

How Not to write a job posting - aioprisan

I see dozens of posts like this to the opportunities/jobs mailing lists from the academic institutions that I've attended for undergrad and grad school, and I had to share this.
Obviously, any identifying information was removed.
Many business people tend to think that building a mobile app takes a day or so and involves some jQuery and PHP scripting. We really need to change that perception, which is why I replied to the following:<p>---
Hello,<p>I'm a recent graduate of [top 10 business school in the US] - I currently have a website and we are looking to develop a mobile app to complement it. We initially need a very basic mobile version which will essentially mirror the site and require very little (if any) backend coding. Most of what we need could probably be done in about a day using simple frameworks like JQuery mobile, but we want to make sure it's cross-platform compatible. Ideal person will have:<p>1) experience building and testing mobile apps (iOs and Android preferred), especially utilizing JQuery mobile
2) front-end web development skills including HTML and CSS (design experience a plus, but not necessary)
3) experience with and knowledge of WordPress and PHP scripting
4) experience with APIs, FourSquare, and Facebook Connect a plus<p>We're looking for someone with time to begin immediate work. We have a number of additional features we'd like to add (social media integration like Facebook Connect), but a baseline mobile app will suffice for now. We will offer a per-project payment, based on experience and timing. Please email me for more details if you are interested. I believe that the core project could be completed in 1-2 work days.<p>Thanks<p>---<p>with the following:<p>---<p>Do yourself a favor and don't make the assumption to know what making a working mobile version of your product site would take by saying that it would take 1 day.
Also, some of the things you say are somewhat nonsensical:
1. "Most of what we need could probably be done in about a day using simple frameworks like JQuery mobile"
No, it probably will take about one day to understand how the site was coded and what it's doing, some of which is probably not through a framework like jQuery that actually is cross-platform compatible.
2. "but we want to make sure it's cross-platform compatible"
jQuery mobile/touch is cross-platform compatible.
Don't make infrastructure judgements, with the word "probably" in there and a 1 day estimate. That will "probably" be more like 1 week.
3. "using simple frameworks like JQuery mobile"
jQuery mobile is not a simple framework. If it was, you'd code it instead and not put it on a mailing list.
4. "experience building and testing mobile apps (iOs and Android preferred), especially utilizing JQuery mobile"
Besides the "iOs" typo, you don't write iOS and Android apps in jQuery mobile. Please let framework decisions be made by technical people who indeed have "experience building and testing mobile apps (iOs and Android preferred)".
5. "front-end web development skills including HTML and CSS (design experience a plus, but not necessary)"
So you want someone to build out your mobile site and you'd be OK with someone not having design experience? Interesting.
6. "PHP scripting"
No, you probably do not want someone with knowledge of "PHP scripting". You probably want someone with knowledge of PHP frameworks and web applications. Scripting is something else entirely and it's probably not what you'd need in a developer. Scripting implies a quick hack or quick, one-off solution, not a long-term, maintainable piece of your app ecosystem.
7. "I believe that the core project could be completed in 1-2 work days."
Oh, so now you've doubled the ceiling of the product completion timeline. 
An entire working, cross-platform mobile iOS &#38; Android mobile app, designed to not look like crap, with multiple API integration in 2 days, max?
I would leave it a lot more open ended than that, if I were you.<p>Thanks<p>--<p>Thoughts? Comments?
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kevinconroy
They probably have a tiny budget and are trying to get cheap labor to fill a
big hole. Yes it will take longer, but they just want someone to try it
quickly. If they fail to take more than a day, they can cut them loose.

At the meta level, you'll see plenty more job descriptions like these written
by non-tech people trying to sound like tech people. Set your mental filters
on these to cut out the noise and find the good ones that resonate with you.

You can't prevent people from writing bad job descriptions, but you can ignore
them and only respond to well written ones. Supply and demand will take care
of the rest and force people to improve.

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aioprisan
The formatting got a bit screwy. I wonder why some of the newlines got
preserved and some didn't. Weird..

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chc
It's HN formatting. One newline gets converted to a space. Two newlines make a
paragraph.

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awestley
Any response?

