8 ms·

Ask HN: What info do you wish every job posting included?

• Raed667 8y ago
  Interview process, team size, salary (or reasonable range), desired starting date and latest starting date.
• byoung2 8y ago
  Salary range, remote work possibility, tech stack, job responsibilities
• pleasecalllater 8y ago
  Remote possibility, salary range, the future manager/team_leader name (or better: a link to online identity), recruiter contact information, responsibilities, expected work time per week.
• lejeanvaljean 8y ago
  1) Photos of the office, I mean the actual office, not the cafeteria or the hall at the entrance :) We have something like that in France, that's called "Welcome to the jungle" (Guns N' Roses reference maybe), but again, you mainly see photos of the coffee machine. 2) a commentary on the position by someone at the same or equivalent role at the company
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
• codesternews 8y ago
  How much my colleagues are getting salary on same post?
• sampl 8y ago
  Link to bio of hiring manager, example project brief
• oldsklgdfth 8y ago
  What the team dynamic is like and how they collaborate. Not the tools they use, but how they communicate with each other. I can work with terrible people if they can communicate. And I can learn to hate the softest soul if we can't get on the same page.
• olavgg 8y ago
  Interview process, organization / team structure, salary range, technology stack, benefits / vacation / freedom and a good description of the business domain.
• bigtimber 8y ago
  Actual work location, if not 100% remote.
• megaman22 8y ago
  Salary. It's almost never there.
• SteveNuts 8y ago
  Whether or not the office is an open floorplan.
  • plessthanpt05 8y ago
    Yea, would love to know if they have an open office floor plan before going through the whole interview process and without having to ask.
  • sanderjd 8y ago
    Honest question: do you ever come across companies that aren't open floor plans? I don't, so it isn't a very useful question.
    • blacksmythe 8y ago
      Worth looking at: Adobe, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cisco, Esri, Fog Creek, Garmin, HP, Mathworks, Microsoft Research, Panel, SAS, Stack Overflow, VMWare, XTime
    • V-2 8y ago
      There are separate rooms (usually hosting about 3 to 10 devs) at the place where I'm at right now. The previous company where I worked eventually ended up with open floors - once they grew and moved to a new building - but also provided closed rooms in the location before that. I also happened to worked at our client's office, a large IT company based in Berlin, they had rooms again. YMMV - depending on your location perhaps - but based on my experience it's not extraordinary at all.
    • amyjess 8y ago
      My employer has a cube farm. Even though it may be technically accurate, I don't really see that as an "open floor plan". To me, "open floor plan" means a bunch of desks strewn all over with no dividers. I love cube farms (and I generally prefer conservative, enterprisey companies), and I refuse to work at a company that uses open offices like I described above, so it matters to me.
    • ken 8y ago
• mindcrime 8y ago
  Salary range, description of office environment (and/or actual pictures), remote work policy, expected hours, dress code, tech stack details, some details on what the project actually is, and a quick "Joel test" like summary of the current development practices. Also, a note indicating whether or not managers refer to people as "resources". Also, the name of the actual development methodology (if any) that is in use (eg, don't just say "Agile" - tell me if you're doing Scrum, SAFE, XP, Crystal, UP, or your own made-up thing, etc).
  • cmorgan8506 8y ago
    > Also, a note indicating whether or not managers refer to people as "resources" This made me chuckle. It's a pretty accurate measure of a companies culture though.
    • pleasecalllater 8y ago
      I'm sure they are, so asking this question is useless... I won't believe the answer.
    • strictnein 8y ago
      There's one level worse: Human Capital, as in Human Capital Management (HCM).
    • mindcrime 8y ago
      It's a pet issue of mine. I feel very strongly that a "resource" is something like a backhoe, a stack of lumber, a pallet of widgets, a computer, a building, etc. A person is... well... a person, damnit. Calling people "resources" and treating them as fungible, disposable, commodities is extremely dehumanizing and is emblematic of the typical corporate newspeak bullshit that some people use as a dodge to avoid facing the fact that their actions affect actual people.
    • calciphus 8y ago
      At my last job we had a rule: if someone (usually a new manager) called people "resources", we called them "overhead". Ex. "I could get more people on my team if we had less overhead". It helped that our lead Agile Coach was the main advocate of this particular approach.
• deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
• amelius 8y ago
  Salary of peers.
• robohoe 8y ago
  Communication stack, documentation, and development methodologies.
• molly0 8y ago
  If not remote, what my colleagues interests are, so I know that they won't talk too much about sports.
• jasonlotito 8y ago
  Salary (Competitive salaries aren't competitive, they are average). Vacation policy. Remote work options. Office plan (Do I have my own office?). Tooling used (including hardware provided and upgrade policy).
• Tharkun 8y ago
  Remote (yes, no, how often). Salary. Over here in .be, it's very difficult to compare salaries. When posted at all, it's usually a single monthly number before tax. It's impossible to compare that with other postings, because one offer might contain a better pension fund, or a company car (what kind?) or meal vouchers (worth?) and dozens of other potential forms of non-cash wages. I'd much rather see an annual number which includes the net worth (or employer cost?) of all that nonsense. Company size and/or size of whatever the team the ad is for. Office, pictures or description.
• dominotw 8y ago
  What level of flogging can you expect in the interview.
• Thriptic 8y ago
  * Company mission statement, department mission statement, role mission statement, and how all 3 of those things fit together. I want to make sure that people actually know how they fit into the grander scheme of the company. * Salary range * Actual responsibilities and day to day activities. If the job is going to be to hack on some awful legacy code base then you should say that. * How large is your company, where are you at with funding, and where are you at with product development. * Interview process
• ISL 8y ago
  Clear description of the project and customers. Accurate description of the team, philosophy, tooling, and culture. Reliable salary range. Links to employment contract and any NDA that might be required. If the company is private, a link to a fiscal summary equivalent to the SEC's 10-K. If any of the statements above are intentionally misleading, the job candidate is due compensatory damages.
  • goatherders 8y ago
    >>> ISL 18 minutes ago [-] "If the company is private, a link to a fiscal summary equivalent to the SEC's 10-K." Good luck with that.
    • lowry 8y ago
      Depends on the country. I work in a secretive company that still discloses lots of financial and personal information, including CEO salary and private addresses of board members because local regulation requires it.
    • ISL 8y ago
      Posed question asked: "If you had it your way, what info would every job posting include?", not "What can you realistically expect an employer to share?" In practice, though, assessing the financial future of an employer before committing your most essential resource, time, is important.
• onion2k 8y ago
  Entirely selfishly - absolutely nothing. I'm quite happy to find a phone number and call the company directly if I want to know something. In my experience that gives me a huge advantage over 99% of candidates who are only willing to read adverts passively.
  • V-2 8y ago
    Having to do this for every single ad you might be interested in certainly is some way of proving patience, persistence or phone handling skills, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to work at a company where that's what is seen as a huge advantage over other candidates...
• zerr 8y ago
  Salary, part-time possibility and work-life balance info in general, and whether REMOTE is possible outside US or no.
• randcraw 8y ago
  Was the person I'm replacing promoted, fired, or did they leave voluntarily, and how long did they work there? What are the criteria for promotion? Describe three people in the group (in the last decade) who were promoted. What made them special? How many hours of meetings each week? What fraction of my time is spent outside creative software development (req specing, designing, and coding)?
• linux2647 8y ago
  Who the company is (beyond their name), what they do, or what their mission is.
• collyw 8y ago
  The hoops you will have to jump through for an interview. Build a mini app that will likely take you more than a weekend? Hackerrank?
• jccalhoun 8y ago
  I'm in academia and I wish job ads would be more honest and straightforward. They are usually full of boilerplate about how great their college is and diversity statements and you have to read between the lines to find out what they really want. I wish they could just say, "we already have someone we want to hire but the dean is making us do an formal search." I know they can't really say that but it would be nice if they could say something like "we want someone to teach X, Y, and Z," "we have listed a bunch of specialties but we really want someone who researches X," "this is a new position," or "the person that had this job retired."
• vax425 8y ago
  # of hours of mandatory meetings per day.
• bertil 8y ago
  I know that’s too much, but: - A link to senior executives explaining their worst mistake and what they learned from it; - The same, but their actual reaction to: “What are your corporate values? -- Those are the same corporate values as Enron.” - Noise curve in the office; - what the interviews are testing for.
  • bertil 8y ago
    Oh, and non-technical leadership explaining what are code regression, technical debt, project creep.
• kawfey 8y ago
  I'm an EE with RF design and antenna chops, but I've been hired into a few jobs where I had only the vaguest idea of what the work actually is. One was a configuration management role, and the other was a software test engineer (and I've coded maybe 150 lines in my lifetime). Neither of them had any mention of these activities in the postings, and both of them were specifically for EE's with requirements to understand antenna and radio systems. The interview started to shed light that it wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but certainly there would be the opportunity, so I was told. To me, a disclaimer that mentions you may not be doing anything actually related to this posting would be nice. Generally speaking: 1) what is the actual, physical, tangible, product? 2.) What is my actual, specific, day-to-day role for this product? Or how will I fit into the creation of this product?
• xutopia 8y ago
  Churn rate at the company and if there are people who left their phone number as references.
• davedx 8y ago
  Salary, location.
• franzwong 8y ago
  Visa sponsorship
• enzolovesbacon 8y ago
  Besides the obvious, I'd also like to see: - Salary range for that specific position (not for the whole department (I've seen that)) - Remote work policy - Visa sponsorship policy - Vacation policy - Interview process - Link to future manager's technical background Also, please avoid using cute/hipster phrasing shit that's full of puns, hearts and whatnot. Just get straight to the point.
• asdz 8y ago
  How many people have work on the position before
• fergie 8y ago
  Since I am a functioning adult and therefore have various obligations outside of work, I need an unambiguos breakdown of salary, holidays, overtime, flexitime and pension. You can choose to be coy about it, but you will have to tell me eventually, so you might as well let me know up front. It will save time for all of us.
• bytematic 8y ago
  These are all great questions to ask in interviews for newbies as well.
• jcadam 8y ago
  - Does this job posting represent a real, urgent need or are you just fishing? - Team Size - Can I choose my own tools, or are you going to force Eclipse on me (deal-breaker)? - Office environment. Open (no thanks)? Cubes (Meh)? Private offices (nice)? - Salary range - Average number of hours per week. Don't say 40 if it's really 60. - Employee development. Do you send people to conferences (this is rare nowadays, and can really differentiate you as an employer)? Tuition assistance/reimbursement? Books? - Health care benefits information (This is so variable that I always ask for this information before accepting an offer).
  • majewsky 8y ago
    > Does this job posting represent a real, urgent need or are you just fishing? Why does a "real need" have to be urgent? In my team, all important needs are covered, but we still add new people when budget is available because there's always more stuff in the backlog. Six people can usually do more than five, and 21 people can usually do more than 20. (Although 20 people do not necessarily do more than 5 because [insert comment about middle management culture] but that's not my point.) Also: > - Health care benefits information (This is so variable that I always ask for this information before accepting an offer). This bullet point sounds absurd to my European ears.
    • jcadam 8y ago
      > Why does a "real need" have to be urgent? Because continuously reposting the same position for months/years and interviewing hundreds of candidates just in case a god of computer science happens to apply to your company wastes candidates' time and makes us hate you ("He would be prefect except for that thing he does with his eyebrows while he talks, so let's pass and wait for a better candidate.") > This bullet point sounds absurd to my European ears. I'd rather my employer just hand me a (large) wad of (tax-free) cash and say "Go buy yourself some health insurance", but that's not what happens. My current employer's prescription drug plan (Express scripts), for example, is the worst thing in the universe. I'd much rather be able to shop around.
• amelius 8y ago
  Pursued/actual level of gender equality.
  • seanmcdirmid 8y ago
    Wouldn’t having a specific target be illegal?
• mrfusion 8y ago
  What’s involved in the interview and how much of a time commitment the interview process is.
• i_dont_know_ 8y ago
  A link to the whole HR manual. Some places have insanely condescending HR policies (requiring doctor's notes to 'count as sick', or strict hours for a job that could be done remotely, strict dress codes, weird rules about lunch etc). Usually HR policies are treated as a second thought and presented to you after you've accepted employment, but these details will impact you and your quality-of-work. For instance, places that require doctor's notes will have people come in to work while sick more frequently, meaning you can expect to get sick more, etc.
  • majewsky 8y ago
    > places that require doctor's notes will have people come in to work while sick more frequently Huh? When I'm sick, I automatically go to the doctor, so I always have a doctor's note.
    • i_dont_know_ 8y ago
      Really? You wake up with a stuffed nose and immediately rush to the doctor's office? I don't. If it feels like a cold or flu (the most frequent sicknesses at work), I'll just rest at home for a few days and I'm better. This is what most people do with colds; a doctor's not needed, and if you do contact a doctor with cold symptoms, they'll tell you to stay home and rest. What's more, I don't get my coworkers sick if I'm staying at home resting. If, on the other hand, I work somewhere that has a 'doctor's note' policy, I'll probably convince myself the cold is 'not that bad' (certainly not worth losing pay or whatever the HR penalty is for not having a doctor's note), come in to work and get coworkers sick. Others do the same. Over time, this adds up. I've worked at places that strictly enforce 'doctor's note' policies and basically it means everyone has colds all the time, and if you work there, so will you. I would like to know this about a work environment before I join.
      • majewsky 8y ago
        > You wake up with a stuffed nose and immediately rush to the doctor's office? So that may be the difference here, because I have a septum deviation, which means that my nose is permanently somewhat stuffed. But when I have temperature and feel sick, I absolutely go to the doctor every time. There's a few things that a doctor can do and I can't that can distinguish between "just a cold" and something more serious. For example, I cannot look into my own throat or into my own ears. Your other comments indicate to me that this may be a cultural difference though. In Germany, it's normal to ask a coworker who appears to be sick to go to the doctor. Everywhere I've worked so far, there's a shared awareness that working while sick is a huge cost on the entire team. That goes for managers, too: They know that when e.g. a workplace accident happens and the person causing it was sick, the insurances are going to be asking a lot of uncomfortable questions.
• lwhalen 8y ago
  Salary range - "What's the least you're willing to pay a barely-concious droid who squeaks by with the bare minimum of effort to not get fired, versus the top-end for the 'does it all and then some' purple-squirrel candidate who ascends your corporate achievement ladder with a Greek chorus of rainbows and unicorn-giggles?" Fully remote? Yes or no would suffice. I just might _be_ that aforementioned purple secret squirrel for your role, but my 50 square-mile chunk of rock might be nowhere near your 50 square mile chunk of rock. Would this discrepancy be resolvable by a convenient global communications network and low-latency link to same, or are you mired in last century's "manager must be able to see your butt in a chair at all times" model of employment?
• awat 8y ago
  If there is actually a need for this position? I’ve recently run into a few positions where they are just fishing and aren’t necessarily filling an existing position.
• j7ake 8y ago
  A list of alumni so I can see where people go afterwards or how long they stay
• probinso 8y ago
  time to response