What that Job Description REALLY Means
Thu 21 May 2009 – 11.04
It’s no secret that job applications use their own tricky language. Whether hiring managers are trying to trick us, or simply trying to be as formal and vague as they can, it’s a unique code that requires deciphering.
But very often the job descriptions can mislead. Many young people, especially straight out of school, find that there exists a gap between the initial description and the true day-to-day. Obviously this leads to dissonance and ill contempt. So here, now is a list of popular job description phrases and what they truly mean.
motivated team-player — looking for someone who needs a job badly enough that they’ll put up with lots of unmotivated, annoying people from whom you’ll have to get buy-in on almost everything you do.
high achiever, driven to succeed — must be a complete brown-nose whose sole mission in life is to please and impress management.
customer-focused — can take a lot of abuse from clients AND management and still act pleasant.
resourceful, independent self-starter — since we have absolutely no time or resources to train you, we expect you to figure everything out for yourself…quickly.
attentive to details — we have strict policies and procedures and won’t hesitate to blame you for everything if you make a mistake.
flexible, enjoys multi-tasking — we are unorganized and change corporate directions daily, so you’ll need to be able to clean up our messes and do jobs that A) you weren’t told about in the interview, and B) aren’t trained to do properly – all on a moment’s notice.
agent of change — you’ll be responsible for implementing a bunch of stuff we’ve been unable to make happen with a group of people who are digging in their heels and refusing to convert.
works well under pressure — our management team considers everything urgent and is going to micro-manage you daily.
solution-oriented — we are going to give you lots of messes to clean up and expect you to figure out how to handle them without our direction and with a big smile on your face, even though we aren’t going to give you any resources or support to get it done.
via CareeRealism »
posted by Scott in careers.
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