You’re List of Skill Requirements Is Upside Down

Ever had to write out a list of required skills for a job advert? Ever read a list of skills for a job advert?

Whatever list of skill requirements you have come up with where you put in order of importance the required skills for the job, it is guaranteed that you’re listing everything in reverse order.

Here’s a sample ad I have pulled directly from from Craigslist.

• PHP & Object Oriented PHP (MUST have a minimum of 2 years experience)
• Python/Zope Framework (MUST have a minimum of 2 years experience)
• AJAX (MUST have a minimum of 2 years experience) 
  Subversion experience a plus
• Experience with CMS concept and design, particularly Joomla!, Drupal and Plone
• CMS Templating – Joomla! and Plone (MUST have a minimum of 2 years experience)
• Working knowledge of Relational Database Concepts
• Ability to design and extend database schemas to meet new client requirements
• Ability to write clean, reusable, and well-documented code
• Experience administering LAMP environments
• Strong knowledge of XHTML / Web standards
• Strong knowledge of XSLT
• Ability to re-factor open source code
• Experience with e-commerce platform and CMS integration

And here is how it should read:

• Experience with e-commerce platform and CMS integration
• Ability to re-factor open source code
• Strong knowledge of XSLT
• Strong knowledge of XHTML / Web standards
• Experience administering LAMP environments
• Ability to write clean, reusable, and well-documented code
• Ability to design and extend database schemas to meet new client requirements
• Working knowledge of Relational Database Concepts
• CMS Templating – Joomla! and Plone (MUST have a minimum of 2 years experience)
• Experience with CMS concept and design, particularly Joomla!, Drupal and Plone
• Subversion experience a plus
• AJAX (MUST have a minimum of 2 years experience)
• Python/Zope Framework (MUST have a minimum of 2 years experience)
• PHP & Object Oriented PHP (MUST have a minimum of 2 years experience)
  

Everything that is at the top of the first version can be taught, can be read in a book, is trivial to learn by anyone who is familiar with software development and will be utterly obsolete in just a few short years. Almost everything (with the exception of perhaps XSLT) at the top of the second list is difficult to teach, difficult to master and will last you throughout your entire software development career.

When you are thinking about your next hire, write out what you want, then reverse the list. That’s what you should be hiring for.