1Sep24 Bad Job Bingo

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In this issue:

• Get Hired

  • Green Means Go

  • Eh, It’s Probably Fine

  • Tread Carefully

  • BINGO

  • Seriously, Maybe Don’t

I’ve got a bit of a rollercoaster for you in this one.¹

Everyone please be seated, fasten your harness, and keep hands and feet inside the ride.

Hold on tight, here we go!

Get Hired

I play Bad Job Bingo with every job listing that appears in the Roundup and categorize them according to how well (or poorly, if I hit Bingo) they do in the game.

However, please remember that a job appearing in a positive category isn’t an endorsement of any role or company, and a job appearing in a negative category doesn't mean I think you shouldn't apply if it works for you. Bad Job Bingo is simply an effort to give you a shortcut to finding roles that may match your needs and values.

These and past contestants can be found at Support Human Jobs.

Green Means Go

No flags, or green flags only! A true unicorn.

• Customer Success Engineer (No comp given) at Eppo (Remote EMEA)

  • The Careers page is pretty basic but straightforward. They link to a How We Work deck in the job description, which is very informative; plus, they have two women on their pretty diverse 6-person senior leadership team, one of whom is head of product!

  • This role seems like a neat combination of success and support.

  • If you’re a customer champion, passionate about solving problems and leading strategic initiatives to enhance the customer experience - you’ll bring tremendous value to our customers and team. — Love how they phrase this – focusing on the positive attributes candidates already have!

  • Represent the customer voice as a member of cross-functional bug prioritization meetings with the Product, Engineering, and Design teams — Just the existence of this kind of team is a green flag.

  • Even the application is short and funny: "(3+2 = ?) Tell us you're not a robot without telling us you're not a robot."

  • Yes, I am putting this in Green Means Go despite no salary transparency, only because the hiring location is Europe / Middle East / Africa, which is so broad that it makes giving an actual salary range genuinely difficult, and everything else is just positive signals.

  • Look at me being all benevolent and shit today.

  • (Steph’s note: LOL, watch how long that lasts.)

• Support Engineer ($106k-$127k) at Grafana Labs (Remote US-Western, Central, Eastern time zones)

  • I really like Grafana's Careers page – it's informative and earnest, and their company values are thoughtful and well-articulated. Take this bit:

    • We’re a startup; we’re far from perfect. Get super comfortable with things not being perfect, while continuing to hold high standards for yourself and the team.

  • This is what it looks like to actually explain what a "fast-paced environment" means in your company instead of relying on the cliche. Good job, Grafana.

  • I do wish they wouldn't describe benefits as perks, but that's a minor issue in context.

  • We’re looking for an experienced, versatile, and highly motivated Support Engineer to join the team. — Do you see how you can describe the qualities you're looking for without resorting to ableist language? Good job, Grafana. Don't let me down.

  • (I'm sitting here chanting to myself: please, no fast-paced environment, please have salary transparency, please don't try to change the world, please, please, please!)

  • A willingness to learn and aptitude to master our products and become a trusted advisor to our customers — Y'all. They just...describe what they want. They're not asking for "intelligent rockstars!" I'm verklempt.

  • This is great from start (Careers page) to finish (refreshingly practical and down-to-earth EEO statement and job application). The salary is fantastic. Good job, Grafana. You've earned that Green Means Go!

  • There are more open Support Engineer roles at Grafana over on Support Human Jobs, make sure to check them out!

Eh, It’s Probably Fine

A few flags popped up, but no serious ones.

• Technical Customer Success Manager ($140k-$160k) at Kong (Remote US)

  • U-First Fridays Get 4 hours a month for continuous learning with a book, podcast, or course of your choice. — Wow, four whole hours a month? How generous.

  • Silence those notifications. Enjoy some well-deserved long weekends where the entire team unplugs. — Um.

  • Build a home office environment tailored to support your productivity. We’ll help foot the bill. — Every "benefit and perk" feels more red-flaggy than the last.

  • If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others. — I will give them credit for putting this before the job description and for the welcoming way they phrased this. Most companies put this last, if they include it at all, so Kong gets points on this from me.

  • And any additional tasks required by manager

    • I always worry a little when this gets tacked on at the end of a duties list – it's not necessarily always a red flag, but it's worth asking why a company felt the need to add it.

    • Is the company understaffed overall so that everyone needs to wear numerous hats at little notice? Is the management team understaffed to the point that they have to delegate management tasks to direct reports? Is it something else?

    • The answer to these questions could be your catnip or your kryptonite, so don't just assume you know what it means!

  • Strong desire to tackle hard technical problems and proven ability do so with little or no direct daily supervision — I also like how they phrased this! They explain what they want instead of relying on "self-directed/independent team player" or ableist language.

  • Experience managing multiple projects at a time while focusing on attention to detail and deliver results across multiple initiatives such as driving expansion, customer satisfaction, feature adoption, and retention — Making grammatical errors / typos in the same sentence as requiring attention to detail will never stop being funny, no matter how many times I see it.

  • I'm going to put this in Eh, It's Probably Fine, not because we're ignoring the red flags (I'd recommend asking further about them in interviews), but because the green flags show that they are trying.

  • Kong shows their heart in their values and the job description. I can see the shape of what they're trying to do, so I'm willing to extend the benefit of the doubt and assume they'll grow over time. I guess we'll see what I hear and how they fare in future JDs!

• Community Support Specialist ($81k-$101k) at DuckDuckGo (Remote US, CAN, UK)

  • I'm going to state up front that I think DuckDuckGo wrote a good job description, their Careers page is excellent, the benefits look great, the hiring process is transparent and progressive (paid projects!), and I think the position is probably fine.

  • However, I think they're asking this role to do a lot of things, and unless they're hiring more than one person through this listing, I'm worried about the long-term success and energy of whoever ends up in it.

  • Also, given they're asking for 5+ years of experience, I also think Community Support Specialist is too junior a title, and I'm on the fence about whether the compensation is adequate for a high-stress, actually more senior role like this.

  • These aren't concerns such that I would put this job in Tread Carefully, but I would bring them up if I were interviewing for it.

Tread Carefully

Didn’t quite hit bingo, but there were several yellow flags or more than one red flag.

• Customer Success Manager (No comp given) at Root Global (Onsite Germany-Berlin)

  • Beyond entrusting us with their capital, our angel investors act as mentors and sparring partners for our early team members in their corresponding roles. You will benefit from: A dedicated mentor with whom you will build your personal relationship;

    Regular sparring sessions whenever you see fit; Adhoc

    Q&A where needed — *MC voice* Ladies, gentlemen, and variations thereupon: here we have the latest and greatest in corporate employee management: Sparring sessions! For when verbally berating your employees just isn't enough. The beatings will continue until performance improves.

  • You have experience with carbon accounting, climate strategies - or you have none of those and just have a knack for learning new, complex topics and distilling them for others. — I appreciate this bullet – it shows the company cares about overall ability rather than specific skills (which can be taught).

  • Aside from the above, the job description itself is pretty neutral, but I don't think the weird sparring bit from the Careers page can be overlooked and there's no salary transparency, so into Tread Carefully it goes.

• Technical Support Engineer (No comp given) at Orderly Network (Worldwide)

  • This JD was clearly written by someone for whom English wasn't their first language (or it was run through Google Translate), so I want to be clear that this isn't me critiquing their English skills.

  • However, I think it's fair to be concerned that they don't communicate any language requirements or explanations for why the job description is in English when it's very obvious the person who wrote it is not a native speaker.

  • What language(s) will you be expected to speak in the working environment? How will you ensure that there's no language barrier between yourself and the rest of the team so that you can communicate clearly?

  • As an employee, there is no greater perk than having a top supporting cast to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. — I mean, I can think of greater "perks," like fair pay, healthcare coverage for myself and my family, time off to spend with said family...

  • I don't know, y'all; my spidey sense is tingling with this one. It could be nothing, but just...tread very carefully.

BINGO

Welp.

• Customer Experience Agent (“Competitive” comp not given”) at Tilt (It is a mystery)

  • This is the first bullet in their Culture section:

    • Seriously fast-paced and challenging.

  • I don't know why companies write stuff like this without explaining what it means. Do you really want candidates filling in the blanks here? Do you think that's going to go well for you?

  • There's not a ton here, but what is here points to BINGO: no benefits, no salary transparency, and not-great culture signals.

• Customer Experience Representative (No comp given) at Solace (It is a mystery)

  • One day I'll stop being so suspicious and cynical about healthcare startups, but today is not that day.

    If the job descriptions mentioned tiny little things like compensation and benefits, I might not judge them so harshly, but it doesn't. So given:

    • Poorly-edited job description requires attention to detail

    • "Ability to adapt & thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment"

    • "Ability to multi-task and be self-directed under pressure"

    • "Team-player who is unafraid of feedback" - Job listing doesn't mention benefits at all

    • No compensation / salary range given

    • Asks for a video (in the application)

  • This is a BINGO.

• Customer Success Manager (No comp given) at Guidewheel (It is a mystery)

  • This is a rare case in which you can actually see which roles a company deems valuable and which they don't, because some roles on Guidewheel's Careers page have salary transparency and some don't. It's actually pretty funny, in an uh-oh kind of way.

  • There seems to be a misalignment between the duties of the role and its title (and probably salary, too, but we don't know what that is, sooooo.)

  • I thought this was probably otherwise okay until we hit the "Personal Characteristics" section, which was just one red flag after another. Not to mention the "What's In It For You?" section contains no actual benefits, and we've got ourselves a BINGO.

Seriously, Maybe Don’t

Don't say I didn't warn you.

• Vice President, Customer Care (No comp given) at Therapy Brands (Remote Certain States)

  • Application is on Workday. My condolences.

  • to make their lives simpler and more officiant — There's an error you don't see every day.

  • I'll take "Which job description was written by AI?" for $1000, Alex.

  • Are you a dynamic leader ready to shape the future of customer support and education? — Like...all of customer support and education? The whole shebang?

  • This is how I can be relatively confident that AI wrote this job description: the whole paragraph is written in the hyperbole-filled style of an AI that doesn't know the practical boundaries of the position for which it's composing a JD. Plus, the Summarizing Phrase: Wordy Bullet Point pattern is laughably familiar at this point.

• Also, you should do a general internet search for Therapy Brands. The results are...not good, particularly in light of the fuss they make about how awesome they are on their Careers page. Here's the sample from their Google reviews:

  • "Customer and employees are treated like absolute garbage."

  • "They do not care about your practice or the quality of their services."

  • "They have no idea how to conduct billing services."

• Given that, the lackluster JD, and lack of information about salary or benefits, I'm putting this in Seriously, Maybe Don't.

• Manager of Technical Support (“Competitive” comp not given) at Siena (Remote Certain Cities/States/Countries)

  • Okay, I am...very not objective about this company. I am actively hostile to the product and the way Siena markets it: simulated chat conversations on their homepage in which they are clearly encouraging companies to deceive customers into thinking they're talking to humans and not bots and intentionally and repeatedly positioning their product as a replacement for human support agents.

  • So it is galling – to say the least – to see Siena hiring human support for their product when they're happy enough for it to fuel an exaggerated AI craze that's led to a CX employment crisis everywhere else. The words irony and hypocrisy come to mind.

  • Thus it is unsurprising that Siena has no Careers page to speak of, just a list of their job openings. Why worry about being candidate-first? I'm sure there's an AI for that.

  • making a real impact in automating agentic workflows — Making up words in addition to making up "humans.”

  • join us on our mission to revolutionize customer experience through empathetic AI — *starts box-breathing exercises*

  • We're direct and honest: We believe in straightforward, truthful communication. We say what we think, clearly and respectfully. — Does that include being honest with customers when they're talking to a chatbot and not a human?

  • As Manager of Technical Support, you will be responsible for managing the technical support team within our customer success organization. — What technical support team? I thought you have Siena for that. Is this position just bossing the bot around?

  • In this player/coach role, you will help to deliver world class support to our global customer base. — Ooohhh, so Siena's good enough for other people's customers, but not to deliver "world-class support" for your customers. Got it.

    • (Shall we infer that "world-class support" means "support actually delivered by humans?")

  • We're a startup. We can't offer you fancy offices or extra perks. But here's what we can offer — How about, I don't know, JUST REAL FUCKING BENEFITS. Who (oh, who am I kidding, what) wrote this? Have y'all dove so far into the AI Kool-Aid that you can't even remember that a real person will be in this job and need little things like healthcare and dental? WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU.

  • At Siena, we’re not just looking for people who can do a job. We’re looking for people who want to break boundaries, create the future, and reshape industries. — I can't, y'all. Snark overload. I CANNOT.

  • There's also a Customer Success Manager role open at this company but I absolutely refuse to subject myself to more of this nonsense.

  • (I should note that I don't begrudge the humans who work here. People need jobs. That's kind of the whole basis for my beef with Siena.)

UPDATE: A reader whose opinion I greatly respect felt that I was being too harsh with Siena in some places, since 1) they don't offer technical support (as far as we can tell on the website) and 2) since Siena is the vendor and not the one making decisions regarding how their clients present the bot to customers. (I hope I've fairly represented your points, friend! Feel feel to lampoon me in the comments if not.)

This is fair criticism, and I think it's only fair that I explain my big words up there. I am, and have been, very harsh with Siena.

It's true that they don't have much control over how their clients choose to use their product, but they certainly have control over how they market and position their tool. This matters because it inarguably influences how customers talk and think about their product (and about "AI" in general, which does not, at this moment, actually exist).

It’s understandable if you feel I’m being pedantic here, but these definitions matter. Siena features testimonials calling the bot "her," their examples include simulated chats between customers and the bot, which is given human names and personas with no indication that it’s really a bot, and they make claims all over their website about how empathetic the bot is.

The bot is not “superhuman,” as Siena claims at one point on their website, nor is it empathetic (both of which are impossible) – it's a very advanced next-word predictor. Siena certainly understands this, and acknowledging this wouldn’t make the product any less effective at what it does, and yet, they’re marketing it as “superhuman AI” because it is both expedient and very, very lucrative to contribute to the AI craze.

Which, cool, that’s their prerogative. But either Siena is positioning their tool as human-like enough to replace actual human agents, or they're not. They can't have it both ways.

I find it frustrating to see a CX product marketed this way and then see that same company hire human support agents to, in their own words, "deliver world class support," and I'm going to continue to criticize that unrealistic marketing / positioning and the effect it's had on the CX job market, regardless of whether it’s intentional or unintentional on the part of the company.

Agh, sorry reader friend, you know how I get worked up. This isn't aimed at you at all, but at the company itself. I guess I should close this by reiterating: I am very not objective about this company.