How to Write a Job Description for a Role You Can't Quite Describe

Most bad job ads don't come from laziness. They come from a moment of honesty: you know you need someone, you feel like you're drowning in tasks, but if someone asked you "so what exactly would this person do?", you'd pause for a second. That's completely normal. The role in your head doesn't have a name yet, because you're inventing it right now, out of a real need.

The good news: you don't need to know the job title to write a good ad. You only need to know what hurts. A clear job description doesn't start from a template copied off the internet - it starts from the problem you want solved. In this article I'll show you how to go from "I don't know how to describe it" to a concrete ad that the right people actually respond to.

Start from the pain, not the title

Don't ask "what role am I hiring for?". Ask "what do I no longer want to be doing myself?".

Grab a sheet of paper and write down, unfiltered, everything that eats up your week: replying to messages, invoices, bookings, posts, calling clients, moving stock. Note all of it, even the small stuff.

Then group it. You'll notice the tasks naturally fall into two or three piles: one about sales, one about admin, one for everything that's "quick, but nobody does it". The biggest, most painful pile is actually your role. The title comes last, once you see the shape. Many businesses discover only here that they don't need an "assistant" - they need a salesperson, or the other way around.

Describe outcomes, not responsibilities

"Responsible for social media" says nothing. Not to you, not to the reader.

Instead, write what should happen if the person does the job well:

• "By month-end we have consistent posts, without me getting involved."
• "Every client message gets a reply the same day."
• "I have a list of companies we've called, with what each one said."

Outcomes are far easier to write than a duties list, because you already feel their absence. And they come with a bonus: six months in, those same outcomes tell you whether the hire worked. A good candidate reveals themselves precisely by reading these outcomes and telling you how they'd hit them.

Separate must-have from nice-to-have

This is where most employers lose good people: they ask for everything. "Experience, driver's license, English, design, accounting, energy, weekend availability." No real person ticks the whole list, and the ones who do are expensive or lying.

Split your requirements into two columns:

• Can't do the job without it (e.g. speaks well on the phone, has a license).
• Would be a plus, but is learnable (e.g. a specific tool or platform).

Simple rule: if something can be learned in a few weeks, it's not a must-have. The shorter and more honest your must-have list, the more suitable candidates you get - and fewer who rule themselves out for no reason.

Write a real "day in the life"

The strongest paragraph in a job ad isn't the requirements list - it's a concrete picture of the role. People apply to something they can imagine.

Write three or four simple lines: "In the morning you check messages and bookings. During the day you call a list of companies and log what they said in the CRM. In the afternoon you prep tomorrow's post."

It doesn't have to be perfect. It has to be true. If the role is still fuzzy even to you, say so honestly: "The role will settle in the first few weeks, we'll build it together." Honesty attracts exactly the flexible kind of person you need in a new role - and scares off those looking only for a fixed, carved-in-stone job.

Why this also helps your website, not just hiring

It's the same muscle. When you can't describe a role, you usually can't clearly describe what your business does either - and that shows up on your site and in how customers find you.

At MPO Web Studio we work the opposite way to "just tell us what you want": we start from what hurts, build you a ready-made demo for free that you see before paying anything, and deliver remotely across the country with transparent pricing. The same method - start from the problem, not the title - works for hiring and for your website alike.

If you want a second pair of eyes on your job ad or your site, send us a short message on WhatsApp. No forced pitch - we'll honestly tell you where we'd start.