This article is inspired by Episode 12 of the Doing It for Retention Podcast
Hiring managers love to complain about poor-quality applications. The CVs that don’t match requirements. The candidates who clearly didn’t read the job description. The spray-and-pray mentality destroying their inbox.
But here’s the question nobody wants to answer: are you creating the problem you’re complaining about?
The Vague Equals Vague Principle
There’s a direct correlation between the clarity of your job description and the quality of applications you receive. Vague job descriptions attract vague applications. It’s not mysterious. It’s inevitable.
When your job posting is full of phrases like “ideally you would have,” “preferably candidates will possess,” or “in a perfect world you’d bring,” you’re opening the gates to everyone who sees themselves as close enough. You’re inviting hope-based applications rather than qualification-based ones.
And then you’re surprised when your inbox is flooded with candidates who don’t quite fit?
The AI-Generated Job Description Problem
The rise of AI tools has made this worse, not better. It’s tempting to ask ChatGPT to generate a job description for a customer success role. The output will be professional, thorough, and completely generic. It’ll hit all the expected keywords and sound impressively corporate.
It’ll also attract hundreds of completely wrong candidates.
AI-generated job descriptions tend to be fluffy. They list every possible skill under the sun as “nice to have.” They avoid making definitive statements about requirements. They’re designed to appeal to everyone, which means they provide clarity to no one.
If you’re using AI to write job descriptions without heavily editing for specificity, you’re part of the problem.
What Clarity Actually Looks Like
Clear job descriptions aren’t just more detailed, they’re more honest. They draw lines in the sand. They tell candidates exactly what will disqualify them before they waste time applying.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Size of book requirements: “This role requires candidates to have been responsible for £40m ARR or over 600 customers.”
Not: “Ideally used to dealing with a large client base.”
Experience requirements: “We need candidates with 1-2 years of experience in a Healthcare SaaS environment, who are confidently able to generate 100-150 warm leads per month using LinkedIn. If you’re coming from analogous industries without LinkedIn-specific experience, or unable to show how you can hit these metrics, this isn’t the right role.”
Not: “Able to generate significant amount of leads.”
Application process: “Apply via email to [address]. Do not send LinkedIn DMs. Applications sent through other channels will not be reviewed.”
Not: “Feel free to reach out.”
The difference is night and day. One sets clear expectations. The other invites confusion and hope-based applications.
The Must-Have Versus Nice-to-Have Confusion
One of the biggest failures in job descriptions is the inability to distinguish between absolute requirements and genuine preferences. Everything gets lumped into a vague middle ground where candidates can’t tell what actually matters.
If you genuinely need a candidate with experience in a specific tech stack, say that explicitly. State it as a requirement, not a preference. If you’re flexible on it, clearly mark it as a nice-to-have and explain what you’d accept instead.
Don’t hide behind corporate-speak that leaves room for interpretation.
The excuse is often: “We don’t want to limit our candidate pool too much.” But you’re not actually expanding your pool by being vague. You’re just filling it with people you’ll reject anyway, whilst simultaneously discouraging the qualified candidates who assume they don’t measure up.
Your Company Values and Job Descriptions
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: if your company claims to value transparency and honesty, but your job descriptions are vague and your salary ranges are hidden, you’re failing to live your values from the very first interaction with candidates.
Candidates notice this. If you’re preaching transparency whilst refusing to state clear expectations or share basic information like compensation, you’re not fooling anyone. You’re just revealing that your stated values are marketing copy, not actual principles.
Every company claims to value transparency, collaboration, and authenticity. If your hiring process contradicts these values, candidates will assume the culture does too.
The Competitive Intelligence Excuse
Some companies hide information, particularly around salary and specific requirements, because they’re worried about competitors gaining intelligence. This logic is flawed on multiple levels.
First, your competitors already know roughly what you’re paying. Your employees talk. Industry standards exist. Salary surveys are published. Pretending this information is secret doesn’t make it so.
Second, qualified candidates are comparing opportunities. If you won’t tell them the salary range, they’ll assume it’s below market rate and prioritise other applications. You’re not protecting competitive advantage, you’re actively hindering your ability to attract top talent.
Third, being clear about what you need doesn’t reveal anything proprietary. It just demonstrates that you respect candidates’ time enough to let them self-select out if they’re not a fit.
What SaaS Companies Get Wrong About CS Roles
There’s a broader problem lurking here: many SaaS companies don’t actually understand what customer success is or should be. They slap the CS title on roles that are actually account management, technical support, or sales.
This creates massive confusion for candidates. When they see “Customer Success Manager” in a job title, they can’t actually trust that the role involves what the CS community would recognise as customer success work.
Hiring managers have a responsibility to be honest about this. If your CS role is actually technical support with occasional upselling, say that. Don’t hide behind the CS title because it sounds more strategic. You’re not fooling experienced CS professionals, and you’re confusing people trying to break into the field.
Define what customer success means in your organisation. Explain how the role fits into your business model. Be specific about day-to-day responsibilities. This clarity helps everyone.
The Application Process Matters
How you ask candidates to apply reveals a lot about how you’ll treat them as employees. If you’re making the process unnecessarily complex, requiring them to fill out forms that duplicate their CV information, or refusing to provide basic details about the role, you’re signalling that you don’t respect their time.
Customer success is about understanding user experience and removing friction. If your application process is full of friction, what does that say about your company’s actual commitment to customer-centric thinking?
The best hiring processes are respectful of candidate time whilst still gathering the information needed to make decisions. Strike that balance, and you’ll attract better candidates who appreciate the professionalism.
The Education Opportunity
When you receive applications that don’t meet your clearly stated requirements, you have a choice. You can ignore them, or you can provide brief feedback.
“Thanks for your application. The role requires US-based candidates, and I see you’re located in [location]. Please read job descriptions carefully before applying to save yourself time in future applications.”
Is this extra work? Yes. Is it your responsibility to educate every candidate who applies incorrectly? Debatable.
But here’s the reality: if you’re getting hundreds of inappropriate applications despite crystal-clear job requirements, providing brief feedback to even a portion of them helps train the market. It signals that requirements actually mean something.
It’s exhausting. It’s frustrating. But it’s part of building a better hiring ecosystem for everyone.
Taking Responsibility
The hiring manager who complains about poor applications whilst posting vague job descriptions is like the customer success manager who complains about customer churn whilst never actually talking to customers about their needs.
You can’t expect quality applications if you’re not providing quality information. You can’t complain about candidates not reading requirements if those requirements are buried in corporate fluff. You can’t be frustrated about unqualified applicants if you’ve left the door wide open with imprecise language.
This is about professional responsibility. If you want better candidates, create better job descriptions. It’s that simple.
The Mutual Responsibility
Fixing the hiring process requires both sides to change simultaneously. Candidates need to be more intentional and careful in their applications, that’s covered elsewhere. But hiring managers need to be more clear, honest, and specific in their job descriptions.
If you want candidates to invest time in personalised applications, you need to invest time in clear communication about what you actually need. That’s not unreasonable, it’s basic professional courtesy.
The broken hiring market isn’t just the fault of desperate candidates spray-and-praying their CVs. It’s also the fault of lazy hiring managers who won’t invest the effort to communicate clearly what they’re looking for.
What Needs to Change
Start by auditing your current job descriptions. Remove the fluff. Replace “ideally” and “preferably” with “must have” and “required” for genuine deal-breakers. Clearly separate requirements from nice-to-haves.
Add salary ranges. State location requirements explicitly. Specify the application process and stick to it. Explain what customer success means in your organisation.
This won’t eliminate all poor applications. Some candidates will still ignore requirements. But it will dramatically reduce the noise whilst attracting more qualified, intentional candidates who appreciate the clarity.
And when you do get applications that ignore stated requirements, you’ll have the moral authority to call it out. Because you’ll know you did your part to communicate clearly.
Both problems need solving, vague applications and vague job descriptions. But as hiring managers, the responsibility to set clear expectations starts with you.
About ABR Talent
ABR Talent specialises in connecting exceptional professionals with leading SaaS companies. Whether you’re making your first move into tech or seeking your next leadership role in customer success or sales, we understand the unique challenges and opportunities in the market.
Get in touch to discuss your career journey or hiring needs.
