Job adverts are written by people trying to attract as many suitable applicants as possible while committing to as little as possible. That tension produces a peculiar dialect, one in which certain phrases have drifted a long way from their literal meanings.
None of this makes employers dishonest. Most of these phrases are simply conventions, and a few of them are written by someone in a hurry who copied the last advert. But learning to read them properly saves you from applying for jobs you would hate, and tells you exactly which questions to ask about the jobs you want.
The money section
"Competitive salary": This means no number has been published. Occasionally it hides a genuinely good offer that the employer does not want competitors to see. More often it means the figure is unremarkable, or that they want to know your expectations before revealing theirs. Treat it as neutral, then find the number early: it is entirely reasonable to ask for the range in your first conversation.
"Salary depending on experience" or "DOE": There is a band, and where you land depends on negotiation. This is a signal to research your market rate before you speak to anyone, because the band's upper end is usually reachable and rarely offered first.
"OTE 60,000": On-target earnings. This is base pay plus commission or bonus if you hit every target, and it is the most misread number in recruitment. The only question that matters is what the base salary is, and what proportion of the team actually reached target last year. A large gap between base and OTE means most of your income depends on things partly outside your control.
"Uncapped commission": Genuinely attractive in a strong sales role, and meaningless if the base is low and the targets are unrealistic. Ask what the average earner made last year, not what the top performer made.
"Salary reviewed after probation": A review is not a rise. If the number matters to you, ask for the review date and criteria to be written into the offer.
The requirements section
This is where candidates disqualify themselves most often, usually unnecessarily.
"Essential" versus "desirable": Take the essential list seriously and the desirable list loosely. Desirable items are a wish list, and employers routinely hire people who meet none of them.
"3-5 years of experience required": This is a description of the expected level, not a threshold. It exists to signal that the role is not entry-level and not senior. If you have two years and can evidence the responsibilities described, apply. Hiring managers relax stated year counts constantly for candidates who match the actual work.
"Degree required": In regulated professions this is literal. Elsewhere it is often a filter someone added years ago and nobody removed. If the rest of the advert describes work you have genuinely done, it is worth applying and letting them decide.
A requirements list of twenty bullet points: Nobody has all twenty. Such lists are usually assembled by combining the wishes of several people, and they describe an ideal that does not exist. The rule of thumb is that if you meet roughly two thirds, you are a real candidate.
"Must be able to work under pressure": There is pressure. That may be perfectly normal for the industry, or it may be a warning that the team is understaffed. The way to find out is to ask what causes the pressure, and what the busiest week of the year looks like.
The culture section
"Fast-paced environment": At best, genuinely energetic work with variety. At worst, chronic understaffing and constant reprioritising. It is not a phrase to avoid, it is a phrase to investigate: ask how many people are in the team, and whether the role is new or a replacement.
"No two days are the same": The role is loosely defined. Some people find that liberating and some find it exhausting. Ask what a typical week actually contains, and if nobody can answer, believe the advert.
"Wear many hats": Normal and often enjoyable in a small company, where everyone does a bit of everything. Worth more scrutiny in a large one, where it can mean absorbing work that used to belong to a role nobody replaced.
"We work hard and play hard": Long hours with social obligations attached. If your life does not have room for the second half, note that it is being advertised as part of the deal.
"Like a family": Sometimes real warmth, especially in genuinely small firms. Sometimes a preamble to blurred boundaries, since families do not have contracts or overtime rates. Neutral on its own; telling in combination with the phrases above.
"Rockstar", "ninja", "guru": Mostly a sign the advert was written in a hurry or by someone imitating startup language. Not a warning about the job, but rarely a sign of a carefully considered role.
The urgency section
"Immediate start": Someone left suddenly, or a contract was won and work is already piling up. Neither is bad, but both mean you may arrive to an unfinished handover and no time to learn the job gradually. Ask why the role is urgent, and whether the previous person is still available for handover.
"Multiple positions available": Genuine growth in some companies; heavy turnover in others, particularly in call centres and commission-based sales. Ask how many people the team hired last year and how many are still there.
"Ongoing recruitment": The advert is always live. That usually indicates a role people do not stay in for long.
The benefits section
"Unlimited holiday": Attractive in principle, and in practice it depends entirely on whether managers model taking leave. Where they do, it works. Where they do not, people take less than they would with a fixed allowance, and it removes any payout for untaken days when you leave. Ask what the average taken last year was.
"Equity" or "share options": Potentially valuable, frequently worth nothing. Before assigning it any value, ask about the vesting schedule, the strike price, and what happens to your options if you leave before an exit event.
"Flexible working": Ranges from full autonomy to being permitted to leave early once a month. Ask which days, how many, and whether the flexibility is contractual or at a manager's discretion.
"Free snacks, table tennis, team socials": Pleasant, and worth noticing when they appear instead of substantive benefits rather than alongside them. A long list of perks with no mention of pension, leave or salary is a choice about what to emphasise.
What is missing tells you as much
Read for absences as well as content:
- No company name. Common with agencies and not sinister, but it prevents you from researching the employer. Ask which company it is before investing time.
- No salary band at all. Increasingly out of step with expectations, and in some places now a legal requirement to publish.
- No description of the actual daily work. An advert made entirely of adjectives and requirements, with nothing about what you would do, often reflects a role nobody has thought through.
- No named contact or hiring manager. Not a problem in itself, but a named person is a small sign of an organised process.
What a good advert looks like
It is worth knowing the positive signals too, because they are genuinely informative about how the company operates.
A good advert publishes a salary range. It describes the actual work in specific terms rather than listing adjectives. It separates essential requirements from desirable ones and keeps the essential list short. It explains why the role exists, whether it is new or a replacement. It names the team and who you would report to. And it sets out the hiring process and rough timeline, so you know what you are agreeing to.
An employer that writes like that has thought about the role, and usually about the person doing it. In a stack of vague adverts, one written this way deserves a properly tailored application.
Use the advert as your question list
The practical value of decoding is not cynicism, it is preparation. Every ambiguous phrase converts neatly into a question for the interview, and asking those questions makes you look like a careful professional rather than a suspicious one.
"Fast-paced" becomes "how big is the team, and is this a new role or a replacement?" "Competitive salary" becomes "what range is budgeted for this position?" "Immediate start" becomes "why is the role urgent?" You get the information you need, and the employer sees someone who reads carefully and thinks ahead. Both of those are exactly the impressions you want to leave.
