Job description contents: A section-by-section guide 

Recruiters routinely create job descriptions, and instead of generating a new document each time, many teams use a template to save time. The template serves as a boilerplate that can be adapted to new roles and helps ensure consistency across job descriptions. When building from a template, your team is less likely to omit an essential section, like compensation or company details. 

This guide supports you as you create a functional template for your team, highlighting the job description content areas to cover and how to tailor this document with the specific language that candidates need to correctly assess whether they’re a good fit for an open role.

Job description vs job posting

First things first: While job descriptions and postings may sound like the same thing, there are a few notable differences between them. 

A job description is a detailed account of the responsibilities and tasks belonging to a specific role, primarily for internal use. A job posting is similar but specifically designed for publication to attract applicants to apply for a vacancy. Your internal job description template needs to be reviewed as your company evolves over the years, whereas a job posting needs to be checked and updated each time a role is advertised. 

It can be tempting to skip out on creating internal role documentation and jump to creating applicant-facing materials. But job descriptions are important to business functions outside of recruiting. A job description that accurately details the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of a role can be used as the framework for performance reviews, as it gives managers a baseline to measure against. Job descriptions can also support the recruiting team’s compensation decisions as they define scope and seniority, which drives consistency around decisions on whether to extend an employee a raise or promotion.

What to include and how to write each section

Creating good job descriptions may be an art, but it can be learned. Use the following template to visualize the basics that should be included in a job description:

• The job title [for example, market analyst, communications manager]
• An overview of the role, including company details [give a high-level summary of what the role involves, what the purpose of the company is, and how the role contributes to the mission of the company as a whole]
• A list of the responsibilities and essential functions of the role [list in detail the areas of responsibility and tasks which make up the day-to-day of the role].
• The skills and education requirements [list specific level and fields of education required, for example, a bachelor's in science, then list specific experience required, such as time in specific roles or sectors, use of specific tools or software, and skills like collaboration or organization].
• Practical details such as working conditions and benefits, and information about the compensation being offered [note the type of employment, location and hours of work, travel requirements, remuneration and benefits including salary, health insurance, vacation time, and retirement].

Here’s more on what should go into these sections.

Role and company basics

Begin with the job title: this should be straightforward and designed to match similar roles in the sector, so avoid using language that your team only uses in-house. A good litmus test is running the proposed job title through a search on a job site; if you get the right kind of results, this title aligns with how the candidates you’d want to hire are searching for similar roles.

Next, include a brief summary of the role: three or four sentences that detail the key purpose and elements of the job and how it fits into the organization as a whole.

Following the role summary, give a short, two- or three-sentence overview of the company itself, focusing on elements that set your business apart, like unique aspects of the culture or a distinctive way of working.

Responsibilities, qualifications, and practical details

Consult with the person who will manage and work most closely with the new role when nailing down its responsibilities and essential functions. These particulars are arguably the most important part of a job description and need to accurately reflect what the candidate will do daily. This section also outlines the deliverables and goals that the candidate will be responsible for managing and achieving. 

Responsibilities and functions should be written with action verbs for specificity, like “manage” or “build.” The description should also detail who the candidate will be interacting with (i.e., the X number of members of their team or certain internal and external stakeholders) and whether they are responsible for leading peers.

As for qualifications, requirements are generally limited to those that are directly relevant to the responsibilities—not nice-to-haves, as required qualifications are most useful when initially screening candidates. If candidates don’t meet these basic requirements, they aren’t likely a fit for the role, even if they cover several nice-to-haves. This said, beware of creating an overly long list of required qualifications, as too many must-haves can unintentionally filter out good candidates or limit the diversity of your applicant pool.

Finally, include pertinent practical details, like whether the role is full- or part-time, its location, and any remote or hybrid working options or regular travel requirements. You’ll also want to share information on compensation and benefits, which will be reviewed in the next section.

Compensation and inclusive language

Being upfront about pay and avoiding exclusionary language are both important when drafting a job description, as these can help strengthen the applicant pool when you’re advertising a role. When candidates can visualize the pay range, they know whether or not it’s in their desired range and, in turn, whether the role is worth applying to. And when language is inclusive, candidates feel that their application will be considered fairly and that they won’t be at risk for discriminatory decision-making.

Compensation & benefits details

Detail the pay range for the role, as well as the structure of any bonuses or commission-based pay. An increasing number of states (such as California and New York) legally require the publication of salary rates when jobs are advertised, although this varies across the country in terms of requirements and implementation. Check the details of state-specific pay transparency rules before finalizing the publication of compensation details.

This is also the space to detail other benefits, like health care, time off, retirement plans, and additional perks, like gym memberships or on-site child care. Many candidates now weigh benefits as heavily as salary, as work-life balance and wellness are key considerations when choosing whether to apply for a job. A recent Deloitte survey of Gen Z and millennial workers showed that wellbeing, meaning, and money form a “trifecta” that drives happiness in the workplace. 

Inclusive language choices

The language you choose can unintentionally exclude or subtly discourage candidates from certain groups from applying, leading to a narrower applicant pool. Avoid missing out on a potentially great hire by:

• Making sure titles and pronouns aren’t gendered, for example swapping “chairman” for “chairperson” and “he” or “she” with “they.”
• Avoiding ageist terms that exclude older workers who may have valuable experience. For example, instead of describing your team as “young and energetic,” opt for descriptors that don’t refer to age but to working style, like “fast-paced.”
• Describing physical requirements by function instead of demand, as, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a candidate may be able to perform an essential task with a reasonable accommodation, so the requirement should describe the task to be performed, not a physical quality of the candidate. For example, rather than writing “must be strong,” you could use “must be able to move 40-pound boxes.”
• Including a simple equal opportunity employer statement that reflects your workplace policies when advertising roles, as this signals your openness to a diverse range of candidates.

As a rule of thumb, aim to focus job description language on the tasks and requirements, rather than attempting to describe the type of person who would be doing them. 

Common job description mistakes

Inaccurate or overstuffed job postings are more common than you’d think. Teams that need to make a hire quickly may rush to throw together the document, omitting key details or publishing a bloated first draft before editing. Using a job description template as a guide is a good way to avoid these issues, as the boilerplate will help you avoid over- or under-describing the role. Then, take the time to review the description (and final posting) for the following typical types of errors. The effort is worth it in the long run when your posting attracts an ideal candidate.

Requirement and responsibility mistakes

Carefully review the list of responsibilities and required qualifications and match them to one another and the role. If a qualification isn’t needed for at least one of the responsibilities, it should be left out. Likewise, the majority of the responsibilities should directly relate to the role. Having a tightly focused job description is better for recruitment (encouraging right-fit candidates to apply) and better for evaluating performance (it’s easier to identify baseline goals and whether a new hire has met them).

Language and review mistakes

When reviewing the language, pay particular attention to internal jargon. The document should be easy to understand by any professional, not just your team. Also watch for any language that isn’t neutral, for example relating to gender or ability, and replace terms to make them inclusive. Be wary of vague superlatives, too, like “rockstar” or “unicorn.” While these words can ostensibly give your posting an “approachable” air, they don’t truly say anything about the work or qualifications,

Customize and finalize before use

Before finalizing the job description, there are a couple of last checks to tick off: 

• If you’re updating an existing job description for a role you routinely hire for, and this new version is to become the baseline, have key stakeholders sign off (like the hiring manager or team lead for the department the role supports).
• If the description is going to be used for internal reviews of performance or pay, prepare a version for this purpose, with fields for approvals and signatures.

From job description to candidates

Cleaner candidate sourcing is one of the major pay-offs of well-written job descriptions. An accurate and focused job description that really reflects what you need in a candidate means you have the terms and criteria ready to search with. 

Juicebox’s AI-powered search engine works with plain language queries, so you can simply input wording from your job description and Juicebox will return a smart shortlist from its pool of more than 800 million candidates.

FAQs

What should a job description contain?

A job description should contain: the job title, a summary of the role, company details, a list of the responsibilities and essential functions of the role, a list of the required qualifications, practical details such as work conditions and benefits, and information about the compensation being offered.

What is the difference between a job description and a job posting?

A job description contains the full details of a role and is used to support ongoing internal processes such as appraisals. A job posting is used to advertise a role at a specific point in time and will include details taken from the related job description. A job description may be reviewed periodically (for example, every three years, or at a point of organizational change and restructuring), whereas a job posting is reviewed before each use.

How do I create a job description template?

You can create a job description template by first listing the main section headings needed, like job title, role summary, responsibilities, and compensation. Then fill in the parts that stay the same across most roles, such as your company overview, working conditions, and benefits, and leave the role-specific sections blank to complete each time you use the template.

Should a job description include salary?

Requirements for publishing the salary range in job postings vary by state, so your best bet is researching what the law mandates in your geographical area. The inclusion of salary details on a job description for internal use serves as a useful resource for historical pay data or deciding on an employee’s bonus eligibility, but what you decide to include or not isn’t dictated by the law.

‍