Job ads

[Peter L. Peres]

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004, Phillip Mills wrote:

> On Aug 22, 2004, at 8:09 PM, Ralph Doncaster wrote:
>
>> I find it rather ironic when people complain about not getting an
>> interview at a company due to stupid hiring practices.  If it's a dumb
>> company, why would anyone intelligent want to work there?
>
> If a company is doing interesting things with neat technology, it may not be 
> a dumb company.  If it's of any size at all, it may have a "dumb" 
> employee...or a smart employee who did a "dumb" thing.  (Let's see...have I 
> *ever* felt as if I could be described that way?)
>
> Also, no job description for a position with any creative scope ever survives 
> contact with reality.  Within a month, the person getting the job will have 
> modified it by applying knowledge that the hiring manager didn't have.  Even 
> without that, in any technology-oriented company, people, projects, and goals 
> change frequently.  (Which is why I shake my head so often at ads that insist 
> on experience with "SomeDatabase version 13.04".)
>
> Apart from discouraging capable candidates, the problem with 
> ridiculous/impossible requirements is that a literal, checklist approach to 
> screening responses gets the managers interviewees who have been selected for 
> their ability to generate B.S.

I agree with all you've said excepting the "SomeDatabase version 13.04" 
issue, which can be intrepreted as "we're desperately stuck with our 
mega-application which runs only on this, and we need you like air to make 
it work because however much you ask is less than what it takes for us to 
port the application".

Peter
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