Organizations use job postings to communicate information about open positions, as well as to make requests for certain skills and qualifications. Job seekers use that information to decide whether or not to apply to the firm, and organizations rely on this interaction to attract applicants and populate the candidate pool for consideration. Often included in these advertisements is the request soft skills and interpersonal qualities that do not directly relate to a job task—for example, a flexible attitude, effective time management, and the ability to take initiative. In this study, we look at a firm that changes the content of their job postings. We find that by removing language in job postings surrounding soft skills that are ambiguously connected to concrete job tasks, the firm can attract more applicants. Applications from both men and women increase after the change, but the impact on women is even greater. However, for job postings to a higher organizational level, the effects go away. Our findings are consistent with the idea that at higher hierarchical or status levels in the organization, or later along a career path, workers are less sensitive to requests for soft skills.
