To think that job descriptions / advertisements are terrifying!

[AlwaysSomethingThere]

You MUST do this, you MUST have that, you WILL be this, you WILL do that.

Lighthearted, but they scare the shit out of me before I've even finished reading them!

I hate the ones that are advertised as "Salary: Competitive" . Tell me what the job is paying FFS before we waste each others time

I find them intimidating

They're a bit of a wishlist. Employers tend to describe the ideal employee, forgetting that they have managed okay so far with people who fall short in certain areas.

My rule of thumb is if the individual has 70% of what you're looking for, and the remaining 30% isn't essential (really essential), then you have a good candidate.

There's a stat often quoted on here, which fits wth my experience of hiring, is that women won't apply for jobs unless they have 100% of what's asked for, whereas men will apply when they less than 50%. (I'm sure someone can correct the numbers)

Every once in awhile I go and read the description for the job I currently have. I’m clearly good at what I do and I’ve had this job for many years and regularly get good reviews and promotions, but seeing it in job description form, I feel like an imposter.

I also find them intimidating. If I don't meet all the criteria, I'm scared to apply in case I somehow get through the interview stage and get offered the job, only to turn up on my first day and realise I actually don't have a clue what I'm supposed to be doing.

Having said that, my current job description says I need 6 years of experience and I only have 3, so I know there must be a fair amount of leeway, as past posters have said.

My job description. There are a few of us in the department and a new position was advertised (exact same role as mine) . I looked at it and thought 'no way could I do that'

Yes I think the same! If someone bullet pointed my job I'd never have the balls to apply for it

I agree, OP. Employers seem to want the moon on a stick - often for minimum wage or just above! I got my current job by being honest and stating that what I didn’t know I would learn, as I am a perfectly capable person. They are the type of employer who appreciates a straight shooter, though.

You will excel at this and that.
You must be innovative, focused, resourceful, give 110%! Have a proven record in blah blah.
Be willing to work all the hours God sends as the company dictates.
For £16000 a year...
Sometimes I look idly at new jobs, and see the above and feel tired, skint and burnt out already.

The wording of these advertisements isn't inclusive because autistic people then believe that if they don't meet each and every requirement, then they can't apply. It would never occur to me that meeting 70% of the criteria would be enough. Why aren't employers realistic and truthful?

Try and match the language though, if you have the skills they are listing make sure you come across as confidently confirming this in the application. If they list desirable ones be honest and say you have some skills which will be useful and that you are willing to learn etc. I used to soft applications and so many people came across as well- I sort of know but don’t know if I’m any good at it.

Sift*

Where I am you absolutely must meet all the essential criteria, otherwise you won't get an interview. I'm pretty sure it's illegal here to advertise essential criteria and then appoint someone to the job who doesn't actually meet them all. And ideally you'd need to meet the desirable criteria as well, to be in with a good chance. So you get 20 page long application forms for minimum wage jobs. It's soul destroying.

I usually don't understand half of it. I wish it was easier to apply for jobs, I'd really like to get a new one this year. A 20 page complex and time consuming application form for 14k admin job just seems ridiculous to me.

Another way they aren't inclusive - if it's say a local council with guaranteed interview for those who fulfill the criteria - to me (am autistic) that definitely sounds like 100% of criteria.

As an employer what I do is go over the person spec and ensure its not a wish list 80 bullet points long - it has to be things you really need to do the job and that you can assess via app and interview.

So so true

I have two bugbears about job ads:

1. When they expect you to be "passionate". It's a desk job ffs, not like you have been selected as the next Dalai Lama. I do like my job a lot, but "passionate" about it? Nah.

1. When they list utterly pointless things like: "must be trustworthy and reliable". Like Bobby the flaky embezzler will read that and go "Damn! That's me out of the running then!"

When we’re recruiting, we get 100s of CVS (90% male. It’s a very male-dominated industry). I check all CVs. Female applicants tick every box. Vast majority of male applicants would never fulfil the criteria. They are just confident and are taking a punt. I deliberately make our job advertisements absolutely bare bones and technical so it’s clear if you can do it or not.

It would never occur to me that meeting 70% of the criteria would be enough

For public sector jobs it isn't. If they set something as required, you have to have it. If it's desirable, then you have a chance.

I write a lot of them, I never realised they could be seen as terrifying!

the answers we get on the other hand.. god help us!

I saw one recently that was mostly a bunch of nonsense about fitting in with their culture and essentially squeezing out every drop of your energy and time for the organization.
A charity job that read like it had been written by Karl Marx trying to show how workers are exploited in end stage capitalism.

@GenerationSnowflake right?

In my case I get ‘web developers’ (WTF) or people who’ve worked in call centres with no development experience applying for jobs working with coding languages that they’ve probably never heard of!

But yeah the answers can be shocking too.
I really don't want to know you're applying to work for me so you can buy an iPhone.
Do it by all means but don't tell me.

The ones who don't bother filling in the person spec annoy me.
We really try to make it clear on the form how to do it and if you have further questions we will take the time and explain them.

Also don't care much for folk who ring up 20 minutes before the deadline asking for more time or asking complicated questions.
Or saying they don't have 2 referees and it's discriminatory to ask for them.

I am pretty far on in my career now, done the gruntwork to get where I am, lots of hands on experience etc etc

A while ago I was job hunting and signed up with a industry-relevant agency. They deemed it necessary to try and make me to undertake basic IT literacy tests in Word and Excel. Given the industry, my age, career, skills etc, I was pretty , but bit my lip assuming it was just on of those things they needed to tick off.

I was faced with some archaic, creaky version of Office from about 2003, where I was asked to show that I could bold, underline etc in Word; and do simple adding up and cell formatting in excel! . Shortcuts were not recognised and actually counted as "incorrect" even though they worked.

I did the Word one (loads of "incorrect" shortcuts!), but when I saw what the Excel "test" was, I flat-out refused and explained why in quite direct terms.

Unsurprisingly that agency also did not have the role they'd advertised which was suitable for me; and instead tried offering stuff which was good...about 20 years previously in my career. Thank god for LinkedIn connections!

I refuse to apply for salary ‘competitive’ jobs. So many times it means ‘we’re CF and we’ll try to pay you less but want to hide this’.