Facing a ‘physical’ to land a job is alien to IT candidates, though apply to Vulcan to manage vintage computer systems and it’s an assessment you might discover.
According to a full-time vacancy posted by the firm, owner Paul Allen, Microsoft’s co-founder, wants a classical systems engineer to meet certain “physical demands.”
Most of the ad seems normal enough; duties like installation, troubleshooting, maintenance, and operation of vintage systems, including PDP-10, PDP-8 and PDP-11 computers.
But scroll to the bottom of the page, and Allen appears either spooked by health and safety law or keen to suggest that older people are necessarily suited to older systems.
“While performing the duties of this job the employee is regularly required to stand; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; talk or hear and smell.
“The employee is frequently required to walk and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl,” the ad says, without explaining why.
And in a minimum job spec that conjures up images of systems dotted around a big top at the circus, the ad states “the employee is occasionally required to sit and climb or balance.”
