How to Write a Job Description That Attracts the Right Candidates

Your job description (JD) sets the tone for the rest of your hiring process. A clear job description attracts the right candidates: ones that align with your company values and goals, and have the necessary qualifications and skills. This prevents you from wasting time and resources in wading through applications from candidates that aren’t a good fit. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a job description that clearly communicates your needs and helps you find the right fit. 

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Start with a specific job title

An Indeed survey found that 36% of potential candidates typically search for jobs by using the exact title of the job they want. So, your job title should be straightforward, specific, and searchable. This isn’t the time or place to be creative.

If you’re hiring for a senior executive assistant for your company’s CEO, use a job title with specific keywords (and seniority levels), like “C-Suite Senior Executive Assistant” instead of a vague one like “CEO Assistant” or something funny/ clever like “Helper of CEOs.”

You should also avoid writing job titles that contain confusing abbreviations or internal jargon, as they may alienate potential applicants.

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Strong: Head of Digital Marketing

Weak: Marketing Rockstar

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Strong: Junior Front-End Developer

Weak: Coding Guru

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Appcast found that the sweet spot for a job title length is between 50-60 characters. If you make your titles any longer or shorter, you risk losing potential applicants.

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Include a brief job summary

This is your chance to let potential candidates know what they can expect from the job. It should introduce your company and help job seekers decide whether there will be a cultural (and geographical) fit between both of you. 

This section should include:

• Your industry (such as “healthcare” or “IT solutions”)
• Work arrangement (whether it’s in-person, remote, or hybrid)
• Job type (full-time, part-time, or contract/ freelance)
• Work schedule, including work timings and timezone
• Location requirements, including details about whether it’s open to out-of-state candidates, or if there’s a relocation package available

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See how Pearl Talent does it:

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Below this, include a brief section about your company. Talk about who you are, what you do, what sets your company apart, and your mission, vision, and values. Dedicate some space to talking about why candidates should choose to work with you (and why they’ll enjoy doing so). Maybe you offer unique career development opportunities, or you could be a pioneer in your space.

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This is how we do this at Pearl Talent. Since we’re a talent acquisition partner hiring for one of our clients, we also include a separate section where we talk about our client’s company. 

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Add job duties and responsibilities

An eye-tracking study by The Ladders found that job seekers only spend an average of 14.6 seconds reading through the job responsibilities section. This means you should optimize this section for skimming. We recommend using bullet points and keeping your sentences short and punchy. 

Here’s a checklist on what to include in this section:

• A brief overview of what the job entails, including who the candidate will report to
• A small section on the impact the selected candidate will have 

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• Core responsibilities (in bullet points) listed in order of importance. You can also split the job duties into different types and assign a percentage for each one. This will help job seekers see which responsibilities will make up the bulk of the job and what their typical day-to-day tasks will look like

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Here’s an example from Pearl Talent:

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If you’re finding it difficult to write a good job description, use Pearl Talent’s free job description generator and get professionally-formatted JDs in minutes.

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Highlight candidate qualifications and requirements

Each role will require some minimum candidate qualifications to be performed well, which is what you will highlight here. It will help potential candidates assess themselves and see if their qualifications and skills will make them a good fit for this position. 

If you don’t want to waste time on unqualified candidates, it’s important to be as specific with your requirements as possible. The Indeed survey we linked above found that nearly 62% of managers receive too many applications from unqualified candidates. When this happens, they are forced to revise the job descriptions, which just drags the hiring process on for longer. 

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Here’s what you should include in this section:

• Years of work experience needed: How many years of past hands-on work experience would a candidate need to hit the ground running at your job? Include a range instead of an absolute number to avoid shutting out talented candidates who might not have the exact experience needed.
• Type of work experience needed: This speaks to the day-to-day responsibilities. If you’re hiring for a healthcare virtual assistant position, the type of work experience needed would be proficiency in electronic health record (EHR) management, medical billing and coding experience, and appointment scheduling experience, among others. 
• Software proficiency needed: If you use certain industry-specific software (such as medical billing software) and need your new hires to be proficient in it since day one, mention that here. 
• Soft skills needed: What soft skills does the new hire need to fit within your work environment and work well with the other employees? If it’s a highly collaborative role, this might be “communication” and “teamwork.” If it’s an ever-changing environment like healthcare, the #1 soft skill needed might be “adaptability.” 
• Bonus requirements: These include things such as language fluency, certifications, and licenses that the candidate must have. 
• Educational qualifications needed: If demonstrable past work experience is more valuable in your field, and educational requirements aren’t a must, feel free to skip this one. If you include rigid educational qualifications, you risk losing out on candidates who might have the talent but not the degree. 

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Split each requirement into must-haves versus nice-to-haves. The first one should be a list of requirements the candidate must already come with, while the second one is a list of qualifications that would be desirable, but not strictly necessary (as the candidates can easily be trained in them).

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Outline the salary and benefits clearly

Pay transparency is crucial in attracting the right candidates. A report by ResumeLab found that 80% of applicants don’t apply to jobs that don’t have a salary range listed. 

Additionally, listing a salary range also makes sure that only candidates who are okay with the pay apply. This prevents you from wasting time and resources on candidates who go through the entire process, only to reject the offer after learning about the salary.

In this section, include the following:

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• A realistic salary range: This range should be calculated based on market rates, job requirements, and internal budgets
• Core benefits: This includes benefits common across all job postings, such as health insurance, pension, paid time off, vacation days, and housing benefits
• Unique perks: Does your company offer any unique perks that other companies don’t? These could be mental health support, stipends for personal development, one-of-a-kind growth opportunities, and coworking spaces for remote candidates. When a candidate is considering multiple roles with similar pay and benefits, these unique perks could tip the scales in your favor

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Add application instructions

The final step is giving instructions to the candidates on what to include in their application and how to apply. Include a deadline for applications and briefly mention what the next steps would be.

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While resumes, cover letters, and portfolios are typical application requirements, you can go one step further and include specific questions to weed out unqualified candidates. 

For example:

• Tell us about a project you worked on that you’re particularly proud of
• When was the last time you had to solve a problem at work? What did you do, and how did you come up with the solution?

These questions can help you assess a candidate’s thought process and critical thinking abilities, making it easier to shortlist the ones that fit your requirements. 

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Hire the Top 1% of Candidates with Pearl Talent

Pearl Talent is a talent acquisition partner that specializes in helping US/EU startups hire the top 1% of remote candidates. Each of our candidates is handpicked, pre-vetted, and AI-trained by us. Our fully-managed hiring process takes you from first call to onboarding your new hires within just 4 days. (Yes, we take care of writing the job description, too.)

Why should you partner with Pearl Talent?

• The candidate sourcing, vetting, training, onboarding, and managing process is handled by us
• We handle compliance and global payroll, so you can focus on scaling your business
• We have a 90%+ talent retention rate
• If a candidate isn’t working out, we replace them at no additional cost to you

Pearl Talent helps you hire the top 1% of candidates at 60% less payroll. Get handpicked profiles now.