Common Job Description Mistakes

When writing a job description, don’t make these common mistakes or fall prey to bad trends.

Don’t Sell Your Company

We’re a data-driven marketing channel big-data warehousing engagement analytics real-time data set enterprise-ready cross-functional target and engage consumers uniquely managing multiple access results of data science.

I have no idea what you do. Instead, describe the job in words engineers understand.

We make a Django application and host it on AWS. Our application provides non-technical people with some functionality they couldn’t otherwise produce themselves. And we make money doing it.

Don’t List Perks

It makes you sound materialistic and shallow. Instead list what makes your company stand out from all the other San Francisco big-data startups. If the only thing that makes you different is your air hockey table and espresso machines, you’re doing it wrong.

Don’t “Revolutionize” an Industry

Change happens slowly; claiming you are revolutionizing the urinal splash guard industry isn’t impressing anyone.

Copy-edit the Description

I can’t count on all my fingers and toes the amount of poorly written job descriptions I’ve encountered. Nothing makes you look less professional than grammar and spelling errors on a job description.

Categorize the Job Title

Labeling your job title “Software Engineer” today is useless. Classify what level of software needs engineering (drivers? firmware? web apps?); they are very different and require very different skills. “Full-Stack” doesn’t count. That’s not specializing in anything, so you won’t get a candidate good at anything.