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

[cmorgan8506]

There seems to be a broad range of different approaches to job postings. Some have salary info, some don't. Some describe their interview process, some don't.

If you had it your way, what info would every job posting include?

[mindcrime]

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).

[misja111]

+1 for salary range. It's bizar that some companies require you to first go through the entire interview process and only do the salary negotation at the end. At which point you might find out that there never was a possibility for a match and you both have wasted your time.

[cmorgan8506]

> 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.

[klenwell]

In addition, a summary of the hiring process.

The standard one-line HN Who's Hiring summary is also more informative than most the boilerplate crap I come across. Example:

> FormulaFolios | Full-Stack Rails Developer | Costa Mesa, CA | ONSITE Full-Time | $80k-100k

As a hiring manager, I've put a great deal of thought and effort not only in our job posting but in our whole process. It requires extra effort for sure, but having been on the other side of the process and suffered the many indignities of job hunting, I try to be spare our applicants from them as much as possible.

This means responding within 48 hours to any applications and notifying applicants when they've been rejected for consideration as soon as possible. These messages are all templated but I tailor them to each candidate.

Since I take some pride in our job postings, here's our most recent one:

https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/172538/full-stack-rails-devel...

(We're closing it soon so link will probably be dead by end of the week.)

[herhor]

Exactly! When I send my CV to a future employer, I don't send a list of what require, but what I have to offer.

However, very little job offers are actually "offers" but rather "requirements list".

[monkeynotes]

Office environment!

I recently interviewed at a lunch meeting, and then second interview in a coffee shop (very casual interviews). By the end of the second interview they wanted me to make a suggestion for their offer. I said I needed to see their offices and look at their product before I'd consider moving from my current position.

I was rather taken aback that they didn't really consider I might want to see the environment I'd be spending a lot of my time, nor want to see what I was going to be working on.

Eventually I got to see the offices and the product, I loved the product but just couldn't jive with their office. It wasn't terrible or anything, but compared to where I work now I wasn't prepared to make the switch.

I feel extremely fortunate to be able to be picky about where I work. Every day I come to work I think about how fortunate I am to be happy with my work.

[handbanana]

This but missing one of the most important for me: PTO in days. If it's unlimited, that's vague and could mean 10-50 days, but it's better than not knowing

[jccalhoun]

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."

[randcraw]

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)?

[lejeanvaljean]

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

[Tharkun]

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.

[pleasecalllater]

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.

[megaman22]

Salary. It's almost never there.

[jcadam]

- 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]

> 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.

[bertil]

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]

Oh, and non-technical leadership explaining what are code regression, technical debt, project creep.

[oldsklgdfth]

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.

[ISL]

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]

>>> 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.

[zerr]

Salary, part-time possibility and work-life balance info in general, and whether REMOTE is possible outside US or no.

[Raed667]

Interview process, team size, salary (or reasonable range), desired starting date and latest starting date.

[SteveNuts]

Whether or not the office is an open floorplan.

[plessthanpt05]

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]

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.

[byoung2]

Salary range, remote work possibility, tech stack, job responsibilities

[enzolovesbacon]

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.

[kawfey]

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?

[lwhalen]

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?

[molly0]

If not remote, what my colleagues interests are, so I know that they won't talk too much about sports.

[codesternews]

How much my colleagues are getting salary on same post?