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What's the Worst Job Posting You've Seen?

Kickstart70 asks: "Recently myself and a number of friends of mine who work or worked in IT jobs have been remarking on absolutely horrible job postings for low-level IT jobs paying small change. It seems the headhunters and employers are still wanting knowledge in everything, at least one degree but preferably two, and want to keep employees on minimal wages (in the job listing linked, the wage is in Canadian dollars). Is this common everywhere? What's the worst job posting you have seen?"

30 of 1,214 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting requirements... by hendridm · · Score: 4, Funny

    > WINNT is nice to have.

    Don't do it! The organization is clearly run by crazies.

    My favorite part:

    Software List: Some or all would be preferred.

    I mean, damn, $17-$19 is pretty good for Help Desk, even if it is bilingual, but anyone who is familiar with all of the items on that list should make more than God himself. Of course, the poster of this probably works for Kelly Services anyway.

    1. Re:Interesting requirements... by tigga · · Score: 3, Funny
      What is "bilingual French" anyway - two dialects of French?

      French French and Canadian French?

    2. Re:Interesting requirements... by Mattcelt · · Score: 3, Funny

      A good translator has real skills.

      You mean as opposed to most helpdesk techs? *grin*

      This is part of the problem here in the U.S. - companies hire lots of barely- or non-technical staff to handle the helpdesk, and they end up simply being call routers to the real techs, freeing those people from having to answer the phone.

      I've heard the helpdesk at one company I've worked with referred to as "Victoria's Secret".

      i.e., they're there purely for show and don't really support anything at all.

  2. My Own by jhouserizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    The worst I've seen?

    The job posting to find the person who will replace me.

    1. Re:My Own by Nucleon500 · · Score: 5, Funny
      Worse than that?

      Finding out you're unqualified.

    2. Re:My Own by gmack · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah.. When I quit my first job in montreal after the place took a direction other than what was on the job description(they wanted to do porn and I didn't) They posted a job asking for my qualifications but expected to about $12 CDN an hour.

      One day I'm overhearing the receptionist talking to a prospective sysadmin calling for my job "well sir.. before we process your resume.. do you have a problem with porn? how about animal porn? ohh well ok then. thanks anyways"

      Glad I left? yep! That place and Ralsky deserved each other.

  3. Who'd take that crappy job? by grub · · Score: 3, Funny


    I count 163 things (well, wc -l counted it) on that list of things they want prospects to know. Obviously that job involves too much work and would interfere with reading /.

    Anyone that applies is obviously beyond geekdom and is to be pitied.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  4. Requirements that end up in a checksum failure... by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Funny

    The worst ones I've seen are ones that require you to have gone back in time in order to have enough experience with the software they want you to use:

    "Requirements: 5 years experience with Windows 2000..."

  5. Re:Requirements that end up in a checksum failure. by t0qer · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm being nitpicky about your commment I know. But you're lack of understanding into the space time continium and the 4th dimension requires it.

    "Requirements: 5 years experience with Windows 2000..."


    Ok if one wanted 5 years of experience with win2k, they would need to go forward in time, to say 2005. Not backwards, because win2k was not created yet.

    Again my apologies for being a nitpick.

  6. CAD$38K ASP Programmer by thegrommit · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's less than US$29K. While one of the job requirements may be unique, it would be amusing to see how long a heterosexual male would last working there.

    1. Re:CAD$38K ASP Programmer by HungWeiLo · · Score: 4, Funny

      I bet you get used to it. Two summers ago, I did web monkey work for a major university hospital, where I got look at up-close STD patient photos (in ultra high resolution taken with a 5MP camera, no less). After half a week, it wasn't such a big deal anymore. After awhile, if a friend showed up to visit me, I would point to a picture I have on the monitor, and say something like "hey look at those little mushrooms," forgetting about the outside world.

      --
      There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
  7. That's like... by siskbc · · Score: 4, Funny
    I dunno, $17-$19 CANADIAN???

    ...$0.37 American these days, right? You can do better than that making shoes in Thailand.

    --

    -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

  8. Mail room by faust2097 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I saw a posting for mail room personnel at CNet that said "must have 2 years previous corporate mail room experience". And it wasn't for managing the thing, it was just a nomal clerk position.

    Would you want to hire someone who was either a) so uncapable that working the mail room is the peak of their abilities or b) so ambition-free that they had multiple years of mailroom experience without advancing?

  9. Real posting... by Doug+Merritt · · Score: 5, Funny
    This was a real posting to a job list a few months ago:

    > From: Jenny Richards [mailto:..........@yahoo.com]
    > Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 11:11 AM
    > To: .........@yahoogroups.com
    > Subject: [.......] Entry level programmer in Duluth, MN
    >
    > Location : Duluth, MN
    > Term : 1 year
    > Rate : $5.10 / hour
    >
    > Requirements:
    >
    > - 21+ years of J2EE Development.
    > - Fluent Sanskrit.
    > - PhD in Computer Science and 17th Century French Poetry.
    > - Must have had 4 or more products that sold 1,000,000 copies.
    > - Must be a member of the Mayflower Society.
    >
    > Locals to Duluth given preference.
    > All requirements are mandatory, so don't waste my time by sending my
    > your pathetic resume unless you're a perfect fit.

    It was real posting to a real job list, which I thought was very funny, but the poster got banned from the list for their sense of humor.

    --
    Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
    1. Re:Real posting... by idontgno · · Score: 3, Funny
      Leaving aside that reference to a dead language usually implies a joke

      Hey, you insensitive clod,....

      Damn, I just realized I don't know how to say "fluent in Sanskrit" in Sanskrit. Another fine "insensitive clod" joke ruined.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  10. You're right by siskbc · · Score: 3, Funny
    Actually, the Canadian dollar is rising against the USD... when I traveled to Canada last march, I got about 1.6 canadian dollars, and now it's about 1.3

    That's true, but I'm so used to heaping shit on the Canadian currency after *years* of it tanking that it's like a reflex now. ;)

    US is still up a bit over the last 10 years tho.

    Only thing about a weak dollar is it makes good German beer more expensive. Fucking Greenspan.

    --

    -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

  11. Too Much Experience Requiried? by Emperor+Tiberius · · Score: 3, Funny
    I recall reading one for a Level III Linux system administrator. The pay wasn't too shabby, yet the requirements for employeement were sad. The position requiried you to have fifteen years of experience with Linux, and ten with Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

    It was bad enough that they wanted MSCE certification in addition, but wanting fifteen years experience with Linux?! ROFL!

  12. More Experience than Possible by Eskarel · · Score: 5, Funny
    Worst I ever saw was sometime last spring looking for 5 years of experience with .NET. The fact that even the eduactional version which had come out a good year or so earlier than the commercial product had not yet been out for two years didn't seem to bother them.

    I'm not even entirely sure whether they had a version of VS .NET which would compile(as in the program not stuff it created) in the spring of 1998. Ahh well, such is lunacy.

  13. County of riverside by Monkelectric · · Score: 4, Funny
    The country of Riverside, CA government routinely posts jobs to the public which REQUIRE 3-4 years experience on their inhouse software.

    Can I complain about bad interviews to? I submitted a story about bad interviews but its been pending in the que for *6 weeks* (what does that mean?). I had an interview for qualcomm for a 1 month temp position, and the interviewer asked a bunch of jack-ass quesitons, but this one sent me over the edge "where do you see yourself in 5 years?". To this I replied, "Not working at qualcom for 4 years and 11 months!"

    --

    Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

  14. Re:Requirements that end up in a checksum failure. by DrCode · · Score: 4, Funny

    Those that irked me the most were the ones with explicit version requirements, like:

    3 years with Java V1.31a7c
    2 years Swing V2.93xL
    Must have this experience on a Sun station running Solaris 5.839.

    The above is an exaggeration, but only slightly.

  15. from what i've seen by nudicle · · Score: 5, Funny

    CmdrTaco does the worst job posting...

  16. My Job by Jennifer+E.+Elaan · · Score: 5, Funny
    Fine... this isn't a job posting, this is an actual description of my job duties, but I'll make it look like one:

    • Senior SQL Administrator/Programmer (PostgreSQL)
    • Senior Web Applications Developer (PHP). E-Commerce experience an asset.
    • Toolchain/Plugin Developer (C/C++). Develop PostgreSQL plugins and in-house applications.
    • Senior Network Administrator on a heterogeneous FreeBSD/Linux/WindowsXP environment. Must possess strong skills in server application deployment and windows interoperability. Must possess a background in firewall and network design.
    • BCS/BEE and/or 10+ years of proven software design experience.
    • Background in cryptography is an asset.
    • Must be willing to work overtime when necessary at 1x pay.

    Benefits Package: none, contract basis, terminatable at any time without severance package
    Pay: $14 Canadian/hour

    Wait a minute... what am I doing? Is anyone looking for a developer (or hardware engineer for that matter)?

  17. too true to be funny by jgarry · · Score: 5, Funny

    I posted this a while back, and some people thought it was too true to be funny. Others saw the humor.

    How to decode an Oracle DBA Want-Ad

    --
    Oracle and unix guy.
  18. College job listings were the worst by amuro98 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I remember looking for intern/co-op positions through my school's placement center.

    One year, a major computer hardware company came to campus looking ONLY for Ph.D students willing to do 3 month intern positions at minimum wage. Uh.... Turns out their HR department was a bit overzealous.

    Another firm was an IT contracting company. They came to campus looking for new grads with a bachelors in computer science or engineering, and 5 years IT experience... After the representative told the several people that they were wasting his time because they didn't have enough experience, he was escorted off campus and told never to return.

    I also recall a major financial institution wanted to hire CS students with 3 years of programming experience for the summer to - and I'm not making this up - *STAND INSIDE THE WALLS TO MAKE SURE THE NETWORK CABLES DIDN"T COME LOOSE OR BREAK*. The job was located in New York City, paid $5/hr, no assisted living, and you were *required* to live within 10 miles of the office. Oh yes, and you were also required to wear a suit at all times (though I have no idea how you were supposed to keep it clean standing inside crawlspaces all day long...)

    This company, too, was kicked off campus and told never to return.

    1. Re:College job listings were the worst by LuxFX · · Score: 4, Funny

      I met a guy once that (claimed to at least) used ferrets for running cable. He would tie the cable to the ferret and stick him in the ceiling. Then he would open the other end and shake the food/toy/treat/whatever to get the ferret to come over. He said it worked very well.

      --
      Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
  19. Re:Requirements that end up in a checksum failure. by tigga · · Score: 5, Funny
    "Requirements: 5 years experience with Windows 2000..."

    How about dogs years?

  20. Re:The job posting for when it leaves... by RevMike · · Score: 3, Funny

    Karma Whore :)

    Plus, why all the <br> tags? And didn't your mommy teach you to use xhtml? Use <br /> instead.

  21. The worst job I saw by dayton967 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The worst job I saw was about 3 years ago.. The job required a MCSE in a pure unix shop. I called up and asked how many windows machines were in the environment, and there were none. When asked why does it require an MCSE, the statement was that they were best qualified to operate the servers. Go figure..

  22. here it is by kuroth · · Score: 3, Funny
    About Us
    We're I-bought-cheesy-puffs-on-the-interweb.com, a startup Fortune 23,500,000 company with a fantastic new idea! We're going to sell home-delivered cheese puffs over the interweb!

    Project Requirements
    We'd need the sun, the moon, and the stars, as well as your first born child and a hand job. All source code must be provided, and you must assign all copyrights to us. We need this project completed within the next three hours. Contractor will be required to provide lifetime support for code base, even if we let the neighbor kid muck about in the source code (Janice says that he's a web developer, so he must be qualified. Besides, he's in the 10th grade now, we're sure he knows what he's doing).

    Contractor Requirements
    • 5-7 years of experience in developing large-scale database-driven interweb applications in whatever language we arbitrarily choose because the kid that mows the CEO's lawn says it's kewl.
    • 7-10 years of hands on experience administering FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, and Windows systems. Developer will be required to provide support for desktop users as part of his or her job.
    • 7-10 years of hands-on experience administering relational databases.
    • PhD in Computer Science
    • MCP/MCSE/OCM/OCP/ABACAB certifications. All of them.
    • Special consideration will be given to applicants who can lend us a web server until we get started.

    Compensation
    We offer a generous compensation package that includes free soda (Wednesdays only) and all the pretzels you can eat! Yay!

    We'll also give you a title! Yes, you'll be the Supervisory Director of Internet Architectural Engineering (Junior)! That's the kind if title that you can almost pay a mortgage with! Almost.

    Unfortunately, we can't offer compensation in the form of pay or benefits right now. When the interweb cheese puffs delivery service takes off, though, we'll pay you really, really well. Promise!

  23. AOL skills by Adler · · Score: 3, Funny

    i once saw, and have a screen shot of, a job ad asking for, and im not making this up "1137 A01" skills, this was for a level 1 support specialist in san diego. i stil wonder if it was a joke or not.

    --

    Everybody denies I am a genius--but nobody ever called me one!