Why engineers skip most job posts
An engineer who already has a job reads a vacancy the way you read a contract you did not ask for: looking for the catch. They decide on the first screen of a phone. If that screen is a paragraph about the company's mission, they close the tab before reaching the stack.
In the Stack Overflow developer survey, the factors developers rank highest when judging a job are salary, the technology they will work with, flexibility and the chance to learn. A post that answers those four on the first screen gets read to the end. A post that hides them gets read by people who apply everywhere.
Below: the order that works, a before-and-after rewrite of a real-looking post, and what the EU pay rules changed in June 2026.
The first screen: five answers in this order
What you will build
One sentence about the product and the problem, with a number: "the payments API that handles 3 million transactions a day". Not "a fast-growing company".
Salary range
A real range with currency, not "competitive". In many places this is now a legal requirement, and engineers treat a missing range as a low one.
Stack, honestly
What is in production today, including the old parts. "Python 3.12, Django, Postgres, some legacy PHP we are retiring" earns more trust than a list of eleven buzzwords.
Team and working conditions
Team size, who they report to, remote or office days, time zone, on-call rotation and how often.
The interview process
Number of rounds, what each one covers, total hours, how long until a decision.
Everything else, the mission, benefits, history, goes below. Keep the whole post between about 300 and 600 words; longer posts are mostly skimmed.
Before and after
A composite of the kind of post that gets few relevant replies, and the same job rewritten.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| "We are a fast-growing, innovative fintech on a mission to transform payments." | "You will own the refunds service: 40,000 refunds a day, p95 under 300 ms, two engineers on it now." |
| "Competitive salary and benefits." | "€78,000–92,000 gross, plus 5% bonus. Range is what we pay people in this role today." |
| "Required: Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Kafka, React, 7+ years." | "Daily: Kotlin, Postgres, Kafka on AWS. You need two of these well. We test Kotlin or Java in the interview." |
| "Rockstar who thrives under pressure and loves a challenge." | "Team of 6, reports to the payments lead. On-call one week in six, paid. Hybrid, 2 days in Berlin." |
| (no process described) | "Process: 30-min call, 60-min coding in your own editor, 60-min design, 30 min with the team. Decision within 10 working days." |
The second column is shorter, and every line answers a question the engineer was going to ask anyway.
Salary ranges: what the law now says
This is a short orientation, not legal advice.
| Where | Since | What is required |
|---|---|---|
| EU, pay transparency directive 2023/970 | Transposition deadline June 7, 2026 | Pay or a range in the ad or before the first interview; no questions about current salary. Countries apply it unevenly: Italy requires it in the ad itself, others are still drafting |
| New York City | November 2022 | A good-faith minimum and maximum in every advertised job |
| Colorado, California, Washington and other US states | 2021–2023 | Pay ranges in postings, with details varying by state |
A practical rule that works in all of them: publish the range you would actually pay, not a range wide enough to cover everyone. An artificially wide range does not satisfy the EU rule and engineers read it as "low end".
Check your post before publishing
Words that cost you applicants
- "Rockstar", "ninja", "10x". Read as long hours and no process.
- "Thrives under pressure". Read as constant firefighting.
- "Competitive salary". Read as below market.
- "Family". Read as unpaid overtime.
- "Wear many hats". Honest for a startup, but say which hats and what share of the week each takes.
After you publish: three habits
A good post decays. The team changes, the range moves, the interview loop gets a new round. Three habits keep it honest:
- Re-read it every 30 days. If the stack line or the team size is wrong, fix it the same day. Candidates who notice a mismatch in the first call do not come back.
- Answer the questions candidates ask in the first call. If three people in a row ask about on-call or visas, the answer belongs in the post.
- Close it when the role is filled. An open post for a filled role costs you replies to the next one; engineers remember companies that never answered.
One more number worth tracking: the share of applicants who pass the first screen. If it is below about one in five, the post attracts the wrong people, and the fix is usually the requirements line, not the channel.
The short version
Answer five questions on the first screen: what they will build, the pay range, the real stack, the team and conditions, the interview steps. Keep requirements to what you test. Publish an honest range, because in a growing number of places you must. Then put the vacancy where engineers who are preparing for interviews already are: you can post it on IT Career Gym and read more on the employer page.
Related: structured technical interviews, why resumes fail the ten-second scan, finding non-traditional talent.
Questions readers ask
-
How long should a job post be?
Long enough to answer the five questions in the first screen, short enough to read on a phone. In practice 300 to 600 words. Cut the company history first.
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Do we have to publish salary?
In New York City, California, Colorado and several other US states, yes. In the EU, the pay transparency directive requires a range in the ad or before the first interview; the transposition deadline was June 7, 2026, and countries apply it unevenly.
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Are 'requirements' and 'nice to have' lists still useful?
Keep requirements to four or five things you will actually test in the interview. A list of fourteen tells candidates you have not decided what the job is.
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Should we name the interview steps?
Yes, with the number of rounds and the total hours. Engineers with a job compare your loop to two others; an unknown loop loses to a known one.
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Where can we post a tech vacancy?
Wherever your candidates read. On IT Career Gym you can post it in the employer section; candidates there practise mock interviews, so the post reaches people who are actively preparing.
Link to this answer
Sources
- EURES: Salary ranges are changing recruitment. Is your company ready?
- Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency
- NYC Commission on Human Rights: Salary transparency in job advertisements
- Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2024: what developers look for in a job
Figures were checked against these pages in October 2026. Pay and dates change; the links show where to recheck.