Writing a job description people actually apply to

A job description does two jobs. Before the hire, it is an advertisement competing for the attention of people who are skimming forty of them. After the hire, it is the reference for what the role was supposed to be. Most job descriptions do neither well, because they are assembled from a template and a wish list. This is a structure that works for a small Indian company hiring without an agency.

Start with the problem, not the title

Before writing anything, answer in two sentences: what will this person have done in twelve months that we cannot do today? If the hiring manager cannot answer, the role is not ready to be posted. That answer becomes the first paragraph of the description, and it is the paragraph that makes a good candidate keep reading.

Titles should be the ones the market searches for, not the ones your org chart invented. "Growth Ninja" finds nobody; "Performance Marketing Manager" finds the right people. Keep internal level names out of the public title.

The structure

1. About the role, three to five lines. The problem above, who the person reports to, the team size, and where the work is done (office, hybrid or remote, with the city).
2. What you will do, five to seven bullets. Outcomes and responsibilities, written as verbs. "Own the monthly payroll run for 150 employees" tells a candidate more than "Handle payroll-related activities".
3. What we are looking for, split in two. Must-haves, which are genuinely disqualifying if absent, and nice-to-haves. Be ruthless about the first list; every item on it halves the applicant pool. Years of experience are a weak proxy for skill, so if you list them, use a range and explain what the years are standing in for.
4. Compensation. State the fixed salary range. See below.
5. How we work. Working hours, leave policy headline, notice period expectation, whether there is a probation period, and anything unusual like weekend support rotations. Candidates find out eventually; finding out at offer stage costs you the candidate.
6. The process. How many rounds, roughly how long, and who they will meet. A candidate who knows the process is a candidate who does not drop out of it from silence.
7. About the company, three lines, at the end. Candidates read this last if at all. Lead with what you do and for whom; skip the adjectives.

Keep the whole thing under 600 words. Length does not signal seriousness; it signals that nobody edited it.

Put the salary in

Indian job postings have historically avoided salary ranges, and the result is a hiring process where the first real conversation about money happens after three rounds, usually to discover a mismatch. Posting a fixed CTC range costs you nothing you would not lose anyway, and it filters at the top of the funnel instead of the bottom. If you have pay bands, the band for the level is the range. If you do not, use the bottom and top of what you would actually sign.

State whether the number is fixed or includes variable pay. "Up to 18 LPA" with 30 percent variable is a different offer from 18 LPA fixed, and candidates know it.

Requirements that are not requirements

Read every must-have and ask: would we reject an otherwise excellent candidate for lacking this? If not, move it. The usual offenders are a specific degree where the work does not need one, a named tool where any equivalent would do, and "excellent communication skills", which appears on every posting and means nothing. Each unnecessary requirement discourages exactly the candidates who read carefully, who are the ones you want.

Watch for language that quietly excludes. "Young and energetic" is an age signal. "Must be available 24x7" excludes people with caring responsibilities and is probably not what you mean. "Male candidates preferred" is unlawful under equal opportunity principles and will also get your posting removed from most job boards.

What the description is for after the hire

File the description with the offer. Six months in, it is the reference for the probation review: did the role turn out to be what was described, and did the person deliver what the description asked? A year in, it is the input for the first performance review's goals. When the role changes materially, update the description and tell the person; a job that drifted far from its description is one of the commonest things people say in exit interviews.

If you track roles in an applicant tracking system, keep the description there as the source of truth and generate the job-board versions from it; the recruitment module in ZekoHR does this, but a shared folder with version numbers works too. What does not work is three slightly different descriptions on three job boards, each promising something different.

A quick test before posting

Read the description as the candidate you most want. Does the first paragraph tell them why this role is interesting? Can they tell in thirty seconds whether they qualify and whether the money works? Do they know what happens if they apply? If the answer to all three is yes, post it. If not, it is not finished.