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It seems that companies and recruiters are all about giving a job description and asking if someone is interested in the position to respond.

However these descriptions very very rarely provide any clue as to the company's culture and/or benefits. Why is this?

How would a candidate know if they are interested or not just based off of the requirements?

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  • This may be a duplicate but it seems true they do not seem to want to provide detail about benefits. You might get 401 contribution but medical is often just described as 'excellent'.
    – paparazzo
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 17:10
  • Not sure which location you are in, but in this part of the world it is quite common (or at least it is not very very rare) for companies to mention their benefits and work culture in the job description. A number of companies even mention the expected salary range.
    – Masked Man
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 17:11
  • I'm in the United States. Looking on indeed, or LinkedIn, or talking to a recruiter, I typically see a job description which usually describes the duties of the job, but not often what the benefits are (vacation, flex time, etc), and it's awkward when i respond to a recruiter with something like "I'm willing to work on their products for at least x amount of salary, y amount of pto, health insurance for my family with z deductible/copay/coinsurance and a monthly premium below v amount, flex time, and free parking".
    – Bardicer
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 17:18

2 Answers 2

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It's a "progressive disclosure" thing... Don't confuse matters with benefits information before you've established they're interested in the position, and you're interested in having them fill it.

Most people are first interested in the work, then in the benefits. You rarely see someone saying, "I want to work in a place with a 401K, dental, vision and free snacks. I don't mind doing nothing useful and staring at a blank wall for 10 hours a day to get those benefits."

Once an company and a candidate agree this might be relationship that will work, benefits come into the picture to help seal the deal (or break it).

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  • Right, but you rarely see someone saying "I would love to work 10 hours a day tethered to a computer while my coworkers have shiny laptops and flex time for 20k a year". It just feels like it's a matter of "Whose time is more valuable".
    – Bardicer
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 18:24
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    @Nick We've both given extreme examples that are unlikely to actually happen. The reality, though, is that discussing benefits is moot until you've established that the candidate can do the job, and wants the job. Then, benefits become a very important detail to consider.
    – Kent A.
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 18:43
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  1. It's not always true that job postings don't include benefits. I've seen job postings where benefits are mentioned reasonably frequently. Public sector jobs often mention them, where salary might be lower but benefits better than private sector jobs.
  2. You can often find out benefits a company offers from the company site. Here is a specific example. Benefits are usually the same across a company, so it makes little sense to put details in every job posting. Which brings us to:
  3. Benefits are often very detailed, and would make a job posting much longer. They might also be negotiable to some degree - a senior person might be entitled to more time off.
  4. Job postings are intended to attract people, and most people aren't interested in the benefits - at least not until they have established that the job is one they are interested in and qualified for.
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    I'd also add that for large-ish companies, job descriptions are generally written once and reused whenever that sort of opening comes up while benefits often change year-over-year.
    – Justin Cave
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 18:51

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