I've learned that putting on airs and having a lot of pride are not conducive to good management.
Humility is.
Ask HN: What is the thing you've did as a manager that you regret the most?
31–32 of 32 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've did as a manager that you regret the most?
#32I didn't trust my instinct and hired a guy that was a pathological liar. Almost ruined the whole company. This was during the dotcom bubble and programmers where hard to come by. My company didn't pay as well as the (soon to be bankrupt) flashy dotcom firms. I really needed people and I let myself think "OK, he is odd, but maybe it's just my bias". His office soon turned into a dump, he didn't show up to important cu…
Did the person do anything specific during the interview process that suggested the problems you ended up having? Just thinking someone is "odd" can be the result of, as you say, bias.
He looked like he was right out of bed. But it was mostly a feeling. I had recently hired a high school dropout and an immigrant who barely spoke our language. Both turned out great. Did not have the warning sounds go off during their interviews.
That period was strange. I got applicants with Microsoft certification in SQL Server who couldn’t explain the simplest SQL query.