In looking for contract opportunities I end up reviewing job postings from a number of different sources every day.  In general I have developed a few key “flags” that, when seen, make me move on – no matter how interesting the opportunity sounds.

Take for example this job posted on craigslist for a “User Experience Business Analyst“.  I actually came across this job opportunity through another avenue, though that avenue did not let me know that Fujitsu was involved, nor that the domain was related to transit.  It is not that rare to come across relatively secretive postings on one site only to be able to find additional details about the job on another site.  Sometimes the parallels are relatively obvious like specific position names or the wording of the position’s responsibilities. Other times the positions just “feel” the same. You develop a sense for these things after a while, I suspect.

This position sounds right up my alley – UX is a key component of business analysis. It is nice to see the overt combination of responsibilities in a single role. So how is this an example of a “flag” posting? What about it makes me say “Meh, too bad”, and move on?  Let me quote the posting … there’s something important right down there at the bottom.

Please address all email inquiries in .doc or .docx (WORD) format…

If your company only accepts applications that require the use of proprietary and expensive software, that in the end does not assure me that my resume, cover letter, and portfolio will look exactly the same on your monitor as it does on mine … well … that actually speaks deeply to a corporate culture that I am not interested in participating in.

Too bad, it looked like an interesting contract ….