Heard on NPR a story about companies posting jobs with ridiculous requirements that would be impossible to find.
The trade name is apparently a "purple squirrel" as in company A is looking for a purple squirrel.

The main feature is that the company really doesn't need the person, they are just fishing for this ideal in case it shows up.

Take away lesson is there is no need to really apply to these jobs or waste your time on them.

Jobs posted for more than a year with outlandish requirements aren't for real.

When will the economy pick up so real need materializes.

All they usually ask for is someone with forty years' experience who'll work for entry level wages.  The squirrelly part is that they don't want forty years' worth of battle scars.



 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

We have a lot of squirrels here too, but they're all grey, just like the skies.

The economy is squirrely too.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
 

To me, the sad part is that just in case they actually find someone close to the description, the company will fire someone else who may have been performing well.  But it is all for the greater good (of the company).

I see several positions here that are open, and in some cases they do take up to two years to get quilified people to apply.

They do go through the same motions as if they had several people apply. The phone interview, and formal interview, and so forth, even for the one person that did apply.

Most of these positions are listed as hard to fill, and they don't expect to find an ideal candidate. Just someone who can do the job.

I would say almost all the positions I see today are purple squirrel jobs.

And, companies that advertise for purple squirrels will eventually find someone - - - who's a little squirrely.



If you advertise for a person who has extensive experience in several different unrelated technical disciplines (i.e. RF, embedded systems, FPGA programming, switch-mode power, UL products) you will eventually find a liar with an inflated resume.

If you stress "motivated", "high-energy drive", "focused on results" to work in a "fast paced environment", your likely only to end up with someone with a cocaine addiction.

Sounds like the ads placed for visa requirements. We couldn't find an American Citizen that had been working for us as a contractor for 3 years and spoke yiddish. So we need you to approve this guys visa.

Oy veh.

If you stress "motivated", "high-energy drive", "focused on results" to work in a "fast paced environment", your likely only to end up with someone with a cocaine addiction.

Actually this looks like the same boiler plate as "can walk on water", "able to leep tall building in a single bound", "more powerful than a speeding locomative", and "faster than speeding bullet"

I would have thought key phrases like 'motivated', 'high-energy drive', 'focused on results' and 'fast paced environment' would land you a salesman, no matter what the position. They seem to thrive on making their own lives as stressful as possible. I certainly do not want to work in a 'fast paced environment' where only my throughput is taken note of. I have done it before, it's rubbish.

I get the impression these outrageous requirements are posted because the department heads already know who they want to promote internally but HR require the position to be advertised externally.

Designer of machine tools - user of modified screws

"They seem to thrive on making their own lives as stressful as possible".

No wonder domestic violence is up.

The problem is when these people become managers, they hand select the people they want to work for them, and systematly run everybody else off. Which leaves a bunch of yes men no smarter than the manager who hired them.

That is a big problem in many organazitions, departments, goverments, etc. All talk, and not much action.

That fits the description of an MBA.
Not that I am in any way bitter.
 

Regards,

SNORGY.

I was sent to a lawyer to get a new (US) visa once. He asked me what I did, wasn't impressed and invented a complete new Purple Squirrel job for me. All very embarrassing.
 

- Steve
 

And they say engineers don't live in the real world.

Where I insist we are the few that really do live in the real world.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/10/pennsylvanias-purple-squirrel-rainbow-colored-riddle/?intcmp=features

Looks like the job has been filled.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

I wonder what his starting pay was?
B.E.

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them.  Old professor

I heard he worked for peanuts.

www.nxjournaling.com

I think I once sat an interview from that guy.  Didn't get the job, I think he felt I disliked his hairstyle.

I think he got dipped and dripped!!

And if he doesn't completely fill the bill, maybe Pete can:

http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/01/pete_the_purple_squirrel.php

Maui

www.EngineeringMetallurgy.com

• http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=f0180bf4-71a6-47a4-a372-55

And now I just read on the Internet about a bunch of inbred hillbillies that are all blue tinged....  Go figure

Curiously, about a decade ago I knew a guy in Williamsport (20 min. or so from Jersey Shore) that had a pet squirrel. The squirrel's name was Rocky, and I believe that before all was said and done, Rocky had been dyed purple. Unconfirmed rumors also said that Rocky had dropped acid once or twice. No, I didn't have anything to do with either occurrence-- I only met Rocky once, and he was grey and non-hallucinating then. I wonder if this guy is up to his old tricks with dye. I also wonder if any squirrels are tripping balls in Pennsylvania...

Oddly enough, there are white squirrels out there too:

http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/state_news/x180...

Maui

www.EngineeringMetallurgy.com