"HVAC Technician needed. Must have EPA 608 cert. Background check required. Send resume." That's a real posting I saw last week on Indeed. It tells candidates nothing about what the job is like, why they'd want it, or why your company is worth their time. It reads like a form, not an opportunity.
Good candidates have options. Your job posting is competing for their attention. Write it like that.
Lead With What's In It for Them
Most job postings spend the first three paragraphs describing what the company does and what they require, and never get around to telling the candidate why they should care. Flip it. Open with what the job offers: the pay range, the schedule, the benefits, the culture, the growth potential. The requirements can come later.
A posting that starts with "We're offering $28-34/hr DOE, full benefits, company vehicle, and no mandatory overtime" gets read by more qualified candidates than one that starts with "ABC HVAC Inc. is a family-owned business serving the greater Dallas area since 2005."
Be Honest About the Reality
If the job requires being on-call one weekend per month, say so. If it's physical work in hot spaces in summer, say so. Candidates who take jobs not knowing what they're getting into leave faster than ones who walked in with realistic expectations. Accurate descriptions attract candidates who are genuinely interested and reduce first-90-day turnover significantly.
Give the Pay Range
Candidates are skipping postings without salary information at record rates. They've been burned enough times by going through the interview process only to find the job pays less than they need. Give a real range. If you're flexible based on experience, say so. "Competitive pay DOE" is not a salary range. It's a way of saying you're not ready to have the money conversation yet, which is off-putting to candidates who are.
What Makes Your Company Worth Joining
This is where most postings fail. Write one paragraph about why people who work for you like it. Not corporate-speak, real reasons. "We run a clean schedule with realistic job times. The trucks are maintained and stocked. We do weekly team lunches in summer. Our callback rate is under 4% because we do the job right the first time." That paragraph tells a candidate more about your operation than a full page of requirements.
Put this into practice with WerkOps
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Written by
Dina Good
Founder, WerkOps
Dina grew up in the trades. Her father was a contractor, then a building inspector, and the job site was her classroom long before any formal one was. She went on to own her own contracting company, which is where she first felt the pain of running a skilled trade business on bad software and worse spreadsheets. A love of data pulled her into programming, and the two worlds eventually collided into WerkOps - software built by someone who has actually been on the truck.