Interim Order on Job Description Decoding
A person reads a job description and translates each requirement into what it likely means in practice. They have developed a private glossary for this translation. It has never been validated.
Job descriptions contain two texts. The first is the text as written. The second is the text as decoded by the reader, which substitutes the written terms with their implied meanings according to a glossary that varies by person and is never verified against the organization that wrote the description.
The gap between the two texts determines whether the person applies.
The Glossary Develops
A person reads their first job descriptions with no glossary. The terms are taken at face value. Fast-paced environment means the work moves quickly. Team player means there is a team. Comfortable with ambiguity means the role involves some uncertainty.
After several jobs and several applications, a private glossary develops. Fast-paced environment means there is no clear process and the team is understaffed. Team player means individual performance metrics are low and group accountability is the primary structure. Comfortable with ambiguity means the role has not been clearly defined and whoever fills it will be responsible for defining it.
The glossary governs which postings receive applications and has been updated by experience, but the experience is small and the glossary is large.
The Consequence
A person reads a posting that contains two glossary entries that their translation maps to negative conditions. They do not apply. The organization that wrote the posting used those entries because they are standard template language inherited from a previous hiring cycle, not because the conditions they imply actually exist.
The posting expires. The person did not apply. Neither party knows the other existed.
The Opposite Consequence
A person reads a posting with no glossary entries that map to warnings. They apply. The interview reveals conditions not present in the description that their glossary would have flagged if they had been visible. The glossary could not flag what was not there.
The glossary protects against described conditions and cannot protect against undescribed ones.
The Structural Problem
Job descriptions are written by people who are not the direct hiring manager in approximately forty percent of cases, according to research from 2019 cited in a newsletter the person read without clicking through to the source. The terms in the description reflect the preferences and vocabulary of whoever wrote the template, not necessarily the team that will employ the applicant.
Decoding a template-writer's vocabulary produces information about the template-writer's vocabulary.
What the Neutral Position Requires
The glossary is a useful first filter. It excludes some bad postings and some good ones. The ratio between those two exclusion types is unknown because rejected postings are not investigated further.
The neutral administrative position notes this. It recommends nothing. Both applying and not applying are rational given the available information. The available information is insufficient for a strong recommendation in either direction.
This is the documented state of the matter.