Most job ads fail because they hide what developers actually want to know. Learn the simple fix that makes job descriptions work.
You can spend hours polishing a job description. You can add every buzzword your hiring manager insists on. You can even make it sound fun - “rockstar,” “ninja,” “fast-paced environment.” But here’s the truth: developers don’t care.
At least not until you give them the one thing they’re actually looking for.
The skim test
Every developer I know does the same thing when they open a job ad: they skim. They don’t read your carefully crafted company story. They don’t care about the paragraph on “why we’re a great place to work.”
They scroll straight to what matters to them:
- What’s the tech stack?
- Where’s the job based?
- Is it remote or hybrid?
- What’s the salary range?
If they can’t find that information in the first 10 seconds, they close the tab. It’s brutal, but it’s reality.
Why job ads keep failing
Most job descriptions read like they were written to impress another recruiter, not the actual candidate. A wall of text about “responsibilities,” half of which are copy-pasted from a generic template.
I’ve seen ads that demand “10 years of Kubernetes experience” (spoiler: Kubernetes didn’t exist that long). I’ve seen postings so vague you couldn’t tell if it was for a frontend developer or a data scientist.
It’s not just sloppy. It’s disrespectful of the candidate’s time. And developers notice.
The fix is simple, but most companies avoid it
Here’s the thing: writing a job description that developers actually care about isn’t rocket science. It’s honesty.
Tell them what the stack is. Tell them where they’ll work. Tell them how much you’re paying. Don’t bury it under a mountain of “requirements” and “nice-to-haves” that nobody will ever meet.
Yes, it might scare off a few people who don’t fit. But that’s the point. You want the right people, not the most people.
Why this matters more than ever
Developers are busy. They’re skeptical of recruiters. And they’ve been burned too many times by bait-and-switch job ads that promised one thing and delivered another.
When you publish a job description that cuts the fluff and gives them the real details upfront, you instantly stand out. Not because it’s flashy, but because it’s rare.
At daily.dev, we hear it all the time: developers don’t want to play guessing games. They’ll give their attention to recruiters who respect their time and tell it straight.
So if you want your next job ad to actually work, don’t try to make it clever. Make it clear. That’s the only thing developers really care about.
