If you’re like me, you get a little tired of searching for jobs. If you work in IT or anything remotely technical, one of the most significant obstacles you will find in getting a job is getting through to some faceless HR rep that the demands they ask for in a job posting is asinine considering the level of knowledge and experience required.

A long time ago an economist came up with this nifty idea that by dividing your labor up into specific tasks, you could increase productivity. But when it comes to information technology, it would seem employers want you for a job that includes everything possible known to man. If only human resources folks would take a class or two in economics… but i digress.

So here’s a little hint for those people looking to hire someone skilled in the craft of technology:

1. If you want skills up to and including a kitchen sink, you need to really study your organizational structure.
2. Take the time to find out what your IT department really needs. If you are a shop that is primarily on the Windows stack, don’t throw in the need for Linux skills unless the person will actually have to use them on some regular basis.
3. Programming languages are abundant. That doesn’t mean you should hire someone who knows them all. Otherwise, more often than not, you will end up with someone who is entirely too mediocre at all of them and provides little in the way of any potential gain in productivity.
4. There is a divide between hardware and software. Sometimes you need people to apply software to hardware. But don’t expect someone to be completely proficient at both in all regards. If you post a job request for a software programmer, don’t expect them to know the ins and outs of some niche piece of hardware they won’t ever need to know.

One example of job-definition abuse is from the web development area. I often see jobs for web developers whereby the employer expects a person to be equally good at both design and programming. Despite what some may tell you, a person is going to fall  to the left or right of that middling ground on the job map. Don’t get bitter when they don’t meet a need on either side – you and your job posting are partly to blame.