Job Description Template: Copy-and-Edit Format With Examples

Copy-and-edit job description template

Paste this into your own document and replace everything in [brackets]. Delete any line you cannot fill with something specific.

• Job title: [Standard title that candidates search for, e.g. Customer Support Specialist]
• Location and type: [City or remote in COUNTRY] | [Full-time / part-time / contract] | [Team]
• Pay: [Range and currency, pay period] | [Bonus or benefits headline]
• About the role: [Two to three sentences: why the role exists, who it works with, what success looks like in the first year.]
• What you will do: [Verb-led responsibility 1] / [Responsibility 2] / [Responsibility 3] / [Responsibility 4] / [Responsibility 5]
• What you need (must-have): [Skill or experience that you would not hire without] / [Must-have 2] / [Must-have 3] / [Must-have 4]
• Nice to have: [Skill that helps but can be learned] / [Nice-to-have 2]
• What we offer: [Pay, holiday, flexibility, development, equipment, other real benefits]
• About us: [Two sentences on the company, its size and what it does]
• How to apply: [Where to apply, what to include, hiring steps and timing, a contact for accessibility needs]
• Equal opportunity: [A short, sincere statement and how to ask for adjustments]

Section-by-section guidance

• Title: use the standard title candidates actually search for. Internal levels and invented titles such as 'Ninja' hurt search visibility and confuse people on pay and seniority.
• Summary: say why the role exists and what the person will achieve. Two to three sentences is enough.
• Responsibilities: five to seven items, each starting with a verb and describing an outcome. More than eight usually means two jobs.
• Requirements versus nice-to-have: put only what you would refuse to hire without in requirements. Everything else goes in nice-to-have or is dropped.
• Pay: state a range that you would genuinely pay, with currency and period.
• Location: say whether the job is on-site, hybrid or remote, and any country or time-zone limits.
• How to apply: say where to apply, what to include, what happens next and roughly how long it takes.

Ten before-and-after rewrites of weak lines

The examples below are illustrations of the pattern, not claims about any real posting.

Requirement inflation and inclusive-language pitfalls

Requirement inflation is listing wants as needs. When a posting asks for ten years of experience, a degree, three tools and a certification, many capable people do not apply, and some research suggests that people tend to hold back unless they meet nearly everything listed. Keep the must-have list short and honest, and put the rest under nice-to-have.

Watch for wording that signals who you expect to apply. Gendered or age-coded words, 'digital native', 'young and energetic', and unnecessary physical requirements can discourage groups of candidates and, in some countries, may breach discrimination law. Describe the work and the skills, not the type of person.

• Replace jargon and internal acronyms with plain terms.
• State a degree as 'or equivalent experience' unless it is legally required.
• Avoid superlatives such as 'best', 'top' and 'rockstar'.
• Offer a contact for accessibility needs and reasonable adjustments.
• Ask someone outside the team to read the draft before posting.

Salary transparency

Posting a pay range helps candidates self-select and cuts wasted interviews. Some regions and cities legally require pay information in job postings or ban questions about past pay, and the rules differ by country, state and employer size. Check the rules where the candidate will work, not just where your company is based.

Even where it is optional, include a range you would honestly offer. A range that is far wider than your real budget wastes time on both sides.

Length and format

• Aim for roughly 400 to 700 words. Shorter lacks detail; longer loses readers.
• Use headings and short bullet lists so people can scan on a phone.
• Put the title, location and pay at the top.
• Keep each bullet to one idea and one line where possible.
• Use plain text or simple formatting so job boards and applicant systems read it cleanly.
• Use the same wording for the same requirement everywhere, so a skill is not described three ways.

Section examples: good versus weak

Job description checklist

• The title is one that candidates would search for.
• The summary explains why the role exists.
• There are five to seven responsibilities, each starting with a verb.
• Must-haves are separate from nice-to-haves and are short.
• Pay, currency and period are stated, where lawful and sensible.
• Location and work pattern are clear.
• The hiring steps and timing are described.
• The language has been checked for bias and jargon.
• A contact for adjustments is given.
• Someone outside the team has read it.

Use the job description to drive screening

A job description is also your screening rubric. Every must-have you write becomes something you will look for in each CV, so a vague list produces vague shortlists.

In Rezumz, you paste the description when you create a job. Rezumz extracts the must-have and nice-to-have skills it finds and lists them for you to check and correct. Candidates are then scored against that list: 80% of the score is the share of must-haves found in the CV and 20% is the share of nice-to-haves, and the score shows its evidence. Rezumz does not reject anyone automatically; you decide.

If the skills list looks wrong, the cause is usually the description. Before you post, run your draft through the free JD Enhancer at /jd-enhancer, which tightens a draft, and then check the must-haves it lists.

Worked example: a filled-in job description

This is an example for a made-up company. The figures are illustrative only.

• Job title: Customer Support Specialist | Remote within the UK | Full-time | Pay: 28,000 to 32,000 GBP per year (example range)
• About the role: You will be the first reply to customers of our scheduling software. You work with two teammates and report to the Head of Support. In your first year, success means customers get a helpful answer within one working day.
• What you will do: answer customer emails and chats; write help articles for the questions you see most; log bugs clearly for the product team; join a weekly review of unhappy customers; cover a shared inbox on a rota.
• What you need: one year in a customer-facing role; clear written English; comfort learning new software quickly.
• Nice to have: experience with a help desk tool; a second language.
• How to apply: send your CV and two lines on a time you solved a customer's problem to jobs@example.com. We reply within five working days and the process is two short calls.

How to turn requirements into something you can test

A requirement is only useful if you can tell, from a CV or an interview answer, whether a person meets it. 'Good communicator' cannot be checked; 'writes clear weekly updates for non-technical readers' can. When you write each must-have, ask what evidence would show it: a past job, a project, a certificate, a work sample or a structured interview answer.

Then carry the same list forward. Use it to screen CVs, to build the interview scorecard so every interviewer rates the same things, and to compare finalists. If a skill matters enough to be a must-have, it should appear in all three places. If it appears in none, it probably does not belong in the description.

Keep the list stable once you start screening. Changing the must-haves halfway through means early and late candidates were judged by different standards, which is unfair and makes comparisons unreliable.

Common job description mistakes

Most of these are fixed by one pass of asking, for each line, what a candidate would do differently if it were removed. If the answer is nothing, delete it.

• Copying an old description without checking that the role still exists in that form.
• Listing tools as requirements when you would train for them.
• Describing the company at length and the job in two lines.
• Mixing two roles into one, such as marketing and operations, with no priority.
• Hiding the hiring steps, so candidates do not know what to expect.
• Using a different title in the posting, the offer and the contract.
• Leaving the must-haves unranked, so screeners guess which ones matter.

Role-specific job description guides

Below this section you will find 165 role-specific guides, each at /hiring-guide/<slug>, covering one specific job. Start with the generic template above, then open the guide for your role and adjust it for your team, location and budget.

Rezumz is built for small and mid-size hiring teams. It is not the right fit if you need deep HRIS or payroll integration across a large enterprise; check the plans on the pricing page to see whether it suits your team size.