When you post a job, you’re presenting your business to a wide pool of candidates for the very first time. The impression you leave is important. Well-crafted, thoughtful job posts will appeal to the very best applicants, while basic, boring posts may be ignored by all but the most desperate job seekers. And because you want the best employees, you need to start with the best applicants. That's why it's essential that you learn to write a great job posting for every role you need to fill.

How do you write the kind of post that attracts the best of the best? Read on.

First, what is a job posting?

Put simply, job postings are a written description of a job you plan to fill. Most include applicant requirements (which may include formal education, training, or experience), a brief description of the role, and some essential information about the company itself.

Can I dive right in?

There is a bit of prework you should do before writing your job posting. Start by:

 

Firming up why you need a person in that role today.

Jot down the tasks and ongoing responsibilities you would expect a person in this role to take on.

 

Thinking about the skills and experiences a person in this role would need to succeed.

Make a list of essential qualities, which may include specific certificates or years of experience in a related role and the nice-to-have qualities that could make a candidate a star performer on your team.

 

Thinking through organizational fit.

Try defining some of the behavioral and personality traits that would help a person work well with you and other people they would come into contact with on a regular basis.

 

Considering what would attract top-tier applicants.

Write down the benefits, perks, and amenities you’ll offer, including the training and growth opportunities you’ll provide.

 

Determining how much you can afford to pay.

Study your financial statements. Look into your available cash and decide how much of that you’re willing to devote to someone who can take some business-critical tasks off your plate.

Be sure to research what your competitors and others looking for similar candidates are paying their employees. This will help you ensure that the pay you're offering aligns with or exceeds others in the market.

When these topics are addressed, you can begin writing up your job description.

Where should I start?

Start with the title of your post. This title should help applicants understand the precise role you're trying to fill.

Clarity is essential. Avoid using over-important phrases and cliches that could confuse your pool of potential applicants or, worse, keep your job posting from showing up in their search results. At the same time, avoid overly simplistic descriptors (such as “engineer”) that require more clarification.

You’ll find that many applicants apply based on the title of your posting alone. Ensure that the title helps you tell the story of who you are looking for and the skills they should possess to be considered for the role.

What about the body?

The body is the bulk of your job post. Here, you’ll provide an overview of the job, explain the job responsibilities, share applicant requirements, state your compensation and benefits, and offer instructions for applying.

The challenge: accomplishing all these goals in 500-700 words or less.

Starting with the job overview, try writing two or three paragraphs that describe the business and how the role fits within it. This isn’t the place to list the responsibilities the successful applicant will take on. Instead, think of it as a marketing pitch to candidates to get them excited about the organization’s mission and culture, the role, opportunities for growth, perks, or other attractive parts of your business.

Try speaking directly to the candidate by using the word “you” instead of “the right candidate” in this paragraph, and incorporate words that help them understand the importance of the role.

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The compensation and benefits information should come next; this will help you catch the interest of post viewers and ensure that they read the description that follows. How you handle this section is up to you. You can state the specific salary or wage the position will pay, a pay range, or offer a vague statement indicating that pay will be in line with industry standards and candidate experience. You should also describe the benefits and perks you offer your employees, including health, vision, or dental insurance benefits, education reimbursement, or retirement plan matching.

Applicants prefer to know what the job will pay. You may waste their time—and your own—by proceeding through the process with candidates you can’t afford.

Next, you’ll cover the job responsibilities. This section usually works best as a brief, bulleted list. Try to limit your list to five or six key responsibilities that cover the bulk of the work the person in this role will take on and, if possible, use present-tense action verbs when describing each item.

Then, you’ll cover applicant requirements. As with job responsibilities, this section tends to be most effective with bulleted points.

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HR experts advise managers to divide this portion into two sections, one covering “required skills,” which may include necessary abilities, knowledge, or experiences for a candidate to succeed in the role, and “preferred skills,” which might include several additional nice-to-have qualities that you believe will be predictors of success. These lists can help candidates determine if they’re the right fit for the role or if they should move on to other postings.

Finally, you’ll describe the steps interested applicants should take to be considered for the role. Try to limit this section to two or three sentences that inform readers whether to complete an application or submit a resume and/or cover letter and whether they should email it to you or a recruiter or mail it to your business address.

What can I do to improve my posting?

The following tips can help you write a great job posting:

Where should I list my job posting?

There are lots of great options. These include:

Be sure to choose posting platforms that will be visited most often by your pool of applicants.

This seems like a lot of work. Is it really worth my time to write a great job posting?

It may take you an hour or more to write a great job posting, but it's a worthwhile investment. When you write a great job posting, several things can happen:

Would you like some help with this step? Consider working with an HR pro who can take on this task for you. Outsourced HR professionals can devote hours to your business each week or month to take on your most tedious HR tasks. Interested in learning more? Contact one of these popular services:

What's next?

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