The job description is the first thing a candidate sees. It is your first impression, your employer brand statement, and your candidate filter. Yet in most organisations, the job description is treated as an afterthought: a list of requirements copied from the last hire, reviewed hastily by an HR administrator, and posted to a job board with minimal thought.
The result? You attract candidates who are good at writing CVs, not necessarily good at the job. You filter out strong candidates who do not see themselves in the language you have used. And you wonder why the quality of applicants is so variable.
Here is what top talent actually looks for in a job description and how to make yours work harder for your business.
1) Stop Leading With Requirements. Lead With Opportunity
Most job descriptions open with a list of responsibilities and requirements. The candidate is immediately put in the position of checking boxes — do I have this qualification? Do I have that many years of experience? This is precisely the wrong approach.
Top candidates, especially those who are currently employed and not actively looking, want to know one thing first: why should I be interested in this? What is the opportunity? What will I build, lead, create, or transform in this role? A job description that opens with a compelling vision of what the role makes possible will attract a fundamentally different and better pool of candidates than one that opens with a list of prerequisites.
2) Be Specific About Impact, Not Just Activity
Vague job descriptions attract vague candidates. Instead of listing generic responsibilities like “manage a team” or “drive business development,” describe the specific outcomes the successful candidate will achieve. How many people will they lead? What does the team need to look like in 12 months? What does a successful year in this role produce?
Specificity serves two purposes. It gives strong candidates the information they need to self-select in, and it gives weak candidates the information they need to self-select out. Both outcomes save you time.
3) Watch Your Language
Job descriptions often contain language that, intentionally or not, signals that only a certain type of person will succeed in the role. Casual terms like “Rockstar,” “Ninja,” and “Hustler” tend to attract young male applicants and alienate experienced professionals and women. Excessive education requirements screen out talented candidates who took unconventional paths. Lengthy lists of “must-have” skills cause strong candidates who do not tick every box to walk away.
A simple exercise: read your job description and ask whether it would resonate with the specific type of person you are trying to hire. If the answer is no, rewrite it.
4) Be Honest About What You Are Offering
Candidates have more information than ever about what it is like to work somewhere. Glassdoor reviews, LinkedIn connections, and word of mouth mean that any gap between your job description’s promises and the actual experience will be discovered quickly and will damage your employer’s brand.
Being honest in your job description does not mean highlighting negatives. It means giving candidates an accurate, balanced picture of the role, the team, and the organisation. Transparency at this stage builds trust. It also improves first-year retention, because hires who knew what they were getting into are far less likely to be disappointed.
5) The Compensation Question
Research consistently shows that job postings that include salary ranges receive significantly more applications and better-quality ones. Candidates who know what you are offering and apply anyway are telling you something important: they are genuinely interested in the role, not just the pay.
If you cannot include a specific number, at least indicate whether the compensation is competitive with market rates and describe the broader package. Transparency about compensation is a signal of respect, and top candidates notice its absence.
Getting It Right
The most effective job descriptions are written with a specific candidate in mind. Before you write a single word, ask yourself: Who is the ideal person for this role? What are they doing today? What would make them interested in a change? What language will they respond to? What information do they need to make the decision to apply?
Answering those questions will produce a job description that works. At Multi Recruit, we work with clients to craft hiring briefs and job descriptions that genuinely attract the right people because we know that the quality of the search starts long before the first CV arrives.
Want a review of your current job descriptions? Get in touch with our team.