Who writes these ridiculous job ads?

Here's a recent job ad for a Branding and Marketing Manager of big media company in KL. There are 14 job responsibilities and 10 job requirements. Its supposed to be a mid to senior role, but is only asking for +3 years experience. This person is responsible for implementing and maintaining nationwide 360 degree innovative and (sic) marketing ideas through content marketing, sponsorship and digital solutions to increase awareness, revenue and relevance and loyalty - wow! This (presumably a superhuman) must also have the time to write, edit and manage content for campaigns, websites and ads. Oh and wait - there's more! This person also must be a savvy networker with external stakeholders. Have a look below: And right below you will see, for all of those responsibilities, the person only needs to have 3+ years of experience. That's someone barely out of university.

Here's another one - a common cloak and dagger exercise by some recruitment companies. A friend who was curious to explore this sent me this message: "I emailed them to find out more details about the nature of their business, but they responded: "Just apply if interested." She wanted to do some research to see where their focus was going to be for the next year, have a look at their annual report, etc but she hit a brick wall. Why the secrecy? You are asking people to apply for a job that requires "analysing data from multiple sources" - yet you don't want to share any data.

I don't know why such ridiculous ads even see the light of day. It reflects such a lack of clarity or understanding of the role. 14 bullet points are not job responsibilities - they are slavery inducing - and worse, you are setting people up to fail. Anyone who has some solid experience in that industry can easily tell that YOU (the person who defined those bullet points - be it the CEO, the MD, the Hiring Manager) don't know what you are talking about - and need a reality check.

I asked a recruiter friend of mine about this malady. She said she too had gotten so sick and tired of these ridiculous job requirements from clients.

"I sit them down and ask them: "Can you do all of these roles?" First, they are shocked that I dare to ask this as I am their client. But they then sheepishly admit, they cannot do even half of those responsibilities. I send them packing and tell them to rewrite it!

So for all those people posting shoddy job ads and recruitment companies practicing the dark arts of job secrecy about your clients, perhaps its time to look in the mirror and ask yourself - are you too not living up to your job role?

I'm sure when you took on this responsibility, nowhere did it say that one of your skills had to be the ability to write ridiculous job ads.

Faridah Hameed is a 'Conscious' Communication Coach and has spoken/trained audiences from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. works with business leaders to help them identify if their communication is working for or against them. More faridah at www.faridahhameed.com