Too many potential applicants are disqualifying themselves before theyâre even in the running, and itâs our responsibility to change that by writing better job descriptions.
Learning how to write better job descriptions starts with understanding. What's the intent behind the specific words you use? How will these words affect the would-be applicants who view your job posting?
We need to change the way we approach job descriptions. When we do, it'll make the hiring process more inclusiveâand when we do that, we create diversified teams, improved work cultures, and a better world.
And who doesn't want that?
Below, we'll dive into everything you need to know to write better job descriptions. First, let's start with a few tips and best practicesâthen, we'll get into my personal experience (which reflects the experience of many other applicants out there).
7 tips for how to write better job descriptions
The fact of the matter: Applying for jobs is scary. Period. But when youâve got a whole host of disadvantages weighing you down (from socioeconomic and educational background to racial and gender prejudice), it makes things that much worse.
So, for those of you looking to make the application process just a little less intimidating and a whole lot more inclusive, here are a few tips I recommend:
1. Get rid of education requirements.
Unless you can genuinely argue that a particular degree is necessary for a job (i.e. a legal degree for a role in employment law), all youâre doing is scaring away perfectly qualified candidates who didnât have the privilege or desire to pursue a degree.
2. Stop requiring X years of experience.
Studies show that many perfectly qualified candidates take themselves out of the running before employers ever get a chance to see their resume. All because they donât meet every requirement to a tee. Instead of leaning on years of experience, specify what kind of experience youâre looking for. If they can do the job you need them to do, who cares how many years it took them to get there?
3. Stop insisting on prior experience for entry-level roles.
People from marginalized communities already have to fight past the hurdles of unconscious bias and outright discrimination. Donât make things harder by forcing people to rely on unfair advantages (like family or university connections) in order to land an entry level role. Instead, offer on-the-job training, explicitly state that school clubs, retail work, and/or internship experience is valued (even if itâs in a different field), and encourage people to include a cover letter or project that shows their ability and potential.
4. Tell your candidates to applyâeven if they feel underqualified.
I canât emphasize this enough: too many people take themselves out of the running before theyâve even applied. Tell your candidates to stop weeding themselves out. Because the fact of the matter is, people with connections to the corporate world often have someone who will let them in on the fact that you donât actually have to meet every qualification to be seriously considered for a job. Make sure candidates without those connections get the memo too.
5. Get rid of the word "requirement."
Instead of listing off a set of requirementsâwhich I think we can all agree arenât actual requirements so much as a wishlist of itemsâuse headers like, âWhat youâll doâ and âWhat makes a great candidate.â This is a whole lot more accurate and will make people less nervous to apply.
6. Donât just say you value diversity; actually show it in the responsibilities you prioritize.
Too many job descriptions focus on hard skills only. Instead, make inclusive behavior a responsibility. You wouldnât hire an accountant who couldnât do math, so why would you hire an employee who doesnât treat others with respect?
7. Ask the people you work with whatâs held them back when applying to jobs.
Every single person has a unique set of traits and life experiences that have shaped the way they interact with the world. These are just a few of the factors that have impacted me and the people Iâve talked to. Take some time to listen to someone else. Chances are, youâll learn something new.
My own experience with job descriptions
I remember being fresh out of college and looking for work. It sucked.
It sucked for the usual reasons: because I felt so panicked about resume typos, because no one actually wants to write a cover letter, because I was stuck in that awful position of needing experience in order to get experience. (Ah, the joys of applying for your first job.)
But it also sucked for reasons I wasnât able to articulate until many years later.
Thereâs more to a personâs experience than what you see on their resume
Looking at my resume, youâd think I would have had an easier time landing my first job. I graduated from a well-known college, held a decent GPA, and even had a few internships to reference on my applications. Brand-name college + internship experience = whatever job I want. Right?
The reality is a bit more complex. The reality is that my resume reflected very little of the life I had lived up until that point.
What my resume didnât say was this: I grew up in a working class Hispanic town, raised by my mom, who came to the U.S. when she was 12 years old. Like most immigrant parents, she hoped Iâd go on to live out the American dream: College degree, a corporate career, and a salary high enough to pay the bills without having to constantly monitor every dollar I spent.
It was an important enough dream that she dedicated the majority of her adult life to taking care of other peopleâs children in order to give her own kids a fighting chance. And I spent the majority of my childhood doing everything I could to make sure her efforts werenât wasted.
So what does any of this have to do with me applying to my first job?
We're more than a resume
Our unique life experiences impact our career trajectories long before we begin the application process.
Letâs start with the basics.
My mom never worked in a corporate environment. And so, despite a few summer internships, I had very little knowledge about the inner workings of a corporate job or what it took to get one.
Iâm a Hispanic woman whose on-screen representation growing up came in the form of nannies and cleaning ladies. As illogical as it sounds, even after graduating with an Ivy League education, it felt unrealistic for me to consider pursuing a corporate career. (Not that I could even name more than a handful of them. See my next point.)
I grew up in a low-income environment where the only career paths I saw came in the form of my friendâs parents: janitors, hairdressers, and factory workers, all of whom told me that with a college degree like mine, it would be ungrateful to pursue anything other than medicine or lawâboth of which made my stomach clench with anxiety. And yet, I knew few other options I could pursue.
(For the record: All of the above career options are perfectly respectable. I can honestly say that my mom spent her life working ten times harder than I ever have, and I am constantly in awe of all that sheâs accomplished.)
What did that mean for me?
So, here I was: A 22-year-old whoâd been lucky enough to get into an organization geared towards helping kids from low-income families break the cycle of poverty, one who had gone on to achieve the kind of educational success most immigrant parents dream of.
And yet, when the time came, I couldnât bring myself to do it. I couldnât apply to a single job. Despite all my educational success, I was convinced I couldnât succeed in the corporate world. And every new job description I readâall of which required experience I didnât already haveâonly seemed to further confirm that belief.
Why does writing inclusive job descriptions matter?
Writing an inclusive job description isnât going to solve everything (thereâs a whole lot more that goes into recruiting inclusively; in fact, weâve created an entire training around it), but it sure is a good start.
Here are a few of the benefits of writing good job descriptions:
- Qualified candidates: Better job descriptions will improve the quality of your candidates. For example, your education requirement could be alienating talented professionals who might not have the right degree.
- Larger pool: Improved inclusivity allows a larger pool to apply for your job opening, which means you have a better chance of finding the perfect fit for the position.
- Greater diversification: Removing exclusive language and barriers to application will diversify your hiring poolâand this is the entry-level point for building diversified teams.
- More opportunities: Give more candidates (who might not have a perfect resume) the chance to apply.
- Less intimidation: More inclusive job descriptions decrease the intimidation factor and help more of the fence-sitters have the confidence to apply.
Knowing how to write good job descriptions is just the beginningânow, it's time to put your know-how into action. Look at your current open roles and see if you're using the right language and best practices to attract top candidates. Examine what you can do to improve inclusivity. Interested in learning more about Hiring best practices? Watch our "Hiring to Scale: How to Hire Consistently and Inclusively for All Company Sizes" webinar here.
Looking for inclusive training that covers how to run a successful interview, the legal do's and don'ts, and more? Check out Ethena's latest training course: Hiring & Interviewing!