Recruiters 27

Okay—if anyone wants to know why American business is in such a state of disarray, let me share with you a job posting for a software product manager. This was on the company—a Forbes 50 corporation—website. Yes, this is an actual screen shot; this is what you find on the site (except I’ve blurred the name):

Now, for those of you who don’t know what a product manager does—s/he is the vortex of all communication about his/her product. You’re collecting stories from users, converting them to requirements, horse-trading with development on how much can get done in this release, iterating testing with QA, creating all value propositions, building marketing campaigns, training & supporting sales teams and then doing it all over again.

You’re speaking to a wide range of audiences; writing and rewriting large, complex documents; interacting with senior management, techies and people off the street. There’s nothing you do that doesn’t involve critical communication.

So I just despair when I see that for a position basically drenched in complex communications to a whole universe of audiences, this presumably sophisticated global corporation is happy to have someone with only basic knowledge of English. And what is that—can order lunch at Burger King?

Their wish list is intermediate fluency. Is that—can order dinner at Applebee’s?

Please also note their spelling of knowledge. They just are not thinking.

But they are definitely communicating.