Last week, I had a great conversation with a standout educational sales leader who shared something that really stuck with me. She told me she nearly skipped applying to a fantastic edtech company—not because she wasn’t interested, but because the job description was so generic, she couldn’t tell what the role actually entailed day to day.

She was worried about tailoring her resume without knowing what to highlight, and feared getting filtered out by the ATS before a human ever saw it. With the volume of applications companies receive these days, who can blame her for being cautious?

Have you ever passed on a role for the same reason?

Here’s what I often see in job descriptions that makes it harder to attract top candidates across all functions:

Template-driven descriptions: When job postings are too generic, candidates can’t tell what specific challenge they’d be solving. Are you looking to break into new districts? Compete with established players? Acquire new authors? Launch a new product line? Redesign curriculum standards? Overhaul financial systems? Lead a digital transformation? The more specific you are about the real business challenge, the more qualified candidates will self-select.

Generic system requirements: “Experience with CRM systems required” tells candidates nothing. Same goes for “familiar with publishing platforms” or “knowledge of financial software.” If you use Salesforce, say Salesforce. If it’s Adobe InDesign for editorial, mention it. This helps candidates understand if they’re truly qualified and attracts experts in your actual tech stack.

Vague success metrics: Instead of “meet sales targets,” try “Drive 25% growth in K-12 market share.” Rather than “manage editorial projects,” say “Deliver 6 new titles per year from concept to publication.” Instead of “oversee budgets,” specify “Manage $15M P&L for core product lines.” Concrete goals help candidates understand what success looks like and get excited about achieving it.

What tends to work better:

✅ Describe the specific business challenge they’ll tackle

✅ Name your actual platforms and systems

✅ Share concrete success metrics and KPIs (assuming they aren’t confidential)

✅ Explain the real day-to-day responsibilities and decision-making authority

The goal is helping great candidates understand if they’re the right fit while getting them excited about the opportunity. When you invest more time upfront in specificity, the return is huge: better-aligned applicants, fewer mismatches, and a faster path to hire.

#EdTech #EducationPublishing #Hiring #TalentAcquisition