How to post a job opening that gets replies from the people who'll actually stay

Ernesto runs a chicken shop in Coatzacoalcos, and this year alone he’s lost three delivery drivers. The last one lasted twelve days. When Ernesto asked him why, the kid was honest: “Nobody told me Sundays went until nine.”

Nobody told him because the whole job posting read: “Delivery driver wanted, must have a motorcycle. DM for details.” Fifty messages came in, every one of them just “info,” and Ernesto answered each one individually with the pay, the schedule, and the address.

Half of them went quiet the moment they saw the number. Of the ones who showed up, he hired one. You already know how long that lasted.

If you searched for how to post a job opening, what you’re missing is almost never where to put it. It’s what to write in it.

What is a job openings page?

A job openings page is a section of your website where you post the role you’re hiring for — with the pay, the schedule, and what the person will actually do — plus an apply button that already tells people what to answer.

A Facebook post opens a conversation that starts from zero with every single person; a page answers it before anyone even messages you. Ernesto’s fifty “info” replies were the same conversation happening fifty times over.

What details should a job posting include?

Five, and all of them specific: pay, schedule, days off, location, and what the job involves. Leave one out, and it’s exactly the question you’ll get on WhatsApp.

• Pay: the amount, and how often it’s paid. “Weekly, on Saturdays” says more than “competitive salary.”
• Schedule: what time you start and what time you finish, day by day if it changes. If Sunday runs until nine, write it down.
• Days off: which one, and whether it’s fixed or rotates.
• Location: the branch or the neighborhood. If it’s far from where someone lives, that’s a resignation you can see coming from day one.
• What the job involves: deliveries, but also counter work during the lunch rush if that’s part of it.

After that, whatever the job genuinely requires — in Ernesto’s case, your own motorcycle and a valid license. And whatever comes with the pay: social security from day one, tips, meals, a uniform. That’s money too, even if it’s not in the number.

What you don’t need: “well presented,” “eager to work,” “great work environment.” Every job posting says that, so it tells nobody anything.

Why post the pay?

Because it’s the first thing people will ask, and whoever’s going to turn the number down was going to say so at the interview anyway — just after you’d already spent an hour on it. Or worse: two weeks in, once they’ve done the math and realized it’s not enough.

There’s a real cost here: your current team will see it too. If posting it feels awkward because the new hire will earn more than someone who’s been with you for two years, the page didn’t create that problem. It just stops hiding it until the day those two talk to each other — and that day always comes.

If the pay depends on experience, post the range and say what moves it: “X to Y; more if you’ve delivered before and know the area.”

What should the job application ask?

Not much — mainly whatever explains why people quit. For a delivery driver, five questions are enough:

1. Name and WhatsApp number.
2. What neighborhood do you live in?
3. What days and hours can you work?
4. When can you start?
5. Have you done this kind of work before? One line is enough.

The neighborhood and the schedule are the two things Ernesto never asked, and the two that would have saved him three hires. Whether someone can get to work without taking two buses, and whether they’re free on Sundays — you can know that before you ever meet them.

Don’t ask for a résumé for this kind of role, either. A good delivery driver almost never has one, and asking for it filters out exactly the people you’re looking for.

What can’t you ask in a job application?

Not age, not marital status, not whether they have kids, not religion, and not a photo “so I can get to know you.” Mexico’s Federal Labor Law, in Article 133, prohibits employers from refusing to hire someone because of their age, gender, marital status, religion, or health, among other reasons — and also prohibits requiring a certificate proving they aren’t pregnant.

Beyond being illegal, it’s useless anyway. Whether someone is 42 or has two kids tells you nothing about whether they’ll show up on time. Whether they live ten minutes away and are free on Sundays does. And the “under 30” you still see on so many hand-painted signs shouldn’t go on yours either.

How do you post a job opening on your page?

You describe it. If you ask Proyecta for a job openings section — or just tell it you’re hiring — your page comes with a Job Openings collection in your dashboard: each entry with a role, a location, an employment type (full-time, part-time, contract, or internship), a description, and an apply button.

“Add a job openings section to my chicken shop’s page. I’m looking for a delivery driver with their own motorcycle and a license, with the weekly pay, each day’s schedule, and the day off. Make the apply button open WhatsApp with a message they can fill in.”

There’s no dedicated field for pay: it goes in the first line of the description, ahead of everything else.

And the posting doesn’t come with its own form. The button links to whatever you set — your email, a form, or your WhatsApp — and for Ernesto, the most practical option is WhatsApp with a pre-written message that has blanks to fill in:

“Hi, I’m interested in the delivery driver position. I live in _. I can work on _. I can start on ___.”

Every message arrives with the answers already in it, not just “info.”

If you’d rather these not get mixed in with your orders, ask for an application form on your page as well and put its link on the button. Every submission lands in Applications, split into New, Read, and Archived, and you’ll get an email for each one. Just don’t ask for an ID or proof documents through that form — check those in person on the day you hire.

When do you take it down?

The day you hire. A job posting that’s been open for three months doesn’t look like an opportunity — it looks like a place where nobody lasts.

You don’t need to delete it. In your dashboard, you switch off Open — “Turn it on while you’re accepting applications; turn it off and it’s marked as closed” — and the posting stays up with a Closed label, no button. Next time a delivery driver leaves, it’s already written: just turn it back on.

Start with the last one who left

Before you write the job posting, think back to the last person who left in their first few weeks and write down, in one line, why they left.

That line goes at the top of your posting. If they left because it was too far, ask about the neighborhood. If they left because they got out at nine, write down what time they get out. A good job posting doesn’t attract more people — it gives fair warning, ahead of time, to the ones who were going to leave anyway.

Describe it at proyecta.dev and publish it.