[dgabriel]

"Excellent communication skills," is a meaningless throwaway line. Does it mean "not an asshole", or "fluent in <company language>", or "able to craft client emails", or "presents at conferences"? Why bother putting that in if you are not excellently communicating what you exactly mean?

[pekk]

It, uh, means you can do stuff... like you can communicate on the job... err.... or write clearer job requirements...

[aaron695]

> "Excellent communication skills"

This is an absolutely ridiculous thing to put in a job advertisement in the first place.

So they want someone who has an English major or a communications degree?

I suspect not. It's pure fluff that's meaningless and points to a badly written job advertisement by someone inexperienced.

Reality is you want someone who is OK at communicating, fits with the team and excellent at their job, which is Web Design.

[Myrmornis]

"not an asshole".

[kazagistar]

In which jobs is this not a requirement?

[PeterisP]

Sales? I mean, there is some positive correlation between efficiency of a salesman and various asshole-y characteristics such as intentional misleading (and feeling good about it afterwards), ruthless competition at all costs (including moral costs), not keeping promises after the check has been cashed, etc.

Not for all organizations, but for many sales depts it's exactly what is needed and wanted.

[SimHacker]

Groupon sales rep: http://eater.com/archives/2013/08/19/groupon-sales-rep-alleg...