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I disagree with the author. This is the way I perceive the differences between the 2 job posts... The Yelp ad text excerpt the author singled out as good: >A

by jasode 12y ago

I disagree with the author. This is the way I perceive the differences between the 2 job posts... The Yelp ad text excerpt the author singled out as good: >A place where, “They banter about Bandits, know their way down a Gradient, and aren’t too Naïve to kick back in our Bay(es) Area offices,” sounds quite a bit more fun. It may sound like more fun but to me, it's just a sentence with puns on math terms. There's no content there. It's like they're trying too hard and it gives off the vibe of used car salesmen. Compare that to the "boring" ad: >Projects involve feature extraction from multi-source data; pattern recognition and behavior analysis; information-theoretic analysis of machine-aided decision effectiveness; semi-automated sensor cueing and resource optimization; modeling and simulation of surveillance and reconnaissance networks; design, implementation and analysis of laboratory and field experiments. The successful candidate will demonstrate an understanding of the interplay between physics-based signal and image analysis and text summarization and interpretation analysis. Yes, it's a clinical and dry list but it actually has more useful concrete information than a bunch of puns. I don't need (bad) comedy. Just tell me in plain terms what the project is about. As a third example, it's interesting to look at a company that has no problem attracting eager applicants such as Apple Inc. Their main recruiting page does have fluff verbiage: https://www.apple.com/jobs/us/ https://www.apple.com/jobs/us/ But once you drill into the actual job postings, they use plain clinical descriptions. https://jobs.apple.com/us/search?jobFunction=SFWEG https://jobs.apple.com/us/search?jobFunction=SFWEG It's understandable that some companies do want to write playful job descriptions but sometimes it can backfire. The company is then perceived as all sizzle and no steak, or form over function, etc. A lot of failed companies in the dot com bust wrote playful job descriptions like that.

jiggy2011 12y ago
The advantage that Apple has is that they are already a household brand that is associated with cool so they don't have to sell their culture very much, people already want to work there. On the other hand an unknown company has to get it's culture across in the job description and language paints a picture. If you are using very clinical language that is going to colour expectations of what that company is like to work for, even though your intention is the opposite. The picture you are painting with uninspired language is likely to be one of cubicles and TPS reports. There is probably a happy medium here, a way to make the job sound exciting to most demographics whilst still being information dense but it requires strong language skills and domain knowledge which many people writing job postings do not necessarily have.
HelloMcFly 12y ago
Job postings communicate, implicitly and/or explicitly, information about the job and the company both. The companies that do this best recognize this mixed goal of advertisement and information source. The first posting accomplished the latter, and the second the former. If one doesn't appreciate the comedy then perhaps they are not the kind of cultural fit that the company seeks. That matters too, particularly for length of tenure. Apple doesn't have to play by the same rules though. They are a known-quantity, and you'll probably not see anything in the job posting that dramatically impacts your perception of the company as a whole. Statement of Credibility: Worked at CareerBuilder for several years doing much analysis on posting and job seeker behavior, and wrote a dissertation on factors that *induce responses to job postings.

by jasode 12y ago

jiggy2011 12y ago

The advantage that Apple has is that they are already a household brand that is associated with cool so they don't have to sell their culture very much, people already want to work there. On the other hand an unknown company has to get it's culture across in the job description and language paints a picture. If you are using very clinical language that is going to colour expectations of what that company is like to work for, even though your intention is the opposite. The picture you are painting with uninspired language is likely to be one of cubicles and TPS reports. There is probably a happy medium here, a way to make the job sound exciting to most demographics whilst still being information dense but it requires strong language skills and domain knowledge which many people writing job postings do not necessarily have.

HelloMcFly 12y ago

Job postings communicate, implicitly and/or explicitly, information about the job and the company both. The companies that do this best recognize this mixed goal of advertisement and information source. The first posting accomplished the latter, and the second the former. If one doesn't appreciate the comedy then perhaps they are not the kind of cultural fit that the company seeks. That matters too, particularly for length of tenure. Apple doesn't have to play by the same rules though. They are a known-quantity, and you'll probably not see anything in the job posting that dramatically impacts your perception of the company as a whole. Statement of Credibility: Worked at CareerBuilder for several years doing much analysis on posting and job seeker behavior, and wrote a dissertation on factors that *induce responses to job postings.