Fortune Management: Read enough help-wanted advertisements, and you'll soon realize that they all basically sound the same. Jargon like "detail-oriented" and "self-starter" is so overused that the positions advertised begin to sound unremarkable: part of the expected landscape of hunting for a job.
Friday, March 02, 2012
What's hiding behind the buzzwords in job ads?
Fortune Management: Read enough help-wanted advertisements, and you'll soon realize that they all basically sound the same. Jargon like "detail-oriented" and "self-starter" is so overused that the positions advertised begin to sound unremarkable: part of the expected landscape of hunting for a job.
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I think you should always be wary whenever jargon is being used when it doesn't need to be, because that tends to mean that the person is trying to obscure their actual meaning with words people not in the industry will not understand. I found it interesting how oftentimes the two people in charge of hiring and dealing with employees don't know or agree on what they want and therefore use jargon to hid their confusion or disagreement.
No only are hiring managers looking for the ideal person, they are trying to get people to apply for the position. Advertising in the want ads and such places doesn't always reflect the best on a certain position, so they are trying to get the most qualified applicants by trying to sound as professional as they can - which often causes a conflict of interest. As a potential employee, it is necessary to consider what the words one is reading are actually saying, and therefore if the ad seems consistent and genuine or if the position may not end up being all it is cracked up to be.
I was applying for a job the other day and the first step on the online questionnaire had a list of adjectives (about twenty) and i had to select three that described me. The problem was they were all ideal characteristics. Who wouldn't describe themselves as creative, ambitious, inspired, motivated, or driven? Then the next page said that all of those characteristics were ideal of an employee at that organization. It was apparent that that specific part of the application was definitely just an ego boost in order for me to love that specific company. Everyone thinks they are the shit - so when employers post that they want amazing people we all think we are qualified. Its recruiting and propaganda. Effective? Yes.. just important to be aware of what companies are doing.
I have never really looked at job ads to notice all the buzz words, but I found it very interesting. I don't know that I would assume that the buzz words used always mean the same thing. I would want to find out for myself, with an interview, what I thought they wanted from me. I would also discuss openly what their expectations were. I would not accept a job without making sure I felt comfortable with that. If I were interested in a job, I wouldn't let "buzz" words deter me from applying for it, but I will keep these ideas in the back of my head.
This is an interesting subject to see what the buzz-words and go getting terms might actually mean. Some of these definitions are definitely accurate. We don't always mean things the way they should be, and these buzz-words make that absolutely true. It would be interesting to see how many buzz-words were in the job descriptions that I applied too. I guess if you know what they truly mean then you can manage and manipulate the system, so why would they want us to know?
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