… you sure do have to spend a lot of time proving yourself to people who have arbitrarily decided that they will stand in judgement of you despite no evidence of seniority in formal or informal senses, or, not infrequently, considerable evidence of inferiority in formal or informal senses.

That’s actually what this job ad makes me think of: wasting my time on status games rather than on getting the job done. I don’t know what form of words I’d use, but I’d prefer to see quality, pride in work(wo)manship and a good amount of challenge centred, not “we will make you re-prove yourself from scratch” hazing kind of language.

You’re right – it’s my personality, not my gender, that is really turning me off this ad and I’m someone who presents as masculine but is in fact female. The original statement though came from someone who is female and felt that this ad was pushing her (and women like her, not ALL women) away from startups. She’s allowed to feel that way and it doesn’t erase anyone.

Oh my god! Really? I’m sorry if you’re not assertive/pushy enough to deal with this environment, but there are plenty of WOMEN who do–and thrive on it, too. Female socialization isn’t an excuse. When you associate this type of behavior with maleness and assume that this kind of environment isn’t suited to women, you’re saying to me that women can’t be this way or aren’t “naturally” this way (very retro!), and that’s backwards and sexist and only reinforces stereotypes about how women act. Repeat after me: this ad is unappealing to you because of your PERSONALITY, not your GENDER, and if you say otherwise you’re erasing women who don’t act like you.

*There aren’t that many places where people who are driven and aggressive can work successfully and where those traits are valued.* Most jobs shun people who act like that, especially women who act like that, and those jobs are fine for people who don’t want to work with other aggressive types. This type of meritocracy, even if it depends on things other than raw skills, is a breath of fresh air for some of us.

(To me, however, this ad loses its appeal because of its grammatical mistakes. It seems very unprofessional and suggests a lack of effort.)

If it was a start-up composed of a bunch of well-adjusted people (ie: work/life balance) who like to work hard for a good cause that would help a lot of people, where profit was not the end goal and the company started with and maintained gender parity at the very least if not a higher percentage of women, and where there was stability (ie: not going to be fired at the drop of a hat) as well as highly engaged, intelligent, and driven staff then I would totally want to get on board. Oh ya, I also would want opportunities for advancement that were clearly laid out. The “flat management” thing sounds like you just make a lot of money for one guy.

In my experience, “we’re so edgy” is a means to lure the naive and exploitable.

If I wrote a job ad for a start up, I’d write about why the thing the company did was worthwhile, how I’d integrate the people (throw then into the deep end and throw bricks at them? how charming. Also, how does that get 12 people coming in to a probably none too large project in a short period get up to speed about the project? Mythical Man-Month, anyone? if the job is anything better than isolated code-monkeying, their projected method won’t work, even if they get the greatest dozen of experienced people ready to hit the ground running; there needs to be -some- coordination). Yet another thing is that people who don’t do anything but work and sleep go stale really fast; a wise manager kicks her people out of the office at least on weekends, even at crunch time. If you write “we’ll have your car cleaned for you” it oughtn’t be followed by “so you can work even more” but by “so you can spend your off time really unwinding and recharging”. I don’t want a team of a bunch of newbies that I burn up like a stack of fire wood, I want a team of excellent professionals who boost each other and run together like a Swiss clock. If you write “we’ll have your car cleaned for you” it oughtn’t be followed by “so you can work even more” but by “so you can spend your off time really unwinding and recharging”. etc etc

“We’ll abuse you. We’ll expect you to take it. But your stock will be fabulous!” No. Life is too short to work with assholes.

Whenever I do job interviews, my first “do you have any questions?” answer is “Are you having fun?” The answer to that question tells me a lot — not just what they say, but how they say it. “I’m having fun because I am CRUSHING AND KILLING AND NEVER HAVE TIME TO BREATHE!” makes me edge away slowly.