Read almost any job posting and you're reading fiction in a recognizable genre: requirements nobody fully meets, responsibilities vague enough to cover three different jobs, and a dialect — "dynamic self-starter," "fast-paced environment," "wear many hats" — that every candidate has learned to translate (ambiguous role, understaffed, no plan).
A job description should be a preview, not a pitch. Previews that lie produce refunds.
The refunds arrive as early attrition: people hired to one job discovering they hold another. The research on realistic job previews has been clear for decades — candidates told the truth, including the unattractive parts, accept slightly less often but stay markedly longer. Honesty filters; filtering is the point.
The Standard Lies
The wish-list requirement stack. Fifteen bullets assembled by committee, describing a person who doesn't exist. The damage is asymmetric: confident candidates (statistically more male) apply at 60% match anyway; conscientious ones rule themselves out. Your "high bar" is functioning as a confidence filter, not a competence one.
The seniority mismatch. Demanding a decade of experience for work the team actually needs at three years' level — then wondering why hires are bored and expensive by month six.
The missing job. What will this person actually do in week three? The posting lists aspirations ("drive strategic initiatives") while the role's reality is maintaining a legacy system two days a week. Candidates can't consent to what they can't see.
Writing the Honest Version
- Split must-have from trainable. Three to five genuine requirements — things you truly cannot teach in six months — and a separate "you'll learn here" list. Watch the applicant pool widen and improve simultaneously.
- Describe a real week. "Roughly 40% client calls, 30% analysis, 20% internal coordination, 10% fires." If writing that sentence embarrasses you, the problem is the role design, not the posting.
- Name the hard parts. "This role includes month-end crunches" or "you'll inherit a system mid-migration." The people undeterred by the truth are exactly the ones who'll survive it.
- Publish the pay. Increasingly required by law, always rewarded by trust. Hidden ranges signal a negotiation ambush; visible ones signal an adult employer.
- Say what success looks like. "In a year, you'll have done X" beats any adjectives about culture. Outcomes are the one thing wish lists never include.
The Compounding Return
Honest postings don't just hire better — they advertise. Candidates screenshot and share the rare truthful one; rejected applicants who were treated to clarity come back and refer. The job description is the only marketing your future employees are guaranteed to read closely. Spend it on the truth.