How to Write a Great Job Posting: A Roadmap

The labor market is highly competitive — organizations are fighting for good specialists. So, to attract top candidates to a business, you need to sell them on the idea of working for you. In this article, you will learn how to write a great job posting.

Why templates don’t always make a great job posting

Standard phrases like “We need a responsible manager, we have a friendly team” don’t work anymore. There are 1000s of such job postings on the Internet, which try to motivate candidates with bonuses. So, for top talent to come to the company, you must arouse their interest in the position.

If there is little information in the text of the job posting or it is presented too formally, 2 opposite problems can occur:

• Lots of responses. Because of the many irrelevant responses, you can miss out on good specialists. So, while the management sorts and interviews all the resumes, the best candidates will find another job. They will also find it in a company that correctly compiled the job ad and quickly contacted the applicant.
• Few responses. If there are few candidates, even irrelevant specialists must be hired to fill gaps in business processes. So, the company agrees to this compromise, but the new employee leaves in a month. So, the search for the vacant position starts again.

As you probably know, writing the job posting is the second step of the hiring process. Proceed to it after you have determined what kind of employee you need. Next, let’s discuss how to write a great job posting.

7 building blocks of a great job posting

Finding an employee is pure marketing. To write an attractive job ad, imagine you are selling the job as a product, and your buyer is a potential job seeker. To do this, we suggest putting yourself in the buyer’s shoes and answering the questions they have. So, using an online tool can also help you create your posting. A Google Forms job application can be quick to set up, even if you have no design or technical skills.

So, you are looking for a job. What are you interested in? Here are examples of questions, the answers to which form the ideal structure of a job posting.

Now, let’s discuss each block of the great job posting.

Job title

There are 3 criteria that a great job title should fulfill:

• Keyword. A person searches for a job opening by title. To make your vacancy appear to a job seeker, title it the way the job is searched for. For example, “Sales Manager” rather than “Sales Guru” or “Copywriter” rather than “Wordsmith”.
• Objectivity. Don’t try to stand out by embellishing your job title. For example, don’t name the job “Editor” if you’re looking for a regular copywriter. You’re more likely to attract the wrong candidates. So, ensure you correctly understand each word’s meaning in the job title. To do this, you can also analyze other companies, especially large ones.
• Specifics. Add a distinctive feature to the job title by answering one question or both: “What to do?” and “Where to work?”:
  • What does a manager do? Sell furniture. Combine the two, and you get: “Furniture Sales Manager”.
  • Where does a manager work? At the Hoff store. Combine and get: “Sales manager at the Hoff online store”.

Below are examples of good titles in job postings (but remember, keep your title as close to 3 words as possible for SEO purposes):

Tips for a great job posting:

Include company background

A good business description makes a job seeker think, “This place is so cool and interesting. What are the tasks and conditions?”

Talk about your company as briefly and interestingly as possible. It is desirable that this fit into 3-4 sentences. Do not write, “We are a team of experienced professionals in the field of providing services for business development”. These are general abstract words that can be applied to many companies. Make a personalized description. So, talk about what the organization does in simple language. Also, talk about why that activity is meaningful and what inspires the team. Talk about the achievements of the business in numbers or list major clients.

Possible mistakes at this stage:

• Duplicating information from the website that is written for customers.
• Writing nothing because job seekers can research themselves.
• Specify general phrases that are not supported by facts.

Here is an example of a successful company description:

Include the reason for the vacancy

Many job seekers wonder why you have a vacancy. Are you constantly looking for new employees because you have a high turnover rate due to poor working conditions? It’s important to stop job seeker fears. So, tell them why you are actually looking for a new person. Also, don’t write a generic phrase like “We’re expanding the team” – it tells them nothing. So, give a real reason. For example, don’t be afraid to admit that you can’t handle certain tasks. A sincere story will put you at ease and also the prospect.

For example, you can write:

• We have more and more customers every month. Our support team doesn’t have enough time to support every customer, so we are looking for a new manager to communicate with existing customers.
• For a long time, programmers have been testing the product. But this day has come, and we are inviting a tester.

Be honest.

Include job tasks and responsibilities

This is the key section of the job posting. Effective employees who want to work hard and deliver results often choose jobs based on this job ad section. So, your task at this stage is to pique the candidate’s interest in the position. Tell them in detail what tasks the person will perform. Also, be sure to include what results you expect from their work and what challenges they may face. This is also how you synchronize the employee’s expectations with reality.

Explain each task so that applicants clearly understand their functions. For example, you stated that the manager will be in charge of finding clients. What does that mean? Making cold calls on the database provided? Or search them yourself? Or go out on the street with a banner and attract customers?

Additionally, you can write what tasks will appear in the future. For example: “Next year, we will start selling to foreign customers, so you will need to communicate with them in English“.

Tip. Do not write verbal nouns such as “creation” or “development” when specifying an employee’s tasks. Use “design” and “decide” if you need a result-oriented employee. And if you want a process-oriented specialist, write “create” or “develop”.

Include job requirements

The employer’s requirements for candidates allow the applicants to understand whether they fit.

In this section, there is a temptation to go to one of the extremes: “We have 1000 requirements, try to get to us” and “If you are trainable and motivated, then we are the place for you”. In the first case, as a rule, few people respond. So, remember that the number of requirements does not equal the status and seriousness of the organization. In the second case, too many people fit the vacancy requirements, and a whole queue of applicants is lined up. HR managers process them for a long time and, as a rule, do not find relevant candidates.

You need to balance between these two extremes:

• Nothing extra. Specify only the necessary requirements without which a person cannot cope with the job. For example, does a sales manager have to have a college degree to sell well? Often no. How about competent writing? Written speech – yes, because the manager often dialogues with the client in messengers. If the client notices mistakes in the text, his or her impression will be spoiled.
  
• “Decipher” your requirements. We recommend avoiding writing immeasurable requirements like “responsible”, “independent”, or “sociable”. They are difficult to evaluate. Almost every person considers themself these things. But if you do specify them, write down what you mean by them. Also, don’t make the candidate guess what the requirement “responsible” means to you. Is it honoring customer agreements no matter what, or is it bringing you coffee every morning? So, unmeasurable requirements can be removed from this section and moved to job tasks and responsibilities.

Tip. It makes sense to divide the requirements for employees into mandatory and optional to keep the flow of candidates manageable.

Tip. Some HR pros write, “Do not respond to the position if you do not meet the requirements”, to avoid receiving applications from untargeted candidates. This is unfortunate wording. It tends to discourage even suitable candidates.

Include job conditions

Some people consider this vacancy section to be key because bonuses attract good specialists. In fact, it’s just an add-on. When the person understands they can cope with the tasks and fits the requirements, you tell them about the perks.

A common mistake at this stage is to make a formal set of phrases about full employment and a good team. So, to formulate working conditions, ask your staff why they like working for you? What is valuable to them? Based on the answers, write down the terms and conditions of employment and decipher them.

When describing the conditions, consider all of Maslow’s levels of human motivation:

• Remote work. We don’t care where in the world you work from, as long as you work 10.00-18.00 and complete tasks on time (need for comfort and security).
• Young team. Human communication in a team without unnecessary formalities (need for socialization).
• Horizontal and vertical career prospects. You can become a manager or an expert in your field (need for recognition).
• Internal training. Every month, you study 2 courses that help you to do your job better (need for knowledge and self-actualization).

Don’t underestimate this section of the job posting.

Include job salary

Executives and HR managers often wonder – should you specify the salary immediately? You should, unless your company is Google, where many people dream of working. Often, job seekers filter job postings by salary. If you do not specify its size and write “By agreement”, the job posting will not appear. 

If the salary is not fixed for the position, specify the minimum and maximum. Better yet, write how much, on average, employees earn in this position.

Include Call to Action (CTA)

At the end of the job posting, tell the person what to do next and how to respond to the position. Imagine what questions the job seeker might have at this stage. For example, what to write in the cover letter, do I need to do a test assignment, and when will they respond to the response? So, if these questions are answered, the applicant feels cared for and respected. Also, they become more loyal to the company.

Tip. After receiving responses, HR usually manually reviews resumes and contacts candidates. This takes a lot of time, and the best candidates may be at the end of the queue. So, we recommend automating this process – create a recruitment funnel similar to a marketing funnel.

Once you receive responses, direct all candidates to take an introductory course. In this mini-course, explain the company and the position (preferably in video format), and at the end, post a survey and assignment to test the candidate’s skills. So, only the most interested candidates will complete this assignment. If they do well, invite them for an interview.

What you should not write in a great job posting?

Not forbidden, but repulses job seekers:

• Excessive creativity and humor. Typically, this approach can only make a good impression in creative professions.
• Unrealistic challenge. For example: “Not just a designer, but a guru who can create a masterpiece in half an hour at night”. It is better to describe achievable tasks.
• Clickbait. These are glib statements that manipulate people’s feelings and are not true. For example: “Today only! I will train an employee from scratch and bring them to an income of $10.000 per month”.

Try to avoid such statements. The law also prohibits specifying requirements that discriminate against a person. For example:

• Vacancy for women from 30 years old or men up to 60 years old.
• We consider only citizens of Washington DC.
• Respond if you have a personal car.

So, do not single out a certain group of people. It is illegal in many places.

A professional essay writer with diverse expertise can help you with almost anything. So, if you have no time to create selling texts for your job postings, you can ask for help. A writer will create a great job posting that sells your position.

When composing a job posting, it is important to remember a few rules.

Here’s how to write a great job posting:

• Think about the candidates’ questions and objections.
• Use more specifics – clear functions of the employee and requirements for them, facts about the company.
• Write in simple words. Avoid a formal style. Be honest.
• Adapt the texts of vacancies to the platforms where you post them.

Make several similar job postings for the same position. This way, you can also test different texts. So, if the text doesn’t work, edit it – try different wording. The more versions you test, the better your chance of finding the one text that will bring professionals to you.

Why I wrote this:

Ongig’s Text Analyzer tool helps you make your job postings better. We do this by ensuring that your job ad is inclusive and will attract top talent. So, if we find that your job ad is not up to par, our tool will also give you suggestions to improve it. Want to see the Text Analyzer in action? Request a demo, today!

December 11, 2023 by Alyse Falk in Job Descriptions