This is getting all freaked out over nothing. It's standard and the sign of an organization that has their shit together (at least from a hiring standpoint) to post the technology requirements in a job posting, even if one assumes everyone knows how to use Word.

You've never worked for, or maybe even with, a big HR department, have you? This is all boilerplate.

Just today I was looking at the SAM website calendar and saw the typical sort of error message which I associate with that world-class organization: Microsoft JScript runtime error '800a1391'
'dateToday' is undefined
C:\INETPUB\SAMNEW\EXHIBIT\../calendar/calendarFormat.inc, line 53

Wait till they're asking for demonstrated proficiency with Twitter.

You know, I'm in school for this stuff, and these requirements eliminate a lot of folks I deal with on a daily basis.

@5, there's no such thing as "proficiency with Twitter". Proficiency in this case means "not using Twitter".

Is there a single person at the Stranger that is proficient with Access? Outside of possibly the sales department, I'd wager no.

@ 1, 5 Agreed.

I am a recruiter and I can tell you that HR departments routinely require that information that might seem standard be included in job descriptions for a variety of reasons, mostly to avoid the possibility of litigation. Legalities surrounding what can and cannot be included in a job posting can be complex and it behooves an organization as large as SAM to make their job descriptions comprehensive and in line with local, state and federal regulations.

Frankly, I am surprised that The Stranger hasn't had complaints filed against them every time they post an ad for an internal position.

@8: I'd say Excel would come close to falling in that category, too.

Who uses those things anyway?

I mean, most of what they do can be handled on an iPhone and/or an iPad

Sounds more like Art of the 20th Century.

Modern and Contemporary should be looking for someone proficient in Twitter APIs and Google Docs.

@11, the iPhone and iPad are devices, not programs. I don't recall seeing "Microsoft Access for iPhone" anywhere, why do you suppose that is?

@13 because clothes are optional.

Duh.

Well Jen, did you apply or not?

I was thinking exactly what 2, 9 already said. Are there previous iterations of the job description (or descriptions for similar jobs) that are actually like "prose poems and polemics" so we can compare?