Over the years, I've read thousands of job posts for digital creatives, and almost all of them are wrong. Job posts are usually very poorly structured, horribly written, and often copied from other companies to the extent that they don't even fit the role's needs. The tone of voice is very demanding, and the number of demands and requirements highly outweighs the benefits making them all seem uninspiring and at times exploiting. I analyzed what makes them wrong and came up with some suggestions to make them better.

Create your own article.

Hiring great people is a tremendous task, so it feels logical you should take time to craft what is the first point of contact between you and your potential hire. So that being said, you should never copy someone else’s job post. And why would you? They are all bad anyway.

Companies justify it by saying they have lots of job openings and lots to do, so they don’t have time to write job posts. But writing a good article will attract the right people and save you much more time reviewing the applications, talking to, and meeting with people who are not the right fit.

Save your readers time.

When creating your product, you empathize with your users. Do the same when writing about the job opening. Just like you have hundreds of applicants, the person reading your post is probably going through hundreds of job ads, trying to figure out if they are the right fit.

Help them out from the start by putting anything that would disqualify them right at the beginning of the post. If you are only hiring in Europe, a specific timezone, German speakers, or have any other hard requirement, state it first so they can move on if they don’t fit the description.

Your values and company culture are fundamental, but only given that the applicant is interested. So keep that part a little lower in the post to allow the reader to learn about the position and other soft requirements. If the applicant is interested, they will naturally flow to the article’s core to determine if they would fit culturally. 

Be clear.

Most job ads get filled with juicy keywords and spiced up with some industry jargon. That helps no one. Instead, and as a general rule, be informative, use straightforward language, and give examples of real-life assignments the hire will most likely end up doing.

So instead of this: We’re seeking an experienced product designer to create world-class, pixel-perfect user experiences. Your responsibilities will include shaping design solutions from rough conceptual discovery to polished interactive prototypes and maintaining our design system.

Try this: We’re seeking a product designer to work on new features for our contact management software. They will use, manage, and improve our existing design system and create interactive prototypes with Figma. 

That way, you communicate what they’d be building, precisely what skills are necessary, and what tools they will use. 

Decide on your design software or tell them they will have the freedom to utilize the one they use primarily. If you have a team of designers, you already have a primary tool your team uses. In that case, be clear about what software they need to use. Otherwise, tell them they will be shaping the design direction in their tool of choice.

Instead of this: You need to be proficient in modern design tools like Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD and InVision Studio. And prototyping tools like Zeplin, Framer, Atomic, etc.

Try this: You need an advanced knowledge of Figma. Our design system uses Auto layouts, Components, and Grid constraints, among other advanced features. Experience with Framer for prototyping is a plus, but we’re open to candidates willing to learn. 

Be realistic with the requirements.

We’d all love to be your marketing specialist, business strategist, 3d designer and animator, and a full stack developer, but that’s not realistic. It’s possible, and I don’t doubt it, but unproductive in the long run and very unhealthy.

Recently the most bizarre thing started happening in the design industry that shows just how absurd these requirements can be. Businesses are looking for people that have more than 7 years of experience in a tool called Figma. To put it in perspective, Figma was founded 4 years ago.

Highlight the benefits.

Don’t just create an endless requirement list. Naturally, not all companies can offer fancy equipment, financial incentives, and other material benefits, but non-material benefits often outweigh their material counterpart. So tell us about that fantastic vacation policy you have, excellent employee chemistry, outstanding work-life balance, and your dedication to your employees and their families. It’s important you let people know what they get for all that hard work. 

Please, for the love of God…

Stop those short job posts looking for a Web Wizard, Rockstar, and other mythical creatures. The ones with no information about the job. The ones all about the CEO looking for amazing dudes to help him disrupt the banking industry. Creating posts like that attract the bro culture, makes you look unprofessional, and true professionals looking for a serious opportunity will skip them.

In the end, think about what will attract real talent. What will honestly describe your product and the actual job. Don’t use someone else’s job post or that dry template you got from a job platform. You are looking for a human employee, not a template or a robot. So, be frank, be empathetic, be fair, be friendly, and above all, be human.