awesome
Stop Speaking in Bullshit
31–40 of 71 posts
Re: Stop Speaking in Bullshit
#32Just 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" which will make everyone understand why it's good.
Re: Stop Speaking in Bullshit
#33Earlier 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…
I actually find it boring to apply for a job to "design algorithms to target advertising". Think about it: do you want to do that for the next 10 years of your life? Do you want the next 10 years of your life to revolve around such a thing? Even if you don't mind it: is that what entices you to apply for the job? I don't care what the work itself is. I care about the environment and the culture. I'd rather design a s…
Seriously? Rather you than me. They're hardly going to advertise having a crappy company culture. ("You'll be reporting directly to two different managers with opposing objectives, but don't worry, we provide a generous mental health package!") That's for you to work out by reading up on the company and when you go to the interview. Plus, you're claiming a false dichotomy. I doubt great culture and great tech challenges are negatively correlated.
Besides, the "next 10 years of your life" argument is a strawman. If you don't want to be working on the same, hard micro-problem forever, pick a smaller company, where your work will vary wildly. Sure, not all of it is going to be solving super hardcore problems, but I'd want evidence in the job description that there are interesting challenges ahead.
Re: Stop Speaking in Bullshit
#34Earlier 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…
I actually find it boring to apply for a job to "design algorithms to target advertising". Think about it: do you want to do that for the next 10 years of your life? Do you want the next 10 years of your life to revolve around such a thing? Even if you don't mind it: is that what entices you to apply for the job? I don't care what the work itself is. I care about the environment and the culture. I'd rather design a s…
No, I don't want to do that for the next 10 years, but I want to know that they expect me to do it. Maybe not for the next 10 years, but a least initially. And if I don't like this I can decide to pass on the opportunity.
Even with good environment and culture you still have to do the work. Every day. For the next few years. So, I think it would be a good idea to know if you like to do what they want you to do.
Re: Stop Speaking in Bullshit
#35There's a filter happening here and it's systematic of large companies. Job advertisements are usually managed by HR departments rather than directly by managers themselves.
Managers just tell HR they need X,Y and Z to meet the their needs and HR pad out the description with stuff they vaguely understand.
Re: Stop Speaking in Bullshit
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually find it boring to apply for a job to "design algorithms to target advertising". Think about it: do you want to do that for the next 10 years of your life? Do you want the next 10 years of your life to revolve around such a thing? Even if you don't mind it: is that what entices you to apply for the job? I don't care what the work itself is. I care about the environment and the culture. I'd rather design a s…
Seriously? Rather you than me. They're hardly going to advertise having a crappy company culture. ("You'll be reporting directly to two different managers with opposing objectives, but don't worry, we provide a generous mental health package!") That's for you to work out by reading up on the company and when you go to the interview. Plus, you're claiming a false dichotomy. I doubt great culture and great tech challen…
They don't have to advertise a crappy culture, it will just manifest itself as bullshitting.
> pick a smaller company, where your work will vary wildly
Exactly!
Re: Stop Speaking in Bullshit
#37I've gotten so used to the later kinds of job postings that I didn't really know how to react when I applied for the former job posting.
I sort of locked up and thought for about 10 minutes before I just mailed off my resume and a link to some stuff I've done without a really good letter.
I guess the author of this blog post is right: it was a rare job posting and I discovered I didn't know how to react.
Re: Stop Speaking in Bullshit
#38Hmm, 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 programmer as our first hire. Depending on the task, we program in Ruby (on Rails), Javascript (a lot of this), PHP, Python, Objective-C (iPhone), and Java (Android). Flexibility is a plus.
We like pragmatic people who get things done. We're looking for someone relaxed and with the ability to think about the product as a whole and their impact on it.
You don't have to be world class at everything, but you should be willing to get your hands dirty with everything from database design to javascript to system administration to customer support and customer development.
We're profitable, have hundreds of thousands of users and a rapidly expanding user base. We are a relaxed company run by programmers, so no corporate nonsense.
You will be the first employee of a small successful startup; with a paycheck and equity. It you are interested and live in Silicon Valley, send email about yourself to recycledthrowaway@gmail.com.
There, bullshit removed. Clean, simple, descriptive.
The problem with the original is that the company is not announced, so any "exciting" description is just bullshit and unhelpful. The job ad in this case is there to say what they want and what roughly they are offering, it is to filter out some basic candidates. And at that point you can turn on the charm when it makes more sense to the potential employee
Never try to sound cool in a job ad.. it backfires. Go for friendly but offhand professionalism :)
Re: Stop Speaking in Bullshit
#39Earlier 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…
I actually find it boring to apply for a job to "design algorithms to target advertising". Think about it: do you want to do that for the next 10 years of your life? Do you want the next 10 years of your life to revolve around such a thing? Even if you don't mind it: is that what entices you to apply for the job? I don't care what the work itself is. I care about the environment and the culture. I'd rather design a s…
It's not only the culture what is important for me, but what are my strengths, what am I good at? If I do what I am good at that can be the win-win situation. I am not especially good at the frontend work they described. I mean I could do the job, but it is not my strength. I am better at creating algorithms, and I am also more enthusiastic about that kind of work. Also they mentioned lots of dynamic languages. I am better at a job where I can go deep into problems preferably using only one or two languages. And I better like let's say Scala than all those dynamic languages. I am also a speed-optimization enthusisast: at speed all those mentioned languages suck. Company culture is important, but by far not the only important thing.
Re: Stop Speaking in Bullshit
#40As a programmer who has perused hundreds of job postings in the past, I'm inclined to agree with the author that the HN post was a good one. Yes, some of it is bullshit (the napping part), but most of it is great. It's quite specific and does a good job differentiating itself from many other postings. Here's what I think when I read it:
> "we’re looking to hire a smart all-around programmer"
Looks like I'm gonna have to be a jack-of-all trades rather than a master of one. That's good, definitely my style.
> "as our first hire."
A lot will be expected of me. I'll have to be self-motivated and self-organized. No slacking. Long hours. This is a legitimate startup job.
> "It’s a cliche, but we want people who like tackling complicated problems."
Yep, cliche. I like that you point it out though, makes me take this requirement more seriously. I happen to enjoy working through complicated problems, no reservations here.
> "Depending on the task, we program in Ruby (on Rails), Javascript (a lot of this), PHP, Python, Objective-C (iPhone), and Java (Android). Flexibility is a plus."
Great, specifics. Once again, focusing on the jack-of-all trades thing. They're clearly at a point where they can't (and probably shouldn't) hire specialists.
> "we like people who don’t put themselves in a box. You should be comfortable thinking about the product as a whole, and how changes are going to impact the hundreds of thousands of people who use it regularly."
In other words, this is a startup, we don't want stereotypical big company guys. I can't just blend in. I'll have a lot of responsibility, and I'll be making a lot of real decisions. I'm basically a co-founder who's a little late to the game.
> "make the lives of hundreds of thousands of people better every month"
Hmmm, they seem to care about the social impact of their product. Probably a good thing, but could be a bad/annoying thing if taken to an extreme.
> "napping is an encouraged part of our corporate culture."
Probably bullshit. I don't have any real desire to nap on the job, but I'll definitely ask for details out of curiosity.
> We’re profitable ... have a rapidly expanding user base
That's cool, but I'd like to know more. Ramen profitable or Rolls Royce profitable? 500 new users a day or 5000 users a day? They seem to be trying to sell me on this point, so if I get an interview I'm going to find out more specifics. It's good that they care about profits though, I do too.
> Basically, you’ll get to be the first employee of a small successful startup, while getting a paycheck and equity
Cool. Always good to list what I'll be getting. Will ask about benefits, not expecting any though.
> and feeling good about the impact you’re having on the world.
Another reference to social impact. I have to ask myself, am I the kind of person who would consider "being a do-gooder" more than a negligible part of the recompense for the long, stressful hours of startup life? Not a lot of people will stay up coding til 3AM Saturday night and say, "Hey, at least I did some good for someone out there."