How do I write a job posting that actually filters out the wrong people?
Short answer
Put the real pay, the real hours, and the real hard parts of the job in the posting, on purpose. A posting written to attract everyone attracts everyone, including everyone wrong for the job.
Vague postings get you volume, not fit
'Looking for a hard worker, great pay, great team' describes every job posting on the internet and filters out nobody. The people who read past the first line and still apply are the ones self-selecting out of the ninety percent who wouldn't have wanted the actual job anyway.
Real pay range, real schedule including nights or weekends if that's the job, and real physical or working conditions belong in the first paragraph, not buried or left out. Someone who applies anyway has already decided they can live with it.
Name the hard parts on purpose
If the job means being on your feet nine hours, working outside in July, being on an on-call rotation one week a month, or dealing with unhappy customers on the phone, say so plainly. This isn't negative marketing, it's a filter. People who bail at that paragraph would have bailed at week three on the job instead, after you spent time and money training them.
Describe what a good day and a bad day actually look like. Candidates who read that and get more interested, not less, are the ones worth interviewing.
Ask for one thing that requires actual effort to submit
A line like 'reply with the word WRENCH in your subject line so we know you read this' or 'tell us about a job you're proud of' filters out mass-applicants who fire off the same resume to two hundred postings without reading any of them. It costs you nothing and it does more filtering than any interview question.
Job posting template
Fill in the brackets, keep the plain tone, don't polish it into corporate HR-speak.
[JOB TITLE] - [Company Name], [City] Pay: $[X]-$[Y]/hr depending on experience, paid [weekly/biweekly] Schedule: [days/hours], including [any nights, weekends, on-call] What the job actually is: [2-3 plain sentences describing the daily work] What a hard day looks like: [1-2 honest sentences about the tough part of the job - weather, physical demand, difficult customers, etc.] What we're looking for: - [Specific skill or experience, not 'hard worker'] - [Specific skill or experience] - [Reliability requirement, e.g. 'a car and valid license' or 'able to lift 50 lbs repeatedly'] What you get: - [Real benefit: PTO, tools provided, training, etc.] To apply: send your resume to [email] and put the word [KEYWORD] in the subject line so we know you read this whole post. Tell us in 2-3 sentences about a job you're proud of.
Before you post
- 1.Real pay range stated up front, not 'competitive'
- 2.Real schedule including nights, weekends, or on-call if applicable
- 3.One honest sentence about the hardest part of the job
- 4.Specific skills required, not generic traits like 'hard worker'
- 5.One small effort filter in the application instructions
Where owners get this wrong
- Hiding the pay range and losing good candidates who won't apply blind.
- Describing only the upside of the job and getting surprised quitters in week two.
- Copy-pasting a generic template with no specifics about your actual shop.
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