The Current | August 16–31, 2026: The Specificity That Wins Clients Is the Same Specificity That Wins Team Members
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This issue: the same specificity that wins you the right clients wins you the right people. Here’s what happened when we stopped hedging in a job description and what it means for how you hire.
The Current | August 16-31, 2026 — Kwedar & Co.
The lead
The specificity that wins clients is the same specificity that wins team members.
I recently wrote a job description that made me nervous.
It was honest and upfront in a way I haven’t tried in recruiting. It named exactly who we’re looking for and exactly who we’re not. It was pointed about the work, upfront about the pay, and candid about the kind of person who would thrive here. And as I stared at it before hitting publish, every instinct told me to soften it. Widen the net. Make the compensation a little vaguer, the subject matter a little broader, the whole thing a little safer, so I wouldn’t scare anyone off.
That instinct — the one that says don’t be so particular, you’ll limit your options — is the exact same one I spend my days talking clients out of. We tell them that naming exactly who you’re for is what makes the right buyer lean in. It turns out the same is true for the right hire.
So I left it as it was. It’s early days yet, but the response has genuinely moved me. The posting did repel people, exactly as I feared. Some read it and thought, not my subject matter. Others thought, not the pay I want. Both are completely fair, and both are signs of the system working. Because a few people read those very same words and felt something click. “This is me. This is the place I've been looking for.”
The very thing that wasn’t for everyone is precisely what made the right people lean in.
What we’re seeing
We spend a lot of time helping companies get specific about what they sell. But being just as clear about who you are — your culture, your values, how you actually treat people — matters every bit as much.
Most job descriptions read like they were assembled from a template, because they were. Responsibilities, requirements, a bulleted list of qualifications. Clinical, competent, and interchangeable with every other posting for the same role. That’s a missed opportunity, because for a lot of candidates the job description is the first piece of your company’s writing they’ll ever read. It’s an introduction whether you treat it as one or not.
Naming who you really are helps you even when the posting itself isn’t doing the heavy lifting. Maybe the bulk of your workforce comes through referral, through a staffing agency, or needs the message translated into another language entirely. None of that lets you off the hook, and none of it makes the effort pointless. When you’re honest about who thrives here and why, that clarity travels. Your recruiter briefs better. Your current employees describe the place more accurately to a friend. The translated version actually says something. Precision at the source makes every downstream version of your story truer, no matter who’s carrying it or how it gets there.
Vague is vague in every language, on every channel. A clear point of view gives everyone something real to work with.
The cautionary tale
I’ve made this mistake myself, more than once, before I learned better.
You have a role to fill, and you want options, so you write the safe version. You keep the description broad. You stay a little evasive about the reality of the job and a little generic about who you actually are, because being too pointed feels risky. You tell yourself you’re keeping the door open.
Then the applications come in, and your inbox fills with people who could not tell you the first thing about your business, because nothing in the posting asked them to care. They saw a title and a salary range and hit apply. You spend hours sorting through candidates who were never really a fit, hunting for the one or two who might be, and wondering why the right person never hit your inbox.
You’re not seeing the right person because you never spoke to them. You wrote something designed not to scare anyone off, and in doing so, you failed to call anyone in. Being vague doesn’t widen your pool in any way that helps you. It just fills it with people who are optimizing for a paycheck instead of the work. (And no disrespect to these applicants; we can’t pay our bills with culture.)
The honest version would have repelled all of them on sight — and lit up like a beacon for the handful you were actually hoping to reach.
Specificity is an invitation. Vagueness is noise that wastes everyone’s time.
One thing worth your time
Pull up your last job posting. Or if you’re not hiring right now, pull up the “careers” or “about” page on your website.
Read it as a stranger would, and find the one line in it that’s unmistakably you — the sentence no other company in your field could honestly claim. If you can’t find one, that’s your answer.
Then write it. Ask yourself: what’s actually hard about working here? Who genuinely thrives, and who burns out? What do you care about that your competitors don’t? One honest, well-aimed sentence does more to draw the right person in than a page of “fast-paced, collaborative, results-driven” ever could.
Specificity is an invitation. Send it to the person you actually want.
P.S. Speaking of job postings that don’t hedge: we’re hiring a Senior Communications Strategist. This is the posting that scared me. The whole description is right here: https://www.kwedarco.com/seniorcommstrategist.
About The Author
Lauren Kwedar Cockerell is founder and president of Kwedar & Co, a Fort Worth-based PR, messaging, and strategic communications firm serving purpose-driven B2B companies. She is also the firm’s lead PR and marketing strategist, host of our podcast The Impatient Entrepreneur, as well as a frequent podcast guest.
Over the past 20+ years, she has worked with 100s of leaders and organizations to create PR and marketing strategies and tactics that support visions and reach goals.
To connect with Lauren, please send an email above, or book a consultation.