Developer recruitment: how to read job adverts
Tags: recruitment, joblisting, developer
Published: 2018-05-22 13:08:06

---
title: Developer recruitment: how to read job adverts
published: true
description: A translation of frequently used phrases used in developer recruitment
tags: recruitment, job_listing, developer
---

Over the course of my career in software development I've read thousands of job adverts and talked to hundreds of recruiters. I've learned one thing: to read between the lines.  IT recruiters and hiring departments speak a different language to us, a language rich with subtlety and innuendo, a language which might seem simple at first but hides deeper meaning. As a service to the community I now present a handy translator from recruiter lingo to common English. Make sure you look it up next time you see the job-ad of your dreams. 


| What they say        | What they mean    |
| ------------- |:-------------:| -----:|
| An exciting opportunity has come up       | Exciting for us as the commission is huge; for you not so much |
| You'll be working in a dynamic environment  | You'll be working all hours under the sun while requirements constantly change and managers run around like headless chickens |
|An environment that rewards achievers|unless you work 80-hour weeks you get no bonus|
|A work-hard, play-hard ethos|You'll be treated like a galley slave by a bunch of imbeciles who think drinking 8 pints of beer every night is 'playing hard'|
|Our client is a leader in their field|Our client thinks they're a leader in their field|
|A company with a high public profile|The local paper once had a two-column article about them|
|You will be encouraged to take ownership of your own projects |Success is shared, failure is all yours|
|A rapidly expanding company |Annual cycle of firing & re-hiring|
|Salary is competitive|...if you're an a 18-year old looking for a summer internship. And it's 1982|
|Huge career progression opportunities |Layoffs planned in 2 months| 	
|They're using tried and tested, enterprise-level technologies|They're using Java EE|
|You'll be working on a complex, highly-configurable system |They're using Java EE|
|You'll occasionally need to address issues raised on the legacy system|They're using Java EE|
|A company driven by results|Forget about Test-Driven Development| 	
|Development is centred around customer-focused delivery|Cucumber is out of the question too|
|A self starter who can hit the ground running|They are 10 months past the deadline |
|Looking for an enthusiastic team-player|Your colleagues will be over-bearing sociopaths|
|A company that is disrupting the market|A company that doesn't know the meaning of the word 'disrupt'|
|Ability to multi-task|They want you to do three jobs but they will only pay for one|
|Full-stack developer required|You'll be expected to function as a database expert, UX consultant, middle-ware guru, application developer and deployment wizard rolled into one. But we'll still pay you only one salary. |
|The company is currently transitioning from a waterfall methodology to Agile|They don't know what Agile is but they like buzzwords|
|It really doesn't get much better than this|It can get much better than this, but you'll never know it if you apply for this position| 
|Send your CV in now so you don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity!|[Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!]|	
 	

If you know any others that I've missed please feel free to ping me.

PS: this piece was first posted on the [Bootstrapped Thoughts](http://www.bootstrap.me.uk/) blog.

[Edited 23-May-18] added Full-stack listing as per comments suggestion