Attracting the right talent can be challenging. Often times, how you word a job posting description determines the kind of people that comes knocking on your door.
While some companies choose to be conservative in their job posting, a recent job advertisement by Sugar, a mobile app which launched recently in Singapore, tries to be different and quirky in its latest job ad.
However, their attempt was met with backlashes by some in the local developer community, the same group of people Sugar is trying to recruit to join its company.
The job ad reads:
Who We Want:
- You are ambitious, intense and entrepreneurial, and you dream of doing truly epic shit with your life. You recoil at the thought of having 1.15 kids, balloting for a flat, saving up for a Toyota and waiting to withdraw your CPF savings at 65 (or 70, or 80, or 120).
- You are action-oriented and willing to risk making mistakes. You are also willing to learn from your mistakes and talk openly about what you have learnt.
- The thought of working till midnight in a warehouse while subsisting on leftover pizza is somehow appealing to you. You have slight masochistic tendencies.
Who We Don’t Want:
- You are a shallow social climber whose dream is to work for Goldman Sachs because it “looks good on your CV”. You went to an Ivy League university because it would “look good on your CV”. But you couldn’t get into Goldman Sachs (or Citibank, or HSBC) because you actually have no passion for finance, just like how you want to buy that Louis Vuitton bag (because it will “look good on your social CV”) despite having no passion for design and craftsmanship. Guess what? If you were rejected by Goldman Sachs, you will be rejected by us too. For exactly the same reasons. Advice: try applying for a government job.
- You are afraid of failing because failing bruises your delicate and fragile ego. When you do fail, you take steps to cover up your mistakes, and try to push blame onto others. You would rather be passive and remain a passenger, because passengers don’t get blamed when the car crashes. When your boss asks you why you haven’t sorted out an issue with a client, you reply with: “I sent them an e-mail but they haven’t replied yet”. Advice: go to law school.
- You are a social misfit. You like technology only because you can’t relate to real people. You spend your weekends playing DOTA and in your sleep you dream about your hero reaching Level 38. At school, you were always the last to get picked on any project or sports team. Having a conversation with you is about as interesting as watching paint dry. Advice: go seek help from a mental health professional.
The ad essentially mocks Goldman Sachs employees and Ivy League university graduates as “shallow social climber”, and hints that government jobs are for people with no passion.
How NOT To Post A Job Ad
Hou GuoChen, a software engineer, was displeased with the job ad when he first came across it. In his Facebook post, he rebutted that this is one job description that companies should “never write when hiring talents”. Hou also says that he would never work for Sugar.
“In my capacity, I would also advise all my friends to stay clear of your company as well,” Hou shared on his Facebook.
Here’s the full post by Hou:
Bryan Lim, another local software engineer, replied to Hou’s thread saying that he felt angry after reading the job description too.
Discriminatory much?
