---
name: job-posting
description: Use when asked to write or adapt a job posting — the external, persuasive advertisement aimed at candidates, drawn from an existing job description — as distinct from the job description itself (see below), which is the internal, durable definition of the role the posting gets adapted from.
---

# Job Posting

A job posting is the external, persuasive advertisement an
organization publishes to attract candidates for an open role. It's
adapted from the underlying [[job-description]] but written for a
completely different audience and purpose: convincing a stranger
scanning a job board to apply, not documenting the role for internal
use in performance review or compensation banding.

## Job posting vs. job description

- **Job description** — the internal source of truth: accurate,
  durable, and used in contexts (compliance, leveling, performance
  review) where marketing language would actually get in the way.
- **Job posting** — the outward-facing version: trimmed, marketed, and
  tailored to attract applicants, written and re-published each time a
  role opens rather than kept as a permanent reference.

Writing the job description first and adapting the posting from it —
rather than writing the posting from scratch — keeps the two from
contradicting each other, and gives the posting a stable source to be
checked against as the role or its requirements change.

## What to keep, trim, and add

- **Keep** — the actual title (adjusted to a market-recognizable term
  if the internal leveling name is meaningless to outside candidates),
  the core responsibilities, and the qualifications that are genuinely
  required to do the job.
- **Trim** — internal pay-band mechanics, internal reporting-chain
  names and org-chart detail, and dense essential-functions or
  compliance boilerplate that belongs in the internal document, not an
  ad meant to be read in under a minute.
- **Add** — selling points that don't belong in a role definition at
  all: culture, growth path, notable projects, benefits highlights, and
  a summary or hook written to make a good-fit stranger want to read
  further, plus clear application instructions.

## Common pitfalls

- **Posting drifts out of sync with the underlying job description** —
  a posting typically gets copied across several job boards and often
  reused verbatim for the next opening, so once the role's actual
  requirements or reporting line change, the live posting can keep
  advertising a stale title, an out-of-compliance salary range, or
  qualifications the role no longer needs — usually for longer than the
  internal document does, since nobody's job is to notice a public ad
  going stale.
- **Laundry-list requirements deter applicants** — the same "every nice
  to have becomes required" problem the underlying job description can
  fall into, but sharper here: a posting is public and self-service, so
  a candidate who doesn't check every box simply never applies and no
  recruiter ever gets the chance to say "apply anyway" — every extra
  line item in a public posting directly shrinks the funnel with no one
  around to correct the impression.
- **All compliance, no pitch** — a posting copied straight from the
  internal job description with nothing trimmed or added reads as a
  legal notice, not an invitation, and undersells the role to exactly
  the candidates worth attracting.
- **Same posting live in multiple places, updated in only one** — a
  correction made on the company's own site but not on the job boards
  it was cross-posted to leaves outdated versions actively misleading
  applicants.
- **Missing or inconsistent salary range** — omitting it, or posting a
  different range across duplicate listings, in jurisdictions that
  require pay-transparency disclosure.

## Learn more

- [[job-description]] for the internal, durable document a posting is adapted from.
- [[inclusive-language]] for avoiding coded or gendered wording that skews who applies.
- [[resume]] and [[cover-letter]] for what candidates submit in response to a posting.