Publishing a job is easy, but defining who you want to hire exactly is much difficult.
When a recruiter publish a job post on a platform like itpro.lk, the job description becomes the first contact point where company and job seeker connects. But a good job advertisement shouldn’t be where the recruitment thinking begins.
Before writing the job description, recruiters and hiring managers should first establish what they are actually looking for.
This is where a hiring brief becomes valuable.
| Attribute | Job Description (JD) | Hiring Brief |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Explain the job to candidates | Help recruiters/sourcers find the right candidates |
| Audience | Job seekers | Recruiters, talent sourcers, hiring teams |
| Focus | What the candidate will do | What kind of candidate the company wants |
| Tone | Candidate-friendly, attractive | Internal, practical, specific |
| Visibility | Usually public | Usually internal |
| Content | Responsibilities, requirements, benefits, company info | Target profile, must-haves, nice-to-haves, target companies, keywords, locations, compensation, exclusions |
| Goal | Encourage qualified people to apply | Make it easier to identify and approach qualified people |
Start With the Hiring Brief
Before publishing a job on ITPro.lk or anywhere else, take a step back and define the hiring need.
A useful hiring brief should answer questions such as:
- Why are we hiring for this position?
- What does this person need to accomplish?
- What experience is genuinely essential?
- Which skills are preferred but can be learned?
- What type of background would help someone succeed?
- What would make a candidate unsuitable?
- What would make an otherwise good candidate stand out?
This doesn’t need to be a long document. The goal is to create a clear internal picture of the person you’re trying to hire.
Without this step, recruiters can easily fall into the habit of copying an old job description, changing the job title and a few requirements, and publishing it again.
That may produce a job advertisement, but it doesn’t necessarily produce a clear hiring strategy.
Separate Must-Haves From Nice-to-Haves
One of the most useful things a hiring brief can do is separate genuine requirements from preferences.
Imagine the internal hiring brief says:
Must have:
- Strong PHP experience
- Good knowledge of MySQL
- Experience building web applications
Nice to have:
- Laravel
- AWS
- Docker
There is no reason to present all six items as mandatory requirements in the job advertisement. Instead, the job description could say these are the requirements and these are the nice to haves in separated sections.
Translate Internal Language Into Candidate Language
Hiring briefs are written for recruiters and hiring managers, so they can contain language that makes sense internally but doesn’t belong directly in a job advertisement.
Example from internal brief:
“We need someone who can independently own backend architecture and work effectively with a relatively inexperienced engineering team.“
It can be translated into something more candidate-friendly:
“You will take ownership of backend architecture and work closely with the engineering team to design and improve scalable services.”
Turn the Candidate Profile Into Responsibilities
A hiring brief should not only describe the person you want. It should also clarify what that person is expected to accomplish.
An hiring brief might say:
- Own API development
- Improve application performance
- Work with frontend engineers
- Review backend code
- Help establish development standards
Convert them to candidate-friendly responsibilities:
What you’ll do:
- Design and develop REST APIs
- Identify and improve backend performance
- Collaborate with frontend and product teams
- Review code and provide technical guidance
- Contribute to engineering standards and best practices
What Not to Include
The hiring brief may contain information that candidates don’t need to see, such as:
- Internal hiring priorities
- Target companies or industries
- Alternative candidate profiles
- Screening criteria
- Red flags
- Internal salary considerations
- Specific sourcing keywords
- Reasons certain backgrounds may not be suitable
You don’t have to publish all these in job ad. Instead, use the hiring brief as the source of truth and select the information that candidates actually need to make an informed decision about applying.
Use the Same Brief When Shortlisting
The biggest advantage of creating a hiring brief is what happens after the job is published.
Recruiters can use the same brief when reviewing applications.
Hiring need → Hiring brief → Candidate profile → Job description → Applications → Shortlisting
Instead of checking Does this CV contain all the keywords in the job description? the recruiter can ask Does this candidate meet the core requirements we identified before we started recruiting?
Better Job Ads Start Before the Job Ad
A hiring brief gives recruiters and hiring managers an opportunity to think through those decisions before the job goes public. The job description can then turn that internal understanding into something useful for candidates.
When recruiters take the time to define what they are actually looking for first, they are more likely to attract relevant applicants, set clearer expectations and make better shortlisting decisions.
A multifaceted professional known for diverse interests and contributions in various fields, including management, technology, education and entrepreneurship. Also the founder of ITPro.lk, bringing a unique perspective and industry knowledge to writing.