Salary Transparency
Include a salary range. It saves everyone time and signals that you respect candidates' time. Companies that hide salary lose 30% of applicants.
Benefits and Perks
List specific benefits: "Unlimited PTO," "4-day work week," "$2,000 learning budget." Vague perks like "competitive salary" mean nothing.
Company Culture
Show, don't tell. Instead of "great work culture," describe it: "We ship weekly, demo on Fridays, and have no meetings on Wednesdays."
Application Process
Be specific about next steps, timeline, and what to expect. "Apply with your resume and a 2-minute Loom video introducing yourself" is better than "Submit your application."
What to Avoid
- "Fast-paced environment" (signals chaos)
- "Wear many hats" (signals understaffed)
- "Self-starter" (signals no onboarding)
- "Competitive salary" (signals they won't tell you)
Writing a job posting? Our job description roast tool analyzes your posting for clarity, inclusivity, salary transparency, and appeal — giving you a score and specific rewrites to attract better candidates.
The Candidate's 30-Second Decision
Candidates decide whether to apply in well under a minute. In that window they want to know: the exact title, the salary range, what they would actually work on, and whether the company seems stable and sane. If the first screen of your posting buries those four facts behind paragraphs about mission and culture, strong candidates leave. Front-load the practical details; keep the storytelling for the middle.
Writing Job Postings That Pass the "Genuine" Test
Most bad postings fail for predictability: they list ten required skills, five of which the team has never once used. That signals a team that does not know its own role and scares off honest candidates. Audit every requirement with one question: "Has this team used this within the last quarter?" If not, move it to nice-to-have or cut it. Tight, honest requirements beat broad wish-lists — you get fewer applicants and better matches.
Inclusive Writing That Attracts a Wider, Stronger Pool
- Swap "guru," "rockstar," and "ninja" for the actual job title — coded language deters qualified candidates from underrepresented groups.
- Separate are abstract ("we work hard and play hard") from concrete ("we ship weekly and have no meetings on Wednesdays").
- State remote/hybrid reality explicitly, including timezone requirements — ambiguity filters out otherwise perfect candidates.
Job Description Questions, Answered
How long should a job description be?
Long enough to be specific, short enough to be readable: most effective postings run 400 to 800 words. The classic failure is the "everything plus the kitchen sink" posting that lists twenty requirements and reads like a wish list for three different jobs. Tight postings attract better applicants because the best candidates self-select quickly.
Should I use AI to write job descriptions?
Use it as a structured first draft, then edit hard: insert your real specifics (tools, team size, concrete responsibilities, real numbers) and remove any sentence you would say to a candidate in person. AI writes the skeleton and the inclusivity polish; you supply the authenticity candidates are actively screening for.
How do I attract more diverse candidates in a posting?
Three concrete changes: cut coded language (guru, ninja, rockstar, "young"), separate must-haves from nice-to-haves so underrepresented candidates do not self-eliminate at 100% requirement checklists, and state the salary range plus remote/hybrid reality transparently. Drop the "if you meet 80% of requirements, please apply" cliché; it is so overused it now reads as a form letter.
What is the single biggest mistake in job postings?
Ambiguity about the actual day-to-day work. Postings that describe the company mission but never the role leave candidates unable to picture themselves in the job, and they quietly drop off. Start with what this person will work on in the first 30 days; specificity is the highest-signal feature of a posting that converts.
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