Have you ever sat re-reading a job ad thinking:
“Is this [descriptor/keyword] a Trick or a Feat?” I’ve read a great article this Summer, on a subject I wanted to dig deeper into: buzzwords used in job ads. Especially, as for most the Middle ground — AKA The Hunt — seems hardest. Even for people whose job is to manage Human Resources.
Then two weeks back I see my remote hero: Rodolphe Dutel kicking things off with this tweet:
So, I figured it’s time to chime in.
Being three months into building a job search enhancement tool for HR people though, relisting the buzzwords wouldn’t cut it so:
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I look up the best definition of the word in question, in order to see if it is a positive word at all.
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pull up job ads on LinkedIn (searching for the keyword in question), if available for HR managers or HR people, just to satisfy my use cases first,
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run the job ad through my favorite bullshit detection tool > http://www.blablameter.com/
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showcase the job ads found, along with readings from Glassdoor.
Aside: I’ve already wrote about this problematic use of word that means nothing really in this very blog back in 2016, where I’ve analysed the whole job ads of big tech companies.
The list of dirty twenties
- 1 — Data-obsessed
Yes, I’ve heard about Obsessive Control Disorder painted in a glamorous light. By a Corporate Housing Operator’s Operations Director — showcasing his own disorder (?) as a unique point of differentiation to his clientele.
And yes I love data too. When you can find insights based on the right way of looking at the data.
Still, the definition of obsession is:
“1. Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety.
- A compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion.
- In pathology, a constant brooding upon any subject, such as the thought of death, until the mind becomes dominated by that one idea.
- The act of besieging; persistent assault. (archaic)
- Continuous or persevering effort supposed to be made by an evil spirit to obtain mastery of a person; the state or condition of a person so vexed or beset: distinguished from possession, or control by a demon from within. (archaic)”
Yuck, no greater way to show “how nice it is to work for us?”
You’d think this is not a Human Resources thing. You’d be wrong though as Dice — a UK-based ticket booking startup — apparently has been hiring this Summer for a Global Head of Recruitment based in London, UK. Dropping the DO bomb in their job ad copy.
Couldn’t find the position on their roster and it’s pretty fresh. So, if you have a data-obsession thing — ask your therapist as a last resort — then I’d give it a go. Especially as they seem to fare well on reviews, at least on Glassdoor.
BSI reading for Dice.fm’s Global Head of Recruitment job ad on LinkedIn. Room for improvement.
A quick spin on the obsession theme.
- 2–Ninja
Ninjas were not positive by any means. It’s another thing that folks have repainted them in superhuman colors. Then they become part of the Japanese folklore and then came the ‘80s.
I couldn’t find a recent ad on LinkedIn, but if you are a HR Manager Ninja. In Dec 2018, an up-and-coming Belgian InsurTech startup was looking for you to grind your shuriken set and jump on board. Note: you may still have a chance as I couldn’t pin down a HR Manager (ninja or not.) Anyway, you’d have a great company as they already have plenty of ninjas on the crew. So, network baby, network!
Qover’s HR Manager Ninja job ad on LinkedIn > Space to make the copy more technical and less folklore-like.
3–Hacker
Again, hacking is not always a positive thing. Like hacking into somebody’s online banking (yuck.)
Looking at the strong trend in interest towards growth hacking. It’s not baffling that I found not one, but two HR manager job ads with ease.
A Workplace Risk, Compliance, Safety and Performance solutions provider from the UK was looking. For a Senior HR Manager with the following sub-headline:
SME Growth Hacker, Company Culture Promoter, Systemiser
Not sure how these align with you. From the reviews on Glassdoor though. It seems they still have some room to improve the company culture part. Before they promote it big time though.
SME Growth Hacker, Company Culture Promoter, Systemiser — well, this job ad could do well with less too.
Found another one from over the Atlantic Sea too. From non-other than Platoons Solutions (part of the Adecco Group.) They were looking for a HR Business Partner — Direct Hire/Colleague. With solid Glassdoor reviews (for HR people compared to the general staff). When it comes to gobshite though, +1 for introducing me to Game Changer and Warrior.
A Game Changer, Growth Hacker, Warrior can still help this score ;)
- 4–Rock Star
It depends. Being a rock star can be cool. Or devastating. I do not have to list the talents who ground themselves down way too early. Also, I’m not sure you want to have your “dealer on speed dial”. Haven’t you?
I got put off. To find not one but two live job ads - with a recent but already closed one - on the first page of my search. Even if only outside Europe.
No longer accepting candidates. Still, they were “looking for a HR rock star”. Whatever that is when used in the intro of a HR manager job ad in the Philippines. Anyway, Expand Offshore has no reviews on Glassdoor. So, no further guidance.
I’m a proponent of shorter copy vs bullshitting. And boom Expand Offshore can bring it down, even if in the uncomplicated world of call center and outsourcing space.
Who would have thought the $5 billion rug market (in the US) is exciting?
But sure look it, splashing rock-star before the HR Manager title can’t hurt the game. Still, they grabbed less than 25 applicants’ attention in the first two months.
Their reviews are f.i.n.e. fine, and the copy is…
On the weaker side, but still better than the rest so far. It seems rock-star is ok as far as “buzz-shit” goes.
Finally, a Talent Acquisition Rock Star job ad in the medical space. Don’t tell me you didn’t see this one coming. Yet Waters Corporation sports ok reviews.
Yet they have to work on their almost world-class copy :(
- 5–World-class
In the US you’d think world-class equals in the top percentile of the US market in your profession. But that set aside, “are you ready to pay top percentile paycheck for me” is the first question that pops to mind.
Well, some of these players may. And is not a US-only league.
Thus the four-strong crew of:
- Revolut, only 2 months ago hired a Lead HR Manager — Glassdoor reviews are ok, bullshit index of job ad:
Almost there.
- Toptal — one month ago — was looking for an HR Manager in Europe with a world-class edge. They have ok reviews and the bullshit level is…
Not unseen levels, not unseen.
- Microsoft — advertised from their US base in Redmond — were looking for a HR Manager (for their) Worldwide Commercial Business 4 weeks ago, already closed for applications. The once incumbent tech giant sports fair ratings in reviews. But on the English > PR spectrum they are…
…too much on the bullchute end.
— was looking for a HR manager 11 months ago who
“is to deliver the HR agenda in a world-class way”.
Glasdoor reviews are low. And the copy is…
- AXA XL — the reinsurance daughter in the AXA family — was looking for an HR manager 11 months ago “to deliver the HR agenda in a world-class way”. Glasdoor reviews are a bit low. And the copy is…
way too complicated my friends: Beaucoup trop compliquées més amies.
- 6–Guru
If you’re a guru of anything why on Earth would you want to get employed by, well, any employer? Or for any roll below VP level? Though they may only mean it as “the pay’s shit, so better fast y’all”.
Over the Atlantic Sea Walmart pulled the G-card when looking for a HR Office Manager “Staffing Guru”. On the reviews side, their position is in the middle-lower tier. Which is not a promising start hence the need for a Staffing Guru?
Which is remarkable though is how little magic powder they have spilled on the copy…
Bravo Walmart, only if you could work on the reviews/culture/employment experience.
- 7–10x
Popularized by Grant Cardone. Though ‘ten times’-ing or 10x-ing a process that is not lean or polished. Will let you burn out 10x faster.
Staffing must be hard in the US in logistics. Third-party logistics not barred, so RPM threw it all in when they advertised for a Talent Acquisition Specialist, late in 2018. Their reviews aren’t helping the case and the bullchute index is a big surprise. Still, they hired internally as far as our research has gone.
Big words, but at least in a straightforward copy. Still didn’t work externally.
- 8–Unicorn
First, they never existed — at least in our age and/or dimension. Second, even if the employer (ahem, startup) got over one billion US dollars valuation. You’ll never likely get a meaningful piece of it. Yet with this clever skill branding, you can still get a shimmer of the limelight, right?
Astonishingly, it took this long to get the first recruiter’s ad hit. Maven Recruiting Group — and sure enough, they dropped the U bomb when hunting for a HR generalist. Can’t check the reviews as it’s for an unnamed yet “name-brand VC firm”. So we have only the copy to reflect on the clarity of the job ad (and the position…)
Less is more.
A direct spin on the same unicorn wheel came from AskNicely when they were looking for a Talent & Culture (HR) Manager earlier this year. They may use the U-word, but their reviews are great — even if low I last checked. And their copy is also way better than anybody else’s around here.
Not a lot of words with a low-ish score! This is impressive in the job ad scene.
- 9–Game-changer
Ok, this is sports’ territory. A game-changer is someone who turns around a game at the last minute with some impossible save or goal. I’m not sure I’d expect any candidate to firefight all the way their time in a position branded game-changer. Yet it points in that direction. Or the employee experience is so bad, that you got to make last-minute saves? Day in, day out?
- Philips Lighting — where the rebranding to Signify ain’t seemed to make a positive push in employee reviews — has been looking for a HR Manager a year ago in Poland. Back then their brand motto has been:
“Be a game changer. Be Philips Lighting.”
Bam, that was easy to spot. And the copy of the job ad:
Ouch, that hurt.
- It’s not just Eastern Europe though as *FSM Group— *a Belgian recruitment agency — was looking for a Recruitment Consultant: be the game changer! Due to too few reviews, even those a bit of a mixed bag, and my lack of Flemish. I couldn’t find pointers to have an idea if this is the exception or part of the culture. Especially as the ad was too short for blablameter…
via tenor.com
- Game-changer may as well be a recruiter thing. Robert Half — a staffing agency focusing on the financial vertical — has been looking for a HR Manager a two months back.
Is this game-changer? Nah.
Last-minute saves bring us to another great way to promote how well a company is positioned in the market place and how humanly nice its culture may be.
- 10–Warrior
This is when you literally have to fight for everything. Outside and inside your company. So shield up, get tough.
Scroll back to Pontoon Solutions — part of Adecco group for an example.
- 11–Swiss knife
A Swiss Army Knife is a fascinating thingy. So I cannot find a bad word anything against this. Except, that if you’re a jack of all trades and they want to you put in 110% in all your trades. This next gig may as well become your surefire way to burn out.
I’ve yet to find a HR job ad, but an Operations Manager / Human Swiss knife resonated so much that I thought why not feature it?
- 12–“We’re a family”
This may be the case when they don’t want you to have one outside the office. Else, you better keep your friends and family first. If you made sure your relationships are healthy and reciprocal, they won’t dump you when they believe the only way to (a) beat the analysts’ profit estimate consensus for the quarter or (b) elongate the runway is by fire.
- Canvas Credit Union — from Colorado — strung the family strings while looking for a HR Business Partner. Some families physically hurt their members and apparently it may be the case based on the average NPS scores/reviews.
Room for improvement.
- While, Houzz — a California based startup — has been looking for a Senior People Operations (HR) Partner with a similar luring tactic. And just a tad bit better reviews.
But the copy is… I won’t comment.
- 13–Wizard
We’re entering Neverland territory, fasten your seatbelts and polish your CVs. It would have been a shame if nothing would have popped up in this game from the land of fairies and the home of the leprechaun.
Yet, Darbs Dublin made the last-minute save. They were looking for a HR Advisor expanding the search to the “wizard executive assistant” pool of candidates.
Despite the W-word throw-in. This is almost as straight as a pint of the black stuff. (Hic, Slan!)
While over the Irish Sea the Longtallsally.com crew was looking for a HR Manager
who is also an “Organisational wizard.”
It’s hard to make the copy straight without an Organisational Wizard already onboard so.
- 14–“Work hard, play hard.”
A favorite of startups — from the late nineties — and I have a hunch it all started in the mid-‘80s on Wall Street. Anyway, this was the point where the proverbial shit hit the fan. And I started to think about a tabular visualization.
That may come but in this article, I’ll rather show you the way. With a link out to employee reviews if available and giving you the bullshit index reading.
Here they are — only from the first page of results!
Kerry, Minnesota, US — Plant HR Manager. I’d guess their working is harder than their playing. At only 56% of the reviewers that would recommend to a friend. BSI: 0.49
Protect My Car, Florida, US — HR Manager. 89% of the 50 reviewers would recommend to a friend and BSI: “only” 0.51.
AdView Jobs (recruiter) UK —* HR Manager* BSI: 0.46.
Rimini Street, Illinois, US — Senior HR Manager. 70% would still recommend them to a friend but BSI: 1.39 (that lacks a bit of oomph!)
CPSG Partners, Texas, US — Receptionist / HR Assistant and / Recruiter. Their NPS level is at 58% and BSI at 0.65 I’d work on the play part harder.
Transportation Management Services, Maryland, US —[ Human Resources Manager](https://web.archive.org/web/20191016195817/https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/human-resources-manager-at-transportation-management-services-1213240654). Not enough reviews to make it reliable. BSI: 0.78
Salon Service Group, MO, US — *Human Resources (HR) Manager *NPS at 49% and the BSI of the job ad is 0.99
- 15–Full-stack
Would you bet there’s no such thing as a full-stack HR manager? You’d lose.
One year ago Flixbus put up a job ad looking for a Full Stack HR Manager Los Angeles (m/f). N.B. the ending á la Berlinois. Anyway, it seems they’ve found their candidate to fill the gap. Their reviews are good and the copy is still at an ok level…
Mehr licht!
- 16–Hero
Now this one is positive. Yet, if only a HRM Hero can do the job, and you need to hire a dozen. Then your culture sucks, dude. So anybody taking your offer is a hero in your eyes.
Hand on heart, I didn’t expect hero dropped on HR. Couldn’t be more wrong. OppLoans put up a job ad 2 days ago for Senior HR Manager dropping this line:
“You will be our hero on the People Team who challenges us on how we attract, select, develop, reward, and retain talent.”
Which sounds strange since they have good employee review scores. Even their copy is scoring low on the bullchute index:
I’m sure the guys can do better.
- 17–Aficionado
via tenor.com
Yo habla espanol, si tequila, senorita. You see even I speak Spanish in the right context. Apart from the fact that the first synonym offered is ‘addict’ and amateurism is coming at a close second. I’d say steer away from job ads stained with this term.
I had a hypothesis that this will be a Northern American thing.
Urban Outfitters Europe — still American all right, only advertising for an EU HQ position — were looking for a URBN — Head office — HR Assistant. Leading with a straight “Be our admin aficionado” 3 years ago. But their employee reviews are okay-ish.
Exceptional — as compared to the competition.
A year ago the aficionado fever popped up in British Columbia, Canada too. Where ConeTec — a privately held civil engineering firm — was looking for a Human Resources Manager. Or, as they put it, “a driven and innovative HR aficionado.” Yet they sport good reviews.
Blablameter.com readings are not good though.
Then early this year Monkedia — a Digital & Social Media Agency out of Irving, Texas. Advertised for a HR Manager position starting off with the incriminating question:
“Are you an HR aficionado?”
Yet, they can hold up an okay review average on Glassdoor.
Their job ad copy is also ok — concerning the competition.
- 18–Wrangler
Implied cowboy bravado aside, here’s what wrangler means:
n. One who wrangles or disputes; a debater; especially, an angry or noisy disputant. n. A stubborn opponent or adversary.
Anyway, here are the first finds:
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Kraftivo (an Indian interior design startup) was advertising for a Human Resources Wrangler. Mo reviews found, and blablameter couldn’t make head or tail from the keyword cloud.
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Automattic (as in Wordpress et al.) ought to be the godfather of the term. N.B. I must make another write up to trace back all these crazy job ad terms. With a handful of HR Wranglers already on board, it was easy to find a job ad too from 7 months ago. Still, their reviewers would recommend them to a friend in 94% of the cases. And their bullchute index is bearable at…
Not bad compared to the competition.
- 19–Sorcerer
Quite popular in profile titles. Especially, as a funny typo thing amongst Talent Sourcers.
Let the famous last two lines of Cyrano’s famous monologue serve you as a stark reminder though:
“I take them from myself all in good part, But not from any other man that breathes!”
Yet, two recruiting agencies have put on the cape and hat. At least for one job ad each.
Velvet Jobs, int the US advertised for a fashion client recruiting a Talent Acquisition Co-ordinator. Dropping the “position self as a talent sorcerer” expression in the responsibilities basket. The client’s NPS score is at a solid 86% so you may leave the wand behind. Left the BSI analysis out here as it’s not a direct job ad.
Join — Digital Talent Agency, from sunny Israel, has entertained with a short Recruiting Manager job ad for a client. Dropping the S-word not once but three times. In a total of 157 words.
Bonus — the all-rounders
Bonus — the all-rounders
Here’s a quick sampling of the job ads where they either include a multiple of the keywords. In the job ad copy. Or even in one expression — like success-obsessed results ninja. Quoted from the Atlantic article.
And the prize for most bullchute in a sentence goes to…
via tenor.com
AskNicely for introducing the term “world-class HR aficionado”. Which translates to being top percentile almost-like-a-pro-amateur (ewgh.)
Method & Hypothesis
Method & Hypothesis
I wrangled with this write up a lot.
First, I had a premonition that the people involved:
Recruiters, talent sourcing specialist, HR managers, founders–will not take away any value from this. And self-serving puns seldom work. Then I figured they’ll tell me soon enough.
Second, with the bullshit index, I figured it would make sense to take the job ads apart. Why? The requirements felt like bullshit to a layman — what the blablameter.com algorithm. Also, there may be a difference between bullshiting about who we are (about us.) And bullshiting about you (about you) or bullshiting about the role.
So I figured I need to remeasure the different parts. And then run the text through some other tools too — for sentiment analysis, etc.
This is for a follow up though.
My working hypothesis on the necessity to use buzzwords in job ads that do not add to clarity is:
Quality of Culture [1] is inversely proportional to the likelihood an unusual descriptor used in the job position advertised makes sense.
[1] reflected by employee reviews and quantified by Glassdoor. Not sure yet if the overall review average — on a 1 to 5 scale — or the recommending to a friend is a more descriptive quantifier of the quality of culture.
Parting thoughts
If you are a hiring manager or talent sorcerer (ahem, pun intended I meant recruiter.)
Please re-read your job ads — after reading the Atlantic article I linked in the beginning. Then figure a better way to present the product you’re marketing. In a technical way instead of sprinkling a handful of buzzwords over the job ad.
Ask or survey candidates who reply to the job ad if they liked it, understood it and if they would recommend the job (based on the ad alone) to their friends. Then the reason behind their answer to drill down.
Who knows they may tell you what exactly made them interested.
If you are looking for a job, try to stay clear from these “opportunities” — if that’s an option and you don’t have to take ANY job.
If they don’t communicate clearly outward what can you expect internally? How can you live up to expectations impossible to meet? Or you straight don’t want to comply? Remember, ninjas were covert agents or mercenary killing anybody for money. Also deemed dishonorable, at least by the samurais of their time.
If you are a data/success-obsessed, ninja, guru, world-class rock star who can 10x whatever you touch. Then you why on earth read this far? It ain’t worth your time.
Happy Halloween!
P.S. Come on you don’t think I spent all these hours only to entertain? Yes, I did. The tool-set I set out to build for job searchers — in the HR space. Won’t attempt to influence any of the Talent sourcing teams to stay away from fancy terms in job ads. When the position or culture lacks more meaning or impact. But at least this post may reassure you. That you need not bleed on a battlefield to survive and thrive in a Human Resources related position.
- Fair warning, this post is 6 years old in 2025, so you’re better of contacting me with whatever P.P.S. Yes if you are working in the HR field you’re kindly welcome to jump on the * ##closed## Early Access survey. And help me build something cool and useful for your next job search.
More of me on twitter (easiest to engage) LinkedIn (connect) dezsopapp.com (a bit of everything.)