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Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

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Re: Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

#61

Post by V-2 »

onion2k wrote: post #26

Entirely selfishly - absolutely nothing. I'm quite happy to find a phone number and call the company directly if I want to know something. In my experience that gives me a huge advantage over 99% of candidates who are only willing to read adverts passively.

Having to do this for every single ad you might be interested in certainly is some way of proving patience, persistence or phone handling skills, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to work at a company where that's what is seen as a huge advantage over other candidates...

Re: Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

#62

Post by amyjess »

sanderjd wrote: post #40
SteveNuts wrote: post #13

Whether or not the office is an open floorplan.

Honest question: do you ever come across companies that aren't open floor plans? I don't, so it isn't a very useful question.

My employer has a cube farm.

Even though it may be technically accurate, I don't really see that as an "open floor plan". To me, "open floor plan" means a bunch of desks strewn all over with no dividers.

I love cube farms (and I generally prefer conservative, enterprisey companies), and I refuse to work at a company that uses open offices like I described above, so it matters to me.

Re: Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

#64

Post by goatherders »

ISL wrote: post #25

Clear description of the project and customers. Accurate description of the team, philosophy, tooling, and culture. Reliable salary range. Links to employment contract and any NDA that might be required. If the company is private, a link to a fiscal summary equivalent to the SEC's 10-K. If any of the statements above are intentionally misleading, the job candidate is due compensatory damages.

>>> ISL 18 minutes ago [-]

"If the company is private, a link to a fiscal summary equivalent to the SEC's 10-K."

Good luck with that.

Re: Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

#65

Post by ken »

sanderjd wrote: post #40
SteveNuts wrote: post #13

Whether or not the office is an open floorplan.

Honest question: do you ever come across companies that aren't open floor plans? I don't, so it isn't a very useful question.

Software development positions, no -- but I'm not limiting myself to that. People (on both sides of the table) are way too locked into the mindset that people can only do what they've done in the past. I'm good at lots of kinds of jobs.

If someone wants to hire me but their software development position happens to be in an environment that we know I'll do poorly in, then let's talk about what else is available.

Learning new technologies quickly, being able to pick up details from context, dealing with imprecise or conflicting requests, working backwards from a problem to find the root cause, designing future-proof systems, working in a fast-paced environment? I can segue these skills into almost anything.

I don't want to be shoehorned into "$(lang) developer", or even "developer", especially if it means I have to work in an open floor plan. Nobody should want to hire me for that, either, because it's the worst environment for me to do that work.

Re: Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

#66

Post by klenwell »

cmorgan8506 wrote: post #54
klenwell wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition, a summary of the hiring process. The standard one-line HN Who's Hiring summary is also more informative than most the boilerplate crap I come across. Example: > FormulaFolios | Full-Stack Rails Developer | Costa Mesa, CA | ONSITE Full-Time | $80k-100k As a hiring manager, I've put a great deal of thought and effort not only in our job posting but in our whole process. It requires extra effort for sure, b…

Do you see any benefits on the hiring side of things when you're more transparent?

Candidates seem to appreciate it. It saves everyone time when something like salary expectations are clearly out of alignment.

I've been using this approach for the last 2-3 years and I have found it to be successful (across 2 companies) and worth the extra effort. I haven't received any negative feedback about our process (which I don't take to mean there isn't any or the process is perfect) and I haven't regretted any of the hires we've made (probably around 12 in total). Even when I have to send out a rejection notice, I often get thanked by the candidate for it.

One other important point is that I've worked with management and my team to constantly refine and improve our process. Their buy-in is critical and I feel it needs to be an agile process just like our software development process.

Re: Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

#67

Post by amiller2571 »

cmorgan8506 wrote: post #22
mindcrime wrote: post #14

Salary range, description of office environment (and/or actual pictures), remote work policy, expected hours, dress code, tech stack details, some details on what the project actually is , and a quick "Joel test" like summary of the current development practices. Also, a note indicating whether or not managers refer to people as "resources". Also, the name of the actual development methodology (if any) that is in use…

> Also, a note indicating whether or not managers refer to people as "resources" This made me chuckle. It's a pretty accurate measure of a companies culture though.

Places I have worked in the past preferred to say "meat in the seat"

Re: Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

#68

Post by i_dont_know_ »

A link to the whole HR manual. Some places have insanely condescending HR policies (requiring doctor's notes to 'count as sick', or strict hours for a job that could be done remotely, strict dress codes, weird rules about lunch etc).

Usually HR policies are treated as a second thought and presented to you after you've accepted employment, but these details will impact you and your quality-of-work. For instance, places that require doctor's notes will have people come in to work while sick more frequently, meaning you can expect to get sick more, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

#69

Post by lowry »

goatherders wrote: post #64
ISL wrote: post #25

Clear description of the project and customers. Accurate description of the team, philosophy, tooling, and culture. Reliable salary range. Links to employment contract and any NDA that might be required. If the company is private, a link to a fiscal summary equivalent to the SEC's 10-K. If any of the statements above are intentionally misleading, the job candidate is due compensatory damages.

>>> ISL 18 minutes ago [-] "If the company is private, a link to a fiscal summary equivalent to the SEC's 10-K." Good luck with that.

Depends on the country. I work in a secretive company that still discloses lots of financial and personal information, including CEO salary and private addresses of board members because local regulation requires it.

Re: Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

#70

Post by herhor »

mindcrime wrote: post #14

Salary range, description of office environment (and/or actual pictures), remote work policy, expected hours, dress code, tech stack details, some details on what the project actually is , and a quick "Joel test" like summary of the current development practices. Also, a note indicating whether or not managers refer to people as "resources". Also, the name of the actual development methodology (if any) that is in use…

Exactly! When I send my CV to a future employer, I don't send a list of what require, but what I have to offer.

However, very little job offers are actually "offers" but rather "requirements list".

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