hi everyone this is market venture kid
and I'm excited to bring you the first
venture kid video I'm going to cover how
to create a great job description this
video is the first in a series about
hiring one of the area's founders most
want help with founders regularly ask me
if I know anyone who'd fit their open
roles but then don't have a job
description or have one that is way too
vague hiring is fundamentally hard it's
much harder when you're not clear on
what you want
that's why I'm starting this hiring
series about the job description I'll
outline the goals the job description
then walked through seven steps starting
with a job analysis then defining the
roles responsibilities qualifications
compensation and logistics title and the
company summary
I'll cover examples checklists pros and
cons and some advanced tips let's dive
in first a Job Description outlines of
roles potential candidates but it also
serves other goals it's a spec that
defines what your team should hire for
just like a pot expect defines what your
team should build it helps determine the
roles title compensation and success
metrics to measure performance a good
description also conveys what a more
junior person should develop toward for
promotion the description helps protect
the company if an employee claims that a
task is not part of their role at its
best a job description is a recruiting
tool that excites people to work for you
for many it will be their first
impression of your company you want it
to be a good one
the first step of creating a Job
Description is assessing what you need
through a job analysis this may actually
be the hardest step that a start-up
needs are constantly changing and people
wear multiple hats if you're not
familiar with an area like engineering
or marketing you may miss important
subtleties a job analysis determines the
responsibilities qualifications and
conditions of a role for the common
roles in the startup this doesn't need
to take a lot of time you can ask your
team questions like what skills doing
most need right now what are you doing
that should be done by a new hire
what are you feeling overwhelmed by if
you're hiring for a role that someone
already fills you can ask them to
outline a day in their life what would
you say
you do hear maybe not quite like that
but do get specific about the skills you
need I often see founders miss important
differences between hires within a
department an example is the types of
the designers I've heard founders say I
need to designer without any
clarification but there are many types
of designers user experience designers
planning the entire experience of a
product using interviews storyboards and
site maps user interface designers
create the actual interface of an amp
using languages like HTML CSS and
JavaScript graphic designers create
visual elements like logos and images
using tools like Adobe Photoshop and
illustrator every functional area has
nuances like this if you don't know them
research what you actually need up front
we don't waste a lot of time next write
the jobs responsibilities the most
common format is a list of action
statements with a verb and expect the
results and sometimes in methods for
example you may want a software engineer
encode test and deploy features using
Ruby on Rails list the most important
tasks first named a list 5 to 10 key
duties do not copy and paste from a job
template it looks boring and lazy with
specific projects and tasks the higher
will work on for example Google posted a
job description for a VR software
engineer it list has specific to the
role like developing VR plugins and
games and supporting VR mobile devices
while a bullet point list of
responsibilities is fine a description
of a day in the role is better consider
this description of a community
specialist from meet up meet up lists
tasks like congratulate the organizer of
a french-language meet-up on reaching
1,000 members call the organizer of a
motorcycle meetup about her email
settings and iron out a billing issue
and reset some laws passwords even if
the tasks are mundane illustrating a job
like this brings it to life also
consider listing expected results that
will mirror your performance reviews an
interface designer could be expected to
reduce bounce rates and increase
conversion rates a sales person could be
expected to increasing leads and revenue
you don't need to list exact numbers but
you do want candidates to know how you
measure 6
yes ken HR posted a description with
their expectations of an outbound sales
agent in the first few months they
expect the candidate to learn the
company inside out in month 1 to
generate prospect lists and month two
and to start closing 15 to 20 accounts
in month 3 and love the query of this
and how it will cite the right
candidates also add a phrase to the
responsibilities section like additional
duties as requested this clarifies that
the Job Description is not comprehensive
and adds legal protection in case an
employee box and an unlisted but
reasonable request to increase your
compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act consider listing
essential versus non-essential tasks
essential tasks are fundamental to job
and any candidate must be able to do
them for example a programmer must be
able to code but doesn't necessarily
need to hear or see
since there are competent programmers
who are deaf or blind an employer can
reject candidates who can't perform
essential tasks but must consider
candidates who can with reasonable
accommodation next define what
qualifications you want in a candidate
you can segment these into three
categories knowledge like an
understanding of computer science
principles skills like the ability to
write code in C++ and traits like strong
enthusiasm or a sense of humor try to
limit to 5 to 10 key qualifications so
you don't overwhelm Canada's distinguish
between qualifications that are must
haves versus nice to have again don't
copy and paste from a template add
details and personality consistent with
your company branding for example on
github job description for tech support
agent or they call supportive caps their
requirements section says you're good at
logic and solving puzzles advocating and
emphasizing the English language and
working remotely github replaced a
common requirement like critical
thinking skills with a unique one like
good at solving puzzles it's basically
the same trade but more engaging some
things to avoid avoid cliches don't say
you want a ninja a rock star or someone
who thinks outside the box these terms
are overused and sound cheesy
avoid requiring a certain GPA or degree
from a prestigious university these
usually aren't predictive and can turn
off non-traditional but qualified
candidates Google used to ask for
college transcripts but stopped after an
internal analysis found they weren't
meaningful avoid terms that can be seen
as discriminatory such as salesmen
able-bodied or young these can turn off
qualified candidates and can land you in
legal trouble I also prefer to avoid
requirements specific years of
experience unless the number is well
informed these are often wild guesses
and can exclude high performing fast
learners focus on what a candidate
should have proven Lee done for example
instead of requiring that a design
director have eight years of design
experience consider requiring the
candidate has made multiple design teams
to produce successful products a common
question is should I describe my perfect
candidate or realistic one my answer is
to describe your ideal candidate given
limitations like compensation and
scarcity the skills you need if you're
paying top of market for an office
manager you can be picky if you're
paying below market for AI talent be
prepared to train a fast learner
distinguishing between must-haves and
nice-to-haves
will help you prioritize next describe
the rules compensation package that
includes salary equity commissions
health insurance 401k paid time off
disability and life insurance training
relocation perks and anything else you
offer employees to determine what you
should pay there are two main sources of
free compensation data for startups the
first is compensation search engines
especially AngelList
which will let you find salary and
equity numbers of real jobs by role
location and market other sites like pay
scale Glassdoor and salary comm are
useful but their data skews toward large
companies with higher cash and lower
equity packages a second source is
startup compensation surveys a site
called advantage are surveys thousands
of startups at different stages and
offers free souring epidemic e rolls
remember to account for a rose location
and seniority as well as the stage of
your company determining salary is
relatively straightforward but the risk
reward of equity is specific to each
company if a candidate asks how to value
their company equity given
intellectually honest answer that
balances your optimism of creating a
billion dollar company with the realism
that very few do a common question is
whether to list specific numbers for
salary and equity a 2016 career builder
survey of 4,500 workers found that the
number one thing candidates wanted in a
job description was clarity on salary
but Glassdoor reports they're fewer than
10% of their job postings have salary
numbers there are pros and cons to being
specific on compensation the pros
include that it eliminates candidates
who require higher comp saving time for
you and them it signals a transparent
culture where people have access to
information that matters to them it can
increase the number of applications I
found multiple studies that reported
between 30 to 60% more applications when
salary numbers were reported for both
low and high paid jobs it can also
reduce racial and gender pay gaps that
upset employees and invite lawsuits
however there are cons to being
transparent it can upset current
employees who are not pay to tiling it
can be easier for competitors to poach
your talent by paying more it can be
harder to negotiate compensation
downward for a less proven candidate it
can also mean to public shaming if
you're paying significantly below market
overall a few tech companies like Stack
Overflow and buffer are transparent on
their compensation formula and a
journalist has thousands of job postings
with salary and equity ranges but most
companies keep their numbers private if
you want to follow the norm or aren't
ready to make pay internally transparent
don't list it on the Job Description
if your compensation is competitive
market rate or generous you can say so
but don't mislead candidates they
increasingly post on employer review
sites like Glassdoor and a poor
reputation won't hurt
if you're going to take a bolder
approach with salary and equity at least
as a range if you're paying market rate
you'll likely attract more and higher
quality candidates however create
process that regularly updates comp to
market rates have a thoughtful promotion
policy and expect a few awkward
conversations I like the culture and
discipline that transparency creates but
it does take work next describe the
roles in logistics that includes who the
highe will report to an expected start
date whether the role is full time part
time flex time or just temporary
whether it's remote or on location and
whether the real world is exempt or
non-exempt exempt versus non-exempt is
defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act
the FLSA exempt roles are exempt from
minimum wage overtime regulations and
other protections exempt roles are
usually salary jobs at pay at least
twenty three thousand six hundred as of
2018 and perform professional services
non-exempt rolls are usually hourly jobs
learn overtime of 1.5 times must be paid
for more than 40 hours of work these are
more often manual or repetitive tasks
most roles and startups are exempt but
check with an HR expert to make sure
you're following FF SLA regulations the
most important logistic is telling
candidates how to apply you can direct
candidates to an online form an email
address or screening test ask upfront
for any documents that you'll need like
a resume or design portfolio also put
the online call to action on the top of
the page if you can don't make people
hunt for how to reach you after you
define the roles responsibilities
qualifications compensation and
logistics you're ready to write the
title I know this sounds backwards but a
title summarizes an entire job in a few
words unless you are crystal clear on
that role from the beginning I recommend
building the role bottom-up as I've
described you may start a search
thinking you need a marketing manager
but realize you need a content manager
you may start thinking you need a manual
QA tester only to realize we actually
want a QA engineer
you may when you want less or more
seniority or even more than one role by
writing the title mast you can make it
more accurate and inaccurate title
matters it is usually the first
impression of your job description which
again is usually the first impression of
your company some other tips on title
keep it to four awards and Wes I like
the saying that the most important
titles are short a long title can be
pretentious or may mean the role is too
large avoid abbreviations and acronyms
like SR for senior or CPA for an
accountant they can be unclear and may
not match what people search for in job
sites use cute titles with caution
titles like money maestro and Happiness
agent they can work if they're clever
and consistent with your branding but
more often they just come off as cheesy
or unclear for example growth hacker was
in fashion for a while but can create
confusion on how much of the role is
engineering versus product versus
marketing people have to put their title
on a resume and tell it to others
regularly even creative people usually
want their title to be clear finally
describe what your company does and why
candidates should be most excited about
you this is where you can differentiate
a good company summary is like a good
fundraising pitch queer concise unique
and reflective of the company's values
and branding I like summaries that are
both descriptive and aspirational that
describe what you do and what you want
to be Netflix has one of the best
company descriptions I've seen this is
its opening entertainment like
friendship is a fundamental human need
it changes how we feel and gives us
common ground Netflix is better
entertainment and lower cost and greater
scale than the world has ever seen
we want to entertain everyone and make
the world smile Square is another good
example it processes payments which
hardly sounds exciting but listen to
their company description we believe
everyone should be able to participate
and thrive in the economy so we're
building tools that make commerce easier
and more accessible to everyone we're
here to help sellers of all sizes start
and grow their business and helping them
grow their business is good business for
everyone and breakthrough my online
therapy startup I used to say that for
many of our users we were helping them
with the most important problem in their
lives the more you can communicate about
why your work matters the more people
want to do it okay those are seven steps
to creating a great job description once
it's created you can optimize it in a
few ways
use keywords around that a candidate
would search for like the job title and
skills this will help your description
rank in Google and job site search
engines consider addressing candidates
in the second person
for example the requirements section can
say you've created several successful
marketing campaigns addressing
candidates directly feels more personal
collect internal feedback on the
description especially from the hiring
team make sure they are bought into the
roles responsibilities and
qualifications add a referral bonus paid
to anyone sends you a hired candidate
you can make the referral bonuses public
so even strangers are incentivized to
help you though you'll get more
unqualified applicants so you can also
just make the bonus available internally
bonuses are usually a few percentage
points of the higher salary finally try
to update the job description annually
for the same reason product specs should
be updated as features change accurate
job descriptions help with performance
reviews legal compliance and a future
hiring I hope this has been helpful if
it has I'd love it if you subscribe or
write a review to get more startup
guides and podcasts visit bentrik it's
calm and to reach me email me at mark
and venture kid com
you