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Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

voss.world

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Re: Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

#91

Post by TheCoelacanth »

mizaru wrote: post #67
pjc50 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, indeed. Traditionally those have been used to discriminate against people. To the point that any competent HR department will ban you from asking women interviewees about children.

In some countries (e.g. Germany), asking such questions violates labor law.

In the US, the questions are not per se a violation of the law, but you are treading on very thin ice because using the answers to such questions in a way that has a disparate impact on anyone because of their gender, age, family status, religion, etc is a violation of the law, even if you did not intend to discriminate against people on that basis.

Re: Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

#92

Post by TheCoelacanth »

soft_dev_person wrote: post #10
quanticle wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that strategy is that all too often, "smart people you'd like to work with" equates to male, white, upper-middle-class, with a fondness for beer.

So all interviewers are male, white upper-middle-class with a fondness for beer? Good to know.

If you replace "white" with "white, Indian or east Asian" then you are pretty darn close.

Re: Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

#93

Post by munin »

lexicality wrote: post #8
heisnotanalien wrote: post #3

I sort of like the sentiment but this sort of interview, at least for me, would feel a bit too personal. Look I'm not your friend so let's not pretend that's what this or you just really want to get to know me. No. You just want to know if I can do the job so just get me to do a task which meaningfully reflects what I'd be doing day-to-day then ask me questions about it.

Do you not try to be friends with your colleagues? You spend about a third of your life at work, it seems to me that you should try to make it as enjoyable as possible.

there are some mega weirdos out there and sometimes it's best to just not ask.

"hey, what'd you do this weekend?"

"well, my friends and I run a historical re-enactment society where we all go to this remote retreat in the mountains, dress up as Nazis, and pretend that they won World War 2."

and you know what, if it was possible to just hold your finger down on the "rewind time" button for 15 seconds to just never ask this kind of friendly question, life would be so much easier. how do you reply to this? just stay out of other peoples business if you have to work with them.

Re: Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

#94

Post by clavalle »

eric001 wrote: post #88

Wow.. I feel super provoked by the question "What's cool about you?". I wonder why..

Probably because being 'cool' is highly subjective and of marginal, perhaps even negative, relevance to doing valuable work.

It is presumptuous and pretentious: 'Are you good enough by my own arbitrary and vague standards to be around me' is the underlying question.

Re: Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

#95

Post by tamana »

hvidgaard wrote: post #17
soft_dev_person wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being friends with colleagues can lead to less enjoyable work situations, not to mention less focused work. Being friendly should suffice, not all of us want to get too personal with the same people we might need to have professional arguments with. We're all different.

I'll share a bit of wisdom my son shared when he was 4 or 5. In kindergarden they talked about what a friend is, and he said after some thinking: "A friend is a person you can disagree and fight with, and still play with later".

A professional is someone you can disagree and fight with, an still work with later.

Re: Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

#96

Post by GVIrish »

humanrebar wrote: post #39
reflexorozy wrote: post #4

This sounds like a cool idea, but I've seen where hiring for personality often leads towards hiring discrimination. I think it's more likely to reinforce the lack of diversity in tech than to combat it as people unlike the interviewer tend to be viewed less favorably and would be less likely to be viewed as a person who could pick up the specific knowledge he/she doesn't already know.

> I think it's more likely to reinforce the lack of diversity in tech than to combat it... I have mixed feelings about this. I have a hard time valuing diversity for its own sake, especially since there are so many qualities to have diversity in, and especially since the ones that actually affect the organization (like diversity of perspective) are so hard to measure and quantify. That being said, it's hard for me to…

The problem the parent post is pointing at is that personalities differ among different groups of people. So that guy who may seem a bit taciturn and therefore, "not a good cultural fit" may actually be a great employee, it's just that in his cultural group it's not normal to be super bubbly and talkative when you first meet someone.

It's not about quotas or diversity for diversity's sake. It's about recognizing that we all bring our own cultural lens to a situation and not being aware of how that influences your perception can lead to judging great people more negatively because they're not like you.

The challenge is that one has to be self-aware enough to recognize their own biases and still make some value judgments on personality.

Re: Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

#97

Post by lazyant »

So candidates where preparing for "what's your biggest weakness" and now they have to prepare for a twist of the also common "tell me about yourself"? again this question filters for people who practiced the question and are enthusiastic (or fake it).

Re: Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

#98

Post by pc86 »

lazyant wrote: post #97

So candidates where preparing for "what's your biggest weakness" and now they have to prepare for a twist of the also common "tell me about yourself"? again this question filters for people who practiced the question and are enthusiastic (or fake it).

I'm not sure what your complaint is. You will have a better time passing interviews if you are comfortable talking about yourself - strengths, weaknesses, experiences, goals, etc.

Enthusiasm is good. Faking enthusiasm is still better than crossing your arms and demanding you be judged on your GitHub profile alone and not have to answer questions about yourself.

Re: Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

#99

Post by pc86 »

mizaru wrote: post #67
pjc50 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, indeed. Traditionally those have been used to discriminate against people. To the point that any competent HR department will ban you from asking women interviewees about children.

In some countries (e.g. Germany), asking such questions violates labor law.

Just out of curiosity, does it matter what the questions are actually about? Even in the US if you ask a woman if she plans on getting pregnant you're going to have issues. But I would imagine if a woman was answering a general "tell me about yourself" type question and mentioned her kids, the interviewer might ask a follow up, particularly if they have a similar interest or something (obviously staying away from "so are you going to have more?" or whatever).

I'm a guy so I've never been asked about kids until after being hired, and even then just conversationally at lunch.

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