How to write a job post for development positions [Updated]

I recently blogged about How to find a CTO. An important role in your search for your CTO or any other development role is your job page. Don't miss the chance to impress a curious developer because every candidate will browse your website to look up your job postings.

I have a shocking idea for you: ditch the bullet-pointed job description. First and foremost you are looking for a team member with a broad range of skills to join you on a year long journey. It's more important to find a person who is smart, curious, genuinely interested in your business and most important a match for your team culture than a match to your current tech stack.

You should start the job posting by explaining what you do as a business and why it matters to help you to achieve this goal. You might call this a vision if you don't have a product. It's this vision that drives everyone in your company to give their best.

Next you should describe what the position is responsible for. Explain this by describing the typical workflows and tasks. This is a good spot to include tools and technologies that are used in your tech stack. I recommend that you assign a relevant team member to the position to be available for answering questions. Display his position, his name and his email.

You should finish by explaining what you offer in return. Talk about the things that you do to make your employees happier, healthier and more productive. Don't forget to include links to company rating sites like glassdoor or kununu.

And don't forget to make sure that every job posting has a unique page with a sharable permanent url, includes the date of publication and is taken down immediately once the position is no longer available. A side note on publication dates: a lot of companies do not remove their job postings and the can linger on their website for month. If possible display the current month and year as the date of publication. This signals that the job offer is still valid and up-to-date.

Below I've compile a list of good examples for job posts and hiring sites:

  • Mindvalley is pure porn when it comes to company job websites
  • Supercell is technically impressive, which conveys their work
  • Buffer has become a great example for a company built on culture so it's no wonder they have outstanding job postings
  • Expensify goes great lengths to give you an insight in how awesome their team is
  • Blizzard is known for their great company culture and they are doing a fantastic job telling you about it
  • Goodgame Studios is another well executed example

I know those examples are big and take a lot effort to build but you can start small:

  • DeinBus looking for a backend developer (I wrote this one myself (in german), so its natural to include it here.)
  • Vaamo finds a good balance between standing out and keeping the job page lean.

And progress from there by fleshing out a little:

  • Zenmate has a nice one-pager
  • Quäntchen und Glück are a little heavy on the text side, but what they are writing is what makes them special
  • GitHub finds a good balance between simplicity and emotionality

I hope this helps you in building a great job posting.
But don't forget that this is only a small part of the things you have to do to attract great talent.