Hiring problems can be traced back to a weak link early on in the chain such as a vague or poorly written job post. If you want to diagnose why a past hire didn’t quite work out, start out by asking: “Did I make a good first impression in the job post?” It’s the foundation of your hiring funnel. Get it wrong, and you’ll attract the wrong people. Get it right, and you’ll save yourself months of frustration.

Let’s walk through an example of a strong job post structure and find out along the way why it matters. But before we break down the content of an effective job post, we have to be mindful that the first impression actually takes place the moment an applicant sees its preview on a hiring platform.

 

STAND OUT AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE

This is what a typical job post of our looks like to a jobseeker on Onlinejobs.ph (OLJ):

How does this compare to its competition on the platform?

In our posts, the reader can see at first glance the employer’s face, full name, and the salary offered. Many of our current staff cited my photo as one of the things that grabbed their attention and made them feel the job post was legitimate. Applicants feel more at ease knowing that the poster is a real person whose identity they can cross-check on Google and LinkedIn.

Meanwhile, a sizable portion of talent seekers on OLJ leave their account picture blank. Others upload their logo, which helps a little but it feels impersonal and corporate. We’re a small business, so we leverage that to create a more human connection.

 

A PROVEN JOB POST STRUCTURE

Once you’ve earned the click, the ball is in your court. This is where most job posts fall short. Too often they’re vague, recycled, or missing details. A great job post should answer not just what the job is, but also why it matters, who will thrive in it, and what the long-term future looks like.

Here’s an example of one of our favorite templates, annotated with the objective of each section:

 

Job title

Experienced QuickBooks Online Bookkeeper (E-commerce & Inventory) – $7 to $12/hr – Full-Time | Remote

Objective: Be specific by using as many relevant keywords as you can without it sounding too jam-packed. Highlight the role, tools, niche, and pay. Candidates should know in five seconds if this is relevant to them.

 

Hook / Company pitch

We are looking for a detail-oriented QuickBooks Online Bookkeeper with e-commerce and inventory accounting experience to join our growing board game publishing company. This is a full-time, long-term position with salary increases, benefits (PhilHealth/SSS reimbursement), and growth opportunities into leadership.

Objective: Sell the role, your company, and the benefits in the hook. Make it clear if this is a long-term, meaningful opportunity.

 

Culture fit

We’re looking for someone who’s highly self-directed, organized, and analytical. Someone who’s personable, has a sense of humor, loves solving challenging puzzles, is adventurous, curious, and progresses through trial and error. We need someone who thrives in an atmosphere where giving and receiving feedback is expected. Most importantly, this person finds meaning and fulfillment in using their skills to personally and directly drive the growth of a small company.

If you’re looking for a mindless, mechanical job, this position isn’t for you. If you’re not open to taking on potential management/leadership roles in the future, then this position isn’t for you.

Objective: Filter for values and personality by being upfront about who will thrive and who won’t. This prevents misalignments early on.

 

Skills and qualifications

The ideal candidate possesses the following characteristics:

• Analytical and enjoys thinking through things in a quantitative way

• Tech-savvy and can quickly troubleshoot technical issues

• Organized and consistent

• Humble and listens to feedback

• Not afraid to admit that they don’t know something

• Enjoys the challenge of solving complicated but meaningful problems

The ideal candidate has the following qualifications and skills:

• Bookkeeping using Quickbooks Online 

• Spreadsheets (Excel and Google Sheets)

• eCommerce Inventory Bookkeeping and Accounting experience, preferably Amazon and Shopify

• Proactive online research and information retrieval

• Math, logic, and problem solving

• Written and verbal communication

Objective: Separate character traits from technical skills so candidates can self-assess easier.

 

Responsibilities

Responsibilities and duties of the role:

• Manage bills, invoices, categorization, and reconcile all transactions in QBO

• Create financial projections, cash flow forecasting, and financial reports

• Research ways to grow the company or save money

• Attend team-wide meetings

• Administrative tasks and upkeep

• Regularly update and maintain e-commerce financial records, including sales, returns, and expenses

• Collaborate closely with the operations team to ensure accurate financial reporting and decision-making

• Ensure adherence to accrual accounting standards in all financial transactions

Objective: Spell out the day-to-day realities of the job to reduce guesswork on the applicants’ end.

 

Application process

To apply

Please send me a message so I know you’re serious about the role, and I’ll reply with a link to the formal application standard questionnaire.

Note that we require you to have already taken the English Proficiency Assessment on your Onlinejobs.ph profile before applying since we’ll request this later in the application process.

If we think you're an ideal candidate from the questionnaire, we’ll send a series of assessments. The last stage will be an interview with me and some of my team members.

Objective: Outline your steps clearly. In this case, it’s: “Send me a message → Questionnaire → Assessments”. We sometimes write specific instructions to the application message (e.g., “Send me a message with the subject: ‘Boardgames are fun’” This screens for applicants who have read the entirety of the job post which we treat as a proxy for seriousness.

 

About the company + Core values

About Genius Games

We believe that science is fascinating and should be a joy to learn. We also believe that hobby games aren’t just a fun way to pass the time, but a healthy activity to promote social skills and learn about the world we live in.

Thus, we focus on science-accurate products that engage, educate, and inspire. Specifically, we publish board games, card games, jigsaw puzzles, and many other types of interactive games and activities—all themed around STEM concepts and factually accurate to a T!

The company has been featured in Popular Science Magazine, Scientific American, Gizmodo, and many other media outlets. 

Core values

Self-Directed, High-Achieving: Taking responsibility for yourself and taking the initiative to do what needs to be done without having to be instructed step-by-step.

Always Improving: Seeking to become a more knowledgeable, skillful, insightful, and healthy individual, both on and off the job.

Accountability: Seeing your work through to the end, delivering results that are a reflection of who you are and what you believe is your level of competency. And importantly, owning up to mistakes.

Feedback-Driven: Open to criticism and new perspectives, listening in order to understand how you can improve, and then judiciously applying those insights to produce results.

Candid and Compassionate: Always being forthright, empathetic, and sincere, because people are the most important resource we have. 

Objective: End with why your company exists and what you stand for. This ties the role to something bigger than a paycheck.

 

WHY THIS STRUCTURE WORKS

We believe that the flow of our template follows the candidate’s thought process:

1. Do I want to click? (Title & preview)

2. Does this role excite me? (Hook & company pitch)

3. Am I the right fit? (Culture fit + skills)

4. What will I actually do? (Responsibilities)

5. Is this worth my time? (Compensation & benefits)

6. What’s the next step? (Application process)

7. Do I believe in this company? (About + core values)

Instead of scattering or leaving out information, this template eliminates a ton of guesswork. It attracts the right people while discouraging the wrong ones.

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Making your job post human, structured, and transparent puts you in a position to get more, and also better applicants. This alone can save your organization weeks of mismatched hires and training resources.

So the next time you’re ready to publish a job post, put yourself in the shoes of your ideal candidate. Can you see yourself clicking on it? Will you think: “I can see myself here” after reading the pitch? Or does it just read like every other listing on the platform? Never take the job post for granted.

At Wise Scout, we’re serious about writing and hiring with clear intentions.