Crush Job research
What 50 Sample Job Descriptions Ask For: Crush Job Library Study 2026
By Crush Job · Published October 10, 2026 · Library last updated September 8, 2026
This is an analysis of the 50 sample job descriptions in Crush Job's job-description library, written by Crush Job and last updated September 8, 2026. It is not a survey of the job market: the postings are reference samples we wrote, not live openings. What it shows is what a carefully built set of 25 technical and 25 non-technical postings asks for, and the full dataset is free to download.
Key findings
- The most common keyword across the 50 sample postings is "cross-functional collaboration", in 38% of roles in the library, but no posting marks it "required and central".
- "SQL" (32% of roles in the library) and "Python" (28%) are the next most common, and "Python" appears in 52% of the 25 technical sample roles.
- The library uses 593 distinct keywords, and 79% of them appear in only one posting, so most keywords in these sample postings are specific to a single role.
- Soft skills appear in 98% of sample postings, but make up only 5% of the keywords marked "required and central" in the library.
- Each sample posting lists 17.8 keywords on average, between 15 and 21, and 189 of the 891 entries in the library are marked "required and central".
- Hard skills are 41% of all keyword entries in the library but 66% of the entries marked "required and central".
The roles in the library
The library covers 50 roles in 10 families. The first four families are technical and the other six are not, an even split of 25 and 25.
| Family | Group | Roles | Share of library |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | Technical | 9 | 18% |
| Data & AI | Technical | 7 | 14% |
| Product | Technical | 4 | 8% |
| IT & Security | Technical | 5 | 10% |
| Marketing | Non-technical | 5 | 10% |
| Sales | Non-technical | 5 | 10% |
| Finance | Non-technical | 5 | 10% |
| Operations | Non-technical | 4 | 8% |
| People & HR | Non-technical | 3 | 6% |
| Healthcare Admin | Non-technical | 3 | 6% |
The most common ATS keywords
Every sample posting carries a list of applicant tracking system (ATS) keywords: the terms a screener or screening software would plausibly look for, each weighted 3 for "required and central", 2 for "important" or 1 for "mentioned in passing". Across the library there are 891 keyword entries and 593 distinct keywords, after matching them without regard to capitalization. These are the 15 that appear in the most postings.
| Rank | Keyword | Postings | Share of postings | Weighted required in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | cross-functional collaboration | 19 | 38% | 0 |
| 2 | SQL | 16 | 32% | 10 |
| 3 | Python | 14 | 28% | 5 |
| 4 | AWS | 10 | 20% | 2 |
| 5 | CI/CD | 10 | 20% | 1 |
| 6 | stakeholder management | 10 | 20% | 2 |
| 7 | Git | 8 | 16% | 0 |
| 8 | Agile | 7 | 14% | 0 |
| 9 | attention to detail | 7 | 14% | 0 |
| 10 | Excel | 7 | 14% | 4 |
| 11 | stakeholder communication | 7 | 14% | 0 |
| 12 | Docker | 6 | 12% | 1 |
| 13 | Kubernetes | 6 | 12% | 2 |
| 14 | Power BI | 6 | 12% | 0 |
| 15 | Terraform | 6 | 12% | 1 |
Technical and non-technical roles, side by side
The top keywords split sharply by group. Shares below are of the roles in each group (25 technical, 25 non-technical).
Technical
- Python 13 roles, 52%
- SQL 11 roles, 44%
- AWS 10 roles, 40%
- CI/CD 10 roles, 40%
- cross-functional collaboration 9 roles, 36%
Non-technical
- cross-functional collaboration 10 roles, 40%
- stakeholder management 8 roles, 32%
- Excel 5 roles, 20%
- Salesforce 5 roles, 20%
- SQL 5 roles, 20%
What kind of keyword
Each keyword is tagged with a category. On average a sample posting lists 17.8 keywords (between 15 and 21), and 189 of the 891 entries are weighted "required and central".
| Category | Keyword entries | Share of entries | Weighted required | Postings with any |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hard skill | 368 | 41% | 125 | 50 |
| Tool | 194 | 22% | 21 | 49 |
| Soft skill | 115 | 13% | 10 | 49 |
| Certification | 34 | 4% | 3 | 23 |
| Domain knowledge | 180 | 20% | 30 | 48 |
Remote, hybrid or on-site
Each sample posting records its work arrangement as remote, hybrid or on-site. All 50 are full-time positions. The arrangement was assigned to each sample when the library was designed, to spread the set evenly, so this table describes the library and says nothing about how often employers offer remote work.
| Arrangement | Postings | Share | Technical | Non-technical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remote | 11 | 22% | 6 | 5 |
| Hybrid | 28 | 56% | 14 | 14 |
| On-site | 11 | 22% | 5 | 6 |
Seniority
Crush Job assigned the seniority mix when the library was built, so this table describes the library, not how employers distribute openings.
| Level | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Entry level | 8 | 16% |
| Mid level | 30 | 60% |
| Senior | 7 | 14% |
| Lead | 4 | 8% |
| Director | 1 | 2% |
Salary bands
Crush Job wrote the salary bands for each sample posting when the library was built, and each role page labels its band "as posted for this sample role". The library cites no outside salary survey, so these medians describe the library's bands, not what employers pay. Real pay varies by employer, location and experience.
Each sample posting states an annual salary band. For each family below we take the midpoint of every band and report the median of those midpoints, plus the lowest and highest figure any band in the family reaches. Across all 50 postings the median midpoint is $98,750.
| Family or group | Roles | Median midpoint | Lowest to highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 9 | $142,500 | $85,000 to $230,000 |
| Data & AI | 7 | $132,000 | $58,000 to $205,000 |
| Product | 4 | $121,250 | $95,000 to $195,000 |
| IT & Security | 5 | $100,000 | $42,000 to $190,000 |
| Marketing | 5 | $76,500 | $46,000 to $110,000 |
| Sales | 5 | $85,000 | $45,000 to $130,000 |
| Finance | 5 | $67,000 | $46,000 to $188,000 |
| Operations | 4 | $88,750 | $70,000 to $118,000 |
| People & HR | 3 | $76,000 | $60,000 to $95,000 |
| Healthcare Admin | 3 | $80,000 | $38,000 to $105,000 |
| Technical | 25 | $132,000 | $42,000 to $230,000 |
| Non-technical | 25 | $80,000 | $38,000 to $188,000 |
Method
How the library was built. Crush Job wrote one sample posting per role, using the same structure for each: an overview, responsibilities, requirements, nice-to-haves, benefits, a salary band, and a weighted keyword list written at the same time as the posting. The employers are invented names checked against real businesses, and every role page is labeled as a sample, not a live opening. The same postings ship inside the Crush Job desktop app as templates to practice tailoring a resume against.
How the numbers were computed. Every figure on this page is computed from the library's structured fields each time the site is built, so it updates when the library does. Keywords are matched after lowercasing and trimming spaces; a keyword counts once per posting. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Salary medians use the midpoint of each annual band. Technical and non-technical follow the library's own grouping of its families.
What we left out, and why. Years of experience, degree requirements and likely interview questions are not structured fields in the library. They appear only inside free-text bullets, and counting them would mean guessing from prose, so this study does not report them. On average a posting has 7.9 responsibility bullets, 6 requirement bullets and 5 nice-to-have bullets for anyone who wants to read them directly.
Limits. 50 postings is a small set, chosen by Crush Job to cover 25 technical roles and 25 across marketing, sales, finance, operations, people and healthcare admin, with one posting per role. The work arrangement, location and seniority of each sample were assigned when the library was designed, to spread the set evenly, so they say nothing about how often real employers offer remote work. The keyword weights reflect one author's judgment per posting. Use the findings to compare roles within the library, not to describe hiring in general.
Download the data
The dataset has one row per role (50 rows): family, group, seniority, work arrangement, salary band and midpoint, keyword counts, the keywords at each weight, bullet counts, the date the posting was last updated, and a link to its page.
Download crush-job-jd-library-2026.csv (CSV)
License: published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). You may share and adapt it, including commercially, with credit. Suggested citation: Crush Job, "What 50 Sample Job Descriptions Ask For: Crush Job Library Study 2026", October 10, 2026, https://crushjob.ai/research/job-description-study-2026.
Read the postings
Each row in the dataset links to its full sample posting. Start from the job description library, or jump to a role that appears above: Data Analyst, Software Engineer, Product Manager, Account Executive or Financial Analyst.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this a survey of real job postings?
- No. It is an analysis of the 50 sample job descriptions in Crush Job's own library. Crush Job wrote those postings as reference templates for common roles; none is a live opening, and the employers named in them are invented. Treat the numbers as a description of the library, not of the job market.
- Where do the salary figures come from?
- Each sample posting carries a salary band that Crush Job wrote for that role when the library was built. The library does not cite an outside salary survey for them, so the medians here summarize those written bands only. Real pay varies by employer, location and experience; check a current salary source before you negotiate.
- What is an ATS keyword, and how were they weighted?
- An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software many employers use to collect and filter applications. Each sample posting lists the 15 to 21 keywords a screener would plausibly look for, weighted 3 (required and central), 2 (important) or 1 (mentioned in passing) by the author of that posting.
- Why are years of experience and degree requirements not in the study?
- The library stores them only inside free-text requirement bullets, not as structured fields. Counting them would mean guessing from prose, so they are left out rather than reported with false precision.
- Can I use this data?
- Yes. The dataset is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit "Crush Job, Job Description Library Study 2026" and link to this page.
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