Hiring managers: Don’t make this fatal mistake when writing job descriptions

A hiring manager I worked with recently spent three weeks screening candidates for a digital marketing role. Strong résumés, solid interviews, plenty of platform experience. She made an offer. The candidate accepted. Two months later, she called me: “They’re great, but they’re not what we actually needed.” What she needed was someone to rebuild a broken attribution model and realign paid media spend with a new revenue target. What the job description asked for was someone to “manage campaigns across Google and Meta.” The role in the post and the role on day one were two different jobs. This happens constantly, across every function and level. Job descriptions are written to describe the role that existed, not the role that’s needed. By the time a role gets approved, circulated, and posted, the business has already moved. You end up screening for last quarter’s problems while today’s challenges sit unaddressed—and the best candidates can tell. About a quarter of job seekers already say job descriptions are misleading or have unreasonable requirements. That’s not a perception problem. That’s a design problem. The good news? You can fix it before you ever open a search. Start here: 1. DEFINE THE ROLE BEFORE YOU DESCRIBE IT Most job descriptions start with the wrong thing: last year’s version of the role, a competitor’s post, or a platform wish list. Instead, think about what business problem this person will own in the next 12 to 18 months. Not “what tasks will they handle,” but what problem are you handing them? “Fix declining organic traffic” is a business problem. “Manage SEO” is a task. One attracts candidates who think in outcomes. The other attracts candidates who check boxes. Then, clarify what they’ll inherit versus what they’ll need to build from scratch. A candidate who thrives walking into structure will struggle in ambiguity, and vice versa. If the person is stepping into a role with no existing strategy, no clean data, and no defined process, that needs to