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Learn 8 tips for writing job descriptions to help attract top talent as well as sell your company as a great place to work.
In Develop your online recruiting brand, we covered how to set up an online presence that can attract talent. Now let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of hiring someone, starting from square one — writing the job description. A job description is often the very first opportunity you have to make a good impression on a candidate. The job description needs to be accurate and sell the role but also your company as a place to work. Here's a step-by-step guide to create a killer job description to attract the right candidates:
First and foremost, make sure the title at the top of the job description accurately reflects the role, so you attract the right people. That means being specific about seniority level and technology stack if applicable (i.e., Senior Backend Engineer instead of Engineer). Side note: Some companies like to use creative titles like “Ninja” or “Hacker,” but those titles risk being too vague, off-putting, and less searchable.
You must have an exciting opening paragraph to draw people in. Are you disrupting a market or creating a new market? Can you point out success with revenue and/or customers that would excite a candidate? Who are your VCs? Paint a picture of your ambitious mission, progress to date, and the big opportunity waiting for the right person.
Examples of job descriptions from Qdrant (an Unusual Ventures portfolio company):
We help businesses take advantage of AI with technologies like semantic search, matching, and recommendations. We are developing neural search solutions allowing everyone to use state-of-the-art neural network encoders at the production scale. At the same time, we help companies to integrate our technology into their infrastructure. Our flagship technology is the open-source Vector Similarity Search Engine.
Describe what type of employee you're looking for and give insight into what this role will be doing. For example, what product feature will they build out? Who will they be partnering with (external or internal people)? What personality traits do you want in the ideal candidate?
Highlight specific skills that are "must-haves" but avoid being overly granular so as not to scare off candidates. A good rule of thumb is calling out one to three non-negotiable must-have skills, which you can use to easily qualify candidates during the review process. The rest of the requirements can be listed below the non-negotiable items. We recommend limiting to seven total requirements.
Outline a few skills that are not required, but would be nice to have in an ideal candidate. For example, If you're looking for a UI engineer, UX design skills are not required but would be nice. Your future hire might only have four of the seven requirements, but the requirements combined with some "nice to haves" might make the perfect candidate.
Briefly describe the job’s main responsibilities. This should include the “big picture” role the person would play in the company strategy as well as an idea of the day-to-day work. Here's another example from Qdrant:
List out the perks that make your company a great place to work. Don't forget to include anything that you think is cool and fun. Examples might include:
Lastly, include an easy way to get in touch with a recruiter or hiring manager if there are any questions and set up a button to apply immediately. Cross-posting the job description on relevant platforms like LinkedIn and AngelList can help you reach more candidates.
The goal of a job description is to get the right people through the door and onto your team. That means being clear about what you’re seeking in a candidate and what the nature of the role entails — all while demonstrating why your company is a great place to work and why the reader should get on board.
