Job ad template

Job Ad Template: A Free, Editable File With the Wording Already Written

Nine blocks with the wording written for you, six filled versions for real roles, and a help wanted variant. Copy it from this page or download it free in Word or PDF. No sign-up, and no placeholder text where the ad should be.

Niels Geominy

This is a job ad template you can use today: nine blocks, each with the wording already written, and the parts that change from one employer to the next marked in braces. Copy it straight off this page, or download it free as an editable Word file or a PDF. Then take the six filled versions and the help wanted variant below.

Most template pages make you pick a side. The design tools hand you a good-looking layout with filler text sitting exactly where the ad should be. The writing guides hand you advice and no file at the end of it. This page is both halves: the finished wording, and the file to put it in.

Anything in braces is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep, change, or argue with. Nothing is gated, nothing needs an account, and there is no watermark.

What this job ad template contains

Nine blocks, in the order they are read. Not every job needs all nine: a four-hour weekend shift and a senior salaried hire are different documents. Delete what does not apply, keep the order, because the order is what makes an ad readable at speed.

  1. Job title line

    The one line that has to survive being read on its own, in a search result, a feed, or a shop window.

  2. Hook line

    One sentence whose only job is to earn the next one.

  3. About the role

    What the company does, where this job sits inside it, and why the job exists at all.

  4. What you will do

    The week, in the order the hours actually fall.

  5. What you bring

    The short list of things you would genuinely turn someone down for, kept separate from the things that are merely nice.

  6. Pay and benefits

    The number, and everything that moves it.

  7. Location and hours

    Everything a person needs in order to work out whether this job fits the rest of their life.

  8. How to apply

    One route in, and what happens after somebody takes it.

  9. Equal opportunity line

    One honest sentence, and a real offer of adjustments.

The template is written in the second person throughout. You for the candidate, we for the employer. It reads like a person talking, which is the point.

The blank job ad template

Here it is in full. Copy the whole thing, or copy one block at a time. The tip beside each block is the thing that most often goes wrong in it.

job-ad-template

9 blocks, model wording included

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

01Job title line

{Job Title} at {Company}, {City}. {Full time or part time}, {pay range}.

Writing tip. Use the title a candidate would type into a search box, not the grade, the acronym, or an invented name for the role.

02Hook line

{Company} is hiring a {Job Title} to {the single most useful thing this person will own}. {One concrete detail: the pay, the shift pattern, the team, the tools, or the reason the job is a good one}.

Writing tip. If the sentence would fit any employer in your sector, it is not a hook. Cut it and write the thing only you can say.

03About the role

You would join {team or department} at {Company}, {what the company does, in eight words or fewer}. The team is {number} people and you would report to {manager's role}.

This job exists because {the real reason: growth, a new contract, a gap nobody has had time to cover, someone moving on}.

Writing tip. The second sentence is the one almost nobody writes. Write it. It answers the question every careful applicant is already asking.

04What you will do

A normal week looks like this:

  • {Verb} {the task that fills most of the week}, working with {who}.
  • {Verb} {the second biggest task}.
  • {Verb} {the part of the job people do not expect}.
  • {Verb} {the part that turns into the next job up}.

Writing tip. Four to six lines, each starting with a verb, ordered by how much of the week they take. Twenty bullets is a job description, not an ad.

05What you bring

You need:

  • {The qualification, licence or clearance the job cannot legally or practically run without}.
  • {The closest thing to this work that you would accept as evidence}, or a good reason to believe you would pick it up fast.
  • {The habit that actually predicts success here, written as a behaviour rather than an adjective}.

Useful but not essential: {the nice-to-haves, listed and labelled as exactly that}. If you have most of this and not all of it, apply anyway.

Writing tip. Every essential you list narrows the field. Anything you would train belongs in the second list, and you have to mean it.

06Pay and benefits

{Pay range} {an hour or a year}, {plus what changes it: shift premium, overtime, tips, bonus, or a review after {period}}.

On top of that: {paid leave}, {pension or retirement plan}, {health cover}, {training, booked in work hours}, {the specific thing you offer that the employer down the road does not}.

Writing tip. Publish the range. A growing number of places now require it, and it is the first question in the first screening call anyway.

07Location and hours

{Where the work physically happens}. {On site, or hybrid with {number} days in, or remote within {region}}.

{Hours} a week, {shift pattern or core hours}, rota published {how far ahead}. {Start date}.

Writing tip. Name the days, the shifts and the place. Flexible, on its own, gives nobody anything to plan around.

08How to apply

{Send a CV, fill in the short form, or reply to this ad} at {link or email}. {What you do and do not need to send}.

What happens next: {a {length} call with {name}}, then {a {length} interview with {who}}, then {a decision within {timeframe}}. We reply to everyone, including the people we do not take forward.

Writing tip. A visible process is the cheapest trust in the whole ad. Give the steps, the names and the timeframe, then hold to them.

09Equal opportunity line

{Company} hires on what people can do. We welcome applications from everyone, and we will make any adjustment you need at any stage of the process. Tell us what would help when you apply, or at any point after.

Writing tip. A sentence people believe beats a paragraph of policy language nobody reads, and the offer of adjustments is the part candidates actually use.

That is the entire template. Everything below it is either the same thing as a file, the same thing filled in, or the reasoning behind a particular line.

Download the job ad template free in Word or PDF

Four files, no email address, no account. The Word version is a normal .docx with the blocks laid out and the model wording in place, so you edit over the top of it instead of starting at a blinking cursor. The PDF is the same template with a fixed layout, for printing or for sending to whoever signs the ad off.

Free to use in your own hiring, including commercially. You do not need to credit us, and you do not need to tell us. If you want the ads that go with the wording, that part is our actual business.

How to fill in the template with real wording

The template stops the ad being badly structured. It cannot stop it being badly written. Six rules do most of that work, and they are all about being specific in places where it is easier not to be.

  1. Write to one person, not to a committee.

    You for the candidate, we for the employer, the whole way down. The successful candidate will be responsible for puts a pane of glass between the job and the person reading about it, and every applicant who was on the fence steps back from the glass.

  2. Say why the job exists.

    Growth, a new contract, a leaver, a gap nobody has had time to cover. It costs one sentence and it answers the question every careful applicant is already asking privately.

  3. Lead with the thing that is true here and nowhere else.

    The pay, the shift pattern, the tools, the size of the team, who you report to, what happens in the first month. Anything that would fit any employer in your sector is doing no work and taking up space.

  4. Put the pay where it is easy to find.

    In the title line, or in the first three lines. If you genuinely cannot publish a single number, publish a range and name the thing that moves it: shift, experience, licence, overtime.

  5. Four to six duties, ordered by how much of the week they take.

    The reader is deciding whether to spend an evening applying, not whether to accept an offer. A twenty-line responsibilities list answers a question nobody has asked yet.

  6. End with the process, not a slogan.

    Who they meet, how long each step takes, when they hear back, and whether you reply to everyone. Then do it. An application with a visible end is worth more than a paragraph about culture.

Four lines that show up in almost every draft, and what to write instead. In each case the replacement is not cleverer, it is just checkable.

The usual version

We are looking for a dynamic self-starter to join our growing family.

What to write instead

You would be the second person in a two-person team, so you set your own week and nobody checks your calendar.

The first describes a personality the employer is hoping for. The second describes the working conditions that produce it, and a candidate can check whether that is true at interview.

The usual version

Competitive salary and an excellent benefits package.

What to write instead

{Pay range}, plus {night premium} on nights, {paid leave}, and training booked inside work hours.

Competitive means nothing without the number behind it. It is also the first question in the first screening call, so leaving it out costs you the same conversation twice.

The usual version

The successful candidate will be responsible for the management of stock levels.

What to write instead

You keep stock counted, priced and on the shelf, and you tell us before we run out.

Same duty, said in words a person would use out loud, and now it names the outcome the job is actually judged on.

The usual version

Must thrive under pressure and be happy to wear many hats.

What to write instead

Two of you cover the floor. On a Saturday you will be on the till, on stock and on the phone, sometimes inside the same ten minutes.

Wearing many hats is what an ad says when it does not want to describe the workload. Describing it plainly filters better than any adjective, and the people who say yes to it stay.

Six filled versions of the template

Six roles, written out in full. Everything specific to the job is done for you: the duties, the requirements, the shape of the week, the way the application works. Everything in braces is the part you already know, which is the company, the place, the pay and the link.

Take the closest one, change what is not true, and delete anything you would not say to the person's face. That is a publishable ad in about ten minutes.

Retail associate

Best for: Shop floor hiring where the rota, the discount and the start date decide it.

Retail Associate at {Company}, {City}. {Full time or part time}, {pay rate} an hour.

{Company} is hiring a retail associate for our {City} store. {Pay rate} an hour, paid {weekly or monthly}, plus a staff discount that works on everything we sell.

A shift looks like this: open or close the floor, serve on the till, keep stock tidy, priced and facing, and take the delivery in on {delivery days}. There are always two of you on the floor, so you are never the only person holding the shop together.

You need to be reliable about start times, comfortable talking to strangers for a whole shift, and able to lift a stock box without help. Retail experience is welcome and not required. If you have worked in hospitality, care or a call centre, you already have most of what this job asks for.

Hours: {number} a week across {days}, rota out {two weeks} ahead, {one weekend in three}.

To apply, send a short message to {email} telling us when you could start. We answer everyone within {five} working days.

Wording is only half of an ad. To see finished recruitment ads instead, fifteen real ones are taken apart on our recruitment ads page.

See fifteen recruitment ads taken apart

The help wanted ad template

A help wanted ad is the short form. Six lines, no paragraphs, one way to apply. It is what goes in a shop window, on a community board, in a local group or down a classified column, and it is still the right shape for shift work you need covered this month.

A help wanted ad is a classified, not a job description. Six lines, under sixty words, one way to apply. If a line does not change whether somebody turns up, it does not go in.

The structure, line by line. Same information as the full template, a tenth of the words:

help-wanted-ad-template

  1. Line 1. The job, named

    HELP WANTED: {Job Title}

  2. Line 2. Who and where

    {Company}, {City}

  3. Line 3. When

    {Days}, {shift times}

  4. Line 4. Pay

    {Pay rate} an hour, paid {weekly}

  5. Line 5. The one requirement, and what you provide instead of asking for more

    {The single thing the person must have or be}. {What you supply: the training, the kit, the licence, the uniform}.

  6. Line 6. One way to apply

    {Call, text, or come in}, {contact}, {when}.

Two filled versions. Both are under sixty words, both name the pay, and both give exactly one way to get in touch:

Cleaner

Evening or early morning work, hired on trust and reliability.

HELP WANTED: Cleaner

{Company}, {City}

{Monday to Friday}, evenings, {number} hours a shift

{Pay rate} an hour, paid weekly

You work alone and you are trusted with keys. No experience needed, equipment and training provided.

Call {Name} on {number} between {times}, or knock at the {back door} any evening this week.

Delivery driver

Licensed shift work where the round, the finish time and the van are the pitch.

HELP WANTED: Delivery Driver

{Company}, {City}

{Tuesday to Saturday}, early starts, home by {time}

{Pay rate} an hour plus {mileage}, paid weekly

Full licence and {number} year of driving. Around {number} drops a day, van provided, fuelled and maintained.

Text {number} with your name and how long you have held your licence. We call back the same day.

The Word and PDF versions of the help wanted ad template are in the download block above, next to the full one.

Questions about the job ad template

Is the job ad template free?

Yes, and there is no email wall in front of it. The Word file, the PDF and the copy-paste version on this page are free to download and free to use in your own hiring, including commercially. You do not need an account with us to take any of them.

Can I get the job ad template in Word?

Yes. It is a normal .docx with every block laid out and the model wording already in place, so you edit over the top of it rather than facing an empty page. It opens in Word, and it opens in Google Docs, Pages and LibreOffice without the layout falling apart.

Is there a PDF version?

Yes, and it is the same template with a fixed layout. Use the PDF for printing, for pinning up, or for sending to whoever signs the ad off before it runs. Write in the Word file and keep the PDF for circulation, because a PDF is a miserable thing to draft in.

Is the template editable?

All of it. Nothing is locked, there are no form fields to fight with, and the braces are ordinary text you type straight over. Delete the blocks you do not need. A four-hour weekend shift does not need the same nine blocks as a senior salaried hire.

Is a job ad template the same as a job posting template?

In practice, yes. Job posting is the job board word, job ad and hiring ad are the advertising words, and job advertisement is the formal one. The same nine blocks work for all of them, because a board listing and a paid ad are read by the same person with the same two questions: what is this job, and is it worth applying for.

What has to be in a job ad?

At a minimum: the job title people would search for, where the work happens, the hours, the pay, four to six things the person will actually do, the things you would genuinely turn someone down for not having, and one clear way to apply. Everything else is optional. The nine blocks on this page are the long form of that list.

How long should a job ad be?

Long enough to answer the questions that stop someone applying, short enough that they reach the end. We aim for 150 to 350 words for most roles, and a help wanted ad for shift work does the job in sixty. If a line would not change anyone's decision, cut it.

Do I have to put the pay in the job ad?

Check the rule where the job sits, because a growing number of places now require a pay range in the posting itself. Beyond the law, it is the first thing an applicant asks about, and leaving it out mostly filters out the people who cannot afford to guess.

When the wording is done, make the ads

A finished job ad is words on a page until somebody sees it. Paste the job post into RecruitmentAds.com and it comes back as a finished ad set, video and static, inside your brand template and sized for the feeds you are going to run it in. Or start smaller: drop your current creative into the free mockup tool and see whether it survives the platform chrome.

Try the free mockup tool