[Sigia-l] What happened to the good IAs

[Cathy Caron]

I agree with those in this discussion who shy away from "certification"
because it would inevitably capture only select - perhaps arbitrary -
aspects of a job that in practice is more about smarts, flexibility and
strategic instincts than anything else.

I realize of course that this can be a very difficult thing to hire for,
but I wonder if in some cases the way job descriptions are put together
may be making the process harder, not easier.

Maybe it's just that I'm not looking for a job - and that my skills are
rather eclectic - but the job descriptions I see in this list and my
other regular IA/usability lists don't make a lot of sense to me.

Almost always, they consist of a long laundry list of rather stiffly
described requirements and qualifications for skills and education. I've
worked developing, architecting and maintaining mostly large complex Web
sites for 8+ years and I'm not sure I've ever seen one of these laundry
lists for an information architect or the like that I can completely
match. 

If it isn't a graphic design or super high-end coding requirements
(sometimes in the same job description), it is almost always the "degree
in a related field, such as human-computer interaction, product design,
or interaction design" one. I personally think a Masters in Genetics and
Development from Cornell was very useful training in complex problems
with flexibility and smarts, but it hardly counts as "related" :). 

A question to people on this list who may be creating job postings like
that - are you doing this because you honestly will only consider people
who match every aspect of your description? If that is the case it
really should be extremely simple to sort away the less experienced
people based on their resumes.

If it is the latter, it seems to me you shouldn't be surprised if you
get a ton of applicants who fall short on experience or qualifications -
if your job description is basically impossible how should they know
where you'll draw the line?

What do people think; is there some way to make a search process like
this more effective? If the job application had a requirement to write
up two paragraphs the most impressive aspect of the applicants working
life, would that help screen out some of the people who just send their
resumes to every job they see that is even close to their experience?

- Cathy