How Not to post a job posting. | Hacker News Reader

How Not to post a job posting.

pikimal.theresumator.com

2 pointsstartupcto10 comments

I prefer my possible future employers to contradict themselves in the posting rather than after I've started working for them. Makes it less messy when you decide you don't want to work for them.

The job post has been updated -- it's clarified that if you're uncomfortable trying something new, you're not our guy.

I get to say "our guy" because I was the original author of the job post!

What's wrong we it? Can't seem to find it.

It's better to have you figure it out yourself.

I'm a little worried that it didn't jump right out at you.

What looks like a blatant contradiction actually isn't. Though they start off the add with "If you're feeling frustrated with job posts asking for experience in a specific language" they go on to mention Ruby on Rails specifically.

The way I read it is that you don't have to have experience in Ruby on Rails, you just have to be able to learn it quickly and be comfortable developing applications with it. As a seasoned .NET or Java developer, it might only take you a few weeks to adapt ("you can pick up a new language faster than your laundry"), even if you have never used Ruby on Rails before.

But then they say:

  You have to be completely comfortable with:

    * Developing Ruby on Rails applications

Now, technically they don't say you need to know Ruby, but I'd be rather surprised if you don't need experience in Ruby to be completely comfortable with developing Ruby on Rails applications.

You don't need experience with Ruby specifically, you just need to be able to "pick up a new language faster than your laundry" and likely have experience with a similar language. If they interview a candidate with a decade of experience in Perl, Python, and Java, but no experience with Ruby, that would be fine as long as he is a fast learner who would be comfortable adapting to Ruby.

But how could he satisfy the "be completely comfortable with ... Developing Ruby on Rails applications" requirement???

This job appears to be suitable for people who don't know what they do know. It's an entirely new level of the Ashcroft effect!

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