For the future jobs board at BEAM Devs, the aim is to have job descriptions made up of bullet points that are easy to read, without the need to parse the fluffy text we usually see in job descriptions.

This approach will also enable both candidates and companies to specify filters to refine their search criteria, saving time for everyone involved by providing more relevant results for what they are looking for.

Job seeking ends up becoming a full-time job for unemployed people, and I have been experiencing this since my layoff. I quickly got tired of boring job descriptions full of fluff designed to sell the company and the role, making it hard for me to spot at a glance whether the role aligns with my experience and what I am looking for.

To me, job descriptions should focus on what matters and be presented as a list of bullet points to make it easier to find, but not limited to, the following:

1. Clear and specific job title: Elixir Backend Software Engineer instead of just Software Engineer or something vague.

2. Career Level: Principal, Staff, Senior, Mid-level, Junior, Graduate, Apprentice

3. Remote, Hybrid or on-site

4. Skills required, desired and optional, including proficiency levels and how they will be used in the role.

5. Business scope of the role in a few words: e.g., Working on the backend of a B2B fintech app.

6. List up to five reasons why a candidate should apply to this role and company in very short sentences (up to 80 characters).

7. Links to relevant company pages: About, Careers, Values, Mission, Job Description, Handbook and Social Networks.

8. Salary range with a realistic lower and upper band.

9. Number of hours per week.

10. Work week length: Four or five days.

11. Flexible or fixed working hours.

12. Synchronous or asynchronous working methodology.

13. Holidays: Flexible (from 20 to 90 days) or a fixed number of paid time off (PTO) days. Unlimited PTO is a lie.

14. Clearly defined expectations for the candidate after 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months in the role.

15. Performance reviews frequency.

16. Salary reviews frequency and if they are attached to performance reviews.

17. Probation period duration.

18. Termination notice in days for both the company and employee during probation and after it.

19. Benefits, both legally required and optional.

20. Perks.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, and I welcome feedback on it with suggestions to improve it.

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I applaud your initiative, man. I am just fearful that a lot of HR and generally recruiting personnel prefer to keep things obscure. Hopefully that does not turn out to be true. Hopefully I am wrong.

Because otherwise it would be an amazing progress in the area – after an ATS system is added on top as well, that is.

It sounds like your project aims to provide an interface for talent and employers. To be successful you will need to attract both. People are generally going to act like electricity – follow the path of least resistance. As such I would think your goal should be lowering the resistance for both parties. This may be too big of a problem to take on, but ideally your app would include a tool to take in whatever format the recruiters submit and parse it/transcribe it to match the standardized format then present that sanitized version to the submitter before publishing it. I think if you expect recruiters to have a special format for your service when they can submit their familiar format to a dozen other job sites you’ll find few takers.