How to make a good job offer

Introduction

The search for talent is an increasingly complex task, especially in the technology sector, where competition for the best profiles is fierce. For this very reason, it is important to make an attractive job offer, taking care of every detail and providing real information.

Normally, companies that have talent acquisition or human resources professionals on their staff are in charge of doing this task in collaboration with hiring managers, but what if you don’t have these profiles in the company, and you find yourself in the situation of having to expand the team and go looking for professionals in the market?

In this article, we are going to give you some simple guidelines so that you can publish an attractive job offer that reflects who you are as a company.

About the company

Every job offer should begin with a brief, clear and attractive introduction of the company and how it differs from its competitors. Avoid using typical phrases such as “we are a leading company in…” or “we have the best product in…” which are subjective appraisals. On the contrary, use contrasting numerical data that help the candidate to size up the size, scope, and volume of the company. For example, “our product is developed by a team of X professionals and is used monthly by X thousands/millions of people around the world” or “we serve companies in… all over the country”.

It is also important to add data about when the company was founded, the volume of employees or turnover data if it is public and relevant, etc. If you want to go to the next level and make it more original, you can write the company description as a short story.

About the role

This section describes what the job of the person to be hired will be like. The structure is usually a short description accompanied by bullet points with the main tasks. Take advantage of this section to give more details about the department, the mission, the team structure, etc. Include also the title of the position to improve SEO positioning and the technological stack with which it works. For example:

“As a Backend Developer, you will work in the X team reporting to the Tech Lead/Team Lead/CTO developing new features in the product. In addition to this, we expect you to be able to:

• Participate in technical decision-making to provide new ideas on platform performance and architecture scalability.
• Establish new CI/CD systems
• Efficiently refactor legacy code, migrating the language from Java to Kotlin.
• Etc…”

This part, together with the technical requirements, is important to do together with the hiring manager, that is, the person to whom the candidate will report directly.

It is essential to be realistic and not to inflate or overestimate the job offer. If you want to improve this description, you can define how the person’s path and learning will be in the following months. For example:

“During the first month, we expect you to meet the team, read the documentation and participate in pair programming sessions. In the third month, you should have already taken on more responsibilities in the team, you will have released new features to production. In six months, you will be fully integrated, you will know the dependencies, you will have developed new features and participated in performance projects…”

Requirements

This section specifies what knowledge and experience the candidate must have to successfully perform the role. This section should also be developed together with the hiring manager, and it is very important to be realistic about what you are asking for, both in terms of experience and specific skills.

For example, if the product is based on a monolithic architecture, don’t ask for knowledge in microservices. This seems very basic, but it is still surprising how many companies make this mistake, and the consequences are fatal, since the professional who joins may feel cheated and will probably leave the company shortly after joining, damaging the company’s brand image.

In addition to the technical requirements, we cannot forget the soft skills. Again, we must be realistic with the position and the environment. A startup, for example, will need someone who is much more versatile and proactive, with a product vision, while a large company will certainly need someone who is more methodical, specialized in one area, and familiar with working with more teams and more bureaucracy.

With the language, you also have to be realistic according to the needs of the position. Do not demand a high level of English if the company’s vehicular language is, for example, Spanish.

Benefits or “What can we offer you?

This section is basically about detailing all the benefits that you have as a company. From social benefits to work-from-home policy or salary. Regarding this last point, it is becoming more and more common to be able to publish the salary range in the offer, as long as you have the ability to maintain internal equity and know how to negotiate in a clean and transparent manner. Publishing the range will prevent candidates who have expectations above the salary from applying to the offer, and consequently will save you time in interviews.

You can use this section to share a little about the company culture, but don’t include it as a bullet point in the benefits, because it will give the impression that you just want to fill in the space.

Closing

The sections mentioned above should be enough. For the closing, you can add the last claim sentence to apply, but it is something that should be very personal or reflect the culture of the company. If you don’t think it’s necessary, don’t add it. It is better to put nothing than to put a telemarketing tagline.

In conclusion, a job offer should include the following points:

1. Clear and attractive description of the company
2. Description of the job and the duties to be performed
3. Requirements for the role that fit the position
4. Marketing claim for anyone who can read it