In the recruiting world of today is just as hard to get a job – as a candidate – just as it is to find the best person for the job – as a company. But since good companies have good employees, it means that these two colliding realms found common grounds to explore together. However, if you are new on the job market as a beginner professional, you might fall into some recruitment traps you should learn how to avoid. Many specialists offer a lot of advice to people on how to write their CV’s, how to get ready for interviews, how to nail that cover letter or how to networks so well with experienced professionals, that they get endorsements and recommendations to help them boost their hiring chances.
But let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture. You are looking for a job, right? And, of course, you are making the traditional step and start browsing through job announcements that suit your career knowledge, experience and desires. But do you really know how to read a lousy lousy job announcement so you don’t get fooled by it? We will see 3 warning statements that are present in a lot of job announcements and see what they may mean. Inspired by an article on Inc.com about 10 Dumb Lies That Lousy Bosses Tell, let’s see if you know how to read a lousy job announcement and stay alerted.
We are a team of young, ambitious professionals
The key – concept here you should be concerned with is “young”. Take your time and check that company, its insides, history, results, endorsements and even have a chat with some past – employees. Find out if “young” refers to the fact that they were just born yesterday on the market and try to make some business, which is not wrong at all, or their employee turnover is so high, the young professionals are other people once every three months. Which is not that great, because people coming and going from a company like a train station means there’s something with that company that requires further analysis.
We offer employee benefits besides the salary
A lousy boss may lie about “competitive salaries” which can be read as “you will get paid with what we can afford”, but when you are at the beginning of your career, a dream – like lousy job announcement can state black on white that you will get benefits. In case you are not in the situation of being evicted or imprisoned tomorrow for not having a job, take your time too with this announcement. What are those benefits and how motivating are they for you? Learning how to read a lousy job announcement will spare you of great disappointment later in your career. Are they giving financial bonuses? Flexible working schedules? Free food at the cafeteria? Will they bless you with a laptop? Will you benefit from a free subscription to the gym? Before jumping in excitement, resume the detective activity and try to find out what are the true benefits the firm’s present employees are favored with.
We invest in people, as they are our most important asset
Just as the guys from Inc.com said about lousy bosses, this is a poorly – constructed lie, especially if it comes from a small business who struggles to make a name in a certain industry. You may be their most important asset, but when it comes to investing, don’t start dreaming. Your boss will definitely invest in a new technology to increase productivity than paying your tuition fee for you to learn a foreign language. And if they do invest in you, they will do it so you can put the investment to work in the benefit of the company. Managers don’t do charity. It’s like casinos, the house always wins. In the happiest of cases, big companies indeed do invest in their people and indeed are concerned with their staff’s growth, development and engagement, but their job announcements sound a whole lot different and you will learn how to read a lousy lousy job announcement from a rock solid offer. Again, digging up the truth from former employees and finding out what exactly “investing” and “assets” mean is the wise thing to do.
Other lousy job announcement phrases that should ring a bell
“We are looking for candidates that comply and are in consonance with our organizational culture” – they are looking for zombies. There are experienced managers and CEO’s who are still working on their organizational culture and are improving it daily, so how can one expect to hire a beginner that is already familiar (and ready to comply) with a company’s culture? What culture is that?
“We want loyalty, participation, dedication” – they would appreciate you a lot if you would be willing to work 24 / 7 and not get paid. Loyalty, participation and dedication to a company or an organizational culture is something that is earned, developed, grown and nurtured carefully and if you ask people who have been working for 20 years in the same firm if they are loyal, they will tell you they are not. So being asked to be dedicated to something before even knowing what that something is, makes this one lousy job announcement you should be careful with.