Job Description Decoder

Use this when someone wants to know what a job posting is really asking for before they spend an evening applying.

Read it in three passes

Pass one — the requirements. Separate them honestly:

• Real. Named repeatedly, specific, tied to the day-to-day.
• Aspirational. The wish list. Long tool lists and "5+ years" on a technology that is three years old both belong here.
• Boilerplate. Copied from another posting. Often visible from a tone shift mid-list.

Pass two — the signals. What the posting says without meaning to:

• "Wear many hats", "fast-paced", "self-starter" — small or under-resourced team.
• "Establish", "build out", "first hire" — nothing exists yet; they want someone who can work without scaffolding.
• Very long requirement lists — often a committee wrote it, and no one candidate matches.
• Salary omitted where disclosure is normal — worth asking early.
• A title one level below the described scope — worth raising before the offer stage.

Pass three — the fit. Against their background: what matches, what is a stretch, what is genuinely missing. Say the honest count. "You meet six of nine, and the three you miss are the aspirational ones" is useful; "you would be a great fit" is not.

Hand back

• What the job actually is, in two sentences.
• The three requirement buckets.
• The signals, with what each implies.
• Their honest fit, and whether it is worth applying.
• Two or three questions to ask that the posting leaves unanswered.

Be willing to say it is not worth applying. That is the most valuable output this can produce.