How are project requirements usually communicated to developers?

I just got my first ‘software’ job in a very small company and the boss often communicates deliverables casually in verbal conversations and then gets frustrated when I don’t know what to do or even when I ask a lot of questions for clarification. Is this standard in the industry? It really doesn’t seem like it should be. I can’t solve problems if I don’t know what the problems are that I’m supposed to solve. Any thoughts on this, or some advice?