One of the things that had impressed me about the company was that in their jobs postings they had mostly avoided the unfortunate tendency of many companies to be overly specific in their hiring specifications, focusing on things like years of experience with specific software tools — often to the detriment of attributes that matter much more. In their job posting for an electrical engineer, for example, they are looking for things like “(experience in) integrating electrical and electro-mechanical mechanisms in a small consumer product,” “exceptional skills in CAD for circuit simulation and logic design,” “experience designing, executing, and documenting experiments and presenting the data to management in a clear manner,” and “ability and personality to take responsibility for several projects at one time.”

The job listings today are still better than most, but they are a little too credentialist for my taste — too much “degree in ______ from a top-tier university.”