Here's How You Can Write the Perfect Job Description

Writing a clear and comprehensive description of your job posting is of utmost importance. A great job description can attract potential talents to apply for your organisation. It serves as the basic for interviewing job candidates, giving orientation for new employees, and evaluating job performance.

But, writing a perfect job description can be a difficult task. There are a few aspects you need to consider before posting your job so potential candidates won’t misunderstand what you’re trying to tell in your job posting. Here are some tips to help you write attractive job description in your next job openings.

The job title

How many characters do you usually need to write in your job title?

A job title should be around 50-60 characters long. A short job title can engage 30% - 40% more applicants. You should specify job position and the industry when writing job title. Most of the readers take a glance on the job title first before they read the full job description. Therefore, it is essential to write a specific job caption as it can out outperform 60% than those without specific title.

Nowadays, many companies start making up weird job titles to attract millennials. 

For instance, instead of writing ‘shaft & tunnel manager’, you can make it clearer and specify it by naming it as ‘tunneling engineer’. An attractive and effective job title will entice more skilled job candidates.

The job description

A job description should be concise and as attractive, just like the job title.

A job description should not be too long, it is better to keep it short and simple. A short yet comprehensive job description will take only 2 to 3 minutes or less to read. It will also give you better high click-to-apply rate rather than those with longer description.

Just like Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), keywords are important in many aspects. If you put important keywords in your job description, your job posting will increase up to 10% more clicks. The more related keyword you put in your job description, the more people will be interested to read it.

Your job posting will increase up to 10% more clicks with relevant keywords.

Thirdly, you should optimise candidates’ age group. This can help you target your next employee. Usually, 16 - 24 years old group is most likely interested in a job that pays bills, 25 - 35 age groups is interested in jobs with a good career path, while the 35+ age group is more interested in finding long term jobs. Not many job search websites offer the ability to find specific age range but AJobThing offers this function.

The layout

Nowadays, the younger generation apply for jobs on their mobile phones. So it is very important to make your layout as mobile-friendly as possible. There are 53% percent of 18 - 29 years old job candidates using smartphone for job search and application. It is recommended to make your job posting fit in one screen of a smartphone as it will help attract talents to read the job opening and apply.

Besides that, by including salary range information, the number of applicants will double up to 50% as readers can match it with their salary expectation. You can include your salary information on top of your job posting.

It is also recommended to make bullet points highlighting the important aspects of the job such as responsibilities and benefits. This will make it easier for candidates to digest the job description.

The layout for job description will require you to write important information first. This is because readers usually skip the bottom line of description sections completely. So, you’d want your readers to read the important things first so they will be attracted to apply for the job.

It is also recommended to write a complete company description. Apart from the job, people are also interested in who they will be working with. People spend almost as much time reading about the company as they read the job description. Approximate time candidates use to read is 25.9 seconds for job description, 23 seconds for company description, and 14.6 seconds for job requirements.

Use Preset Templates

When you post a job in AJobThing.com you can select from hundreds of FREE high-quality job templates for a variety of job titles. You can edit the templates to fit your requirements, and these tried-and-tested descriptions will ensure your job post has a better reach and better results. Try it today!

This article is adapted from Job Posting Hacks: How to Write Effective Job Description by hrinasia.com