
How to Interpret Ridiculous Web Design Job Posts - nickpettit
http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/how-to-interpret-ridiculous-web-design-job-posts
======
phantomb
"Excellent communication skills and the ability to work well with others"

The author added this in the rewrite, but I think this is exactly the kind of
filler that needs to be avoided. These things are mandatory for basically all
jobs, and people who can't communicate and work with others don't think they
lack these skills anyway.

~~~
vinceguidry
That line might not mean a lot to you, but it says a lot to me. They could
have left it out, but decided it was important enough to leave in.

My job is an example of such where it was left out. I only have to communicate
with people on my team. I do not attend meetings, my work has so little to do
with the actual business the company is in I'm effectively in my own little
world.

In my interviews, my future boss asked about communication, but emphasized
that all of my tasks were going through him. There was concern about the
programmer getting mad at people asking me for stuff that they don't
understand. Apparently that's happened before. What was important was my
independence and ability to solve problems, because nobody else is going to be
able to help me. Suited me just fine.

What this requirement tells me is that my work is going to intersect
significantly with other people who don't do what I do and I'll be a part of
planning meetings and such. I might also be called upon to give reports to
people who don't know what I do.

~~~
hkmurakami
Maybe that's best put in the "Job Description" section, rather than in the
Qualifications section?

------
biot
This misses out some important parts. The original job description had:

    
    
      * Proficient with javascript, good knowledge of jQuery and
        creating/debugging jQuery plugins
      * Understanding of OO principles, especially with regard to
        HTML/CSS/JS and creating reusable UI components
      * Expert knowledge of browser quirks and creating web apps that
        are consistent across all major browsers
      * Experience optimizing front end code for performance/speed
      * Experience optimizing front end code for SEO
      * Ability to code detailed, functional pages from mockups in
        collaboration with web designers
    

All of these are diluted down to:

    
    
      * Solid understanding of front-end languages and frameworks
        (primarily HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery)
    

... and misses the specifics entirely. Some developers are good with
JavaScript and jQuery, but don't have the mindset to be able to debug jQuery
plugins, or build reusable components vs. hacking a quick and dirty one-off
implementation, or understand different quirks between browsers ("Doesn't
jQuery do that for me?"), or have to deal with performance, or have any
knowledge of SEO work, or is only able to take existing HTML and tweak it but
is unable to output polished HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from design mockups.

For small companies who need someone to hit the ground running, it's a
disservice to themselves to not ask for specific skillsets. They'll end up
wasting time interviewing unqualified candidates. If you're part of a larger
company or you're willing to train someone who is smart, gets things done, and
can learn on their feet then it's fine to be vague about what you're looking
for since you're willing to accept that any hire you make may take several
months to get up to speed (and possibly never grok some skills) with what you
actually want them to have been doing from day one.

~~~
dwaltrip
I personally wish the job description would have elaborated on OO principles
for HTML and CSS. Sounds interesting!

~~~
bilalq
I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic or not (text is poor medium for
conveying such things), but OOCSS is very much a real thing. I love writing
SASS in such a way.

See this post for more info: [http://ianstormtaylor.com/oocss-plus-sass-is-
the-best-way-to...](http://ianstormtaylor.com/oocss-plus-sass-is-the-best-way-
to-css/)

~~~
underwater
OOCSS is poorly named and has nothing at all to do with object oriented
programming.

~~~
SimHacker
The first part of the name before the underscore is the CSS superclass name.
The next part after the underscore is the CSS subclass name. And the
properties in the style tag are the CSS instance variables.

------
dgabriel
"Excellent communication skills," is a meaningless throwaway line. Does it
mean "not an asshole", or "fluent in <company language>", or "able to craft
client emails", or "presents at conferences"? Why bother putting that in if
you are not excellently communicating what you exactly mean?

~~~
Myrmornis
"not an asshole".

~~~
kazagistar
In which jobs is this not a requirement?

~~~
PeterisP
Sales? I mean, there is some positive correlation between efficiency of a
salesman and various asshole-y characteristics such as intentional misleading
(and feeling good about it afterwards), ruthless competition at all costs
(including moral costs), not keeping promises after the check has been cashed,
etc.

Not for all organizations, but for many sales depts it's exactly what is
needed and wanted.

------
svmegatron
I recently had occasion to write a job description for a web design job. It
was surprisingly hard, and I recommend it as an exercise to anyone frustrated
with the language of job postings.

I wound up taking refuge in the phrase "you'll need one or more of the
following skills" and then describing my unicorn candidate. Using that, I
worried a little less about lacking the "language" of the particular job. And,
I think, I was able to avoid scaring away some strong candidates who might not
have otherwise applied.

------
gedrap
Hm, what I expected was a post about red flags in freelance (odesk, elance,
etc) job postings. They are (normally) obvious but since treehouse is oriented
to beginners [0], might be not obvious to them.

Although I try to adjust search well there, still ~80% of job posts are quite
crappy [1], full of red flags. Maybe it's not a good place to look for $40/h+
jobs? Or am I being just too picky/paranoid?

[0] or at least that's the impression I got from annoying "understanding
technology is as fundamental..." youtube video ad I am seeing every day for
months and am fed up with. At least it's not "to have a job in tech, you don't
need a degree". Hated that one.

------
zmitri
So I've learned that in some cases a lot of these things are done up so
formally so as to be able to work with immigrants.

In order to hire an immigrant, there's a lot of things you need to be able to
prove, and being able to show similar job postings elsewhere is important. But
basically, you want the job to look like it's very, very serious because
otherwise, why would you hire an immigrant instead of an American?

In reality you don't need to have every single thing on the list, but there
are some reasons they are actually written out like that.

------
mistercow
>“a college degree can be helpful, but we just want someone that’s smart and
dedicated.”

I thought that the reason job posters mention needing a degree is that if you
don't, the assumption many job seekers will make is that it's a "learn on the
job" situation. You'd end up with a thousand applications from people with no
experience who thought "Well, I know my way around MS Word pretty well, so how
hard can this be?"

------
pearjuice

        Knowledge of Java/JavaScript

~~~
hmsimha
That's extremely common in job postings unfortunately.

------
nawitus
You could leave these two bits out: * Ability to work with a version control
system (like SVN) in a team environment * using IDEs like Eclipse

If someone has worked as a software engineer for more than 6 months, that
someone already knows how to "use IDEs" and version control.

~~~
mgkimsal
"If someone has worked as a software engineer for more than 6 months, that
someone already knows how to "use IDEs" and version control."

Are you serious? I'm continually saddened by how many software people I run in
to that do not know either one. FTP and Notepad++ are their 'tools of choice',
and that's it.

~~~
nawitus
Yes, I'm serious. Apparently I only work with and know developers that use
basic tools.

~~~
mgkimsal
That very well may be the case.

About half the developers I know are using modern tooling (version control,
IDEs, virtual machines images, testing tools, etc). The other half are very
much in the 'ftp/notepad++' or maybe 'sublime text' camp.

Trying to convince people that they should be using version control even if
they're the only developer on a project is usually like swimming through
molasses.

~~~
ninkendo
Why are you and others lumping IDE's in with the rest of "modern tooling"? And
what do they have to do with version control? Or virtual machines?

I use vim very much by choice. I'm not ignorant to what IDEs are and do, but I
choose vim instead. I use version control. I use virtualization (with
Vagrantfile for getting my development environment up) and I write tests with
good coverage.

But because I use vim I get lumped in with people who never use version
control?

