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"There's no "cultural fit" requirement. If you have a skill we like and you can learn and work with a team, you'll get on fine here. You'll be our company culture, and we welcome your contribution."
How would you approach solving ? Dig into their solution for its technical merits, downsides, pitfalls, etc. But, more importantly, pay attention to how they react when they are challenged, whether they overcomplicate things or whether they hand-wave around real problems. Do they know when to say "it depends" or "I don't know"?
You can get a "right" answer and still "fail" the test. My feedback will basically be, "This person is smart and I can't justify saying 'no' but..."
The "cultural" question is "Do you want to work with this person?" So try working with them not at them.
Here's how to pass most startup cultural fit tests: Avoid strong opinions even if you're asked. The interviewers themselves may be crapping on emacs, PHP, design patterns or whatever so you may be tempted to voice your own, but it doesn't go both ways. Don't get too comfortable. You'll be offered coffee. Drink it. Don't refuse beer either. Fake a liking if need be. After work drinks are mission critical. Make sure yo…
Ask questions that go to socioeconomic background. 5 decades of sociology research have shown that skin color is a fair proxy for this. College rankings work too. Newsworthy culture fit problems at e.g. uber could have been solved out of the gate by not hiring those pesky women. They bring the majority of culture-fit litigation. Sometimes you can't tell if someone is not biologically male just by looking, so consider…
> College rankings work too.
no they don't, not in many cases. some of the most brilliant, creative, hard-working and generally awesome devs/leads I've met wouldn't pass through this simply because they did choose a different university/different path in their life.
For me, it's always been just to make sure the person isn't toxic to other employees
From some other comments I skimmed: I think it's a bonus if you have opinions on software. I want to hire people that challenge the team to grow and challenge me to grow with their differing opinions. It is very important as to how that opinion is conveyed though.
Here's how to pass most startup cultural fit tests: Avoid strong opinions even if you're asked. The interviewers themselves may be crapping on emacs, PHP, design patterns or whatever so you may be tempted to voice your own, but it doesn't go both ways. Don't get too comfortable. You'll be offered coffee. Drink it. Don't refuse beer either. Fake a liking if need be. After work drinks are mission critical. Make sure yo…
What do you mean by not too Indian?
These are things I've heard other white dudes complain about at work.
I was caught a bit off-guard when the interview pivoted towards inclusion and diversity. I stumbled through some questions which, in hindsight, were geared around determining if I was a "brogrammer". The questions were very open-ended like: "How do you deal with diversity?" and "How do you accommodate other's working styles?"
Speaking with HR after the interview the company their definition of "cultural fit" was much broader than just work or programming style. The company is extremely interested in building a talent pool that is diverse in all ways (age, gender, ethnicity, etc...) and viewed the engineering practices as something that can be taught.
Their belief, if you invest in good people who like their jobs then they will build good products. And if those products are good then the company will make money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you mean by not too Indian?
Don't stink up the dining areas with your Indian food and then eat it with your hands whilst only hanging out with your Indian coworkers speaking in whatever Indian dialect you're speaking. That or wearing 7 gold rings and chains or have some weird image on your desktop of an 8 limbed elephant Goddess you venerate. Don't say "Yes" while bobbing your head left-to-right, that means the opposite to Westeners. Don't say…
I just went through the interview process for a management role at a company in which they stressed the importance of "cultural fit." I assumed this meant I would be evaluated for my ability to work within a startup vs the traditional large enterprise companies I had been working for over the last few years. I was caught a bit off-guard when the interview pivoted towards inclusion and diversity. I stumbled through so…
I don't understand these kind of questions, culture shouldn't play a role as long as core values are shared (like honesty, empathy, humility...) The rest should be irrelevant in the workplace
Assuming you're asking about assessing cultural fit, we do a couple of semi-overt things. First, we make sure that every interviewer, including initial contacts and phone screens, offers the candidate a chance to ask their own questions and I make it a point to state that "you're picking us just as much as we're picking you". From the questions the candidate asks, we get some insight into what's on their mind and the…