We mostly focus on _work_ culture. Is the developer a move fast and break things dev, but your culture is more of a move slow and do it right? Do they focus more, less, or the same as other employees on tooling. Are they about always pushing the latest greatest, or are they more focused on stability, and which do you need. Do they have a big problem with collared shirts? Polos? are those in some way a business need for you? Do they have a big need for work from home but your workplace doesn't presently provide that?
Ask HN: How do companies go about getting cultural fit with a candidate?
51–58 of 58 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do companies go about getting cultural fit with a candidate?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know? I'm trying to be frank here. You can't really dance around these issues. I know this because I've sat in many hiring sessions and interviewed many people. By the time you've shook someone's hand and they've uttered their name it's already 50% made up in people's mind if they're gonna hire this person or not. Welcome to the shit show. I'm just giving a heads up for some poor dudes that wanna "play the ga…
We make decisions about people within the first second of meeting them. Read here: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-many-secon... There is no way around this. Everyone does it.
You could be aware that you do that and counteract it in any way? For example I saw this and my reflex interpretation was that you were extremely dumb, but instead of just saying that I thought maybe they just haven't thought about using their conscious mind to affect their behavior.
Re: Ask HN: How do companies go about getting cultural fit with a candidate?
#53I had a friend who was present in interviews at a hedge fund in London where the standard first question was 'where do you ski?' When she quit, they asked her what it would take for her to stay. She asked for an equality policy and BOOM! A big cheque fell in her lap and they thanked her for her contribution.
Dammit, never thought about this - but as the alps are only a 1h drive away, most of the people I grew up with did learn to ski at some point in their life. Alas, it's not London.
Re: Ask HN: How do companies go about getting cultural fit with a candidate?
#54Just had an aha moment, where I realized that I might have been using "cultural fit" as a proxy for "work ethic".
Then again I don't think we've ever used the exact term "cultural fit" in my team.
Re: Ask HN: How do companies go about getting cultural fit with a candidate?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
We make decisions about people within the first second of meeting them. Read here: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-many-secon... There is no way around this. Everyone does it.
You could be aware that you do that and counteract it in any way? For example I saw this and my reflex interpretation was that you were extremely dumb, but instead of just saying that I thought maybe they just haven't thought about using their conscious mind to affect their behavior.
Why? I provided an argument with a source. Also, I wasn't saying that those feelings were immutable; I was just stating the fact that we make somewhat-lasting impressions very quickly on first glance, and those impressions can take time to change.
Re: Ask HN: How do companies go about getting cultural fit with a candidate?
#56I recently learned that the concept of cultural fit was originally about being a fit for the process and work culture, not about being best friends with one's teammates. What does that actually mean? Well, for instance, someone who wants or needs to be told exactly what they're expected to do and how to do it is not a good cultural fit for us - we need people who can show initiative and direct their own work. Someone…
A simpler version: Can you fit into our micro-society?
I think a bit less about "can you fit into our society?" and more about "can you produce effectively given certain constraints and reward structures?"
Re: Ask HN: How do companies go about getting cultural fit with a candidate?
#57"Corporate culture" is weird.
In my experience it's useful for teams to share some "culture" -- some shared expectations so not everything has to be communicated explicitly.
On the other hand, it's kind of useful that different teams have different cultures and some between-teams attrition goes on in meetings related to larger projects. Think "marketers versus engineers". It's important that these mutually contradicting views clash!
Also: I've had the bad experience of the buddy-chuminess of team culture gradually drift into flirting and then into unsustainable sexual tension, complete with big fight and months of really bad communication. But note this: we've been able to work through all that storm, and now we're on pretty good speaking and collaboration terms. This only worked because we were cogs in a seven-ish-cog-machine and the machine could grind on with insufficient lubrication between two cogs. (This is a bad analogy because it seems that the more cogs the better, but there's a sweet spot...)
Re: Ask HN: How do companies go about getting cultural fit with a candidate?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could be aware that you do that and counteract it in any way? For example I saw this and my reflex interpretation was that you were extremely dumb, but instead of just saying that I thought maybe they just haven't thought about using their conscious mind to affect their behavior.
Why? I provided an argument with a source. Also, I wasn't saying that those feelings were immutable; I was just stating the fact that we make somewhat-lasting impressions very quickly on first glance, and those impressions can take time to change.
You don't have to change your feelings you just need to be aware of them and change your behavior. The moment we become aware of our cognitive biases is the moment we gain the capacity to work against them. It's great that you identified a cognitive bias, but it's not enough to be aware of bias, you need to correct for it. This way your behavior lines up with how you see yourself, and who you want to be. You can correct for a bias you presently have, even if you haven't overcome it. For example I might be biased to say yes to every question, but equipped with this knowledge I can use my conscious mind to correct for this bias, even though I still have it!
As you behave against the bias this will slowly work to correct the biased expectations, because you will have new experience that contradicts previous assumptions.