They're too long. They list 30 requirements when 5 actually matter. They start with three paragraphs of generic company description. They use phrases like "rockstar" and "ninja" and "team player" that signal exactly nothing. By the time a strong candidate has read past the third bullet point, they've moved on.

This article is about how to write job descriptions that actually work, plus a template you can use directly. It's built specifically for SMB hiring teams, where every job description is one of your most valuable marketing assets and you can't afford to write it badly.

Why most job descriptions fail

Three patterns repeat.

Too long, with too many requirements. A job description with 25 bullet points under "responsibilities" and another 15 under "requirements" suggests the company doesn't actually know what they want. Strong candidates read this and think "they want a unicorn, I'm not going to spend 90 minutes on a cover letter for a role they probably don't even have clear in their heads."

Generic everything. Generic company description, generic role overview, generic requirements, generic culture language. The candidate finishes reading and can't tell what makes this role different from any of the other 50 roles they've scrolled past this week.

Written for the wrong audience. Most job descriptions sound like they were written by a corporate HR team for a board document. Strong candidates aren't reading these for compliance. They're reading them to decide whether to apply. The writing should reflect that.

Fix these three things and your job descriptions will outperform 80% of what's out there.

What a good job description actually does

A good job description has three jobs.

It sells the role to the right candidates. Not all candidates. The right ones. Strong candidates have options. They're choosing where to invest their time. The job description is your pitch.

It screens out the wrong candidates. The right people apply. The wrong people self-select out. If your description attracts everyone, your hiring funnel is going to be miserable.

It sets accurate expectations. Candidates who join with the wrong expectations churn fast. The job description should describe the role honestly, including the parts that aren't glamorous.

If your current job descriptions aren't doing these three things, they're costing you candidates regardless of how nicely they're formatted.

The structure that works

Here's the structure to use for almost any role. Each section should be tight. The whole document should run 500-800 words for most roles.

1. A one-line role summary (above the fold)

The first thing the candidate reads should tell them what this role is, who it's for, and why it matters. Not three paragraphs of company history. One line.

Example: "Senior Backend Engineer to lead our payment systems infrastructure as we scale from 50 to 500 customers."

If the candidate doesn't get to the second line because the first one didn't grab them, that's signal you can fix.

2. About the company (3-4 sentences)

Yes, you need this. No, it shouldn't be three paragraphs. Cover:

What you do
Who you serve
Where you are (stage, size, funding if relevant)
Why the company is interesting to work for

Skip the buzzwords. Skip "passionate team." Write it like you'd describe the company to a friend.

3. About the role (3-5 sentences)

What this person will actually do, day to day. Not bullet points. Prose. Make it specific to your company.

Bad example: "The Marketing Manager will own our marketing strategy and execute campaigns."
Better example: "You'll own demand generation for our SMB segment, which currently represents 60% of our pipeline. Your first project will be building out our paid search program from scratch."

The second one tells the candidate exactly what they'd be doing. The first one could describe any marketing role at any company.

4. What you'll do (5-8 specific outcomes)

Now you can use bullets, but they should be outcomes, not activities. A strong candidate doesn't want to know that you'll be "responsible for managing the social media calendar." They want to know what you'll achieve.

Bad: "Manage social media presence across channels."
Better: "Grow our LinkedIn following from 5,000 to 25,000 in your first year, with a focus on attracting our ICP."

Outcomes-based job descriptions attract candidates who think about impact. Activity-based ones attract candidates who think about tasks.

5. What we're looking for (3-5 must-haves)

This is where most job descriptions blow up. They list 15-20 requirements. Strong candidates with 80% of the list scroll past because they assume they're not qualified.

Limit yourself to genuine must-haves. If "8 years of experience" isn't actually a deal-breaker, take it out. If "AWS experience" matters but "Azure experience" would also work, write that.

A useful test: for each requirement, ask "would I really reject a candidate who didn't have this?" If no, take it out.

6. Nice to haves (3-5 bonuses)

Things that would help but aren't required. Be honest about which is which. Strong candidates can tell when something's been miscategorized.

7. The team and reporting structure

A short paragraph. Who they'd work with, who they'd report to, where they sit in the org. Candidates are evaluating the team as much as the role.

8. Compensation and benefits

Include the salary range. Yes, in the public job description. Yes, even if you don't have to.

Reasons:

Many states now legally require it
Candidates who skip your job description because there's no salary information are screening themselves out, and they're often your best candidates
Companies that publish salary ranges report better candidate experience and faster hiring

Also include the key benefits. Equity, healthcare, remote/hybrid policy, time off philosophy. Be specific.

9. The process

A one-sentence overview of what the interview process looks like. "We run a four-stage process: a 30-minute screen with our recruiter, a 60-minute conversation with the hiring manager, a take-home exercise, and a final round with two team members. Decisions are typically made within two weeks."

This sets expectations and signals operational discipline. Strong candidates read it as competence.

A complete example

Here's what the structure looks like in practice, for a hypothetical role.

Senior Customer Success Manager

Help our growing customer base get more value from our platform as we scale.

About oryx
We're building hiring software for small businesses, with a focus on structured interviews and candidate experience. We're a 25-person team, profitable, and growing 80% year over year. We work with companies like [examples].

About the role
You'll own our customer success function as we scale from 100 to 500 customers. Today, customer success is handled across the founding team. We need someone to build it as a real function: onboarding, account management, expansion, and renewal.

What you'll do

Build a CS playbook that scales beyond what we do today
Own renewals across our customer base, currently $1.2M in ARR
Drive 30% expansion in net revenue from existing customers in your first year
Partner with product to feed customer insight into the roadmap
Hire and ramp two additional CSMs in your first 18 months

What we're looking for

5+ years in customer success, ideally in B2B SaaS
Experience building or significantly evolving a CS function
Track record of driving expansion, not just retention
Comfort working closely with founders

Nice to haves

Experience in HR tech or adjacent
Previous experience hiring and managing CS teams

The team
You'll report directly to the CEO and work closely with our Head of Sales and Head of Product. Today our customers are managed by the founding team. You'll be hire #25 and will define this function.

Compensation and benefits

$130K-$160K base + 20% variable
0.25%-0.5% equity
Fully remote, with quarterly team gatherings
Comprehensive healthcare
Unlimited PTO with a 4-week minimum

Process
Four stages over two weeks: recruiter screen (30 min), conversation with CEO (60 min), strategic exercise + review (90 min total), final round with two team members (90 min).

What to cut from your current job descriptions

If you have existing job descriptions to update, here's what to cut.

Generic company description longer than four sentences. Brutal cuts.

Lists of requirements over 8 bullets. Decide what's actually required and what's nice to have.

"Rockstar," "ninja," "wizard," "guru," "passionate," "self-starter." All low-signal. Strong candidates roll their eyes. The vague aspirational language signals a company that hasn't thought carefully about what they need.

Buzzwords like "synergy," "drive results," "wear many hats." All vague. Replace with specific outcomes.

Bullet points under responsibilities that describe activities ("manage the social calendar") instead of outcomes ("grow our LinkedIn following to X").

Required years of experience that aren't really required. "10+ years required" rules out a lot of great candidates who'd have been fine.

Equal opportunity employer boilerplate that runs four paragraphs. Keep it to one sentence. The boilerplate doesn't reassure anyone.

A note on tone

The single most underused tool in job description writing is voice.

Most job descriptions sound the same. Generic, corporate, formal. Then a candidate reads a job description that sounds like a real human wrote it, with personality, opinions, and honest descriptions of the role's challenges. That description gets significantly more applications from significantly better candidates.

Your job description is brand. Write it in your company's voice. If your company is direct, write directly. If you have a sense of humor, let it show. If you have strong opinions about your industry, share them. Distinctive job descriptions stand out and attract the right people.

Build your job description with Oryx

If you'd rather not start from a blank page, our Job Description Builder walks you through the structure step by step, with prompts that surface what's actually needed for your role.

Up next in this series: Free Interview Guide Template (How to Build One)