Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#1

Post by littlestitious » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 6:51 PM UTC

- Random words to make me feel special: 'guru', 'ninja', 'hacker', etc.

- Random words that adds nothing: 'professional', 'talented', 'passionate', 'awesome'. "hmm, maybe I'm not awesome enough for this position" - said nobody ever

- Describing your company like it just cured AIDS (if you company actually just cured AIDS, I will allow it). I only want to know what your company _actually_ does.

- Explicitly writing that the hired person will have to work a lot. "let's hire someone to do nothing most of the time" - said no company ever

What you should write and you are (probably) not writing:

- What are some real tasks / problems I might work with on a daily basis? I find it hard to be interested on positions that only mentions "you'll develop stuff". There's a lot of stuff out there, please be clear.

- In case of remote positions, is the employee supposed to live near the company or can she be on the other side of the planet?

Re: Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#2

Post by MichaelCrawford » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:07 PM UTC

Among my pet peeves is that when I search for telecommute jobs at Craigslist - which is often the case, as I am a consultant - it gets me posts that say "no telecommuting".

It is quite cruel that the name of the employer is usually not provided: "We are a hot startup in the cloudspace" rather than "Example.com is a hot startup in the cloudspace". This has the result that I apply to a lot more companies than I otherwise would, because there is no way I can learn more about the company _before_ apply.

See if you can find a recording of the original Apple Computer radio ad. It was on their very first developer CD - "You can change the world!"

Well I expect Apple did, but now everyone says they're going to.

I've gotten to the point that when I see an ad seeking a "rockstar coder" I just don't apply.

How about a job posting that's looking for someone with more than ten years experience?

Someone whose products got reviews in the trade press, or sold well?

Re: Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#3

Post by pavel_lishin » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:39 PM UTC

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #2

Among my pet peeves is that when I search for telecommute jobs at Craigslist - which is often the case, as I am a consultant - it gets me posts that say "no telecommuting". It is quite cruel that the name of the employer is usually not provided: "We are a hot startup in the cloudspace" rather than "Example.com is a hot startup in the cloudspace". This has the result that I apply to a lot more companies than I otherwi…

> It is quite cruel that the name of the employer is usually not provided: "We are a hot startup in the cloudspace" rather than "Example.com is a hot startup in the cloudspace". This has the result that I apply to a lot more companies than I otherwise would, because there is no way I can learn more about the company _before_ apply.

There's a workaround for this. Take a few sentences from the job description - some of the non-standard ones - and google for them. Frequently, you'll see the company's job page in the results as the first hit. From there, you can usually even contact them directly, and skip the recruiter middleman.

In my (a few years out of date) experience, it got me hits about 50% of the time.

Re: Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#4

Post by mountaineer » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:39 PM UTC

I've been tracking[1] the use of "passionate" in whoishiring threads, really getting out of control. It's now become one of the 10 most frequent terms used in posts.

[1] http://www.ryan-williams.net/hacker-news-hiring-trends/2014/...

Re: Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#5

Post by coldcode » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:39 PM UTC

Unless you written code for a rockstar, you are not a rockstar coder anyway. Why hire a Ninja, you won't see them come in to work or leave anyway.

Re: Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#6

Post by littlestitious » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:40 PM UTC

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #2

Among my pet peeves is that when I search for telecommute jobs at Craigslist - which is often the case, as I am a consultant - it gets me posts that say "no telecommuting". It is quite cruel that the name of the employer is usually not provided: "We are a hot startup in the cloudspace" rather than "Example.com is a hot startup in the cloudspace". This has the result that I apply to a lot more companies than I otherwi…

haha I forgot about the 'rockstar', which makes even less sense than the others

Re: Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#7

Post by zerotolerance » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:40 PM UTC

How about kitchen sink technology lists? These tell me two things about a potential employer. First, their HR department uses keyword matching to filter resumes. Second, the person writing the JD is inexperienced or has an extremely low hiring bar.

Re: Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#8

Post by littlestitious » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:40 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #3

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #2

Among my pet peeves is that when I search for telecommute jobs at Craigslist - which is often the case, as I am a consultant - it gets me posts that say "no telecommuting". It is quite cruel that the name of the employer is usually not provided: "We are a hot startup in the cloudspace" rather than "Example.com is a hot startup in the cloudspace". This has the result that I apply to a lot more companies than I otherwi…

> It is quite cruel that the name of the employer is usually not provided: "We are a hot startup in the cloudspace" rather than "Example.com is a hot startup in the cloudspace". This has the result that I apply to a lot more companies than I otherwise would, because there is no way I can learn more about the company _before_ apply. There's a workaround for this. Take a few sentences from the job description - some of…

yes! I just did this today and it works very well

Re: Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#9

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:41 PM UTC

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #2

Among my pet peeves is that when I search for telecommute jobs at Craigslist - which is often the case, as I am a consultant - it gets me posts that say "no telecommuting". It is quite cruel that the name of the employer is usually not provided: "We are a hot startup in the cloudspace" rather than "Example.com is a hot startup in the cloudspace". This has the result that I apply to a lot more companies than I otherwi…

[deleted]

Re: Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing

#10

Post by JCJoverTCP » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:42 PM UTC

"rockstar"