Stains on the Job Board
Over one's job hunt, one may view thousands of "Help Wanted" advertisements. They range from one-line notices to full-page ads. After viewing so many of these advertisements, there may be times when one wonders if they use the same templates when writing the "Help Wanted" ads (there are some instances where this IS the case). However, there are also some times when
The following are a few things that appear on job postings that have made me wonder who wrote the ads and who gave these people the green light to publish the ads (and remain in the company payroll).
- Requiring the applicant to have a "good" degree from a "prestigious" University
What is the definition of a "good" degree? Does having a "good" degree the same as having studied in subjects related to that particular job? And what institution do the employer consider to be "prestigious"? Sure, there are some institutions that everyone regards as prestigious, but what about the others? I am sure every university claims itself to be a world leader in certain fields.
- Posting Silly Requirements
Some of the job postings have lines that make me wonder whether they are looking for new employees or trying to give the job-seekers a chukcle. I have seen the phrase "cannot be too stupid" and "those who have obtained need not apply". I thought the job description should help a job-seeker to see if that job matches one's qualifications. I am sure an ad that states the candidate "cannot be too stupid" would receive a boatload of response, since most people don't consider themselves stupid. As for the second phrase, I have no idea what it means. Maybe the company was looking for a proofreader or codebreaker and the first person who figures out what the statement is supposed to be gets the job.
- Wasting Space with Requirements that Everybody can meet
Examples of this include "Must be eligible to work in such city/country" (only applies to job postings in print), "Must Understand English", "Gender: Male or Female", "Race: Human" (okay, I made the last one up).
If one is not elgible to work in the place where the job is located, then one would be wasted one's time searching for a job in that particular area. (This only applied for postings in print. Since on-line postings can be read by anyone anywhere, it is necessary to inform the job-seeker that a candidate has to be eligible to work there).
Sometimes employers insert language requriements because the job that they post may require the candidate to have knowledge in some foreign tongue. However, is it necessary to say that the candidate needs to understand English when the ad is posted on an English-language web site/newspaper? Do the employers realize that a job-seeker won't pick up an English language paper or go to a web site whose content is English without some basic understanding of the language?
Unless there is a third gender among the human race, the line stating the candidate can be male or female is unnecessary. The only reason companies putting this requirement (that I can think of) is that they want to show that they are giving equal opportunity to men and women and save space at the same time, since "Gender: Male or Female" is a little shorter than "We are an Equal Opportunity Employer". Ultimately, though, the latter line would save more space because the phrase also covers race, religion, and physical abilities.
- MIA: Job Description
When one looks at a job posting, one expects to see what kind of duties someone doing that job need to perform. If there is no job description on the ad, the employer can ask the person who ends up getting the job to do something unrelated to the job title (or worse).
Of course, these silly ads may be part of the employers' way to see who is gulliable enough to apply to them or to reach the minimum spending level on the recruitment budget. Seriously, though, if a company wants to hire the best and brightest, it should spend some time to make sure that its "Help Wanted" ads are of high quality.