How to Write a Job Posting: 4 Expert Tips

By Jenny Barnes on Jul 11, 2023
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When you’re looking for the perfect candidate far and wide, you might only have one shot to introduce a role to them: your online job posting. Crafting the perfect job posting is a skill that, when sharpened, can transform your company’s overall human resources strategy.

In this post, I’ll discuss four of the lesser-known job posting tips that you can integrate today to take your job postings to the next level.

1. Keep it Short & Sweet (Many Applicants are Applying in Bulk)

According to a recent LinkedIn Talent report, “shorter job posts receive 8.4% more applications per view than average,” so it’s important to keep your job postings interesting and concise. If you believe your posting may borderline on being too lengthy, have a colleague look it over for a first impression—is there anything that can be omitted to avoid repetition or unnecessary “info dumping?”

Keep in mind that when you’re writing a posting, it will look a lot shorter on your desktop than it will on a candidate’s phone screen and it’s at least somewhat likely that candidates will see your posting on their phone first.

The report also stated that applicants will spend an average of just 14 seconds (less than one-quarter of a minute) reading your job post before deciding whether they want to apply or move on to the next company’s post. A good rule of thumb is to keep the bulk of your job description under 300 words—or about three good paragraphs.

2. Make Sure the Job Posting is Compliant

If you operate a small business or start-up, you might not have an in-house expert on writing job postings at your disposal. You’ll still need, at a minimum, to observe certain compliance requirements.

You likely already know that it’s illegal to discriminate against job applicants based on their race, color, sex, age, religion, disability, national origin and genetic information. But depending on your state and/or city’s unique laws, there may be even more applicant characteristics that you can’t use to make a hiring decision.

It’s important to double-check these before you get started on crafting your job posting. Prior to hitting ‘submit’ on the job ad, conduct a careful read-through for language that could be interpreted as discouraging applicants with a specific protected trait from applying.

Again, depending on your geographic location, you may be required to include certain pieces of information in your job ads, such as good-faith estimates outlining the role's compensation range.

Currently, states like California, New York and Washington have laws in place requiring employers to disclose potential salary ranges in their postings. Several other states, including Nevada, Rhode Island and Ohio, have introduced bills to the same effect, signaling that pay transparency requirements in these jurisdictions may be coming soon. Even where not required, pay transparency can help attract more applicants – a recent study performed by ResumeLab indicated that 80% of workers likely would not apply to a job that did not provide a pay range.

At minimum, you should consider having an “Equal Employment Opportunity,” or “EEO” statement at the bottom of your job postings, signaling your company’s intent to comply with all anti-discrimination laws. This statement can be as simple as “[Company Name] is an Equal Opportunity Employer.”

3. Speak in Terms of Total Compensation

According to LinkedIn, compensation is the most important bit of information in a job posting for 61% of applicants. This statement gives us a ton of insight, however, into just how important the other things are, too.

First: compensation is not the most important item to almost half of job seekers and second: to many individuals within that 61%, other items matter too. In fact, LinkedIn reports that information such as “job details,” “performance goals,” and “career growth” are among other top elements that candidates want to learn about before applying for your open role.

As you’re crafting your job posting, take a moment to think about what makes this particular role attractive to someone who is looking for their next opportunity or who is frustrated with their current role. Job seekers often feel they’ve reached a plateau, are stuck in stagnancy, or are just looking for a position that allows them to refine what they’re doing to practice more of what they love about their careers.

Entice these job seekers by highlighting the trajectory map of the position within your company—are there opportunities for advancement if performance goals are met? Could a bonus be part of the compensation package? What interesting or important projects will the right person be entrusted to work on? If you can summarize these answers in your job posting, you’re on the right track to attracting top talent.

4. Even if an Applicant Doesn't Meet the Requirements, They Should Still Apply

The “requirements” or “minimum qualifications” sections of job postings can make it seem as if someone who doesn’t check every box is wholly unwelcome to apply. According to Harvard Business Review, almost half of job seekers indicate that the belief that they don’t fully meet job qualification requirements is the number one reason they would not apply to a job they are interested in. While this problem is a bit more prevalent amongst female applicants, it affected all genders of the studied applicants significantly.

Fixing this dilemma can be accomplished in several ways. First, you may consider changing the heading of your requirements section to something a bit softer, considering titles such as “suggested qualifications,” or separating requirements into “must haves” and “nice to haves.” You might also consider including a statement somewhere near the requirements section along the lines of the following:

“These requirements represent a list of items we’d like to see in an ideal candidate, but we know that the perfect person for this role may not check every box. We encourage you to apply if you’re excited about and interested in this position, even if that means you don’t quite have all the experience we’ve outlined here. We’re excited about meeting you.”

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