Learn How To Write A Job Description: The Complete Guide

Hiring the right candidates is crucial for every company. No matter what the domain, a company can thrive only when it’s supported by a responsible and hardworking group of people. Job posting sites can be a boon for you if you know how to attract good candidates with a job description.

In this blog, we will walk you through all the information you need to know before you write a job description. It will talk descriptively about the importance of job descriptions, the components to form good descriptions, and how to write a job description.

Why is Writing a Job Description Important?

A job description is a document that clearly and concisely provides details about the job role, such as duties, required skills and qualifications, salary and benefits, and how to apply for the role. Let’s look at some reasons behind the importance of job description:

1. Attracts Prospective Candidates: A concise job description with all the necessary information helps in attracting qualified and skilled candidates. 
2. Creates a Good First Impression: A well-crafted job description free from grammatical errors ensures a good first impression of the company on the candidates, highlighting its professionalism.
3. Helps in Setting Expectations: A clear job description ensures that more qualified candidates apply for the job than underqualified candidates. This saves you time when screening the applications. 
4. Assists in Interview Preparation: A job description helps both the interviewer and the candidates prepare for the interview process. Interviewers can ask relevant questions to accurately evaluate the candidates. On the other hand, the candidates can prepare well based on the information mentioned in the JD.
5. Acts as a Baseline: The job description acts as a baseline to measure the growth and development of a hired candidate. It becomes a reference point for performance reviews and future training opportunities.

How to Write a Job Description?

A job description should cover detailed information about the job role. Here are all the steps that you need to follow to write a good job description.

1. Include Company Overview:

This section provides an introduction of the company to the candidates to familiarize them with its identity, culture, and values. Company overview provides information like the company’s name, history, business domain, mission, and vision. These details help the candidates to see if their values and career aspirations align with the company, eventually helping them decide if they want to apply for the job. Further, the overview may also specify any key achievements, market position, and unique selling points that help the company stand apart from competitors.

2. Mention the Job Title:

The job title for the open position should be specified clearly in one line to ensure candidates can easily identify the role. If it is a specialized role, you can use keywords from the industry. Including keywords allows your job description to appear in listing searches on search engines.

3. Provide a Job Overview:

This section provides a concise summary of the role being offered by the organization. It highlights the objectives and primary responsibilities of the position. Additionally, it includes details about the associated department, the hierarchical level of the job role, and the goals a candidate is expected to achieve. The job overview facilitates a basic understanding of the role before a candidate goes through further details.

4. Specify The Responsibilities:

This section provides information about day-to-day responsibilities associated with the job role. Specific tasks, duties, and performance expectations are listed in order of their priority or relevance. There may be additional information about reporting or collaboration requirements and targets a candidate will be working towards. The responsibilities section in the job description is essential for candidates to understand the scope of the role and assess if they have the desired skills and experience to excel in the role.

5. List Educational Qualifications and Experience Requirements:

Educational qualifications are an important eligibility criterion that employers focus on while recruiting for a job role. Therefore, a job description must have a section outlining the minimum requirements in terms of academic background and professional experience needed to qualify for the position. 

Overall, this section helps the candidates understand if they meet the basic requirements of the role and if their background aligns with the expectations of the employer. 

• Educational Qualifications: You can specify the level of education required. For example, a bachelor’s or master’s degree, diploma, or certificate. Further, you can mention relevant fields of study or preferred majors. 
• Experience Requirements: You can specify the minimum number of years and the type of relevant work experience expected from the candidates. 
• Preferred Qualifications: This section of a job description can include attributes that are deemed beneficial for the role but are not strictly necessary.

6. Mention Must-Have Skills:

This section highlights specific abilities, attributes, and competencies that are essential for success in a job position. The must-have skills section includes a range of technical and soft skills relevant to the role. It sets clear expectations of what the employer is looking for and helps in quickly identifying qualified applicants, streamlining the recruitment process.

7. Discuss Salary and Benefits:

The salary and benefits section of a job description provides information about the compensation package and additional perks offered by the company. Candidates can evaluate the overall value proposition of the job and decide if it aligns with their compensation expectations. 

As an employer, you can specify the expected salary range and even include details about how the salary is determined like performance-based incentives, base salary, industry standards, etc. Further, benefits can include non-monetary perks and incentives offered by the company. These may be health benefits, insurance, employee discounts, professional training support, etc.

8. Add a Call-to-Action:

The CTA section prompts interested candidates to take specific actions, such as applying for the job, contacting the hiring manager, or visiting the company’s careers page. Added towards the end of the job description, it provides steps to apply for the position, like submitting a resume and cover letter through the online application portal or the company’s official email. Overall, this section encourages candidates to engage with the hiring process.

Tips to Write Good Job Descriptions

A professionally created job description can help you attract suitable candidates and greatly support your team during the recruitment process. Therefore, you must create a compelling description. Here are some tips to help you write a good JD:

• Use Simple Language: Write the job description in a simple, easy-to-understand language to ensure the candidate understands the details. Jargon and complex phrases can create confusion. 
• Write Short and Descriptive Responsibilities: When mentioning the duties or day-to-day tasks of the job, specify the details with clarity. Be straightforward and avoid using vague language. 
• Set Realistic Expectations: Include only what the candidate requires, like must-have skills and experience. Add preferred qualifications only if you think it is necessary or adds value to the candidate’s decision-making to apply for the position.
• Specify Job Titles Clearly: Use professional and direct job titles for the descriptions. This helps the candidate identify the job position and if they want to apply. Avoid adding unnecessary adjectives to the title. 
• Create a Sense of Urgency: The call-to-action (CTA) section should provide direct contact information and encourage the candidate to apply. Do include the start and end date for the application process to create a sense of urgency. This way you will have applications at the earliest.
• Use a Proper Format: Your job description should be easy to read and comprehend. Use paragraphs for sections like company and job overview. For sections that specify duties and skills, you can use a bulleted list to give the details. While at it, avoid using fancy fonts throughout the JD.
• Review to Identify and Correct Errors: Before posting the job description, ensure that you have reviewed it for grammatical errors, typos, or punctuation mistakes. An error-free description exemplifies your organization’s professionalism.  

What Not to Do While Writing a Job Description?

Having discussed why writing job descriptions tends to attract more candidates and how to write them, let’s move on to the big red flags of job descriptions. Remember to avoid making these mistakes while writing job descriptions.

1. Using Difficult Words – A job search can be an exhausting affair for most candidates, so unnecessary obstacles like this can dissuade them from applying. If you include difficult words that the candidate struggles to understand, they might just pass on the opportunity. It can also lead to confusion about what the job entails, which can waste employer efforts. 
2. Not Formatting Properly – Most employers tend to get away with not putting in any effort to format the job description, which can be misleading for the candidates. This can show negligence on your part and hurt your employer branding efforts.
3. Using Unfamiliar Job Titles – Imagine using the title ‘Wizard of Light Bulb Moments’ instead of ‘Marketing Director’. Most candidates will not understand what it is about; hence, skipping the role without reading the whole description. Therefore, try to add a logical title that is formal and does its job of attracting the candidates. 
4. Using Biased Language – Most candidates will not accept a job description with biased use of language, especially the ones who want to work in companies that value diversity and inclusivity. Biased language can include a tone that gives the masculine pronoun ‘he’ preference over ‘she’ or ‘they’. It can also include using job titles such as ‘Salesman’ instead of ‘Salesperson’. Try to avoid such words and keep the tone of your text neutral.
5. Competing While Writing Qualifications and Responsibilities – It can be very discouraging for the candidates seeking jobs to go through a job description only to find an unrealistic amount of experience or responsibilities. You can lose out on a lot of potential employees if you don’t remove skills that can be learned or improved while being in the role.
6. Writing in a Negative Tone – Sentences like, ‘Candidates with less than 5 years of experience will not be considered’, can leave a negative impact on the applicants. Always try to replace it with a positive construction and be as friendly with the applicants as you can.

Job Description Example

Given below is a sample job description for a data scientist.

About the Company: Write a brief description of the company and its cultural values. Job Title: Data Scientist Job Description: As a Data Scientist, your job will be but not limited to discovering insights from complex data sets, developing predictive models, and implementing data-driven solutions to solve critical business problems. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to gather useful data and promote data-driven decision-making. Day-to-day Responsibilities: – Collect, clean, and analyze large datasets to uncover actionable insights and drive data-driven decision-making. – Develop and implement statistical models, machine learning algorithms, and predictive analytics to solve complex business problems. – Design and execute experiments to test hypotheses and evaluate the performance of models and algorithms. – Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify and prioritize data science projects that align with business goals. – Develop data visualizations and dashboards to effectively communicate findings and recommendations to stakeholders. – Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in data science techniques and tools and provide recommendations for their implementation. Qualifications Required: – Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field. Master’s degree preferred but not mandatory. – Strong experience in data analysis, statistical modeling, and machine learning techniques. – Solid understanding of SQL and experience working with relational databases. – Experience with data visualization tools, such as Tableau, Power BI, or Matplotlib. – Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to think critically to derive insights from complex datasets. – Excellent communication skills to effectively convey findings and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Additional Requirements: – Familiarity with natural language processing (NLP) techniques and text analytics. – Experience with deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch. = Minimum experience of 2 years. Offered CTC: INR 12-18 LPA  Benefits: – Flexible work schedule – Health insurance – Generous leave policy – An exceptional growth curve

NOTE: This job description is a general template and can be modified according to the specific requirements of your company.

Conclusion

Knowing how to write a job description is essential for the HR professionals or recruitment team of an organization. It facilitates the hiring process by ensuring the organization gets qualified candidates onboard in time. Further, it helps in tasks like preparing the hired individual for their job or evaluating their performance. If you are hiring soon, a well-crafted job description outlining responsibilities, qualifications, and required skills is a document you must have. For assistance on job listings, you can refer to the blog on how to post a job on Internshala and begin your search for top talent.

FAQs