Interestingly I was discussing this very matter with a few other programmers earlier today. How often have you seen ads akin to: "Web Designer required, must have HTML and JavaScript. Java an advantage." ...?
Java *and* JavaScript?!?? How often do those two get paired in reality? Reading between the lines I suspect the conversation in the office went something like this...
MANAGER : So what skills should we ask for with this new Web Design job?
SENIOR DESIGNER : Well they must have HTML and basic scripting abilities like JavaScript. Hmm... put Java down too.
M : Java? What's that?
SD : Dunno - but its got a name like JavaScript so it must be like an advanced version or something...? We may need it sometime - and besides it makes us look cool and 'with it'!
Back in the late 80s / early 90s I worked on video game type machines. As with other 'embedded' platforms the work was a mixture of Assembler (68k) and C. But my manager and his senior programmers always insisted on adding C++ as a skill on any job ad (regardless of my protests). None of them knew any OO or C++. None of them knew how we might need it. But they insisted on adding it simply because it was a good buzzword back then and they assumed it was C mark II - which isn't really the case! (At the time OO/C++ simply wasn't suited to a scaled-down embedded environments. Even today it fails to dominate the sector like it does elsewhere.)
Today I see ads along the lines of: "Must have C/++, C# a benefit", and I wonder .... hmmmm...
I think the problem is that most ads are drafted by people (management) who don't do the job they are advertising for. They want their company to sound cutting-edge, they want candidates who have modern skils, and they would love someone who has that little bit extra so they can improve the skillset of their workforce - although not because they actually have projects in the pipeline which require these skills. But their ignorance of the job (coupled sometimes with the out-of-date knowledge of their senior workers) leads them to make mistakes... like for example thinking that Java is a superset of JavaScript, or C# is the successor to C++. It's a silly mistake, but it risks ruling out a whole section of their audience.
I guess the golden rules are:-
(1) specify only those skills you want
(2) if you feel you must expand on (1), make sure you know what you are talking about - more importantly make sure you're clear as to why you're asking
(3) never never never put something in an ad simply because it's the latest buzzword or hip-n-trendy technology - it may sound cutting edge, but you'll also slash the size of your audience with each buzzword |
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