A job description is supposed to be a list of the skills required for a position. Sadly, for many Hiring Managers, it has become a wish list of everything they want. I have seen job descriptions that are two pages long with 30-40 job requirements on it.
Let’s face it: the person on that job description does not exist. And if he or she does exist, this person will want a lot more money than what you are willing to pay.
That is great that you asked. In this following article, I will list the best way to make your job description clear so you can get more candidates.
No one has time to read 30-40 skills. I recommend you make it 10 bullet points of skills maximum. Besides, when you add too many skills, candidates start fearing that they are not good enough for the role so those candidates that you wanted to apply, do not apply.
When you make the job description just 10 skills maximum, then you are zeroing in on the ones that matter most to you. I encourage clients to go even lower to five skills, if possible to be even more specific, if you can.
If you are looking for Marketing person, do not put sales related skills into the job description. Vice Versa too. If you have too many Sales Related skills and Marketing related skills together, people will get confused and less applicants will apply.
The same applies for IT roles. If you are looking for a developer, your job description should mention the tech stack the company uses otherwise the developers do not know if they should apply. A Tech stack includes development languages, databases, frameworks, and back-end or front-end tools, as well as APIs. This is because developers spend their whole careers in specializing in say, C#, so these same developers do not want to apply for a Java role.
However, if you need someone who is a developer and a functional person who knows configuration, state that in the job description too. State that you need someone who is techno-functional.
Cliche terms such as, “Team Player”, “Ambitious”, and “Goal Oriented” do not add to the job description. These terms are overused and do not add anything to your job description. They just take away important real estate on the job description that you can use to add more specific skills.
To summarize, to have a great job description, you have to keep it simple. Have no more than ten skills listed. List the most important skills. Do not overlap departments such as sales and marketing, and stay away from Cliches.
Many companies do not know how to create a great job description. This is one of the reasons they come to us for help. Their ads and reach outs do not work because they do not have the most persuasive way to attract talent.
This is one of the benefits we add here at NewConfig. If you need help on your search or even the job description, please do reach out to us.