How to Write a Job Description That Actually Works

This article is general guidance for employers on writing job postings. It is not legal advice. Posting requirements, including pay transparency rules and permitted criteria, vary by jurisdiction and change, so confirm your obligations for every location where a posting will be visible.

Most job descriptions are written in forty minutes by someone with other work to do, usually by copying the last one and editing the title. The result is a document that does three things badly: it fails to tell strong candidates why the role is worth leaving their current job for, it invites unqualified applicants through vagueness, and it quietly filters out exactly the people you most wanted to reach.

That matters more than it used to, because applications are up sharply, screening is increasingly automated on both sides, and candidates now dismiss postings in seconds for specific, predictable reasons: no pay range, a wall of requirements, and no sense of what the job actually involves day to day.

This guide covers what a job description is actually for, the structure that works, the requirements trap that costs you your best applicants, the legal layer, and a template you can copy.

What a Job Description Is Actually For

It does four jobs, and most postings only attempt the fourth.

1. It sells the role to people who are not currently looking, which is where most strong candidates are.
2. It filters accurately, attracting people who can do the work and deterring those who cannot, which saves you far more time than any screening tool.
3. It sets the evaluation criteria you will use consistently in interviews, which is both better hiring and better legal hygiene.
4. It describes the duties, which is the only part most postings do, and the least useful on its own.

A useful test before publishing: would a qualified person who is reasonably happy in their current job read this and want to find out more? If not, you have written an internal document and published it externally.

The Structure That Works

A clear, searchable job title. Use the title candidates search for, not your internal naming. "Customer Service Representative" finds people; "Client Happiness Associate II" does not. Avoid seniority inflation and internal level codes.

The opening: why this role exists. Two or three sentences on what the team does, why the position is open, and what problem the person will solve. This is the section that separates postings people apply to from postings people scroll past.

What you will actually do. Five to seven bullets describing the real work, in order of how much time it takes. Write outcomes rather than verbs where you can: "own the monthly reporting cycle for three business units" rather than "assist with reporting".

What success looks like. A short section on what good performance means in the first six to twelve months. Almost nobody includes this, and it is the single most differentiating element available to you, because it tells a serious candidate whether they can win in the role.

What you need. Kept genuinely minimal, which is the subject of the next section.

What is nice to have. Clearly separated from the above.

Pay and benefits. A real range, plus the benefits that matter. More on the legal requirement below.

Location and work arrangement, stated precisely. "Remote" needs qualification: remote within which country or states, which time zones, how often onsite if ever. Ambiguity here wastes everyone's time and is a common complaint among candidates.

The process. How many stages, roughly how long, and what each involves. Candidates increasingly choose between employers partly on process clarity, and it costs you nothing to provide.

The Requirements Trap

This is where most postings lose their best candidates.

Long requirement lists filter asymmetrically. Research on hiring behaviour has repeatedly found that candidates from underrepresented groups, and women in particular, are more likely to apply only when they meet nearly all listed criteria, while others apply at much lower thresholds. The practical consequence is that every unnecessary requirement you add disproportionately removes candidates you probably wanted, while barely deterring the overconfident applicants you did not.

Fix it with three rules:

• List only what is genuinely required to do the job in the first six months. If someone could learn it in the first month, it is not a requirement.
• Cap required items at around five or six, and move everything else to preferred.
• Replace proxies with the actual capability. "Five years of experience" is a proxy for judgment that someone might have in three years or lack after eight. Where you can, describe the capability and let candidates demonstrate it.

Reconsider the degree requirement specifically. Many employers have removed degree requirements from roles where the degree was never the actual qualification, which widens the pool considerably. If the degree is genuinely needed, keep it. If it is habit, remove it and describe the skill instead, which is the same skills-first logic our skills-based resume guide describes from the candidate side.

Pay Transparency Is Now Often Mandatory

A growing number of jurisdictions require employers to publish a pay range in job postings, and several apply the requirement based on where the posting is visible or where the work may be performed rather than where the employer sits, which catches remote postings in particular. Our pay transparency guide covers the shift in detail.

Beyond compliance, the commercial argument is simple: postings without a range receive fewer and worse-matched applications, because experienced candidates will not spend an hour applying to find out the budget in week three. Publish a genuine range you would actually pay within, not a range so wide it communicates nothing.

While you are there: in many places you may no longer ask candidates for salary history, as our salary history guide explains, so remove it from your application form as well as your interview script.

Language That Helps or Hurts

• Write in plain language and the second person. "You will" reads better than "the successful candidate will".
• Avoid unexplained internal jargon, acronyms and product names, which read as exclusion to anyone outside the company.
• Watch the coded phrases. "Young and dynamic team", "digital native" and "recent graduate" can read as age-related signals and are restricted in some jurisdictions. "Must be able to lift 25kg" belongs only where lifting is genuinely part of the job.
• Describe the work environment honestly, including shift patterns, on-call expectations, travel and physical demands. Hiding these produces early attrition, which costs far more than a smaller applicant pool.
• Keep the whole thing under about 700 words. Long postings are skimmed, and the sections most likely to be skipped are the ones at the bottom, which is where most people put pay.
• Do not promise what you cannot deliver. Postings that describe a culture the employee does not find create exactly the disengagement our quiet cracking guide describes, and early departures are expensive.

Make It Findable

• Use the keywords candidates actually search, which means standard job titles and common skill names rather than internal terminology. Candidate search behaviour and modern matching systems both reward specificity, as our ATS guide explains from the other direction.
• Name the tools and systems explicitly, including the software the person will use daily, because those are the exact terms candidates search and filter on.
• Post where your candidates are, which varies by role type: professional roles skew to LinkedIn, hourly and local roles to Indeed and high-volume platforms, as our job board comparison sets out.
• Keep the application short. Long forms are the largest single source of abandonment, particularly on mobile. Ask for what you need to make a first decision and collect the rest later.

A Template You Can Copy

[Job Title] [Location, including remote eligibility and time zone] · [Full-time/part-time] · [Pay range] · [Reports to]

About the role [Two or three sentences: what the team does, why this role is open, the problem this person solves.]

What you will do

• [Primary responsibility, written as an outcome]
• [Second responsibility]
• [Third responsibility]
• [Fourth responsibility]
• [Fifth responsibility]

What success looks like In your first six months, you will have [specific, observable outcome], [second outcome], and [third outcome].

What you need

• [Capability, not proxy]
• [Capability]
• [Tool or system experience, named specifically]
• [Any genuine legal or licensing requirement]

Nice to have

• [Preferred experience]
• [Preferred experience]

What we offer [Pay range and structure, key benefits, leave, flexibility, development support.]

How to apply and what happens next [Application method, number of stages, rough timeline, who you will meet.]

After Publishing: Close the Loop

• Use the same criteria to score candidates that you published, which produces both better decisions and better defensibility, as our employment law mistakes guide explains.
• Measure the posting, not just the hire: how many applications, how many qualified, where they came from, and how many dropped out mid-process. If qualified applications are low, the problem is usually the requirements list or the missing pay range.
• Reply to everyone, even with a short automated decline. Silence is the most common candidate complaint about employers, and it affects your ability to hire later.
• Refresh rather than repost unchanged. A posting that has run for months with no hire is telling you something about the role, the pay, or the requirements.

Job Description FAQ

How long should a job description be? Around 400 to 700 words. Long postings get skimmed, and the sections readers skip are usually the ones that matter most to them.

Should I include the salary range? Yes. It is legally required in a growing number of jurisdictions, including for remote roles visible there, and postings with ranges attract more and better-matched applications.

How many requirements should I list? Around five or six genuine requirements, with everything else moved to preferred. Long lists disproportionately deter qualified candidates, particularly from underrepresented groups.

Should I require a degree? Only where it is genuinely necessary or legally required. Many employers have removed degree requirements for roles where the degree was a proxy rather than a qualification, widening the pool substantially.

What is the most commonly missed section? What success looks like in the first six to twelve months. Almost no postings include it, and it is the strongest signal of a well-run hiring process.

Can I describe my team as young and dynamic? Better not to. Such phrases can read as age-related signals and are restricted in some jurisdictions. Describe the work and the culture concretely instead.

Why am I getting unqualified applicants? Usually vagueness about the actual work, a missing or unrealistic pay range, or a title that does not match the role. Specificity filters better than screening questions do.

Do I need a different posting for each location? Often yes, because pay transparency rules, permitted questions and employment terms vary by jurisdiction, and remote postings can trigger requirements in every place they are visible.

Write It for the Person You Want to Hire

A job description is the first thing a candidate learns about how you run things. A vague posting with twelve requirements, no pay range and no sense of what the job involves tells a strong candidate exactly what working there will be like, and they act accordingly.

Spend ninety minutes instead of forty. Say why the role exists, describe the real work, publish a genuine range, cut the requirements list to what the job actually needs, state what success looks like, and explain the process. You will receive fewer applications and far more of the right ones, which is the entire objective.

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Related reading:

Hiring Your First Employee: The Complete Checklist ·

The Employment Law Mistakes That Kill Small Businesses ·

Pay Transparency Laws and Salary Ranges ·

Indeed vs LinkedIn vs ZipRecruiter ·

Employer of Record vs PEO vs Direct Hiring