Recruit Job Ad

---
name: recruit-job-ad
description: Writes the job advert people actually read, with a two-line hook, the real job including its hard parts, pay, location and work authorisation rules up front, how to apply and what happens next by when. Use for "run recruit-job-ad", "write a job ad", "job posting", "job advert for LinkedIn", "rewrite our job post", "people ignore no sponsorship in the ad", "realistic job preview", "job ad that attracts the right people", part of the AI for Recruiting Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Job Ad

## When To Use
Hundreds apply who ignored "no sponsorship" in paragraph six, and the people you want scroll past a post that opens with the company history. It answers: what does the right person need to see in the first five lines to click, and the wrong person to stop?

## When Not To Use
If you need the full reference document with every requirement traced to a task, run Job Description first; the ad is cut from it. If you are writing to one named person, run Recruiting Email Templates instead; an ad speaks to everyone at once.

## Inputs
- The Job Description, or the Job Scorecard outcomes and must-haves.
- Pay range, location and hybrid rule, and the work authorisation rule as your adviser worded it.
- Stages and dates from the Hiring Process Plan, and where the ad will run.
If you have none of this, I start from the role title, three outcomes and the pay range, and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
A realistic job preview, from Premack and Wanous (1985, Journal of Applied Psychology, doi:10.1037/0021-9010.70.4.706): telling people the hard parts of a job before they join has small but consistent effects, so the ad says them plainly. Advertising without preference follows the EEOC (eeoc.gov, "Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices"): no wording that shows a preference by protected characteristic. Where Directive (EU) 2023/970 applies, pay goes out before the interview; check with a qualified adviser. The failure it prevents: a glowing post that hides the on-call week, a hire who finds out in month two, and the same ad back on the board by spring.

## Workflow
1. Ask at most three questions: the two or three hard parts of this job the manager will admit to, where the ad runs and its length limit, and whether the work authorisation line has been checked with an adviser.
2. Write the hook in two lines: the work and why it matters, taken from the scorecard outcomes. No company history, no "we are looking for a passionate".
3. Put the rules above the fold, before any description: pay range, location and hybrid rule, work authorisation rule. The authorisation line is a rule for everyone, never a nationality preference, and its wording goes to an adviser.
4. Describe the real job: what a normal week looks like, then the hard parts stated plainly (the preview). A hard part must be true; an invented "challenge" to sound honest is its own lie.
5. Must-haves only, three to five, from the description. Everything trainable stays out of the ad.
6. Close with how to apply, what happens next and by when, from the Hiring Process Plan, plus the adjustments offer.
7. Check pass: flag any preference by protected characteristic, "recent graduates", "young", "native speaker" and similar, each with a neutral alternative for the recruiter to decide.

## Output Format
```markdown
# Job Ad: [Role title]
Channel: [board or site] | Length limit: [characters]
## Hook
[Two lines: the work and why it matters.]
## The essentials
Pay: [min] to [max] [currency, period] | Location: [place, hybrid rule] | Work authorisation: [rule as the adviser worded it]
## The job
[A normal week, in three or four lines.]
## The hard parts
- [Hard part, stated plainly]
## You will need
- [Must-have from the description]
## How to apply and what happens next
[How to apply; stages and by when each answer comes; how to ask for an adjustment.]
## Check flags
| Line | Why flagged | Alternative | Recruiter decides |
|---|---|---|---|
| [line] | [preference or proxy] | [alternative] | [ ] |
## Decision
[Hiring manager] confirms the hard parts are true and [recruiter] confirms the authorisation line with an adviser, both by [date], before the ad goes live.
```

## Done When
- Pay, location and the work authorisation rule appear before the job description, in the first screen.
- At least two hard parts are named and the manager has confirmed them.
- The candidate knows what happens after applying and by when.
- Every check flag has an alternative and a box for the recruiter.

## Quality Bar
- The hook names the work, not the employer's adjectives.
- Must-haves stay at five or fewer; the ad is not the description squeezed.
- No invented perks, dates or pay: missing facts stay [placeholders].
- The authorisation line is written as a rule that applies to everyone; check with a qualified adviser on the wording.
- Nothing in the ad shows a preference by any protected characteristic.

## Next
Run recruit-employee-referral-program (Employee Referral Program) to put the same ask in front of your staff.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).