Job Descriptions


One of the most common mistakes among people searching for job positions is to not read the job descriptions carefully enough. I don't mean that they forget the details about the job – quite the contrary. Most of the time, people go to job sites and write down all of the relevant information they can find about the job position. They look at the requirements, the hours, the experience required, and of course the benefits if they are posted there. What people don't pay attention to, however, are the other details – the little quirks where the job poster gives you a clue about what kind of office environment you will be working in.

For example, recently I was looking for a teaching job. I was looking at a particular education job description, and it looks very thrilling to me. What I didn't think about, however, was what they wanted. The qualities they wanted in a teacher were “someone who is skilled at teaching the fundamentals of reading writing and arithmetic.” I knew that I could do all of those things – any teacher could. What I didn't realize, however, was that this particular detail gave a lot away about the job poster's philosophy.

Job descriptions always say something about the employer. In this case, it said that he was a traditionalist. It isn't that he was asking for things that were hard to find in his job descriptions, but he was showing that core education was all important to him. He did not look for someone who was “creative and innovative”, someone who was “outgoing and enthusiastic”, or some other combination of modern traits. He looked for someone with traditional skills because creativity and enthusiasm were not of paramount importance to him.

No matter what you are looking for, when you're finding a job it always makes sense to pay attention to details like that. You can save yourself a lot of time and effort in the long run. After all, no matter how desperate you are for employment, it just doesn't make sense to take a job with someone who isn't a good match for both your skills and your philosophy. If they aren't looking for the same thing that you are, it will probably end badly and not be rewarding for either of you. No matter how rewarding the job title sounds, how good the compensation, or how ideal the location, job descriptions are of paramount importance.