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Ask HN: What information should be in any job description page?

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Re: Ask HN: What information should be in any job description page?

#31
I've come to appreciate job listings that include the actual team/project that I'd be working on. If a company of more than 10 people can't tell me what they actually need me for it strikes me as a company that's wildly disorganized and/or with a lot of employee turnover.

"We don't hire for specific roles, we just hire good engineers" (read: your job is whatever we say it is any given moment).

Re: Ask HN: What information should be in any job description page?

#32

Salary range. Critical info that most job listings don’t have. I’m much more likely to consider a job if I know it has an appropriate salary range.

The problem is we are interested in lots of different levels, if you put a typical range you wont get the best people. If you put a high number out you get every nutter in town applying. As a result we dont publish a range.

Re: Ask HN: What information should be in any job description page?

#34
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hence why companies rarely include it.

That’s silly and bad strategy though, hoping you can “trick” someone into taking a lower salary by getting them to the end of an interview process. Just biases your pool for the least valuable candidates.

There's not a lot of standardized titles and salaries in our profession. One company's idea of a "Senior Engineer" might be wildly different than another's. Either what level of experience that actually is, or how many hours/week you have to work, or not-salary things like 401k matching or bonus ranges, extensive travel requirements, etc.

I don't like the negotiation game either, but I don't really see how to avoid it.

Re: Ask HN: What information should be in any job description page?

#35
post #31

I've come to appreciate job listings that include the actual team/project that I'd be working on. If a company of more than 10 people can't tell me what they actually need me for it strikes me as a company that's wildly disorganized and/or with a lot of employee turnover. "We don't hire for specific roles, we just hire good engineers" (read: your job is whatever we say it is any given moment).

I agree, it's important to be able to visualize something tangible you might work on or build. When it comes time to the interview you also have a real context to talk about things in like why you'd choose X technology, or why you'd implement Y in some particular way.

Re: Ask HN: What information should be in any job description page?

#36
Well, actual duties. Go and ask two to five people of the same/similar team/level to write down what they were mostly doing last week or month.

One of the hardest time for me is on-boarding a guy or girl who is poorly informed about their role. Not any better when I am the new-joiner.

Re: Ask HN: What information should be in any job description page?

#37
post #21

A photograph of my desk. Most tech jobs I've seen don't have any photos at all. When they do, it's usually the lobby and kitchen and ping-pong table. Why are you trying so hard to hide the place I'm going to be spending 95% of my time? You wouldn't buy a car without ever having seen the driver's seat, and I spend way less time in my car than at my computer. When I saw photos of Fog Creek's offices (with programmers s…

+1 I find myself poking through Glassdoor looking for office pictures. It's definitely weighed in before.

Re: Ask HN: What information should be in any job description page?

#38
post #33

Salary range. Critical info that most job listings don’t have. I’m much more likely to consider a job if I know it has an appropriate salary range.

Glassdoor is a good start to get an idea of the salaries.

A lot of smaller companies don't have info. Or the info may be outdated.

Re: Ask HN: What information should be in any job description page?

#40
Job descriptions as a whole are in need of a major overhaul to start to include more contextual information about the roles being hired for.

A study by TheLadders.com showed that candidates spend on average 49 seconds on a job description before deciding if it's a fit or not. The majority of that time is spent above the fold.

JDs should include the most vital information about the role above the fold. Which languages should the candidate know? What certification is required? Any specialized training? Location? Education? All above the fold. No need to lead a candidate on only to reveal in the last sentence: "Must speak Mandarin".

Salary. Mention salary. Every candidate wants to know. At the very least, give a range.

Once you get past the basics, add in required skills with context. Avoid the temptation to use cliche "communication skills" or "customer service skills" without adding additional context.

Simple formula: You will use [skill name] to [desired result] within/using [time frame/technology]

A great example of a very effective JD is from 37Signals a few years ago: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2544-were-looking-for-an-offi...

It's pretty difficult to read that JD and be confused about the role. They avoid ambiguity at all costs and keep everything tied to specific duties/tasks/outcomes.

Finally, give candidates insight into not just your company, but the people doing the work. Their stories and experiences are tremendously more effective than marketing copy written by legal or a content team.

We're actually working on this exact problem at https://www.Ruutly.com -- converting text-based job descriptions into contextual candidate experiences, above the fold.

edit - formatting

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