What Is a Job Post?

A job post is the overview of an open role that is used to recruit qualified applicants. Job postings appear on online job boards, company websites, social media and in print publications like newspapers and magazines.

Job Description Versus Job Post

Job descriptions and job posts are very similar, though there is a small difference between the two. A job description is an internal document that provides an overview of the position for human resources and hiring managers. Job posts are external documents used to recruit prospective employees.

The Importance of Having a Good Job Post

A well-written job posting is important to accurately describe the responsibilities and minimum requirements for an open position. Crafting a clear job post is also important to help you:

  • Attract qualified candidates. By clearly outlining the demands of the position and the minimum qualifications, you’re more likely to identify and attract high-quality candidates for the position.
  • Reduce recruiting expenses. A strong job posting can help reduce the amount of time and money you spend on your recruiting process by identifying the best candidates early on.
  • Leverage your existing workforce. With a well-written job posting, you can ask current employees for any references within their network that may be qualified for the position. This can help expedite the process and reduce the number of platforms that you need to post the job to.

What to Include in a Job Post

Now that you understand the importance of a well-written job posting, here’s the key information to include.

Summary of the Position

Open your job posting with a brief paragraph that summarizes the purpose of the job and includes a high-level overview of the job responsibilities. You can also include bits of information about the results that candidates should hope to achieve in the role and what level of supervision the position is under.

Outline of Essential Functions

After providing a high-level overview of the position, dive into the specific tasks, duties and responsibilities. List these in order from most important to least important so candidates have an idea of what abilities are most crucial to succeed in the position. In this section, mention that other duties may be assigned to allow for flexibility.

Description of Working Conditions

Include a concise description of working conditions so applicants understand the environment in which the job takes place. If there are any unpleasant or dangerous conditions, applicants need to be made aware of them before considering the position.

Minimum Qualifications

To ensure that applicants are clear about the requirements, list the minimum qualifications necessary to be considered for the position. This can include education, professional experience, certifications, knowledge, skills and abilities.

Information About Organizational Values and Culture

An applicant may meet all of the requirements and minimum qualifications but not align with your company’s values and culture. Provide a brief overview of the company culture, enough for a prospective applicant to have a clear understanding of what to expect should they apply to the position.

Tips for Writing a Job Post That Attracts High-Quality Applicants

A job post can have all the necessary information but still not be very effective. You can give your post the finishing touches by thinking about how potential applicants will respond to it. Here are some tips for crafting high-quality job posts that will catch the eye of the people you most want at your company.

Tip 1: Make the Job Post Easy to Read

Before you even write a word, you should consider the overall appearance and readability of the job post you’re sending out into the world. Here are a few formatting details to consider: 

  • Spacing. White space makes text easier to read. Breaking the text into short, succinct paragraphs reduces mental strain and makes the reading experience less exhausting. Having a “wall of text” is never a good idea. 
  • Section headers. Just as you shouldn’t create a wall of text, you shouldn’t make it difficult for the reader to find what they’re looking for. The best job posts use headers that break the post into small sections. 
  • Bullet points. Once you’ve broken your job post into sections, you’ll want to continue to focus on making your post as easy to read as possible. Another great step here is utilizing bullet points in a few of your sections. For example, your “About the job” section may have a short, introductory paragraph followed by a list of bullet points that describe the job functions.

Tip 2: Optimize It

According to Indeed, the best length for a job description is only about 700-2,000 characters. You don’t have much space, so use it wisely. Optimize your listing to appear when relevant searches are made.

If SEO (search engine optimization) isn’t your thing, go to some job sites and try to find a job similar to the one you’re posting. Make a list of search terms they include, and include them in your listing.

Tip 3: Be Original

One cardinal sin of creating a job post is copying and pasting information from another company’s job post. The job you’re asking candidates to apply for is unique to your company. Although it might have the same title as a job in a different company, it is inherently different. Do not ask applicants to apply to a job that has a description stolen from a different business. 

You may find yourself hiring for a position that your company has never hired for before. There’s nothing wrong with searching the internet to learn more about the position and what should be expected, but you cross a line when you copy and paste directly from another job post. Take the time to really brainstorm what you want that person to do for your company. If you don’t know how to write the job description for a certain position, then get help from someone inside the company who does.

Tip 4: Keep It Brief

In early 2019, LinkedIn published some interesting statistics about the job posts being published on their platform. One of the most insightful takeaways from the study was that shorter job posts get more applications than long ones.

In fact, according to LinkedIn, job posts that contained around 300 words outperformed posts that contained 600-1,000 words. The shorter job posts saw an 8.4% increase in applications. The takeaway? Say what you need to say, but don’t add any extra words, fluff, or unnecessary requirements. 

Tip 5: Be Honest

When describing your company, your goal should be to promote it in the most appealing way possible. However, this does not give you permission to fabricate stories or awards that don’t exist. Rather than pretend to be something you’re not, promote the things that you are. If you are dishonest, you’ll immediately lose trust. What you might gain through subtle deception will never be worth what you lose in credibility.

Put special effort into making sure that the company benefits section is accurate. This section is important to potential new hires because they’re concerned about how this new job might affect their personal or family life. 

Tip 6: Professional Beats Casual

LinkedIn’s study on job descriptions found that job seekers had a much more negative opinion of an employer who used a casual tone in their job post. These “casual” posts also saw fewer applicants when compared to posts that were described as “generic” or “professional.”

Now, you can definitely sprinkle some personality throughout your job posts. But if you want to attract professionals, you’ll need to strike a professional tone. Ultimately, people are looking for a career, not a party. Stay on brand, be creative, write in a way that’s enjoyable to read, but make sure you’re conveying the right message.

Tip 7: Get Feedback Before Posting

Before putting a job post out into the world, try to get a second or third opinion. This will not only help you catch any spelling or grammatical errors you may have made, but it will help you gauge whether or not the post will relate to the target audience. After all, job posts are nothing more than advertisements. In the same way a car dealership displays an ad to get you to purchase a vehicle, you are sharing a job post to get someone to come and work for your company. 

If you are responsible for creating the job post but do not fall into the target audience, ask for help from someone who does. If you’re hiring for a software developer, have a few developers in your company review the job post. Ask them if they’d apply if they saw a post like the one you’re planning on sharing. Ask them if there’s anything you left out or anything you should add. If you want more people to relate (and therefore apply) to the job, you should get feedback directly from people who identify as the target audience.

Job Post Templates to Help You Get Started

There are several websites that offer free job post templates for you to use. When utilizing a job post template, make sure that you include all of the most important information about the position even if the template doesn’t have a dedicated section for it.

Here are a few free job posting templates that you can use:

Where Should You Post Your Job?

With a solid job posting written, all that’s left to do is post it for potential applicants to find. Listed below are some of the best places to list your job postings. You can use a software like Eddy to automatically post your job to all of them in one click. 

Online Job Boards

Online job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter and other sites are the most common places to list job postings. The specific steps to post your job will depend on the website you are using. You will have to create an account if you don’t have one already and look for the section of their site that allows you to create a new job.

Posting to online job boards is a must for your organization, as applicants primarily search for open roles using their phones, computers or another type of device.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has its own job board function where you can create and post open positions. To post on LinkedIn, click on the “jobs” icon at the top of your homepage and then click the “post a job” button. From there, follow the directions and fill out all of the required fields.

Listing your job posting on LinkedIn allows you to share the opening with your connections and actively recruit candidates through InMail messaging.

Social Media

You can promote your job postings on social media using company accounts. Platforms like Facebook have functions that allow you to create a posting directly on your page, while others such as Twitter do not have those capabilities.

If you can’t create a job directly on the platform, you can copy a link of your job posting from your careers page or an online job board and post it for your followers to see.

Newspapers

It’s the digital age but some people still peruse newspaper ads when they’re searching for a new job. You can still leverage technology to submit your job posting, as most newspapers have sections on their website dedicated to job posts.

It’s not the most efficient way to promote job openings, but to cover a wider range of potential applicants it doesn’t hurt to utilize newspaper postings.

Industry-Specific Job Boards

Industry-specific job boards allow you to list job postings that are relevant to the respective industry. These job boards function similarly to general online job boards. You’ll likely have to create an account for each website and then follow their instructions to submit your job post.

For highly specialized positions, posting to industry-specific job boards can increase your likelihood of receiving applications from qualified candidates.

Internal Memo or Email

Sometimes you don’t have to search far to find qualified candidates. If you send the job posting to current employees through an internal memo or email, they may have connections within their network who are qualified for the position. If you don’t already have an employee referral program, where employees refer potential candidates in return for some form of reward, you can start one. You might also consider posting your job internally on the company’s internal job board to allow current employees to even apply.