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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?"
...that as much as you hate your lousy IT job, there are 10 other people who would fill it given the chance. On top of that, I'd rather have a job in IT than working in, say, a meat processing plant. I'm grateful to have a job in IT, even if it sucks.
Let's face it. IT salaries got way ahead of themselves in during the boom. Now the pendulum swings the other way
Have you looked at what a teacher makes or any other number of degree-requiring professions? CAD$40k might sound sucky to you, but I'm betting there's a lot of unemployed IT ppl out there right now who'd take it in a snap.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Its fairly simple - they actually want to employ a dishonest person.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Requirements: Creative, smart individual who finds delight in working with others and around others. Candidate should have an understanding of computational theory and application and be able to grasp new ideas quickly. Prospective employee should have skills in a couple programming languages as well as the ability to learn a new language or environment quickly. If you are right for this job you will be able to apply your knowledge, logic and intuition to the problems at hand. You enjoy solving problems and discovering new ways to do things. An engineering degree is preferred but not necessary. If you don't have an engineering degree you will be expected to demonstrate competency in math, logic and computer science theory. You will be paid accordingly to your abilities in the above listed requirements.
Instead we see:
Must have 10 years of programming in language A that has been around for 4 years. Most know X,Y,Z. We don't care if you can learn X,Y,Z or understand the theory behind X,Y,Z, you must know it because it is a nice buzz-word right now. Be prepared to unlearn X,Y,Z and learn G,H,J when they become the new buzzwords. We don't want you to think, we want you code!! code!! code!!
But I digress.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
You have to take into consideration that 17-19$ canadian, for a level 1 tech support job, is actually a good offer.
17-19$ Goes a long way in Edmonton (I beleive thats where the job is) compared to lets say Vancouver or Toronto where you'd need at least 25$/hour.
You guys have to remember, you will have a better living standard with 17$/hour Canadian in Edmonton, than if your doing 30$/hour USD in Sillicon Valley.
I work at a dot-com company. One you've heard of, trust me. Anyway, we survived the Internet bubble bursting, and most of us kept our jobs, but things were still tough around here for a couple of years.
After finding out that the raises one year would be much smaller than expected, a coworker of mine complained about it. I looked at him in bafflement, and told him he should be thankful to be getting a raise at all. He should be happy to have a job at all.
For that matter, I later reflected, he should be happy simply that he makes enough money to have food to eat, to provide for himself and his loved ones, and not to have to go to bed wondering where his next meal will be coming from. All of us that can say that should be thankful for it.
Yes, the job the submitter pointed to isn't spectacular pay, but it's enough to feed and clothe yourself in comfort. That's more than most people in the world can say. Try to keep a sense of perspective while you're busy complaining about things.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
if you see any truly unbelievably low pay rates, you can bet they're placing the ad just to fulfill a legal requirement before hiring a foreign worker for peanuts.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
This is a great way to get in lots of trouble. In the US, by law, you better be able to show an association between the requirements between what a you put on a job posting, and how it is necessary for work. Taking your example above, needing to be Fluent in Sanskrit. If I apply to that job I could go the EEOC and say that the requirements are BS and I am qualified and should have been hired.
Think of it another way, if I said (for an IT job), "blacks need not apply." Being black would have nothing to do with IT work, I would have my ass-served in a hand-basket to the EEOC. The company that let me post that would be in big trouble and I would likely to be out of a job.
To take another recent example, jobs that are requiring an SAT score. These companies said that having a high-SAT score related in could job performance. If they said that, they better be able to prove it (which I doubt). SAT scores are used to determine the grades of freshman going to college, not a mark to determine your job skills. You complain that you did not get a job because of your SAT scores that you took 10 years ago, you can get money out of those companies.
Just because a company says it true, does not make it true. They have an obligation to society to serve its interests as well as their own.
As the Economist notes, executive compensation has gone up enormously while profits have not (see the graph at the bottom). This isn't to say that the average CEO doesn't work hard or have valuable skills. But there are lot of CEO's who are overpaid at the expense of both shareholders and workers.
Interesting that you assume as an executive I don't know much about the IT systems I oversee. Would it suprise you to learn that I have published papers, articles, and a book on the subjects of distributed and parallel computing as well as object-oriented design theory? I rose through the ranks with technical skills, not business skills. I learned my business skills on the job.
I have hired as many people since the "bubble-burst" in March 2000 in the US as in India (actually, probably a bit more in the US). Of course, that probably interfers with your world-view of my type. I have also spent no training money in India, but plenty in the US. I require my outsourcing company to provide trained people, but I hire "fresh" people and train them routinely. Of course, that probably interferes with your world-view of my type as well.
You are free to think I am overpaid, but I can point to plenty of my fellow executives (defined as Director level and above by most business-experts) that make well less that highly-skilled software engineers.
The spec error I missed was buried in hundreds of pages of specs, reviewed by teams of people. You may find this hard to believe, but I have never in my life seen a perfect spec. If you pick up great works of fine literature, you can easily find spelling and gramatical errors. The mistake that I missed was a single missing word.
But, you obviously have a view that no one can change. I feel sorry for people who are so convinced they know everything.
Sarcasm and hyperbole are the final refuges for weak minds
And it seems to me that life is a bit more complicated than you make it out to be.
Enough to justify that the average CEO get a 1000 times in wages what his engineers get?
Hm. I can't help but notice the humor here. And by humor I mean "the fact that you are a complete and total hypocritical asshole"
Honestly, how can you smack this guy down for claiming he knows something about what other people do right after you've presumed to know all about his job and what he knows or doesn't know?
You are a tool, my friend, in every sense of the word. And your attitude completely betrays the truth of this statement... you're very bitter about your tool status. Sorry. Maybe next life!
Nothing to see here.
If you don't like the system.. work hard, take a few risks, and create a succesful company that YOU can run.
Few CEOs "created" the successful company that they're now pillaging. If they did, they seldom have huge compensation because they already have a massive investment in the company (see Bill Gates - I don't hear anyone complaining about Bill's compensation). Where they were a founder and they're now pillaging, that's usually a sign that it's going down the toilet.
So.. why not be the CEO then? If it's so easy to do, why isn't everyone doing it? Part of the skill isn't just in the work required to BE a CEO, but the fairly diverse skill set required to BECOME one in the first place.
If only the world were so ideal. Your commentary is largely as realistic as telling a peasant in feudalist England that if being a Lord is so easy, why don't they just go and be one. Most CEOs are the spawn of powerful families with powerful connections and tremendous wealth - I think you'll find very few biographies that start in a poor ghetto.
The reality is that most CEO's are truly good people. They work hard, and work to make their companies as good as possible.
No one said that they aren't good people, but there is an element to human greed that comes into play when people are given such unchecked power. Read the book Animal Farm (or re-read it) as it's quite insightful.
As far as CEOs working as hard as they can to make "their" company (sure it's their's...once their $10 million in "incentive" stock options vest so they can immediately divest them) successful, how about this: You, Mrs. CEO, have the right to put down as much of your family's hard earned money as you want, on the open market, to buy company shares. I know that you'll be so dedicated, so talented, so visionary, that this will be nothing less than an extraordinary investment as you steer the organization to success. We will all applaud you when you reap the rewards of good stewardship.
Oh, what's that? You don't want to risk a penny of your money on this dump? You insist that we give you ridiculously under-priced stock options with no time-limitations? You insist that we line your contract with departure bonuses so no matter how much you screw up you're guaranteed a wealthy future regardless? You insist that there is rampant inbreeding among boards that you and all of your friends sit on, basically putting the wolves in charge of the hen house?
Oooh, sounds like a deal to me.