A number of times, recruiters, hiring managers and employers may miss on some great candidates for senior level roles, CxO roles just because of poorly documented job descriptions.

While browsing through one of the job portals for CxO Level position postings, we came across some JDs which had extremely generic and possibly copy pasted content.

Referring to the JD screen shot as above:

“To Develop Business” , is a highly ambiguous statement. This statement also seems to be overlapping with the intent expressed in – “To lead the sales & marketing team”, “to support the sales & marketing team in techno commercial and selling aspects”.

What is going to be a CEOs role in – “to ensure sales process and documentation” ? This kind of statement may have a message that the position may be a CEO of some extremely small venture – else why would you expect a business head to work on documentation. At best he/ she would need to ensure adherence to the process rather than ensuring the process.

It seems that the CEOs role as expressed in the JD above is to be highly involved in operations without much on decision making and strategy, clearly signaling smart ones and experienced ones to stay away.

Some suggested changes with reference to the following lines in the JD: 

• “To Develop Business”
• “To lead the sales & marketing team”,
• “to support the sales & marketing team in techno commercial and selling aspects”
• “to ensure sales process and documentation”

Suggested changes:

• Drive growth in business with a focus on extending reach of the business and acquisition of new clients / customers in the identified segment of xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, yyyyyyyyyyyy etc.
• Lead the sales & marketing team , towards enabling the business growth objectives.
• Personally guide and support the sales & marketing team in techno commercial aspects of business.
• Ensure adherence of sales , business teams to the defined sales process , documentation practices etc. through periodic review of process metrics etc.

Some essential inputs for any hiring managers and consultants:

• A job description(JD) needs to serve as a tool to highlight the value of the position , so as it is able to attract good candidates and applicants. The statements related to roles, responsibilities in a JD must clearly speak about the position.
• JD needs to convey the intent of the position, specific duties, responsibilities and accountabilities of the position. All elements of decision making, strategy , operations, directing the teams, reviewing and monitoring etc. should come out clear to enable a person to appreciate the worth of the position.