Things I wish people who write job postings would stop writing • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by MichaelCrawford » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:52 PM UTC

vonmoltke wrote: post #19

zerotolerance wrote: post #7

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.

Low hiring bar? Kitchen sink "requirements" give me the impression that they are looking for a magical unicorn.

Have a look at the ads wanting several years of experience coding in Swift.

(Apple has only supported it for about three months now.)

When MS first shipped C++ for windows, quite commonly the recruiters wanted candidates with five years of windows C++ experience.

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

#22

Post by yuncun » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:53 PM UTC

Agreed. On the other hand, my favorite line to read is

- 'Interested? Email me at ted@coolstartup.com, include hackernews in subject line'

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

#23

Post by nkantar » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:53 PM UTC

duderific wrote: post #17

"Gamechanger" is the new "rockstar"

Mazda revealed the new 3 as a #GAMECHANGER [sic]. Now that I have one, does that mean my car is a better prospective employee than me, since I'm merely a programmer/coder/developer/engineer?

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

#24

Post by MichaelCrawford » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:55 PM UTC

What I'd really like to see, is a recruiter who actually looked at my resume from beginning to end before contacting me.

Finally, just a few minutes ago, I put a vacation response in my gmail account:

   Dear Friend,

   Thank you for writing, I'll get back to you soon.

   If you are an agency recruiter seeking to place me in a
   job or contract position, please be advised that I find
   my own work.  Please take me off your mailing list.
   Please delete my resume from your records as well.

   If you'd like to know why, please read this:

      Market Yourself: Tips for High-Tech Consultants
      http://www.warplife.com/tips/business/market-yourself.html

   Regards,

   Michael David Crawford, Consulting Software Engineer
   Solving the Software Problem
   mdcrawford@gmail.com

      Local Jobs, Local Candidates
      The Global Computer Employer Index
      http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/

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

#25

Post by Retra » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:55 PM UTC

IvyMike wrote: post #12

Postings that use phrases like "ninja", "rockstar", "crush code", etc, tell me something very, very important about the company. Specifically, that I'd probably hate to work there.

"But we have bean bag chairs!"

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

#26

Post by angersock » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:56 PM UTC

littlestitious wrote: post #16

JCJoverTCP wrote: post #10

"rockstar"

write some code, destroy the office, drink some coffee, do a little debugging, bite a pigeons head off, deploy

"Crazy Train" actually predicted the rise of ruby on rails

ozzy osbourne basically was holding out for rails 3

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

#27

Post by knieveltech » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:56 PM UTC

littlestitious wrote: post #16

JCJoverTCP wrote: post #10

"rockstar"

write some code, destroy the office, drink some coffee, do a little debugging, bite a pigeons head off, deploy

sign me up!

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

#28

Post by MichaelCrawford » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:56 PM UTC

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #20

I'm looking for the kind of job where I can stare out the window all day long, but then write one single subroutine that just works the very first time, and that not only is compliant to spec, but exceeds expectation. Rock stars blow their royalties and ticket sales up their noses, sleep with groupies, trash hotel rooms and die young.

back in the day, some clueless manager posted to usenet that he was looking for a coder who could - I swear I'm not making this up! - "write 1000 lines of code per day".

I'm sure you can visualize all the responses that were posted.

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

#29

Post by MichaelCrawford » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:58 PM UTC

valarauca1 wrote: post #14

coldcode wrote: post #5

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.

A ninja could be potentially useful to deal with competitors.

Perhaps I should show up to interviews carrying my father's sword?

It's not sharp on the edge but it _is_ pointy.

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

#30

Post by entelechy0 » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:58 PM UTC

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #28

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #20

I'm looking for the kind of job where I can stare out the window all day long, but then write one single subroutine that just works the very first time, and that not only is compliant to spec, but exceeds expectation. Rock stars blow their royalties and ticket sales up their noses, sleep with groupies, trash hotel rooms and die young.

back in the day, some clueless manager posted to usenet that he was looking for a coder who could - I swear I'm not making this up! - "write 1000 lines of code per day". I'm sure you can visualize all the responses that were posted.

There are some days (like today) where this is the norm at my company...