Ask HN: Tips for writing a job description?

2 points by microman 11 years ago | 3 comments

I'm a developer that has been tasked with helping an online e-commerce client make their first permanent tech-hire (in an existing non-technical team of 4).

This person will have broad responsibilities in a company that is looking to expand their tech rapidly

Anyway, I'm having trouble with how to approach the job description. I understand it's difficult to ask for advice with such sparse details but it would be great to get some general tips of people who have written job description and hired. What worked, what didn't work, what tone should be used, how should responsibilities be addressed etc.

dozzie 11 years ago |

Consider detailing how this position can help in candidate's development. What he/she could learn, what interesting[#] tools will be in use, things like that.

I hear way too little about that from recruiters, and even then, only clichés like "international team" or "bleeding-edge technologies".

[#] Django, Ruby and MongoDB are not considered interesting here. There's plenty of places where one could use them. On the other hand, opportunity to use Coq, for example, would be very interesting.

sylvainkalache 11 years ago |

One thing you should keep in mind, do not only ask that the candidate has to offer in term of skills and experience, also explain what the candidate will receive for taking that job.

Compensation, equity, life-style, company culture, perks, type of experience the candidate will gain, possible career growth...

Make your job offer stand out: clearly explain what the job is about, why should the candidate work for you, do not only list a list of skills, that will not define the job.

lsiebert 11 years ago |

give some idea of compensation (salary range + equity). If the client is profitable, talk about that. If you don't get any qualified people after a bit, either reduce what you are asking for, or up your offer.

Differentiate between skills the candidate needs and skills that would be nice but could be learned on the job. Give some examples of tasks that the person would do.

Consider splitting up the broad responsibilities into discrete entities, or several jack of all trades. Remember if you have one guy who does everything, that guy quits/dies, there is no guarantee of any documentation having been written.

Alternatively, consider hiring a (paid) intern or junior engineer so that your big hire can focus on the big issues.