Four practical "exercises" when writing JDs to help prioritize the knowledge and experiences you expect this person to bring: 1) Pretend you only have 100 word

Four practical "exercises" when writing JDs to help prioritize the knowledge and experiences you expect this person to bring: 1) Pretend you only have 100 words. Simple stuff, but getting ruthless is a good way to prioritize. 2) Write an "anti-JD": the type of person you don't want for the role. A tip: focus on unconscious competencies - things you expect the person to know on day 1. 3) (Similar to Aline's litmus test in the article of "Can most companies say this about the work they’re doing") If you can write "Only an idiot wouldn't ... " in front of the line, it's not a good differentiator. 4) Imagine you were going to ask the person you hire for this role to give 5 lunch and learns their first week on the job. What would the topics be and to what depth would you expect them to go? Also, at least in my experience, the easiest way to deter "noise" from unqualified applicants is to be clear what the first interview will consist of and how it will be passed/failed. "We expect you to come prepared to discuss the pros and cons of the following, citing previous work as much as possible: (insert relevant topics from exercises above e.g. computer vision, DevOps, Redux, recent famous papers in your field, etc) Candidates without experience or evaluated below an intermediate level of knowledge will not proceed."