position would open up for them.
🪢 Diversity: Regardless of a candidate’s identity, publicizing your diversity goals signals your company’s approach to fairness, inclusion, and equality. Highlighting your efforts to build a diverse team tells candidates from underrepresented groups that you are sensitive to their unique needs.
➕ Inclusive language: Many seemingly neutral words and phrases in a job description inadvertently give an off-putting or exclusionary vibe to those not from the “in group.” For example, postings that use the word “independent” tend to attract more male applicants, while descriptions that use the word “cooperate” attract more female applicants. Check your job descriptions for gender-coded language using this free tool.
👌 Here are some examples of job postings that are getting it right:
This posting does a nice job of connecting the job responsibilities to their work culture, and the values behind it. We are also committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Rather than a cursory nod to diversity, this company highlights their commitment to diversity by defining what the word means to them. We believe creating a more diverse team directly impacts our ability to collaborate effectively, build a better community, and produce better products. When you include concrete examples of how your values impact behavior, it gives candidates more information on how you will treat them at work.
It’s a risk for anyone to be “the first” in any role, because there isn’t much signal to assess whether expectations are realistic, and how much cross-functional support is available.
By empowering the candidate to define the scope of the role, it makes it clear that the candidate will have agency over how they spend their time and what to delegate. Naming the candidate (not their job) as the key to the company’s success, hints that this company values its people and the unique set of talents they bring to the team. It gives a sense that this team plays to its members’ strengths rather than punishing their weaknesses.
No risk of “burn & churn” here; this company puts its emphasis on work-life balance front and center. Notice how each sentence focuses on personal experience, not the work each team member represents.
Instead of making the “innovative, fast-growing and international team” the focus of the company description, the candidate is the subject even when describing the company. Evoking an experience of fulfilling work, impact, and friendship that a candidate can expect on that team encourages prospects to think less about the work, and more about how their experience and skills are their ticket to a job that they can build a happy life around.
I want to work here, don’t you?
🤨 Here are some examples of job postings that need improvement:
… will play a pivotal role as our company continues to grow… someone that can not only handle the duties listed below, but who can grow with the company and continue to address new challenges and responsibilities. Yikes! All that talk about growth and off-label responsibilities makes this sound like a job where you’re constantly being asked to do too much, and where you’ll be asked to do plenty of extra work that you won’t be compensated for.
This posting says as much with what it doesn’t say as with what it does. Note that the candidate’s experience isn’t mentioned here at all, implying a sense of a hard-driving taskmaster determined to squeeze as much work out of their employees as possible. Suggested improvements:
Include what the ideal candidate will enjoy about the position.
Add more detail about the growth path that comes with the extra responsibilities.
Link the benefits back to company values.
While awards, well-known investors, and name-brand customers may assuage some candidates’ hesitance to take on the risk of joining an early-stage startup, this kind of self-aggrandizement makes many candidates’ eyes roll.
This posting doesn’t get around to mentioning the candidate until the third paragraph, and the focus remains on what they will contribute to the product, customers, and culture, not the other way around. Overall, the posting gives a sense that this company sees its humans as resources in their portfolio of impressive accolades.
Suggested improvements:
Remove the company trophy case from the JD and put it in a less prominent place on the Careers page.
Say more about the employee experience, with examples.
Include more concrete language about how the work ties back to the company’s strategic objectives, and connect it back to the company’s values.
What you are going to do? What we want to see in you? 😒 Excuse me?
The stern tone of this job description reads like strict orders, and doesn’t inspire excitement to apply. Highly qualified candidates are likely to move on to friendlier opportunities, leaving a less qualified candidate pool to choose from.
Despite the off-putting headlines, the tone in the description and requirements themselves aren’t as severe, but omit any information about why the candidate would enjoy performing their job at this company.
Suggested improvements:
Put the candidate’s interests at the semantic center of the posting.
Describe why doing the role at this company is rewarding.
Say more about company values, and how they manifest in the responsibilities & requirements listed here.
5 ways to turn your job posting into a can’t-miss opportunity
Here are 5 things you can do to make your job description more exciting to the candidates you want to attract:
Ask a domain expert what’s important to them. If you’re writing a job description for a job you’ve never done yourself, you might not know what’s most compelling to people who do that job. Take someone in your network that has held that job before out to lunch, describe the role you’re trying to fill, and then ask them:
What are the priorities of a candidate with the experience I’m looking for, and what are they looking for in a job posting that reflects those priorities?
What elements of their work environment make it easier to do their job well?
What elements of a work environment would be a red flag for them?
Describe the onboarding path and career trajectory. Many recruiters have begun including a description of the types of tasks a new hire should expect at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months to help candidates imagine themselves in the role, and reassure applicants that they won’t be thrown into the deep end right away. Describing the promotion path or opportunities for career advancement take the candidate’s imagination beyond the first year to picturing how joining your company will help advance their life and career goals. Describing how the position will fast-track a candidate’s career long term can give startups an edge over more established companies in the candidate’s mind, even if you can’t compete on salary.
Talk about your diversity efforts. Diversity is about more than what you look like and your physical abilities, it’s about ensuring fairness and objectivity in all of your People systems. Everybody is “different” from the majority of people they work with in some way, and many have experienced friction at work as a result. By talking about how your company ensures equal treatment and opportunity to all, you communicate that you prioritize diversity and your company’s approach to fairness.
Tie the job responsibilities to your company values. People work harder when their work has an impact consistent with their own values, and that it’s valued by those who matter to them. Tying the responsibilities of the role to the company’s mission and values provides that sense of significance that the candidate’s work will fulfill.
Check for bias. Run your job posting through a bias checker (like this free tool). If the software flags any biased language, read the entire job description for indications of where the same subtle biases may be evident in more complex language.
Want to learn more about creating a great candidate experience? Check out these related articles:
(Coming soon!) Creating a compelling interview experience
(Coming soon!) Are you screening out the right candidates?
(Coming soon!) Are your interviews helping or harming diversity?
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