A role profile, not a list of technologies

AI for HR and recruiting · Lesson 1 / 21

Why a requirements list fails

The typical job ad is a copy of the last one: fourteen bullet points under "requirements", seven of which nobody will ever test in an interview. That list does not narrow the funnel, it distorts it: applicants who write resumes against keywords come in, and people who honestly believe they do not clear all fourteen stay away. In our measurements, an ad with more than seven hard requirements loses up to a third of relevant applications, and it loses the cautious ones first. That is a skewed sample, not a strict filter.

The role profile has four parts

The twelve-month outcome. One or two sentences describing what changes in the company if this person succeeds. Not "maintain processes" but "cut month-end close from 12 days to 6".
Three to five real tasks. What the person actually does in the first quarter, with a rough split of their time.
Required competencies. No more than five, each paired with the sentence "we will test this by". If you cannot test it, it is a wish, not a requirement.
Stop factors. What makes a candidate a no regardless of everything else: a missing clearance, an impossible time zone, an absent mandatory licence.

Pulling the profile out of the hiring manager

You are helping me build a role profile. Ask me one question at a time,
no more than 10 in total, to establish: the one-year outcome of the role,
the first-quarter tasks, how this role differs from neighbouring ones,
which competencies are testable, and what counts as a stop factor.
After my answers, assemble the profile into 4 sections and list separately
the requirements I could not explain how to test.

A before and after. Before: "5+ years of experience, SQL, Python, BI tools, English, stress resistance." After: "within a year, build sales reporting so the head of sales sees the funnel without manual exports; we test SQL on a three-table schema exercise; English is for reading documentation only." Shorter, and it filters far more precisely.

Insight. The role profile is your future basis for a rejection: if you must explain the reason to a candidate, you point to a testable criterion written in advance, not to an impression.

Common mistake. Copying requirements from a competitor's ad. You inherit their team structure and their compromises, and pay for the mismatch in interview hours.

Pro tip. Ask the manager: who left this role and why? Reasons for departure produce sharper stop factors than any description of the ideal candidate.

Cheat sheet

Over seven hard requirements distorts the funnel instead of narrowing it.
Every requirement carries a method of testing it.
The profile is written before the ad text and the first screen.
Stop factors are stated separately from competencies.

1. What makes a requirement in a role profile usable?

2. Why does the role profile matter at the rejection stage?

3. What happens to the funnel with 14 hard requirements?

🔒 Answer the question correctly to move on to the next lesson.