A couple of months ago, I asked my LinkedIn network if they take take job descriptions seriously. I also asked them to be honest. Outside of the occasional comical answers I got more negative feedback (directed at HR departments and recruiters) than expected. If you want to see what everyone had to say click here. One thing that I’ve found that most job seekers have in common with each other is that they don’t feel like job descriptions are a very good indicator of whether or not a company should consider them.
In fact, job descriptions are considered by be laundry lists. One person said that they were concerned that HR departments might actually take job descriptions seriously. Since my departure from agency staffing and internal recruiting I have had a chance to put a lot of ideas to the test. I’ve been experimenting (mostly on my own jobs) with some really interesting and potentially innovative (I don’t want to toot my own horn) approaches to job descriptions. If you are an HR person close your browser now, this isn’t for you!
What I’ve found is that some of the core elements of a job description actually cause people the most trouble. For example, when a skill is presented as a requirement people tend to think of the requirement as a challenge that they a) can overcome or b) might be able to overcome or c) can’t get past. An example of a challenge that someone might not be able to overcome could be “performing calculus and advanced physics as part of an average day”. This is an example of what I would consider to be a limiting parameter. Most authors of job descriptions (and I’m talking about the ones who didn’t copy and paste one written by someone else) think about requirements as limiting parameters. Job seekers don’t.
So I what I have found to be useful is an active effort to deconstruct the traditional notion of job description requirements. This begins with eliminating the requirments section.
Yes, I just said ELIMINATE the job requirements section.
If you are still reading then you must not think I’m crazy and you are probably much more like the target audience that I’m looking for anyway. Job descriptions work much the same way. Remember that I warned HR people to close their browser a moment ago because this wasn’t for them. You may recall that I talked about video resumes and video job ads quite a bit over the last few years. In talking about these tools I didn’t suggest that they would replace traditional resumes and job descriptions, but that they would help like minded employers and job seekers to connect. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Video isn’t an easy endeavour for most companies or people and isn’t event necessarily the best way to go about getting your intended audience’s attention. So I’m going to talk about a few ways to get to the people who you want to be talking to in the first place.
You can start by throwing out the job description. After you’ve done this you should write down as many things as you and your team can think of that describe someone who would be a great member of your team. NO SKILLS, just attributes. For example, if you are looking for someone who is going to build a web 2.0 application you should probably write down “uses Facebook”. I can’t imagine hiring a web 2.0 programmer who isn’t on Facebook. Next you might want to write down “likes computer games”. Web 2.0 people tend to be on the edge of their seats for new games (at least in my experience). Sure, there are people who are not, but that isn’t the point - a lot of these types play computer games. Next you might want to write down “owns iPhone or N95 or Treo or Geek Devices” Etc.
Once you’ve figured out what the attributes of a person are, now it is time to write down the attributes that your office offers that someone looking to build web 2.0 applications might be interested in. An example might be “flexible hours for programmers who work late” or “super amazing starbucks machine in office” or “iPhone hackers present” or “computer games happen HERE”.
After you’ve figured out the attributes that represent incentives for both parties to talk you’ve got your work cut out for you. Now all you have to do is decide what you can’t live without. For example, “must be smart and have built own web pages for fun on the side (maybe even for others to make extra cash)”. For a non-entry level position you might even throw in a line of code that has to be translated into the requirement. For example, if a person has to know PHP you might want to say something like “must know how to install LAMP without a script”.
Now here comes the part that you are not going to like.
Once you have all of this information in one place you might not have a page long job description. You may not even have more than a paragraph or two. Do not be afraid. You should take what you’ve got and get it up in places where you know that your target audience will be found. For example, Facebook…or Jobmatchbox.
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Interesting point. I do take job descriptions seriously, but a more creative job description like “Seeking developer who uses facebook and owns a geek device willing to work with flexible hours in an amazing office with a starbucks machine and other misc. snacks.” would catch my attention, but… somehow, that feels like it would end up being too broad? Might net a lot of applicants than desired? Or turn away others that might feel that the company doesn’t know what it’s looking for / they’ll end up in an office with slackers and people who don’t actually know anything?
I don’t know. It’d certainly be interesting to see the results of such an advisement for a job…
As a non-techie who works more on the content and web usability side, I tend to shy away from jobs where certain coding skills are listed as REQUIRED.
Are you saying the employers aren’t serious about these requirements and I should be applying for these jobs? I don’t want to waste their time or my time if I don’t meet one of their minimum requirements, on the other hand, I don’t want to be missing out on positions that I’m otherwise qualified for.
Robert - I’m definitely not saying to you that you should apply for a job that you are not a fit for. If a job calls for a Ruby on Rails programmer and you’ve never programmed in Ruby on Rails then you should not apply for it. Perhaps a better example would be this: if a job calls for someone who can own a content management system like WordPress and that PHP experience is a plus - and your experience includes working with wordpress, but not php then you could apply.
The more important message here is that a job ad is different from a job description - it should speak to a target audience and not just try to serve as a filter. People stop reading long job descriptions in much the same way that hiring teams teams stop reading long resumes.
Important characteristics of the ideal hire and things taht the hiring manager should be there, but it doesn’t take 7 bullets to describe the fact that a programmer who can walk on and get the job done with Ruby on Rails (without reading a book or taking a class) is required (not someone who has 5 years of Ruby on Rails experience.