My Dear Niece Snakeash,

When the moon hangs as a blue-grey orb in the night sky, this fair winter evening let us dwell and marvel at the mystery and power of the seemingly lowly job posting.

As you cut your teeth and sharpened your horns in the hallowed halls of talent acquisition, you are entirely already aware of the might of this under-appreciated tool of tools.

Much like the hammer can both fashion, and raze, great works, the job posting possess limitless ability to create and destroy—these being key hallmarks of a competent human resource professional.

Let us look at the birth of a job posting to see if we can divine more than its oozy inception.

Like all good things, a proper job posting should be given life in committee. Now, it’s true, there are bastard jobs out there that were the genesis of overly motivated individuals (we have discussed that particular ilk ad nauseam), but let us focus on those with the correct pedigree i.e. they ticked every box and gilded every inbox with its mere presence.

These postings, which truly are all things to all people, then are posting to job boards, employment websites, and across the varied job and recruitment corners of the internet.

Because these proper postings have been vetted in committee, they (much like a Sunday fetter fattened calf) are quite plump indeed. Juicy in detail and explanation.

Verily, The potential applicant will know EVERY EXCRUCIATING FACET OF THE JOB AND INNER WORKINGS OF THE ORGANIZATION after they are finished absorbing the posting via their unblinking eye.

But one teensy detail will be missing.

That unblinking eye will search ceaselessly for it. But this effort will be fruitless as the detail is simply not there: the pay.

Why hide the pay?

It doesn’t matter how approved a position is. Nor does it matter how the budget was long established before the posting was posted; the beauty in hiding these 2-3 digits (and occasionally the letter ‘k’) is that it swings the balance of power in perpetuity in our own claws hands.

A proper job posting has the power to both create and destroy; use them unwisely.

McCraven le Fluer, Sub 13 Hellfire Poet

When the applicant pours their heart and soul (assuming, of course, the applicant does not work in HR and still is in possession of said soul) but does not glean what their pittance would be for the fruits of their labor, a not-insignificant portion of their will, motivation, and drive dies right there.

For they will know yours is an organization that would instead pinch pennies, discourage salary transparency, and play mind games with its employees than…well, not doing any of those things. 

Abundantly yours in abundance,

Aunt Toutlips

Author Notes