Almost as bad, in my opinion, is when organizations recognize the tendency to focus on keywords, and they proceed to use all of them. You see postings like "Must be proficient in at least one major language: Java, C#, Python, Ruby, Go, PHP...At least one front end framework: Angular, React, Vue, Aurelia...At least one cloud platform: Azure, AWS, GCP... There might also be clouds of other keywords that I've rarely bothered to read in detail, because most of the time they're minor details at best.
I can possibly see a couple of reasons for this. First, they want to find somebody who can become proficient at whatever is needed (like your example), and they want to show up in keyword searches. Or, they really do have that kind of stack, which could be frightening, but might be ok if it's a consultancy.
One thing that helps when I'm reading a job posting, is to follow the list with something like "we use AWS, we use Go, we use Vue. As an applicant, this helps me to understand your stack. Then I can move on if I'm looking for something else. Or, I can choose to study up if I like the organization.
It seems to me as if there are so many applicants that some companies are willing to brutally filter out people based on arbitrary keyword matching just so they can get the list to a manageable level. The result is people who are just as good at gaming the system, but might not be as good a fit as people who were filtered out.
My company's job postings include the requirement of being proficient in any major framework. (React, Angular, Vue) even though we use Angular primarily. We do this because we look for good talent and our okay investing in educating someone with potential on the ins and outs of a certain framework. In fact most of our developers came from a react background. (including me)
I see adverts saying things like "We'll take people with no experience in foo, as long as they can show experience in bar" followed by a tech test that must be done in foo.
I agree that that is a really bad practice on those companylies' parts. My company does have a coding challenge, but we let people use whatever framework they are comfortable with. (We have gotten some and passed candidates with coding challenges in all major frameworks)
I think the primary framework is important to state. I'm starting to see job postings that list almost every technology under the sun or none at all (in a way to be inclusive), but in reality, they make deciding to apply or not confusing, espically, if you ideally want to go to a place that uses a modern component based framework (React, Angular, etc).
For example when places list both jQuery and React.
I understand why some companies ask for jQuery and React because our company is working on the project updateting clients' projects from jQuery to React. In order to do that you have to understand both libraries very well.
hmm, yah that's totally fine. In fact, my past job, I did that (upgraded older apps) - so I think it was my fault I wasn't clear in my example.
My main point of issue is when organizations are not up front about the 'primary' technology when they list dozens of wildly different stacks to for the sake 'inclusiveness'.
IE if a dev wanted react knowledge but ended up working on jquery their whole time, they would probably not be to happy.
As long as that intent is clearly communicated in your postings. Otherwise, I feel like I still want to see specifics of what I'd actually be asked to use. It helps juniors decide where to specialize, and it gives established folks the flexibility to be more picky. If the company was awesome, I'd be willing to go for it if I didn't know a particular framework. I'd like the opportunity to address that in my cover letter and in my early conversations.
EDIT: A short anecdote... Last year, we interviewed two people for one position. One person had a veritable 💩-storm of keywords in their resume. The second person had a more focused resume. The boss ended up hiring the first person because they theoretically ticked more boxes. The resulting 💩-storm caught the boss completely off guard.
Almost as bad, in my opinion, is when organizations recognize the tendency to focus on keywords, and they proceed to use all of them. You see postings like "Must be proficient in at least one major language: Java, C#, Python, Ruby, Go, PHP...At least one front end framework: Angular, React, Vue, Aurelia...At least one cloud platform: Azure, AWS, GCP... There might also be clouds of other keywords that I've rarely bothered to read in detail, because most of the time they're minor details at best.
I can possibly see a couple of reasons for this. First, they want to find somebody who can become proficient at whatever is needed (like your example), and they want to show up in keyword searches. Or, they really do have that kind of stack, which could be frightening, but might be ok if it's a consultancy.
One thing that helps when I'm reading a job posting, is to follow the list with something like "we use AWS, we use Go, we use Vue. As an applicant, this helps me to understand your stack. Then I can move on if I'm looking for something else. Or, I can choose to study up if I like the organization.
It seems to me as if there are so many applicants that some companies are willing to brutally filter out people based on arbitrary keyword matching just so they can get the list to a manageable level. The result is people who are just as good at gaming the system, but might not be as good a fit as people who were filtered out.
This fits their mindset they rather have you arrive with a vague sense of what they actually require.
My company's job postings include the requirement of being proficient in any major framework. (React, Angular, Vue) even though we use Angular primarily. We do this because we look for good talent and our okay investing in educating someone with potential on the ins and outs of a certain framework. In fact most of our developers came from a react background. (including me)
I see adverts saying things like "We'll take people with no experience in foo, as long as they can show experience in bar" followed by a tech test that must be done in foo.
Why waste people's time???
I agree that that is a really bad practice on those companylies' parts. My company does have a coding challenge, but we let people use whatever framework they are comfortable with. (We have gotten some and passed candidates with coding challenges in all major frameworks)
I think the primary framework is important to state. I'm starting to see job postings that list almost every technology under the sun or none at all (in a way to be inclusive), but in reality, they make deciding to apply or not confusing, espically, if you ideally want to go to a place that uses a modern component based framework (React, Angular, etc).
For example when places list both jQuery and React.
I understand why some companies ask for jQuery and React because our company is working on the project updateting clients' projects from jQuery to React. In order to do that you have to understand both libraries very well.
hmm, yah that's totally fine. In fact, my past job, I did that (upgraded older apps) - so I think it was my fault I wasn't clear in my example.
My main point of issue is when organizations are not up front about the 'primary' technology when they list dozens of wildly different stacks to for the sake 'inclusiveness'.
IE if a dev wanted react knowledge but ended up working on jquery their whole time, they would probably not be to happy.
As long as that intent is clearly communicated in your postings. Otherwise, I feel like I still want to see specifics of what I'd actually be asked to use. It helps juniors decide where to specialize, and it gives established folks the flexibility to be more picky. If the company was awesome, I'd be willing to go for it if I didn't know a particular framework. I'd like the opportunity to address that in my cover letter and in my early conversations.
EDIT: A short anecdote... Last year, we interviewed two people for one position. One person had a veritable 💩-storm of keywords in their resume. The second person had a more focused resume. The boss ended up hiring the first person because they theoretically ticked more boxes. The resulting 💩-storm caught the boss completely off guard.
I believe I'm working with that 💩-storm at the moment...
I know one 💩-storm, he feels bossy about one framework and thinks it will work for all without looking at the cons