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I know, I know!
Let's say we have a car named 'app'. Now, what we need is someone with a driver license who can drive it in a new way (e.g. stoned). The car also needs to consume large quantities of gasoline, so perhaps it will be a bus or a truck.
So what they need is a stoned truck driver. How can they be more clearer?
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The strange thing about this article is I read the first patch of job descriptions and I thought you were poised to make fun of them Me too. This bit could describe the local transit system: " We’re profitable, make the lives of hundreds of thousands of people better every month, have a rapidly expanding user base, and napping is an encouraged part of our corporate culture. " Maybe I'm unusual, but my idea of a perfe…
>This bit could describe the local transit system You don't happen to live in Toronto, do you?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The strange thing about this article is I read the first patch of job descriptions and I thought you were poised to make fun of them Me too. This bit could describe the local transit system: " We’re profitable, make the lives of hundreds of thousands of people better every month, have a rapidly expanding user base, and napping is an encouraged part of our corporate culture. " Maybe I'm unusual, but my idea of a perfe…
>This bit could describe the local transit system You don't happen to live in Toronto, do you?
Just a curiosity: I wonder if there was a sentence to read my mother over the phone when the iPhone came out which would have made her understand what it is. I doubt it, yet Apple is considered the masters of this field. In other words, I think the Google Car thing is an unusual and extreme example. Most tech products, including smart phones and including almost every web app I use, don't have a "killer sentence" whi…
I think there was, though. Apple's release read: “Apple Reinvents the Phone with iPhone” So you can easily convey the goal. Then: "Apple® today introduced iPhone, combining three products—a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod® with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, searching and maps—into one small and lightweight handheld device." Some…
Really, you don't need to say more than that. You don't want to get into the details of what touch is and how it works The point is that it's the first phone that anyone can pick up and just have fun with.
Hmm, well. I would consider the first job posting another version of a) a bad job posting and b) the modern form of "bullshit" I agree with the rest of what he is saying, but I think the first example was poor and derailed the point. How would I have done the advert? Try: We're an unannounced YC company, but you may have heard of us (millions have). We're profitable, and we're looking to hire a smart all-around progr…
I also was completely turned off by the first job offering. I don't want to work for a company that isn't bothered by starting off with a cliche. But then again, maybe neither of us are the kind of person they're trying to hire.
In the rewrite, it's a great opening line if you're shooting for somebody in the YC universe. If not, starting with an acronym that people don't know is a turn off. At least to me, it gives the impression of wanting a utility player (rather than somebody with deep skills at anything in particular) who wants to work in a relaxed programmer-friendly environment (as opposed to somebody who's passionate about whatever it is they'll be working on or is looking to join a business-focused company). If that's what they're looking for, great. Especially in this day and age I probably would move the bit about being profitable to the very front because it establishes legitimacy.
One of the things we did at Qworky was to ask the kind of people we wanted to hire to review our job description. So when we were looking for a system adminstrator candidate we asked several good sysadmins "is this the kind of job you'd apply for? how can we make it a clearer and more appealing job description?" lo and behold our JD got much better in a hurry and we wound up with great candidates.
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Heh hold your horses, Colin. The tools are only there to show you that you can't live in one and ignore all others here. And you're right, I spent a lot less time telling you what's great about the company than I did on trying to make it obvious who we're not looking for. That's because we're looking for a very specific breed of person. In this startup, you will not only be doing engineering, but also answering custo…
Sounds fantastic. Why don't you say that in the ad? The specific toolchain is the least important part of what you just described. I could care less if I'm doing those tasks in Ruby, Javascript or Java, if you want to sell it to engineers I think the actual problems are far more interesting - certainly that's what I'd want to know. While you're right that it's important your candidates understand the non-tech aspects…
Hmm, well. I would consider the first job posting another version of a) a bad job posting and b) the modern form of "bullshit" I agree with the rest of what he is saying, but I think the first example was poor and derailed the point. How would I have done the advert? Try: We're an unannounced YC company, but you may have heard of us (millions have). We're profitable, and we're looking to hire a smart all-around progr…
Breaking: different people see different things as bullshit. Film at 11! I also was completely turned off by the first job offering. I don't want to work for a company that isn't bothered by starting off with a cliche. But then again, maybe neither of us are the kind of person they're trying to hire. In the rewrite, it's a great opening line if you're shooting for somebody in the YC universe. If not, starting with an…
This comment thread has been pretty helpful in figuring out future revisions. Thanks for the tip.
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This particular startup is more profitable than that.
And you would figure that out in the interview. If it matters enough to you, you can figure it out in the first five minutes of the phone screen before going further. It seems to me that the literary criticism in this thread is getting kind of thick. The job posting is like a resume in reverse, and a resume is not designed to be a window into someone's immortal soul. It's a teaser. A job posting is a telegraphic comm…
Do tell!
All these threads read like so much 'startup porn'.
She recently had two columns praising Apple and Steve Jobs for being straightforward.
1) Regarding Apple's plain-spoken iPhone app guidelines http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6770a2b8-c2a1-11df-956e-00144feab4...
2) Regarding Steve Jobs' curt response to the college girl seeking a response for a school paper story http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/77c8e4cc-c823-11df-ae3a-00144feab4...