So post two openings to close the gap?

“Junior: pay$ Senior: pay$”

You say: "I'm looking for engineer #2 or #3 for my YC startup and I'll pay 95k for junior or 185k for senior."

The next question is "what does junior mean" and "what does senior mean".

There's always another question

If you're looking for a "junior" and you don't know what a "junior" means, then that's your problem, no? I mean, if you are willing to pay X for position Y, you (your company) should know exactly what you are looking for.

Otherwise you are just fishing and see what happens. Not bad, though, but I don't think that's an excuse for "can't list salaries in job ads"

The concern isn't knowing that "junior" mean. The concern is explaining it well in 150 words or less.

> Is posting 95-185k really that useful?

Yes. I immediately know that you are not looking for me (which is fine).

If your singular job listing can somehow match both a junior and senior you are just fishing for a good deal, not actually looking for what you need. People looking for senior engineers are usually pretty direct about it.

Like others said, > 1 job listings for what you actually need.

This.

I am looking for software developers. Could be junior or senior (or any of the infinite varieties in between), tho productivity differs for them.

Not complicated

Single digit employees can’t be really considered “junior” regardless of their experience since you are looking for people that would literally build your company from scratch.

Whilst experience is important it doesn’t not directly correlates with competence as you’ve also mentioned.