So I'm job hunting for the first time in thirteen years, and one thing that stands out is that most jobs these days are 'Hybrid'.
LinkedIn lets you filter on hybrid working, giving a choice of three options: On-Site, Hybrid, and Remote. The first and last of these seem pretty obvious, but 'Hybrid' seems to cover everything from 'In the office four days a week and we let you work from home on Fridays as a special treat' to 'Come in the office once a month if you feel like it'. The extremities of this scale also overlap with 'On-Site' and 'Remote'.
The problems come when jobs posts (and company recruitment sites) don't actually say what 'hybrid' means for the role, so you don't know whether to spend time applying for it. The job is two hours away, and going in once a week would be fine, but I don't fancy doing that pretty much every day.
I'm also not really sure if:
- They are being deliberately vague, as they aren't actually sure what 'hybrid' means for the company in the long term, and it may change in the future and you'll be back in the office five days a week. Credit here for companies who actually say this explicitly.
- They are assuming that everyone does hybrid in the the same way that they do, so it doesn't need to be explained. Which makes you wonder what else won't be explained to you. Not a good look.
- The recruiter doesn't actually know. Maybe different departments or site have their own local ways of working.
The last of these probably isn't a bad thing. Experience in my last job showed that different teams responded differently to the return to the office, and teams that spend their days interacting with other teams are happier to come in than software developers who want to be left alone to write code.
So I guess the tl:dr is that it massively helps candidates if job posters explain what they mean by 'Hybrid' by saying something like 'Hybrid: Tuesdays/Wednesdays in the office' rather than having us guess.
Wolfchip Electronics Limited - Vice President
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