Recognizing poor working conditions based on job vacancies

After working for some time in IT, you begin to notice what tricks people use when they want to sweeten the pill. Well, for example, the phrase: "Take responsibility for each stage of the product life cycle", in fact, means: "Our processes are not debugged, everything is on fire, what if we throw you, you will work on that."



This example is my personal pain, because a few years ago, when I was hiring employees, I myself wrote this in full confidence that I turned it down a lot. By the way, it was after this incident that I suddenly realized that everything is always on fire with us and for this reason we are looking for universal programmers "for all work."



People are sparing no effort in writing fanciful job texts and psychological dissection in interviews. I undertake the analysis of such things out of a desire to help you not fall for this rubbish. Let's face it, you deserve the best. As we all do.



Here's a list of what makes a good job posting:

• A clear, concise statement of the essence of the company's activities without an excess of empty big words
• A clear, concise statement of the tasks that you have to deal with in the relevant position, without an excess of empty loud words
• A clear, reasonable list of requirements for the job / position
• A clear, reasonable list of responsibilities that the position entails
• No mention of qualities or skills that are not directly related to work (sense of humor, perseverance, perseverance ...)

Let's take a look at a few examples of jobs that don't fit this description.

Bad Example # 1: Requires a Man-Orchestra

Well, let's go in order.

Contribute to and take responsibility for all aspects of the product life cycle: design, planning, development, DevOps, testing both services and web components

Brrr. That is, should I be a software architect, developer, DevOps engineer, and tester at the same time? Anyone who has actually worked for an IT company knows that the product lifecycle throughout its entire length is no joke. In startups, it often happens that one programmer sits on several chairs and drags the whole process on him, but a company on the NASDAQ list is definitely not a startup. DevOps engineers have spun off into a separate profession for a reason.



Update: the last phrase caused a strong response from people, so I decided to clarify my position.



I understand that DevOps is a cultural movement that seeks to transform processes and remove barriers between development and operation. To do their job properly, engineers need to have a good understanding of virtually every step of the cycle. But this does not mean that you can blame everything on one person or one team.



When developers spend time on anything other than implementing functionality or fixing bugs, that time is wasted. That is why special positions appear that are associated with tasks that do not involve work directly on the product.



DevOps engineer is a general name for a number of specialized works, it can be easily replaced with more specific names: specialist in site reliability, experience in developing or operating platforms, systems engineer ... Whatever you call them, the point is that certain areas of the product ecosystem are always being worked on different people - this allows you to shorten the time to market and provides more guarantees. In this situation, the developers creating the product are not wasted (for example, on setting up AWS services) when they could work on the functionality.

Stimulate dialogue with business partners by helping to identify needs and find solutions

Collaborate and build strong relationships with the technology group, as well as third-party suppliers and offshore partners, to help create added value for customers

Wait, I mean, on top of everything else, you want to make me a product owner, partner manager, and business development specialist?

Have the ability and desire to dive deeply into the established code base and not miss the opportunities offered by design, functionality and refactoring needs in the code

Show me this man who wants to rewrite someone else's lousy code with all his heart .

Share past experience with other team members, become a mentor for them, in order to improve the order of development and implementation

“Yes, you’ll be a team lead as well.”



Requirements and desirable skills match a ridiculously overwhelming range of responsibilities. I strongly doubt that any developer will be able to focus on JavaScript development if they also need to tinker with various AWS services, message queues, logging mechanisms and log analysis in parallel.



Towards the end, a frank listing of DevOps features begins. For this work, you need a separate rate - well, unless you get a genius who understands about everything in the world and always fits in exactly one hour.



The bonuses are no worse than the industry average, but they do not pay off for this, by all indications, a hell of a job. There are other companies that have no less competitive offers and have no idea that a candidate should have a million roles and deal with a million tasks.

Bad example # 2: we need BOLD programmers for BOLD jobs

Basic requirements: job.Qualifications

Hehe, someone's automatic script lagged.

Join the [cut] team that takes other people's missions onto their shoulders. Our clients choose the most difficult missions for themselves. Their implementation requires incredible courage, endurance and precision. They are fraught with dangers and are of great importance. Sometimes they even give us the opportunity to change the world and save lives. These are the missions that resonate with us .

Looks like a movie from a TV shop. I can see these shots directly: the special forces salute, march, undergo exercises in the pouring rain, storm the building ... Stop, this is like a job description for a programmer? Oops. For a commercial - just right, for a vacancy - don't get it. You will not find a single detail in the entire text. What you will be doing is unclear. Who would know what basic skills are needed for this.



Have you ever heard of bait vacancies? Sometimes this happens in the IT field: you come to interview for one position, and after the device you actually find yourself on a completely different one. This job is very easy to do with this job because you are essentially not signing up for anything in particular. Beware of this kind of text.



One gets the impression that the person who wrote this sincerely believes in the company's mission (or that it has a commercial marketing department). However, with this approach, he can only rely on people who share his feelings. Or they are ready to take on any job.



Note: It's fair to say that the company that posted the job is well known and has made a name for itself in the industry. But even if this can explain the lack of a description of her activities, the requirements for the candidate still need to be seriously brought to mind.

Bad example # 3: looking for the perfect representatives of humanity

This vacancy finished me off - I write, and it punches me with a laugh.

Successful candidates must have developed analytical thinking, a thirst for knowledge, a willingness to take on any challenge, a desire to replenish their knowledge base and a great sense of humor.

Great sense of humor? Why is that? The interviewee's handbook is called The Programmer's Career, not The Funny Manner. A good sense of humor is a trait that we always value in those around us, be it friends, family, colleagues, or those whom we invite on a date. But it doesn't make sense to ask for such things in a vacancy.

Specific tasks may include: software development, systems administration, documentation, user support, quality control, pre-sales support

Now explain to me, please, in what place does this work pull you to the initial level? You are looking for a person who will be your developer, sysadmin, technical documentation team, technical support team, testing team, and sales engineer. I have been working in the industry for many years, and I'm not sure if I would even manage half of these positions.

And so on, as they become available ...

... for example? We seem to have a vacancy here for a developer position, not an errand boy in a sports bar. Vague, ambiguous lines of this kind are a bad sign. People should always know what types of work they are agreeing to

Entrepreneurial spirit

So, I have come across this expression more than once and ... what does it mean at all? If you ask one - he will say, this is when they break norms and experiment. Another will refer to qualities such as perseverance and determination. Or maybe this is about the fact that you need to be inventive and think flexibly?



The problem with such characteristics is that they are vague, ambiguous, and meaningless. They do not convey any information, because they can mean anything. Every first one consoles himself with the thought that he has an "entrepreneurial" warehouse - just look at how many people define themselves as "Entrepreneur" on LinkedIn.



What does this mean for you, the person who wants to get a job in the company? The fact that the employer has his own, quite definite idea of ​​who he wants to see in this position, but he is not able to give a clear description.

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Lord Jesus. Once again: all these qualities need to be assessed by the candidate during the interview, and not described in the vacancy. The fool understands that everyone wants to hire honest, active, enthusiastic workers. There is at least someone who reads all this and thinks: "Oh, well, I’m a bastard and gouge, I will not send them a resume?" Maybe you'd better tell us something about the job?



"All that is required", and even in quotation marks, inspires concern. How far do these requirements go? Do you have to give your firstborn? Or slaughter a sacrificial goat? Well, the last two points are also good. You need to be an optimist, but not too optimistic, let's go without it here.



Let me tell you this: for a certain type of people, such a description will seem amusing and attractive. But for me, in the light of my experience, the whole text is one call after another.

Good job descriptions

To air the room a little after all the criticism and negativity, let's now study a few texts written very, very sensibly.

Good example # 1: he has everything

Beauty. The description of the company and the team, on the one hand, is intriguing, on the other hand, it gives details in sufficient volume.

We create systems that take massive amounts of genomic data, mix it with scientific literature from around the world, add results that have been carefully calibrated over the years, and carefully package everything for our researchers to use.

From this proposal alone, it is already possible to draw a number of conclusions about the areas in which the company is likely to operate:

• Big data
• Data processing and analytics
• Software development (of course)
• Scientific research or R&D
• Perhaps machine learning to extract new insights from data

The lists in the “What will you do” and “What will you bring to the team” paragraphs are specific, transparent and reasonable. Ten out of ten, I would have proposed my own candidacy if the field was more suitable for me.

Good example # 2: short and to the point

The responsibilities are clear. The necessary skills are not written down, but they can be easily thought out based on the information provided on the stack and tasks:

• Microservices
• Node.js, Python and Go
• Kubernetes + Docker, Linux
• Emphasis on retail and commercial construction

And no one spills into a nightingale about how they need exceptionally perfect people and how they are looking for those who are able to turn the whole world upside down !!!

Good example # 3: simple, but solid

A clear, substantive description of the company's activities, an overview of the skills expected of the candidate and his future responsibilities. As in the previous example, this is the company's technology stack. The list of requirements corresponds to both the position and the level of the desired programmer. This is a good job.

Don't settle for bad jobs

You are trying to get a job in a field that is currently experiencing explosive growth, which means you have options. There are many great companies in the world that provide not only interesting tasks and generous bonuses, but also excellent opportunities for growth, including career. Keep honing your skills while looking for a job, and read job descriptions carefully to weed out questionable employers and not waste time on them. Thanks for reading!