Job postings are usually written by copying the last one, which was copied from the one before. The result is a document that describes the company internal view of a role to an audience that has never heard of the company.
These six edits change who applies. None of them change what the job requires.
Edit 1: Delete the company paragraph from the top
Before: "Founded in 2015, we are a fast-growing, dynamic company committed to excellence and innovation in our sector, with a passionate team of over 200 people across four offices."
After: "You will own the reporting pipeline that our 400 retail sites use to plan staffing each week."
The first sentence is the highest-value real estate in the posting and most companies spend it on a paragraph that is true of every company. Open with the work. The company section belongs further down, where a candidate who is already interested will read it.
Edit 2: Split requirements into two lists
A single list of twelve bullets reads as twelve requirements, and candidates who meet ten of them do not apply. The effect is well documented and it is asymmetric — it removes exactly the candidates who assess themselves honestly.
Before: one list of twelve bullets under "Requirements".
After: "You will need" with three to five genuine prerequisites, and "Useful but not required" with everything else.
The honest test for the first list: would you reject a strong candidate for lacking this? If not, it belongs in the second list. Most postings survive this test with three items in the first list.
Edit 3: Describe the work, not the person
Before: "The ideal candidate is a self-starter with excellent communication skills, strong attention to detail, and a passion for delivering results in a fast-paced environment."
After: "In the first three months you will rebuild the weekly staffing report, which currently takes two days of manual work, and agree the new format with four regional managers."
Personality adjectives filter nobody — no candidate reads "self-starter" and opts out. Concrete work filters precisely: people who want that work apply, people who do not, do not.
Edit 4: Publish the salary range
Increasingly required by law in a growing number of jurisdictions, and worth doing everywhere regardless. A posting without a range gets applications from people at every level, most of whom are unsuitable in one direction or the other.
Publishing the range costs a negotiating advantage that mostly did not exist and buys a materially better-targeted applicant pool. If you cannot publish a range, publish a band and the level.
Edit 5: Describe the process
Add: "Our process: a 30-minute call with a recruiter, a 90-minute technical session, a conversation with the team, and a final discussion with the hiring manager. We aim to complete it within three weeks and will respond to every application."
Three or four lines. It reduces withdrawal later because candidates know what they signed up for, and it is a visible signal that the process has been thought about. Candidates comparing two employers use this the way buyers use delivery estimates.
Only include the response commitment if you will keep it — see rejection templates.
Edit 6: Cut the length by a third and fix the title
Most postings run long past the point where anyone is still reading. Target roughly 400 to 600 words. Everything the candidate needs to decide whether to apply, nothing they can read after applying.
And use the title the market uses, not the internal one. "Customer Success Advocate II" does not get searched for. "Customer Success Manager" does. Internal levelling belongs in the body of the posting, not in the title — this also determines whether the role appears at all in Google for Jobs results.
Measuring the change
Track qualified application rate: applications passing first review, divided by total applications. That is the number these edits move. Total applications may go down, and that is not a failure — fewer, better-targeted applications is the goal.
Also watch completion rate on the application form. If a posting attracts people who then abandon the form, the problem has moved downstream to the questions you are asking.
For where postings are published and how they are distributed, see careers pages and job distribution.