Back in those innocent times, an ad for a manager would say the applicant would be required to manage and an ad for a supervisor would say the applicant would be required to supervise.

A quick reading of the ad was enough for the reader to determine what it is they would be doing during a typical day in the workplace – and by doing so, the reader could make a decision as to whether they wanted to apply for the job.

But then something changed.

Position vacant ads started to become more wordy, but less clear; to say more, while managing to say less.

Rather than being a wish list of skills and abilities, the ads seemed to become a competition among businesses and companies to see who could jam the most jargon into their 200 words.

Which brings Parade to an ad for a local government position which appeared in the metropolitan media last weekend.

“Are you an authentic leader who utilises vision and innovation to drive a performance culture?” the ad asks.

The answer to that, Parade reckons, is “I have no idea”.

The council in question, the ad says, is looking “to bring an authentic values driven executive leader to its team to continue to build on its success”.

That rules out all the inauthentic values driven executives, Parade assumes.

The successful applicant, the ad concludes, will demonstrate their success through their “commitment to building capability and capacity in people, systems and resources to drive performance”.

That seems a bit more complicated than demonstrating your success by increasing revenue or cutting costs, Parade reckons.

Parade read the ad three times and was no clearer at the end about what the job entailed than he was at the beginning.

He’s almost tempted to put in for the position – if only to satisfy his curiosity. But what would Parade do if he was the successful applicant?