Job description checker
Paste an advert and see the wording that quietly narrows who applies, with the reason attached to each finding rather than a score.
A job description checker scans an advert for wording associated with a narrower applicant pool: age proxies such as “digital native”, masculine-coded wording, gendered job titles, native-speaker requirements, hard degree and years-of-experience filters, and culture-fit language. This one runs in your browser and explains why each phrase matters rather than returning a score.
The text stays in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored or logged.
Results appear here as you type. 10 patterns are checked.
What this cannot tell you
It reads language, not requirements. An advert can pass every check here and still exclude most capable applicants, because the eight bullet points under “Requirements” were copied from the last posting and nobody asked whether any of them were necessary. That is the larger question, and no text tool reaches it.
It also says nothing about what happens after someone applies. Wording affects who starts an application. Screening, interviewing and offering decide who gets the job, and that is where selection-rate measurement belongs — the adverse impact calculator is the other half of this pair, for the stages this one cannot see.
Treat a clean result as one thing off the list rather than as a verdict. The single most useful edit to most job adverts is still cutting the requirements list in half.
Questions about job description wording
Is my job description uploaded anywhere?
What does the checker actually look for?
Some of these are legitimate requirements for our role.
Does changing the wording actually change who applies?
Will a clean result make my hiring fair?
The terms behind this checker
What the wording actually affects, in the vocabulary the rest of the site uses.
Skills-based hiring
Selecting candidates on demonstrated ability to do the work, rather than on proxies for it such as degrees, job titles or previous employers.
Full definitionResume screening
Reviewing submitted resumes to decide who continues in a process, usually against criteria such as keywords, years of experience or education.
Full definitionAdverse impact
A substantially different rate of selection for a protected group resulting from a neutral-seeming employment practice, whether or not anyone intended it.
Full definitionApplicant tracking system
Software that stores and manages job applications through the stages of a hiring process, from application to offer.
Full definitionRead further
Writing a job description around skills, and what the requirements list actually does.
How to write a skills-based job description
Most job descriptions are a wish-list of proxies. How to write one around measurable skills, plus the wording that shrinks your applicant pool.
ReadDropping the degree requirement: what has to replace it
Removing a degree requirement without replacing the signal makes hiring more subjective, not less. What the degree was doing, and what to measure instead.
ReadThe biases that actually change hiring outcomes
Awareness training does not fix bias. A guide to the biases that measurably move hiring decisions, and the process change that neutralises each one.
Read