

"We have hard/challenging problems" replacing "Looking for Ruby Ninja"? - sebilasse

It seems that this years "we have hard/challenging (technical) problems" is replacing last years "looking for programmer Rockstars/Ninjiutsu-Ninjas".<p>Am I the only one that gets slightly annoyed by these generic drink-the-kool-aid slogans?
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noonespecial
Not at all. I just make sure to fill in the blanks when reading. It goes like
this:

We have hard/challenging (technical) problems _that are mostly of our own
creation and despite hiring you specifically to solve these problems, you will
by no means be allowed by your managers solve._

No only is it good for a chuckle, but its a nice reminder that on the balance,
anyone who hires with catch phrases is probably not somewhere you want to
work. Hire with catch phrases, get resumes full of buzz with absolutely no
fizz included to go with that buzz.

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glimcat
I know it's usually that, but it's at least nice to see them trying to figure
out what motivates people.

I'm still much more likely to bite if they actually say straight out what a
few of those problems _are_ instead of spewing a list of every library used in
their stack and asking for 5+ years experience with them when better than half
haven't been around for more than two. If it's legitimately interesting work,
I'll happily learn any and all tools necessary to do it.

~~~
bluedanieru
The magic word in your post is _interesting_. Everyone has hard problems to
solve, and most of the time those hard problems are borne of stupid decisions
made 5 years ago by people who don't work there anymore. Then perpetuated by
people currently working there who will, as pointed out, completely defeat at
least half your efforts to make any actual useful progress. I work on hard and
challenging problems, which are by no means interesting, and I've often
contemplating throwing myself out of a window just to experience some new shit
:-)

If you have _interesting_ work, let's talk, but you probably don't.

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wavephorm
They can't exactly be honest say "we used Rails and didn't build this right so
we need someone who knows what they're doing to fix it for us, oh and we're VC
funded and offer generous 0.25% equity vested over 4 years"

