HR

How to Write a Job Description to Attract the Right Candidate

October 20, 2023

how to write a job description

WE’RE HIRING!

Unfortunately, your company needs a little more than a social media post saying that to get top talent for open roles. Before your organization can take a deep dive into talent acquisition and recruitment, you’ll need to think critically about the type of candidates you’re looking to find and potentially work for your company.

A part of doing so is writing a job posting that includes a straightforward job description while highlighting your employer's brand and company culture. This can be challenging for hiring managers, recruiters, and human resources professionals who are looking to fill open job positions as part of the company’s recruitment marketing strategy.

Taking assistance from tools like job description management software can help enhance your recruitment process. These tools can not only automate the process of updating job descriptions but also provide features like text analyzers, keyword optimization, and regulation compliance for creating more compelling copies.

Elements of a job description

Writing job descriptions is a necessary task when a role opens at your company. As you go about the hiring process, you’ll need to be sure the description of the role includes all of the following elements in order to attract the best candidates.

Job title

The first element within the job description will be the job title.

Consider the job title as the headline for the entire job description. It’s displayed as the clickable link in job board search engines, so it’s important that it properly summarizes the position.

An ideal job title combines what qualified candidates will do (e.g. marketing, sales, finance) and their level within the company (e.g. director, marketing manager, coordinator). It’s important to consider if the job title properly aligns with both the years of experience you’re seeking and the responsibilities the hire will be asked to take on.

Effective job descriptions will also steer clear of cliche job titles that make the reader roll their eyes, like “Sales Rockstar” or “Content Marketing Ninja”.

Not only will these turn away serious professionals, these terms aren’t optimized for job board search engines and may not appear to people looking for titles they actually identify with, like “Sales Executive” or “Content Marketing Specialist.”

Job location

Next up, a job description will have the location of the role, not just your company’s headquarters, unless they’re the same. For instance, if your headquarters is Chicago, IL, but this role is offered in the San Francisco, CA, office, be sure to specify location requirements to avoid any confusion.

Or if the job is remote, you’ll want to make this very clear so you don’t miss out on top talent that could live anywhere in the world. If a candidate prefers working in a physical office, you want to be sure they know upfront that isn’t an option for this role.

Company description

Every job description should include a brief overview of what your company does and the types of customers it serves, as well as the products it sells. This is especially important if your brand isn’t well known to the general public or operates in an obscure industry.

This section also gives you the opportunity to mention your company’s values and culture so job seekers can have a better understanding of what their workdays might be like.

For the most part, this section can remain similar (if not identical) across all of your job descriptions.

Need an example? Here’s the company description for G2 that you can find on our careers page:

 

G2 is revolutionizing the way businesses discover, buy and manage software and services. More than five million users per month rely on G2 to help them find and buy the best software for their businesses. G2 features over 1 million authentic customer reviews, has built a global team of nearly 400 talented, motivated professionals, and has raised $100M in total funding from some of the world’s leading investors including IVP, Accel Partners, LinkedIn, Emergence Capital, Pritzker Group, Chicago Ventures, Hyde Park Ventures, industry leaders and its founders.

Additionally, a good job description will include language that specifies that your organization is an equal opportunity employer that doesn’t discriminate. It should look similar to:

COMPANY NAME is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all open positions without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, age, citizenship status, national origin, marital status, military/veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, and physical or mental disability. Here at COMPANY NAME, we believe in creating a dynamic work environment that puts value in diversity and inclusion as we strive to recruit a diverse group of candidates to help us achieve that goal.

This is a great jumping-off point for you to use when crafting your own company description.

Overview of the role

Now that the basics are out of the way, it’s time to take a deeper dive into the role itself.

This part of the job description is where you’ll introduce the potential candidate to the open role, the team they’d be working on, to whom they would be reporting, and the position’s high-level responsibilities and objectives. It should also specify whether the role is full-time or part-time.

Tip: If the job description is for a sales role, the overview may read something like this:

 

An account executive at COMPANY NAME will be responsible for driving revenue by building consultative relationships with your assigned clients and prospects. You will help potential and existing customers understand our products and solutions. As an account executive, you should be a proven problem solver and be capable of building long-term relationships with clients. You must be able to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic sales environment and have previous experience working with enterprise accounts.

Job responsibilities

Within the job overview, you’ll want to use bullet points to concisely explain the actual responsibilities and job duties of the role. Consider both the day-to-day objectives of what the ideal candidate may do, as well as long-term responsibilities.

After reading this list, the potential new hire should have a better understanding of their own ability to succeed in the role and whether it would be a good fit.

If your company is hiring for a sales position, some responsibilities may include:

  • Drive revenue by understanding and aligning our solutions to your client’s needs and objectives.
  • Communicate with clients by email and phone from initial contact to closed deal, as often as deemed necessary.
  • Prospect and drive new business in an assigned territory.
  • Build and maintain a healthy pipeline to meet sales goals
  • Research and become a knowledge expert in industry trends and information

If your company is hiring a Content Marketing Specialist, some responsibilities may include:

  • Conduct thorough research and competitive analysis on a topic in order to understand how to produce high-quality, competitive content.
  • Efficiently write and publish at least four articles a month, with each article averaging about 2,000-3,000 words in length.
  • Independently manage your writing process from start to finish.
  • Optimize content for search engines and lead generation purposes; stay up-to-date on SEO and on-page optimization best practices.
  • Regularly promote your content on a variety of social media platforms.

Job requirement

Also within the job overview will be the requirements, or necessary qualifications, of the specific job.

This should also be concise and in a bulleted list and should include things like level of education, necessary experience, any relevant certifications, and applicable soft skills. Essentially, you should be accessing the responsibilities above and laying out what skills that will be needed to get it all accomplished.

Example of job requirements in a job description

Requirements for a sales role may look like:

  • 4-year degree in Business, Marketing, or a related field
  • Minimum of two years relevant work experience in the sales landscape
  • Excellent written, oral communication and presentation skills
  • Ability to work, build, and maintain relationships at all levels

Compensation and benefits

Ready to hype up your company and all it has to offer? Here’s where you’ll do it. Provide as much information as possible regarding the compensation and benefits your organization will be providing the person who lands this open job.

You may not be able to get too specific with compensation, but you could give an estimated range, or say “This role has a competitive base salary with potential for commission”.

You can also specify if your organization offers other additions to salary, like merit pay, employee bonuses, or profit sharing.

Example of compensation and benefits in a job description

As far as benefits, create a bulleted list explaining the perks of your company. This could look like:

  • Company-paid health, vision, and dental plans
  • Tuition reimbursement
  • General paid time off, in addition to paid company holidays
  • Catered lunch on Wednesdays
  • Dog-friendly office
  • Unlimited fruit, snacks, and assorted beverages delivered daily
  • Cold brew coffee and kombucha on tap

Job description examples

In addition to the above examples, it can be helpful to see real job descriptions posted by well-known enterprise companies that are familiar to most people.

Here’s a job description posted by Amazon for a Senior UX Designer:

Senior UX Designer

 

DESCRIPTION
The Worldwide Pricing team builds products and services that help Sellers offer prices that delight our Customers. Our programs support billions of price updates every month, covering the majority of products sold in the Amazon store. We do this with real-time, low latency, worldwide systems. We constantly work to innovate and improve our programs, software, and tools to deliver a fantastic experience for our Selling Partners and the best possible prices for our Customers.

 

As the Senior designer on the Seller Pricing team, you will run the worldwide design strategy for all Seller-facing Pricing tools and features, as well as a limited set of Customer-facing features on the Product Detail Page. You'll work closely with our product and engineering teams to help improve the selling on Amazon experience for tens of thousands of Selling Partners all over the world. This will involve designing foundational pricing features from the ground up, as well as improving the designs for our existing products.

 

Our perfect candidate loves to think strategically, has a passion for working on ambiguous problems, and is Customer obsessed.

 

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

  • Master’s degree in design, human-computer interaction (HCI), or equivalent professional experience.
  • 7+ years of experience as a UX designer.
  • 5+ years of experience in performing user research or gathering quantitative customer data.
  • Portfolio of work demonstrating breadth and depth in UX and visual design, design strategy and process.
  • Proficiency in high-fidelity mockup and prototyping tools such as Sketch, Invision, or equivalent.
  • Ability to articulate ideas, and design plans to senior executives in a clear and compelling manner.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Expertise in UX performance optimization using qualitative and quantitative assessment.
  • UX design experience across global markets and experience delivering designs for projects of large scope and complexity.

Seattle preferred, but open to other locations.

 

Amazon is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. For individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please visit https://www.amazon.jobs/en/disability/us.

Next up, check out this job description posted by YouTube.

Product Marketing Manager

 

ABOUT THE JOB
YouTube Marketing’s mission is to know our users, and to connect them to the magic of our products and creators. We make YouTube successful by shaping people’s perceptions of YouTube and inspiring them to engage with us. We’re also responsible for all of YouTube’s marketing activities to consumers, creators, and key opinion influencers.

 

In creator marketing, we’re all about celebrating, supporting, and inspiring this awesome community. That’s where you come in: you’re a passionate marketer with a proven track record building and executing product go-to-market (GTM) strategies that drive the business. In this role you'll help oversee the international GTM activities for an exciting product. You will be responsible for developing regional and local insights to inform product strategy (e.g. core target audience, value proposition, price-demand elasticity), and work with regional and country teams on launching in local markets. You will also bring new features to market and maintain a disciplined approach to measurement and tracking against key metrics. You excel at stakeholder management, influencing outcomes through data, and are passionate about Creators.

 

Know the user. Know the magic. Connect the two. At its core, marketing at Google starts with technology and ends with the user, bringing both together in unconventional ways. Our job is to demonstrate how Google's products solve the world's problems--from the everyday to the epic, from the mundane to the monumental. And we approach marketing in a way that only Google can--changing the game, redefining the medium, making the user the priority, and ultimately, letting the technology speak for itself.

 

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Drive marketing strategies impacting our creator community.
  • Develop actionable insights to inform product and marketing strategy (e.g. creator and competitive research) in each region and country.
  • Set product marketing strategy to achieve our YouTube business goal (e.g. set goals, define value proposition, establish narrative, etc.).
  • Plan and implement go-to-market strategy, in partnership with regional teams, for launching in new markets (e.g. commercialization plan, awareness and adoption strategies, etc.).
  • Use data and insights to understand and align the business on areas of focus, and to identify needs for product/policy improvements and education across YouTube.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
  • 5 years of experience in product marketing within B2C.
  • Experience in Project management, Data efficiency, and Market research.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Experience working in a multicultural, global environment.
  • Product marketing leader, with demonstrated ability to drive measurably successful product launches and campaigns.
  • Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously in a fast paced dynamic environment.
  • Ability to quickly grasp product features and benefits and translate those into brief accurate, high quality deliverables like use cases, tutorials and marketing materials.
  • A great passion for audience and audience experiences, with a demonstrated ability to utilize user research and data to drive actionable insights to inform marketing strategy and improve the consumer experience.
  • Excellent communication, analytical and quantitative skills.

LOCATIONS
San Bruno, CA, and New York, NY

Job description template

Now that you have a full understanding of all of the necessary components of a job description, it’s time to write your own.

Still feeling hesitant? We’ve got your back -- download our job description template to organize everything you want to include before you post it for the world, and hopefully the perfect candidate to see.

The right candidate is just an application away

The job description is often the first piece of content the right candidate sees regarding your company. It’s important to write job descriptions that will attract candidates to your organization while also being straightforward regarding responsibilities and requirements. Don’t forget to hype up what makes your company unique, too!

Once applicants become interested in open roles at your company, make sure to utilize recruitment marketing software to track and organize candidates, as well as referrals and social recruiting efforts!

job description management software
No description? No problem!

Use the best job description management software to create, update, and track your work like a pro!

job description management software
No description? No problem!

Use the best job description management software to create, update, and track your work like a pro!

How to Write a Job Description to Attract the Right Candidate Wondering how to write a job description that brings top talent? Learn about the job description elements, examples, tips, and also get a FREE template! https://learn.g2.com/hubfs/G2CM_FI763_Learn_Article_Images_%5BJob_Description%5D_V1b.png
Mara Calvello Mara Calvello is a Content Marketing Manager at G2. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Elmhurst College (now Elmhurst University). Mara's expertise lies within writing for HR, Design, SaaS Management, Social Media, and Technology categories. In her spare time, Mara is either at the gym, exploring the great outdoors with her rescue dog Zeke, enjoying Italian food, or right in the middle of a Harry Potter binge. https://learn.g2.com/hubfs/IMG_6361.jpeg https://www.linkedin.com/in/mara-calvello-83648b47/

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