How To Write a Job Description that Attracts a Diverse and Qualified Candidate Pool

Ever wondered what makes a great job description? We've analyzed over 25 million jobs from 40,000 companies to find out what are the "right" and "wrong" things you should do when writing your next job.

Below are 10 important rules hiring teams and recruiters should follow when they sit down to write a job description.

These are particularly important to keep in mind if you’re not using job description software to write job posts. They’re also vital to remember each time a hiring manager or recruiter sits down to write a job post, no matter which department is hiring. By standardizing job posts (e.g., using job post templates across the organization, you can ensure job seekers have a consistent experience with your organization.

1. Pick the right title for a job description

Want qualified candidates to find your job description? Use the right title. While hiring teams often use trial and error to pick the right title there are a few hard and fast rules you should follow:

  • Be concise: 4-6 words is perfect.
  • Describe the area of responsibility: “Email Marketing Manager” performs better than just “Marketing Manager,” “Python Software Engineer” does better than “Staff Engineer.”
  • Consider how candidates search: Candidates are more likely to search for “Graphic designer” than “Brand Designer.”
  • Remove internal jargons and acronyms: Candidates are unlikely to know what “Level 3” means.
  • Be clear about seniority: “Senior Software Engineer” for a job that requires one year of experience is likely to confuse candidates.

2. Talk about your company

Skip the boilerplate language on a job description and dive right into what makes your company special. Talk about your mission, your passions, even how your teams work. Candidates want to know they’ll be a part of something special so use this space to sell your uniqueness. This section should not be long, a small paragraph will do.

3. Talk about the job

Before you list requirements, take a few sentences to talk about the job. Tell candidates who they’ll work with and which departments they will report into. Don’t be afraid to talk about the kinds of skills they’ll develop on the job or even where they might see themselves in a year or two.

4. Talk about the goals

Instead of including a bunch of bullet points that talk about specific tasks or responsibilities, can you reframe the position instead to speak about the goals of the role and what the candidate will do to help your teams accomplish them? What will you be working on over the next three months? The next six? How will candidates contribute meaningfully to the bigger picture?

5. Be specific about technical requirements

Every candidate will have his or her own strengths so when you describe technical requirements like “Excel” avoid fuzzy language like “great at” or “knows” to describe a candidate’s competency. Often the way you describe these skills can present a real barrier for candidates when deciding to apply or not. For example, “knows Photoshop” can mean several kinds of things including, “great at retouching,” “great at image production,” or “great at building web layouts.” Instead, be mindful of the confidence gap and say “Use Photoshop to crop and resize images for our CMS.”


How long is a perfect job description?

Are you ready to write your perfect job description? Before you do, remember that every job has a sweet spot when it comes to the length of its job description. In a nutshell, junior jobs can have shorter ones, senior jobs can have longer ones.

Junior and senior roles don’t have the same responsibilities or requirements. All things being equal, your job descriptions for senior roles will naturally be longer. That’s okay. Senior candidates often expect that.

Use the chart on the left as guidance for each section’s word count. Here are some of the things you should include:

  • Overview
  • Responsibilities
  • Education/Experience
  • Required skills
  • Preferred Skills


6. Delete soft skills

Want more qualified candidates to apply? Remove soft skills and requirements that are obviously cliched from your job description. For example “accomplished problem-solving skills,” “excellent communicator both written and verbal,” “strong analytic skills.” Soft skills add no value but can create a real barrier for candidates when they apply.

7. Talk about perks in your job description

Even poorly written perks improve the quality of your candidate pool so don’t be afraid to include them. Choose a few benefits that reflect your organization and include them towards the end of your job description. 401k, unlimited vacation, and great healthcare all do great. Mental health, parental leave, and commuter benefits often improve candidate pool diversity.

8. Add a thoughtful inclusion statement

Whether you’re required to or not, a well-crafted inclusion statement on a job description can go a long way in improving your candidate pool diversity. Avoid boilerplate language and instead, opt to make it your own. Talk about how your organization is committed to representative hiring.

9. Keep your job description short

Regardless of seniority or job type, overly long job descriptions can derail the hiring effort. It’s better to keep things concise by sticking to only what’s necessary and skipping what’s not. In other words, don’t add filler (e.g., soft skills) to beef up your job descriptions.

10. Go easy on your culture

You have an entire interview process to ensure someone is a good culture fit so use your job description to market broadly to candidates. Avoid content like jokes or sports metaphors that are not broadly understood.

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