[mwd_]

Just the other day I saw a job requiring "3+ years iPad experience".

I understand the appeal of hiring somebody who needs minimal training, but they may still not be the best pick. When it comes to a long-term position, it is better to hire the great developer who takes two weeks to get up to speed with some language or technology than it is to hire the mediocre developer who happens to have used Node.js or whatever.

[tomjen3]

That is nothing. DHH posted a tweet about a company that required 7 years of rails experience.

The key to overcome that is to not give a fuck and just apply anyway. I applied to countless jobs right out of University that turned me down, but that didn't matter since more than one didn't. Nearly all of them expected more experience than I had, but again it is just meaningless HR talk.

[joe_the_user]

But that in itself isn't new...

When Java was young, I remember many tales of Java job advertisements demanding experience extending back before the language existed.

My impression is that the current insanity isn't so much the absurdity of the bureaucratic demands but the degree to which people take them seriously...

[pyre]

I'm pretty sure these instances (which I remember hearing about too) are just example of how out-of-touch HR is. Someone says:

  I need a developer with 10 years of professional
  experience, and he needs to know Java.

HR hears:

  Developer with 10 years of Java experience

That, and we all know that sometimes the job listings are just there so that they can say that they tried to find other applicants, but the friend-of-a-friend is actually the 'best fit' for the job (i.e. those job applicants are designed to fail).