Success!

I suspect someone at my old work has been reading my earlier post on How (not) to write a Perl job ad.

Take a look at these ads:

* Current job ad on jobs.perl.org
* June 2006 (via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine)

Compare and contrast this old description of the required skills…

>You will need to demonstrate:
>
> * Commitment to a customer first philosophy – both internal and external customers
> * Embrace and initiate change
> * Keen to learn more and develop further
> * Proactive and action oriented
> * Work collaboratively and are honest and respectful in your dealings
> * Are a strong team player

vs this new, improved version:

> Required skills:
>
> * Strong OO skills in any development language (Perl 0r Ruby orPHP or Java or C++ another
> * Proven track record in web application development
> * Understanding of unix/linux development environment
> * Good communication skills
>
> Desired skills:
>
> * Familiarity with database-driven applications
> * programming experience in a web environment
> * SQL, HTML, XML, Javascript, CSS experience
> * General Internet knowledge

And on the benefits side, take a look at the original:

> * A competitive remuneration package
> * A workplace that values and rewards its team members
> * Opportunities to develop professional skills
> * A great place to work

vs:

> What you will get
>
> * Competitive remuneration package in the range $75k – $90k
> * Be led by developers who are knowledgeable in their field
> * Peace to do what you do best
> * A choice of Windows/Linux desktop environment
> * Regular opportunity to work on “Lab work”; developer-led innovations for the company.
> * Coffee machine in every office
> * A friendly work environment, with regular team activities from bowling to bike riding to poker nights
> * Plenty of learning opportunities e.g sending team members to the OSDC and MySQL conference, Google Scalability conference
> * Salary packaging of Novated Car leases and salary sacrificing for PCs, Laptops, PDA.

I’m also very impressed to see they’ve put their list of “what we use” in the new job ad — though knowing the organisation in question, they’re actually missing a few points I would’ve added, especially internal team tools like version control systems and wikis. In any case, even describing the development puts them one step ahead of all the other Australian ads on jobs.perl.org, and I sincerely hope that this openness works to their benefit when it comes to finding applicants in the insanely tight Melbourne Perl market.