Every job on Hatch starts with a job description. We use it to draft your job post, criteria and application questions, and you fine-tune from there. This guide walks through student jobs, with direct hire differences called out along the way.
Before you start ✅
Make sure you're hiring for the right company. Click your company name in the top-left corner and pick it under Your companies. If you're in your personal profile, you won't see the Jobs page. How switching works
Posting a student job? Check these first:
Your plan's hire limit: each plan includes a set number of Hatch Students hires a year. See plans.
Your pay rate: you choose it, as long as it's at or above the relevant award rate. Use the pricing calculator for an estimate.
Your job's location: if it's remote, make sure your hire will be located in a state where Hatch can employ people. See where we operate.
Your company profile: it shows alongside your job, so make sure it's looking great.
Step 1: Choose your job type 🎓
From your Jobs page, click Create, then choose how you're hiring:
Hatch Students: a student job for internships and short-term work, with Hatch as the employer of record. Seniority is set to Intern and employment type to Contract.
Direct hire: a direct hire job for permanent or contract jobs hired straight into your team.
💡 A job's type is locked once it's posted. You can switch before publishing, but after that you'll need to post a new job.
Step 2: Describe the job 📝
Paste your job description. We'll use it to generate a polished job post and relevant questions. Include key responsibilities, day-to-day tasks and required skills or experience. The more detail you give, the more accurate the summary and criteria.
Formatting matters too. Applicants see both the Hatch summary and your original description, so make sure it reads well. You can always edit it later.
Step 3: Pick your criteria 🎯
We'll draft some job-specific criteria for you. For student jobs, we'll also suggest Hatch Students criteria, the skills we believe make someone work-ready:
Resilience
Communication
Learning agility
Initiative
Reliability
Problem-solving
Coachability
AI fluency
Pick the two or three that matter most for the job. Hatch Students criteria are the same across every student job, so you can't edit them. Add your own criteria if you need something specific.
🔥 Hot tip: keep your criteria skills-based. Your criteria power each applicant's Fit summary, which is built from what's in their profile and application. Skills like stakeholder management or data analysis show up there. Practical requirements like a driver's licence usually don't, so applicants can be marked down even when they meet them. Ask about those in your screening or application questions instead. Yes/no requirements work best as screening questions, so you can filter applicants by them.
Step 4: Application and screening questions 💬
Application questions
Ask questions that show an applicant's motivations, skills or experience. They can answer by text, audio or video. You'll also see any company default questions here.
On student jobs, the Hatch Students criteria you picked come with matching questions:
Answers are reused: once a student answers one, they can reuse it on future applications (and still edit it).
Questions and criteria are linked: removing one removes the other, and we'll check you meant to.
The wording is fixed: like the criteria, these questions are the same across every student job.
Screening questions
Screening questions check applicants against your key criteria.
Every student job includes a required Working rights in Australia question. Hatch is the employer of record, so we need to confirm work rights before placing anyone. You can't edit it, but you can add your own.
💡 If you set a preferred answer, anyone who picks something else is told they may not be the right fit. To avoid this, mark every option as preferred.
Step 5: Review your job ad draft ✨
We'll turn everything so far into a draft job ad. This is where you fine-tune what applicants will see before you post.
Job details 🔍
We've filled these in from your job description, but check them. The more precise they are, the better your recommendations.
Job title: a clear, recognisable title. For internships, including the word “Intern” attracts more talent.
Work arrangement: office-based, hybrid or remote.
Location: where the job is based in Australia.
Seniority and employment type: for direct hire jobs, choose from intern through to C-level, and full-time, part-time, contract or temporary. These are locked for student jobs.
Salary (direct hire jobs): share a range to set clear expectations. Unpaid internships aren't accepted on Hatch. For student jobs, you'll set an advertised hourly rate before you post.
Visa requirements: say whether sponsorship is available or existing work rights are needed.
Additional details and comments: anything else that helps people understand the job, like your office setup and WFH days.
Job description and Hatch summary 📝
Applicants can toggle between the Hatch summary and your full job description. We'll auto-fill the summary, but it's worth tweaking so it shines. You can also edit your original job description here if you need to.
Short summary: a quick snapshot of the job.
Responsibilities: key responsibilities and expectations.
Skills: the essential skills needed.
Header photo 📸
Your job ad uses your company's team photo by default. You can swap it for a different one, like a photo of the team the job sits in. A real photo of your team or office helps applicants picture themselves there.
Meet the team 👋
Add the people applicants will work with. Their Hatch profiles are linked to the job.
Add your team: click Add team member and search by email. Teammates who already have a Hatch account show up straight away, and anyone else gets an email invite. Add several at once by separating emails with commas.
Set their role: choose each person's role on the job, like Hiring manager.
Team reels: under Introduce your team, pick a question for your team to answer about their work, values or day-to-day, then click Add reel. Reels are 30-second videos. Upload existing ones or record new ones in Hatch (it'll need camera and mic access). Reels can be reused across jobs.
Keep it fun, natural and authentic.
Behind the scenes
Give applicants a deeper look at what makes the job and your company special, using structured templates and content blocks.
Step 6: Post your job 🚀
Happy with your job ad? Click Post. Before it goes live, the Before you post panel asks you to confirm a few key details one last time. Required fields are marked with *, and Post job stays greyed out until they're filled in.
Student jobs:
Job description: make any final tweaks. If it's too short to build a job summary from, add more detail and click the regenerate icon.
Seniority and employment type: set to Intern and Contract.
Contract length (months): a range, like 3 to 6 months.
Hours per week: a range, like 30 to 38 hours.
Remote setup: office, hybrid or remote.
Advertised hourly rate: the pay range applicants see. We'll show a suggested starting rate. You'll confirm the exact pay rate when you send an offer. See pay rates
Closing date: tick Close this job automatically on a date if you want it to close on its own.
Direct hire jobs:
Job description: make any final tweaks.
Seniority, employment type and remote setup.
Closing date: tick Close this job automatically on a date if you want it to close on its own.
Application questions: one last look at what applicants will answer.
When everything looks right, click Post job. Applications will start coming in.
After you post: invite people from the Community 📣
Don't just wait for applications. Once your job is live, you can invite people from the Hatch Community by clicking Invite on their profile. On direct hire jobs, you'll find them in your job's Community tab. How it works depends on your job type:
Student job: you invite them to apply. They still complete the full application, including your questions and the working rights check.
Direct hire job: you invite them to your shortlist. Once they accept, they're added to your shortlist and you can start a conversation.
💡 Every student job applicant goes through the application flow, even if you invited them. That way you can compare everyone on the same questions and scores.
What's next?
Reviewing applications: make sense of who's applied.
Managing your live jobs: edit, duplicate, close or share your job.
Making an offer: send an offer to your preferred candidate.