If you are one of the many people out there searching for a job, you probably use job search engines like Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, or even Craigslist. I always look on the job boards to see what the growing trends are and what people are asking for lately in the job skills for being a developer. Or any growing frameworks that are picking up speed. I think the biggest trend I have noticed as of late is places that are hiring for developers are asking for insanely long list of job requirements.

For example…I have seen a job post that is something like…

Requirements

HTML5
CSS 3
PHP
MYSQL
Adobe Suite
GIT
Ruby
Python
NQUIX
APACHE
Ability to use different Email Marketing Platforms( MailChimp, Vertical Response)
Frameworks {bootstrap, Angular, NODE}
Drupal
WordPress Wizard

Ability to Write Clean compliant code that is cross browser compatible
Fluent in web standards.
Ability to work on multiple projects, and maintain a professional standard at all times.
Knowledge of mobile browser standards.
Experience in mobile responsive development.

Not Required But Welcomed

Knowledge of Magento, Shopify, Big Commerce, Woo Commerce
Less/ SASS
Experience with JQuery, Backbone, Knockout and able to work with client side scripting.
UX and UI Design and Development.
SWIFT and Objective C
C# and C++
ASP.NET and Experience with MVC

Minimum Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science with at least 5+ years’ experience.

 

Now onto the good stuff. Where I get to discuss this. I have been seeing a lot of jobs lately requirement quite a lot because knowing different frameworks, CMS systems and even some back end server stuff crosses over into someone being both a front end developer and a back end developer. A job with this many requirements is going to cost a lot of money such as upwards of a 100 grand a year as you stack up in App development, web development both back end and front end. Now what I find to be interesting is sometimes, not all companies but some companies will have this long list of requirements, yet the job will pay maybe 40-60 grand a year. I say to curb this type of thing, remove anything the company will for sure not be using. If your company doesn’t build in WordPress, remove it, Drupal, gone.

Now I am not saying that companies shouldn’t have a long list of requirements if the job indeed requires that, but they should use caution when putting so many requirements on the board. I know it’s an attempt to weed out the people who aren’t qualified but it can turn away the good developers that actually want to work for you. If they see stuff they don’t know, they might not apply and instead you get the wrong developer. Also if you do get a developer that meets all the requirements yet you don’t pay them the right income, then you could be looking for yet another developer and that takes time.

I think companies nowadays need to trim the fat when it comes to job descriptions and the long list of requirements. I have been to interviews where sometimes they don’t even mention some of the requirements or if I asked about some of the other job items that were listed in the description, they would completely gloss over it, or say nope not actually part of the job. I think this is a grave misgiving and misdirection that companies play. I think lying about the job will get you people who lie about their experience. I really hope in the future companies do quit with the mile-long job descriptions and requirements if the job doesn’t even require that.