Quick answer: Keep your job description under 300 words. Use the same text on LinkedIn, your careers page, and job boards. If it is too long, cut company fluff first, not the duties or must haves. LinkedIn analyzed about 4.5 million US and UK job posts from 2016 to 2017 and found posts of 1 to 300 words got 8.4% more applications per view than average.
I see small teams write a 900 word brand essay and wonder why nobody finishes it on a phone. The role is buried under history, values, and snack lists. Candidates leave. So do good applicants who would have fit.
In my opinion the length problem is usually a priority problem. You wrote about the company before you wrote about the work.
How long should a job description be?
Under 300 words for most small company roles.
That is a working ceiling, not a sacred Canvider number. LinkedIn’s Talent Blog piece from August 2018 (data from about 4.5 million posts in 2016 and 2017 across the US and UK) is still the clearest large study with a named word band:
| Length | Apply rate per view vs average |
|---|---|
| 1 to 300 words | 8.4% higher |
| 301 to 600 words | 3.4% lower |
| 601+ words | 1% higher |
Short won. Medium lost. Very long was only slightly above average, and only when the extra words earned their place.
A later LinkedIn look at millions of paid US posts (April to September 2023) found high performing posts were about 7% shorter than low performing ones. Same direction: trim before you pad.
Some JD vendors disagree on the exact band. Ongig often points to roughly 300 to 700 words. Appcast has guided toward about 201 to 400. Fine. Different samples, different years. For a team of 10 to 50, I still want you under 300 so people finish the page and decide.
More than half of LinkedIn job views in that earlier study were already on mobile. If your description needs a scrollbar marathon, you already lost part of the audience.
What should I put in those 300 words?
Lead with the job. Then the bar. Then the deal.
A simple shape that fits under 300 words:
- One sentence role summary. What they own, for whom, and what success looks like in the first 90 days.
- Five to eight responsibilities. Daily work, not every edge case.
- Must haves vs nice to haves. Must haves are binary. If you will reject for it, say so. Nice to haves stay short.
- Logistics. Location, remote or hybrid rules, travel, schedule, employment type.
- Pay and benefits. Range if you can. Required transparency rules aside, ranges save everyone time. See our note on the EU Pay Transparency Directive if you hire in Europe.
- Short about us. Two or three lines max. Not a founding myth.
That is enough for a candidate to self filter. It is also enough for your team to screen against later.
If you need a cleaner internal ask before the public post, start with a job requisition. Permission and budget first. Description second. Posting last.
What should I cut when the description is too long?
Company fluff first.
Not the duties. Not the must haves. Not pay, location, or work rights.
Cut these before you touch the role:
- Long mission and vision blocks that say nothing about the seat
- Culture essays that could sit on the About page
- Perk lists that bury the job (keep one short benefits line)
- Internal jargon and tool dumps nobody outside your team uses
- Requirements that are really nice to haves
I have watched founders protect a 200 word “about us” and then delete three real responsibilities to hit a word count. That is backwards. Candidates apply for the work. Your story can wait until the interview, or live on the careers page next to the same short JD.
A UK HR Press piece in July 2026 noted that as UK adverts got longer, requirements often stayed flat while culture and perks grew. Extra length is not always extra decision useful detail. Grow the role section. Starve the fluff.
Should LinkedIn, careers, and job boards use different lengths?
No. One length. One text.
I do not write separate “short LinkedIn” and “long careers” versions for the same seat. That creates rewrite work and inconsistent screening. Your careers page and your board posts should say the same thing about duties and must haves.
Canvider’s JobCraft flow is built around that idea: one description for posting and careers, same text for boards. JobCraft does not recommend a word count and does not enforce one. The only Quality Check floor is about 50 characters so you cannot save or publish an empty box. That is a minimum to stop blank posts, not a target. Your target is still under 300 words of useful copy.
If you want help getting a first draft on the page, how JobCraft writes job descriptions covers the brief to edit to publish path. Read the draft. Tighten the must haves. Delete the fluff. Then publish once.
Does length affect screening and AI scoring?
Yes, but not the way listicles claim.
A short, specific description helps humans screen. Interviewers know what “good” means. Your phone screen and structured interview stay aligned with what candidates read.
A thin or vague description hurts AI CV scoring. Canvider’s AI Score compares the CV to the job description text. If the JD is empty of real skills and duties, the score has little to compare against. Short and concrete is fine. Fluffy or near empty is not. Do not confuse “under 300 words” with “say almost nothing.”
Also keep the legal hygiene separate from word count. How long you keep applications is a retention question, not a length question. Our GDPR and RODO retention guide covers that.
How do I edit a long JD down in 15 minutes?
Open the draft. Count the words. Then run this pass once.
- Move the role summary to the top if it is not there.
- Delete the company essay or shrink it to three lines.
- Cap responsibilities at eight bullets.
- Split must haves and nice to haves. Delete fake must haves.
- Put location, remote rules, and pay near the top half.
- Read it on your phone. If you scroll twice and still do not know the job, cut more fluff.
- Check you are still under 300 words. If not, cut perks and adjectives before cutting duties.
Then stop rewriting for style. Publish the clear version. Improve the process next hire, not this paragraph.
Long, confusing posts also feed apply drop off. See cutting application drop off if volume never finishes applying.
Keep the description short, specific, and identical wherever you post it. Under 300 is a ceiling, not a race to empty. Cut fluff first. Then spend your time screening people who actually understood the role.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a job description be?
Keep it under 300 words for most small team roles. LinkedIn analyzed about 4.5 million US and UK job posts from 2016 to 2017 and found posts of 1 to 300 words got 8.4% more applications per view than average. Use one text everywhere and cut company fluff first when you run long.
What should I cut if my job description is too long?
Cut company fluff first. Mission essays, long culture paragraphs, and perk lists that bury the role. Keep duties, must have skills, location or remote rules, and pay or range if you can share it. Candidates decide on the job, not your brand story.
Should LinkedIn, careers, and job boards use different lengths?
No. Write one description and reuse it. Different lengths per channel create rewrite work and inconsistent screening. Small teams do better with one clear text than three versions of the same role.
Does a short job description hurt AI resume scoring?
A thin or vague description does. AI CV scoring compares the resume to the job text. If the description lacks real duties and skills, scores get noisier. Short and specific is fine. Empty or fluffy is not.