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Do Tech Companies Ask For Way Too Much From Job Candidates?

Posted by samzenpus on from the are-you-a-good-swimmer? dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes The short answer: Yes. Many employers' "required" skill sets seem to include everything but the ability to teleport and build a Shaker barn; the lengthy requisites of skills and experience seem achievable only by candidates who've spent the past four decades using a hundred different programming languages and platforms to excel at fifty different, complicated jobs. Why do a lot of tech companies do that? Dice asked around and discovered a bunch of different reasons. Companies want to make investments in talent, but the inherent costs of that talent also make them wary of hiring anyone but the absolute best. The need to find the right talent, and the concern over cost, often leads to employers producing job descriptions too broad for the actual position. There's also pure idiocy: PHBs don't know what they want, don't understand the technology, and throw just anything into the description that pops to mind. Is there any way to stop this scourge?

16 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Betteridge's Law... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Betteridge's Law... does not apply here.

  2. Fuck Off Dice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We all use Adblock, you are not getting any money out this.

    1. Re:Fuck Off Dice by allquixotic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because it costs me more than .000007 cents' worth of my time to twiddle my thumbs while the advertisement payload downloads from the Internet and loads into my browser.

    2. Re:Fuck Off Dice by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nonsense. Even one small graphic can easily be 5 x the size of a whole big page of text. Further, they are often coming from a different server and add latency to the page load.

  3. The elephant in the room.. by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, Dice, are you fearful?

    I'm not... why isn't H1-B scams listed as a reason?

  4. All it means is by cheesybagel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The post was done by a mindless HR drone. Once you actually get to talk with people actually heading that section you realize the requirements are more reasonable.

    1. Re:All it means is by Anrego · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed.

      Most decent companies, HR is just a first hurtle. Make sure you specifically use all the key words in the job description exactly as they appear (don't use networking if they asked for TCP/IP .. say TCP/IP), use phrases like "I've been involved with x and similar technologies for <number of years they want> when x is something that has only existed for a year, etc. The project manager/team lead who ultimately interviews you probably has the same level of respect for the HR technical evaluation as you do.

    2. Re:All it means is by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's exactly what it means. All these job postings read the same way because HR doesn't really understand what you'll be doing, what your department does or really even what the company does in a lot of cases. This leads to people playing buzz word bingo on their resume even more than they were previously. Letting HR be the gatekeeper for your hiring isn't doing your company or the industry as a whole any favors. It has not improved the quality of the candidates companies are hiring one bit.

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    3. Re:All it means is by gmack · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not always, sometimes it's that they want perfection. I had one case where the requirements were pretty much the existing guy's exact experience but they forgot that they didn't hire him in that condition he grew into it as their needs expanded. In the end they found no one and put the decision off for later. In the meantime I wish them the best of luck finding a Linux server admin, storage admin and Mac deployment expert in a single person.

    4. Re:All it means is by cheesybagel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nah the HB-1 doesn't lower the requirements because he's "certified" to know whatever you want him to know. Of course when he actually gets on the job it turns out that he doesn't know jack shit.

    5. Re:All it means is by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Most HR is done by the unqualified.

      It really is as simple as that. Staffing is key. If you have an HR department you are, more or less, fucked.

      HR should be about benefits and legalities. Hiring should be done by team leads who should have 'executive assistants' to do initial resume sorts under close supervision.

      A 'qualified' HR person isn't going to be cheap, if they exist at all, but (s)he will be much cheaper in the long run then the average checklist monkey.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    6. Re:All it means is by whistlepig · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I can tell you, getting through the HR gatekeepers can be really difficult no matter who you are. I have two doctoral degrees (engineering and medicine--let's just say I went through school quickly) with relevant experience. Even if you know someone within the company that wants to recommend you, it can be extremely difficult to get through the bureaucracy. I am talking with my congressional representative tomorrow (in person; I scheduled it). I don't know if it will make a difference, but I am really tired of hearing about the lack of talent in this country, according to companies, when people will not talk to the talent that exists. I hope that more people with strong qualifications that are having difficulty job hunting due to HR shenanigans do similarly.

  5. Is there any way to stop this scourge? by ddtmm · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The short answer is "No"

  6. It makes it easy to support "not enough skilled" by justcauseisjustthat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is one way they support the claim that there are not enough skilled people, totally bogus.

  7. Only older employees have those skills, but.... by technomom · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The irony is that sometimes they **can** find a person with a huge laundry list of skills, but quite often won't hire them because they're too old and cost too much.

  8. HR filters for the best liars... by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And not much else. Look, I've walked out of interviews where they asked me goofball, irrelevant questions. As for job description listing requirements like "5 years of Windows 8.1 programming" (no joke), they don't even get a look. I no longer have to work for irrational crazies.

    This, by the way, explains your "talent shortage." Want good employees? Fine. CUT THE BULLSHIT! Ask relevant, job-related questions - and nothing else. You don't need to know my community activities, why manhole covers are round, or my favorite band.

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.