How to write a job description that attracts qualified candidates

A job description that attracts qualified candidates does two jobs at once: it tells the right people plainly why the role is worth applying for, and it tells everyone else, just as plainly, why it is not for them. Write it around what the person must achieve in the first year, list three to five must-haves you would genuinely reject someone for lacking, put the fixed conditions (pay, location, schedule, licenses) where nobody can miss them, and cut any wording that discourages people for reasons unrelated to the work.

Below is how to build each part, a copy-ready template, an invented example, the wording to avoid and why, and how to turn the finished description into the questions and scorecard for your interviews. The conversation that should come first, with the hiring manager, is in intake meeting questions.

Give every line one of three jobs

Most weak job descriptions are lists of everything the team would like. They attract many applicants and screen almost none, because a candidate can reasonably claim most of the list. Before you publish, check that every line does at least one of these:

1. Attracts: tells a qualified candidate something that makes the role worth their time, such as the problem, the team, the pay or the flexibility.
2. Screens: lets an unqualified or unsuited candidate rule themselves out before applying, such as a license, a schedule or on-site days.
3. Carries into the interview: names a capability you will actually ask about and score.

A line that does none of the three ("fast-paced environment", "team player", "other duties as assigned" as a selling point) costs reading time and signals a template. Delete it.

Start from first-year outcomes, not a list of traits

Ask the hiring manager what this person must have achieved twelve months from now. Outcomes give you requirements you can check, and they tell strong candidates what they would be judged on.

The middle column becomes your must-haves. The right column becomes your interview kit, which is why a description written this way takes less time overall: most of the interview preparation is already done.

Must-haves and nice-to-haves

A must-have is a gate. The test is simple: would you reject a candidate who is strong on everything else but lacks this one thing? If the honest answer is "probably not", it is a nice-to-have. Keep must-haves to three to five, and nice-to-haves to three or fewer.

Write each must-have as a capability someone could demonstrate, not a proxy for it:

Then, under the nice-to-haves, add one sentence that tells people what the list means: "If you meet the must-haves and none of these, apply." It costs nothing and tells qualified people not to rule themselves out over a wish list.

Write the knockouts into the description

Knockouts are the fixed conditions that end a process however good the candidate is. Stating them in the posting saves both sides a phone screen, and it is kinder than discovering them in minute three of the call. Put them in their own short section near the top, not in the last paragraph.

• Location and on-site days. "On-site in [city], Monday to Friday" or "Hybrid: on-site Tuesday to Thursday". If remote, say where from: "Remote within [countries or states]".
• Schedule. Shift times, weekends, on-call, overtime at month-end or peak season, and travel as a share of time.
• Licenses and certifications the law or the client requires, named precisely, with whether they must be held on day one or can be obtained within a period.
• Work authorization and sponsorship. Whether you can sponsor visas for this role. State the policy; do not ask about citizenship in the posting.
• Physical demands that are part of the job, described as the task ("moves cartons of up to 50 pounds between racks throughout the shift"), followed by a line inviting accommodation requests.
• Background checks, stated as "offers are subject to a background check as permitted by law" rather than a blanket exclusion.

Two legal points shape this section. Under the ADA's definition of a qualified individual, a written job description prepared before advertising or interviewing counts as evidence of the job's essential functions (42 U.S.C. 12111(8)), so describe physical and schedule demands accurately rather than generously. And the EEOC's guidance on arrest and conviction records rejects blanket exclusions of everyone with a record, which is why "no felonies" does not belong in a posting. Many states and cities also limit when criminal history can be asked about at all; check yours before writing anything on it.

Each knockout in the posting should reappear as a short factual question on the application or at the start of the phone screen. The phone screen questions for recruiters page has wording for knockouts, asked first.

Pay, and why the range belongs in the posting

A growing number of states and cities require a pay range in job postings, and the rules differ on who is covered, what counts as a posting and how the range must be written. They are summarized, with sources, in salary expectation questions; check that page and your counsel rather than relying on a general rule.

Where the law does not require it, publishing the range still does screening work:

• It is the fastest knockout there is. Candidates whose floor is above your ceiling do not apply, and the ones who do have already accepted the band.
• It gives the phone screen a starting point. "The range is 58 to 66. Where would you need to be?" is an easier conversation than guessing.
• It should be honest. A range whose top nobody can reach creates the same argument at offer stage that leaving it out would have.

State what is variable too: overtime, shift differential, bonus or commission, and whether those figures are included in the range or on top of it.

Wording that widens the qualified pool without lowering the bar

The goal of this edit is not to soften the job. It is to remove words that discourage people for reasons unrelated to the work. Two sources are worth knowing.

The EEOC says it is illegal to publish a job advertisement that shows a preference for, or discourages someone from applying because of, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Its own example is an ad seeking "females" or "recent college graduates" (EEOC).

On gendered wording, Gaucher, Friesen and Kay (2011, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) found in experiments that women rated jobs as less appealing when the advertisement used heavily masculine-themed wording, which the authors linked to a lower sense of belonging. A later replication by Seong and Parker (Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal) found the effect for start-ups but not for established firms. Read that as a reason to write neutrally, not as a guarantee that changing a few words changes who applies.

Close with an accommodations line in every posting, such as "If you need an adjustment to apply or interview, email [address]", and make sure someone reads that inbox.

The job description template

Copy this and replace the brackets. Keep the order: candidates decide in the first screen of text.

[Job title as candidates search for it, not your internal level]
[Company], [city] — [On-site / Hybrid: days / Remote within: where]
Pay: [$min]–[$max] [per year / per hour], plus [variable pay, if any]

WHAT THIS ROLE IS FOR
[Two or three sentences: the problem this person solves, who they work
with, and what makes the job worth doing now.]

IN YOUR FIRST YEAR YOU WILL
- [Outcome 1, measurable where possible]
- [Outcome 2]
- [Outcome 3]
- [Outcome 4]

YOU MUST HAVE
- [Capability you will check on the screen]
- [Capability]
- [Capability]
(Three to five. Each one is something we would not hire without.)

NICE TO HAVE
- [Up to three]
If you meet the must-haves and none of these, please apply.

FIXED CONDITIONS
- Schedule: [hours, shifts, weekends, on-call, travel %]
- Location: [as above, with on-site days]
- Licenses: [exact name; needed on day one or within N months]
- Work authorization: [we can / cannot sponsor visas for this role]
- Physical demands: [tasks that are essential functions]
- Offers are subject to [checks] as permitted by law.

HOW WE HIRE
[Stages, e.g. 20-minute phone screen, 60-minute interview with the
hiring manager, 45-minute team interview. Usual time from application to
decision: [N] weeks.]
If you need an adjustment to apply or interview, email [address].

ABOUT US
[Two or three sentences. Specific, not a mission statement.]

An invented example

Every must-have can be checked on a phone call, every fixed condition lets someone rule themselves out, and the pay line answers the first question most candidates have.

Turn the description into the interview kit

If the description was built from outcomes, the interview kit is mostly written. Each must-have becomes a knockout or screen question, an interview question with a probe, and a row on the scorecard. The two documents then stay consistent: candidates are assessed on what the posting told them mattered.

Write anchors for each scorecard row before the first interview; the interview scorecard template has a 1–4 scale to start from. If you would rather not build the question guide by hand, Interview Signal builds one from the job description you paste in and ticks off each must-ask question as it is covered on the call.

One last check before publishing: read the posting as a candidate who meets every must-have but has never heard of your company. If they cannot tell within a minute what the job is, what it pays, where it is and whether they qualify, the description is not screening yet.