Red Flags You Need To Look Out for in Job Descriptions

Let’s face it, trying to find a job nowadays can be exhausting, and many of us are guilty of just looking at the title and salary of a job listing and hitting “Apply.” However, if you take an extra moment to look for a few key phrases and warning signs, you can easily differentiate a good job from a terrible one. To help you avoid exhausting or toxic jobs, let’s look at some red flags you need to look out for in job descriptions.

An Exhaustive List of Requirements and Responsibilities

We’ve all seen these job listings before. A long list of job responsibilities and application requirements indicates that the company wants you to do multiple jobs for a single person’s salary. This suggests that the company doesn’t know the kind of employee they’re looking for and doesn’t care if you burn out because of it. Certainly, a job listing for a social media manager may require you to make slide shows or deal with spreadsheets occasionally, but you shouldn’t have to be the entire marketing team.

Vague or Missing Pay Information

If a job description doesn’t include or mention salary, in some way, they’re expecting you to do work for free, so don’t bother reading the rest of it. An extremely wide salary range is another red flag. If a listing states you can make anywhere from $40k to $120K a year, those are two entirely different lifestyles and tax brackets. Again, they don’t know who they’re looking for, and likely don’t know your worth because of it.

Signs of Poor Work-Life Management

Aggressive, stress-inducing, and urgent language or cutesy, flowery, or overly joking language indicates that inappropriate behavior will likely occur somewhere down the line. These are signs that there are poor boundaries in their work environment, and they’ll probably run you ragged. This behavior is often toxic and can be an early marker of a hostile work environment. Avoid job descriptions with phrases like “here, we’re family,” “must be a self-starter,” “in urgent need of,” or “don’t apply if lazy.”

Excessively Long Interview Process

The interview process should be as efficient as possible, and there should only be two interview rounds. Anything more than that indicates that management is indecisive and, once again, they don’t know what they’re looking for. Sometimes, it’s a sign of a lack of respect–they’re comfortable tossing you around and wasting your time, which is not the kind of company you want to work for.

Ultimately, the most important red flags you should look out for in job listings are any signs of indecisiveness or boundary-breaking. In today’s job market, you have to have a level of negotiation skills and be able to market yourself, but you should never run yourself ragged for people that don’t truly care about you.