Write a job ad and a job description with ChatGPT

ChatGPT can produce two texts from one set of facts: a job ad for a job board and an internal job description with duties and evaluation criteria. The quality depends on what you agree with the hiring manager before the prompt: five results for the first year and three must-have skills. With those in hand, the job takes about 20 minutes, most of it spent cutting.

What ChatGPT is good at here

ChatGPT writes and edits in dozens of languages, so a company hiring in several countries can produce the same ad in each market's language. It handles tone well when asked, which matters because a job ad competes for attention while a job description is a working document. For an HR team, Projects keep the company description, benefits and format rules together so every new vacancy starts from the same base.

On price: the free plan gives the default model with a limited number of messages every few hours. Plus costs 20 USD per month. For HR teams the relevant plan is Business, 25 USD per seat per month with annual billing (30 monthly), with shared GPTs and Projects and team data out of model training by default. Pro at 200 USD per month is overkill for hiring texts.

Agree on results before requirements

The usual job ad is a wish list. A better one starts from outcomes: what should this person have achieved after a year? Ask the hiring manager for five results and three skills without which a candidate is rejected. Then settle the practical terms: office, hybrid or remote, the salary range or the decision to hide it, and what the company offers beyond salary.

The prompt

Role: you are an HR partner experienced in hiring in {{industry}}. Context: the company {{what it does, size}} is looking for a {{job title}} in {{department}}. Main results for the first year: {{five results}}. Must-have skills: {{three skills}}. Work format {{office, hybrid, remote}}, salary {{range or "negotiable"}}, what we offer beyond salary: {{list}}. Task: write two texts. The first is a job ad for a job board: what the work is, what we expect, what we offer, how to apply. The second is an internal job description: duties, reporting line, evaluation criteria for the first 90 days. Leave out any requirements on age, gender, marital status and appearance. Format: the job ad up to 250 words in plain language without cliches, the job description as a structured list. No long dashes.

The 90-day evaluation criteria in the second text are often the most useful part: they become the probation checklist.

What to do

1. Agree with the hiring manager on the five main results expected from the person in the first year and three must-have skills.
2. Define the work format, the salary range or the decision to hide it, and what the company offers beyond salary.
3. Give the assistant these facts with a prompt for the job ad and the job description.
4. Get the job ad text for a job board and an internal job description with duties and evaluation criteria.
5. Check the text for discriminatory requirements: age, gender, marital status, appearance, and remove them.
6. Shorten the ad so it can be read on a phone in one minute.

Cutting the draft down

A candidate should understand from the text what they will do every day and how they will be evaluated. Fewer than ten requirements should remain once the nice-to-haves are cut, and no discriminatory criteria should survive. Expect to delete a lot: the model generates a list of twenty requirements, and about half of them describe a person you would hire anyway without that skill.

Read the ad on your phone. If you have to scroll three times to learn what the job is, the first paragraph needs rewriting.

Data and settings

On personal plans, chats may be used for training by default: in Settings, Data controls, turn off Improve the model for everyone before the first work task. Confidential facts such as the exact salary range or the department's internal structure go into a public service only if you are ready to see them on a job board.

When a job ad mentions labor law, for example probation length, check the rule in the primary source. The model states legal details confidently and invents statute numbers.

The template is on the job ad and job description prompt page, and the HR manager's version of the task collects related prompts for the same role.