The cost of writing a bad job description

Writing job descriptions is generally not taken seriously. You might be using the old ones, Chat GPT or even copying from somewhere. You can get away with it a couple of times but a bad job description can cause serious trouble in recruitment.

For a candidate, a job description may be a deciding factor on whether they want to take this opportunity or not. Many times companies write general or vague descriptions which disappoint a lot of qualified candidates. 

You will miss out on a lot of qualified candidates if you write a bad job description!

These kinds of mistakes are to be avoided at all costs in today’s candidate-driven job market.

You don’t need to be a creative genius to write a good job description. 

How to write a good job description?

1. Clear job title

Choose a job title that clearly defines the role you are hiring for. Confusing and misleading job titles will attract the wrong kind of candidate. For instance, if you are looking for a Product Designer and the job title only mentions UI Designer, that might not attract the candidates you want. Before advertising for the job role, you should do thorough research on whether the job title matches industry standards or not.

• Avoid including terms like wizard or ninja. 

• Make the job title self-explanatory and straightforward.

• Keep the job title SEO optimized as most candidates use search engines to search for job titles.

2. Describe the tasks

Help candidates understand what a typical day at work looks like. A vague description of the role is not enough. Make sure that you mention most of the important tasks you are expecting from the candidate. 

For example, if you are looking for a content marketer, you could describe their daily tasks like this:

• Develop and execute content strategies aligned with the company's goals and target audience.
• Create high-quality, original content including blog posts, articles, social media posts, and more.
• Conduct thorough research on industry trends, customer preferences, and competitors to inform content strategy.
• Optimize content for SEO to improve organic search visibility and drive traffic.

This will help candidates to picture what their job will be like and it will help them further evaluate if they are suitable for the job or not.  

3. Explain what you require from an ideal candidate 

This is your chance to describe exactly what you are looking for from candidates. Explain in detail about the educational qualification. This can help in setting proper expectations for candidates. 

• Preferred educational qualifications.
• If the job requires experience in a particular industry 
• Qualities you expect from an ideal candidate 

4. Sell your job

Think about the factors that make your job vacancy stand out.

If the company offers flexible working or does it provide ESOP options?

Mention every single factor that makes the job vacancy attractive. Additional perks like health insurance and learning opportunities will attract more qualified talents to the job. 

The competition for talent is increasing day by day. There shouldn’t be any place for mistakes in talent acquisition.