How to Write a Job Description That Really Works
We talk a lot about the buzzwords and clichés you should avoid when writing a resume, but what about writing job descriptions? When you need to hire someone, are you peppering your want-ads with tired old terms like "team player" and "fast typist"? No wonder that stuff filters down to resumes!
When 37signals CEO Jason Fried needed to hire an executive assistant, he decided to skip the usual shopping-list of required skills and take a more creative approach:
We decided to go in a different direction to locate our new assistant. Instead of a boring list of skills--this software, that many years of experience, "team player," etc.--we wrote a list of 26 things that this person would have done in a week had he or she been working here.Pretty clever, right? Fried thought that the unusual nature of the ad would "narrow the field of potential candidates," but instead the company got "bombarded" by applications. He found this surprising, but I don't: What could be more appealing to a job seeker than a real-world description of daily duties, especially compared with the dry, vague verbiage that accompanies most ads?The list included things such as "Booked two hotel rooms and two flights for out-of-towners"; "Packed up and shipped out about five copies of Rework to various people"; "Coordinated with Abt Electronics to schedule installation of four flat-panel TVs"; and "Researched and recommended local floral arrangers for weekly flowers for the office." This way, whoever was applying would know exactly the kind of work he or she would be expected to do.
Although Fried was initially overwhelmed by the response, and spent a lot more time interviewing candidates than he'd originally anticipated, the result was a hire who proved to be fantastic.
Was that the result of his unusually worded ad (which you can read here)? There's no way to know for sure, but I think the takeaway here is to put some thought into the next job description you write. In other words, "hack" it by focusing less on mundane skills (which most everyone has anyway) and more on the real-world tasks you typically need done.
How would you craft a compelling job description? Have you ever seen one that made you want a job even more? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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