How Desperate Do They Think You Are?

Desperate times mean desperate measures – but just how desperate do they think we are? Companies know times are tough, and finding a job is part of that tough struggle. Are some companies using that to their advantage, and offering less to candidates simply because they know how desperate people are to find a job? Well, I cannot say that is happening in any major way, but it might be. That is why it is important to know what your skills are worth and the average salary you should be getting offered.

Even so, there was one recent IT position that was recently posted that truly seemed to be pushing the limit of work ethics in their want ad. With no promise of the big bucks, they are expecting a person to work literally four jobs, and have little expectation of a real work/life balance. They tell you up front that their in house staff runs lean:

Most of us would say maybe a little TOO lean, but being pushed to your limit is part of the job. I'm not saying that to try and scare you away OR impress you, but it's in both of our best interests to understand and set expectations properly. If you have boundless energy and desire to work on both creative AND sometimes tedious work but in an environment that just might change your life, perhaps this is the opportunity for you.

I guess I could see this as a good match for a young energetic person looking to get their foot in the door and do not mind not having a personal life outside of work, because:

We are quite literally looking for a person that can do four jobs: Web Development, Software Development, Sys Admin, and the (dreaded) GENERAL IT for us here that need help configuring a firewall for a dev kit, etc. Sorry, I know that's the WORST, but it's absolutely part of the gig.

So yeah, we know that's a lot to ask of a person, but all of us here work tremendously hard to do a lot of things, and if you'd like to be at the technical epicenter of it all and don't mind having a really bad sense of work-life balance, this is the job for you.

So, for someone whose life revolves around work and work only, and a desired personal or family life is not a consideration, then this just might be the job for you. You would think that such a consuming job would have a great salary to compensate, but that does not seem to be the case either. The amount of the salary is negotiable, but they plainly state “…you should know up front we’re not a terribly money-motivated group. We’re more likely to spend less money on salary and invest that on making your day-to-day life at work better.” I am not sure how that investment in the day-to-day work life would look, but if you live for work, then maybe they make the work life more bearable.

In reading around, I understand the IT field can be this way, and it tends to kill people after a while, and major burn out sets in. I guess if someone is desperate enough to take on a position like this, then more power to them. It just seems odd that they are so blunt and honest about the working conditions right up front in the ad. Oftentimes they seek to gloss over the stressful conditions until they get you in the position and let it all loose on you. So I guess in one way, their honesty is to be commended, on the other, it almost sounds like the job is going to be abusive to a single individual. At least the truth is known going into the position.

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