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Are Your Job Requirements Turning People Away?

Have you ever posted what felt like a flawless job ad—only to watch qualified people scroll right past it? You are not alone. In an ultra-competitive labor market, every extra hurdle you put in front of applicants can cost you a great hire. Sometimes the barrier isn’t salary, culture, or even brand recognition. It’s the fine print you tucked under “Requirements.”

Below are six common ways well-intentioned requirements drive talent away, plus practical fixes you can put in place this week.

Outline

Chasing Unicorns With Inflated Experience Demands

Building Skillset Laundry Lists Instead of Core Competencies

Over-Weighting Formal Credentials

Packing Soft-Skill Wish Lists Into One Super-Employee

Including Legacy or Biased Language

Mandating Location When Work Doesn’t Require It

Putting It All Together: A Mini-Rewrite

How To Start Cleaning House This Week

The Long-Term Payoff

Chasing Unicorns With Inflated Experience Demands

We’ve all seen it: “Entry-level role—must have 5–7 years of experience.” It looks harmless on paper, but to a candidate it screams, “We aren’t sure what we need,” or worse, “We’ll underpay you for senior-level work.”

Why It Repels People

  • Early-career talent self-selects out because they’re under the year limit.
  • Mid-career talent assumes the salary will be too low or the scope too narrow.
  • You trigger imposter-syndrome doubts even in qualified applicants.

Quick Course Correction

  • Separate “exposure to” from “mastery of.” If someone can ramp up quickly, one or two years may be plenty.
  • Frame experience in outcomes: “Designed two customer-facing features from concept to launch” is clearer than “5+ years product design.”
  • Benchmark pay ranges honestly. If it’s a senior job, label it that way—and budget accordingly.

Building Skillset Laundry Lists Instead of Core Competencies

Modern roles evolve fast. In an effort to future-proof, hiring teams often pile every tool, language, and acronym into one monster list.

Why It Repels People

  • Candidates assume they must check every single box. Research shows women and under-represented groups are particularly prone to ruling themselves out when they don’t hit 100 percent.
  • The broader the list, the harder it is for applicants to tell what they’ll actually do day to day.

Quick Course Correction

  • Identify the four or five skills that truly predict success in the first year. Label everything else “nice to have.”
  • Use umbrella phrasing: “familiarity with modern JavaScript frameworks” instead of naming ten of them.
  • Highlight learning culture: “Don’t know every tech in our stack? We’ll help you get there.” That invites growth-minded people in.

Over-Weighting Formal Credentials

Requiring a bachelor’s—or master’s, or PhD—sometimes makes sense. Rocket scientists need hard science degrees. Most roles don’t. LinkedIn reports that nearly one in five job postings dropped degree mandates in 2023 alone.

Why It Repels People

  • Roughly two-thirds of the U.S. workforce lacks a four-year degree; screening them out on day one slams the door on a massive talent pool.
  • Experience-rich, non-degree candidates interpret the requirement as a bias toward pedigree over performance.

Quick Course Correction

  • Replace “Bachelor’s degree required” with “Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.”
  • Ask hiring managers to articulate what the degree signals—critical thinking, domain vocabulary? Then test directly for those abilities.
  • Tap skill-based assessments or job auditions. Code tests, portfolio reviews, or paid project trials reveal capability far better than transcripts.

Packing Soft-Skill Wish Lists Into One Super-Employee

Strong communication, flawless collaboration, leadership potential, the agility of a start-up founder—you name it, we cram it in.

Why It Repels People

  • Candidates sense a mismatch between expectations and reality. No one nails every soft skill perfectly.
  • People worry they’ll be stretched thin or evaluated on vague personality measures.

Quick Course Correction

  • Tie soft skills to genuine job scenarios: “Lead weekly client demos” demonstrates communication needs more directly than “excellent verbal skills.”
  • Prioritize: Decide whether you need a relationship-builder, an analyst, or a change manager first—then list two or three corresponding traits.
  • Leave room for individuality. A team of clones is less innovative.

Including Legacy or Biased Language

Gender-coded words (“rockstar,” “dominant,” “ninja”), age signifiers (“digital native”), or physical demands that rarely matter (“must be able to lift 25 lbs.”) unintentionally signal that some people do not belong.

Why It Repels People

  • Applicants from marginalized groups worry about inequitable culture.
  • Qualified older workers, candidates with disabilities, and caregivers assume flexibility is slim.

Quick Course Correction

  • Run postings through bias-checking tools (Textio, Datapeople, even Microsoft Editor catches some red flags).
  • If lifting, driving, or standing truly aren’t part of daily duties, delete those lines.
  • Swap “he” and “she” pronouns for “you,” “they,” or job-specific titles. It reads smoother and feels more welcoming.

Mandating Location When Work Doesn’t Require It

Demanding five-days-on-site or relocation to a high-cost city narrows the funnel more than almost any other criterion.

Why It Repels People

  • High performers have options; many will pass in favor of hybrid or remote flexibility.
  • Parents, caretakers, and people with disabilities may be unable—or unwilling—to uproot.

Quick Course Correction

  • Audit whether face-to-face time is truly essential. Could three anchor days per month achieve the same cohesion?
  • Offer location-based salary ranges to stay transparent while widening your net.
  • If onsite is non-negotiable, sweeten the pot: relocation stipends, commuter benefits, or short-term housing aid.

Putting It All Together: A Mini-Rewrite

Below is a before-and-after glimpse at how small tweaks open doors.

Before (Excerpt)

“Marketing Coordinator—Must have a bachelor’s degree in Marketing or Communications, 5–7 years relevant experience, expert in Adobe Creative Suite, Google Analytics, HubSpot, Salesforce, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and SEO best practices. Must be able to lift 25 lbs and thrive under pressure. On-site in Chicago only.”

After (Excerpt)

Marketing Coordinator—Looking for someone who can own social media campaigns and help our designers bring digital assets to life. You’ll manage content calendars, measure performance in Google Analytics, and collaborate closely with sales on lead-gen emails.

What will help you hit the ground running:

  • 1–3 years creating or scheduling social posts (agency or in-house)
  • Familiarity with at least one marketing automation platform (HubSpot, Pardot, or similar)
  • Experience reporting channel metrics in Excel or Google Analytics

Nice to have (we’ll teach you the rest): light design chops or email HTML edits. Degree not required—show us your portfolio. Hybrid Chicago area (Tues/Thurs in office); relocation stipend available.” Notice what changed? Fewer prerequisites, skill equivalence instead of rigid experience, an invitation to learn, and transparent flexibility—all while keeping clear expectations.

How To Start Cleaning House This Week

  • Pull three of your hardest-to-fill jobs and run them through the litmus tests above.
  • Compare the number of “musts” vs. “nice to haves.” Slash until every must ties directly to year-one impact.
  • Invite a cross-section of employees (and an external recruiter, if you partner with one) to flag jargon, bias, or fluff you missed.
  • A/B test: Post the revised description for two weeks. If your applicant quality or diversity spikes, roll the new style to every future opening.

The Long-Term Payoff

  • More qualified applicants per posting, reducing time-to-fill.
  • A broader, more diverse candidate pool, which multiple studies link to better problem-solving and revenue growth.
  • Higher acceptance rates—people who see themselves in your ad arrive already engaged.

Remember, job requirements are both a filter and a marketing tool. Use them to invite, not exclude. Need help auditing or rewriting your job descriptions? Our recruiting team specializes in crafting requirement-light, results-driven postings that attract today’s talent—without sacrificing quality. Reach out, and let’s make your next hire a great one.

Picture of Ryan Nead

Ryan Nead

Ryan has served in the Staffing and Recruiting industry for over 10 years. As an independent recruiter and business owner Ryan partners with decision-makers to attract, hire, and attain top-tier professionals to succeed and grow their companies. Ryan consistently implements new tools to help the needs of both clients and candidates until they are satisfied. With years of direct experience and knowledge from scaling and disrupting other major global industries. If you don't see Ryan with his family he is hard at work finding the right fit for your organization's open roles.

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