From the course: Tech Career Skills: Searching, Interviewing, and Landing a Job

The job description

From the course: Tech Career Skills: Searching, Interviewing, and Landing a Job

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The job description

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- The job description is your first insight into the interview process. In my experience, the process of putting together the description varies greatly. Some companies leverage existing and very generalized job descriptions as much as possible. Others tend to write custom job descriptions specific to the role. Most of the time, however, the job description is a work in progress, since expectations of the role change even during the hiring process. This is yet another reason to avoid letting the job description discourage you too much. You should look for some key signals from the job description and use them to prep for conversations with the recruiter and the interview itself. Sometimes, a job description contains a set of qualifications that are impossible to meet. For example, true story, I once saw a job description for a full stack engineer asking for eight years of C-Sharp experience at a time when C-Sharp existed for just five years. This could mean one of several things. First, the JD was put together in a rush, hence the sloppiness. Or the company was trying to weed out unserious candidates, hence added something that would seem overly intimidating, or third, the people hiring for the role didn't quite understand what they were looking for or didn't know what they were talking about. Some JDs offer insights into the external forcing function for the role, so if the description leans heavily on some external change like an acquisition, an expansion, legal action, all of that may aid your preparation. You can prep questions around how long-term the role would be, whether it's a small and reactive hire or a strategic one. You need to know how much the company is willing to invest into such a role. As a hiring manager, I love candidates who can look around the corner a little bit. Well-written job descriptions tend to offer clues into the org itself. It is helpful to understand how this role fits into the org. It is also useful to find out if the org itself is key to the business, or if it is a new bet. Now, this could offer some interesting trade-offs. A role close to the core business may offer maturity and job stability, but maybe fewer growth opportunities. A role in a moonshot bet for example may offer great learning opportunities but may be first to cut in a downturn. It behooves you to absorb the job description, this is akin to showing interest in someone's hobbies on the first date. This investigation and the conversation that may ensue will help you understand whether there are shared interests or possibilities.

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