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“Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

rachelbythebay.com

81–90 of 133 posts

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#81

Any kind of "fit" should be a two-way street but it usually isn't (or maybe it's nine lane super highway one-direction and pitted gravel road in the other direction). They have lots of money that they might spend on your arguably good skill set. You have a bit of money you might use to hold out until one better fit comes along. They (for a sad portion of "they") can afford crappy "fits" in terms of competence if it f…

It's relatively easy to find another job in tech. You should always be aware that you can, in fact, peace out of the culture or a boss is shitty.

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#82
post #4

Cuture fit is a blank check to fail a person's interview just because you didn't like them in the first 30 seconds. Short of the candidate showing some glaring interpersonal issues (I once had a guy who used the word "fuck" during his interview like 100 times) it is categorically impossible to establish in a 45 minute interview whether a person is actually a "fit" or not. So it's mostly a legitimized form of hiring b…

candidate showing some glaring interpersonal issues (I once had a guy who used the word "fuck" during an interview like 100 times) That sounds less like interpersonal issues and more like a tic disorder.

If it were, I'd understand. I'm quite aware and accommodating of autism spectrum issues. But the guy was just arrogant and acted with an unwarranted degree of familiarity towards me just because we're from the same country. I'm of the opinion that where the candidate was born should buy them absolutely nothing. Many interviewers don't share this opinion BTW. Some will give overt preference to their compatriots, possibly on the account of "cultural fit".

It didn't help that he didn't do well on the coding question either. In the end I only mentioned the "fucks" in passing in my feedback, and disqualified him on technical merit.

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#83
post #55

> Look at a statement of equivalence. You might say that "A is equal to B" or "A == B". There are two "flows" going on there: A has to match up with B, sure, but B also has to match up with A. Weird way to describe the symmetric property of equality from discrete math 201

Math? Me? Not so much.

If it sounds like some profound theorem then I assure you it’s entirely coincidental.

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#84

Any kind of "fit" should be a two-way street but it usually isn't (or maybe it's nine lane super highway one-direction and pitted gravel road in the other direction). They have lots of money that they might spend on your arguably good skill set. You have a bit of money you might use to hold out until one better fit comes along. They (for a sad portion of "they") can afford crappy "fits" in terms of competence if it f…

It's relatively easy to find another job in tech. You should always be aware that you can, in fact, peace out of the culture or a boss is shitty.

That's highly tied to geography

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interesting read. The article has a dead link to something Anton LaVey wrote called "NOT ALL VAMPIRES SUCK BLOOD!". I'm not a Santanist and had never read it before, but it's pretty spot on. https://www.e-reading.club/chapter.php/73307/20/LaVey_-_The_...

And now I know where the "energy vampire" from What We Do In The Shadows draws inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nyZqO0AclU

That reminds me of the old video from The Onion called "Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work" from '09.

"Invite your friends over to see if one of them can figure out this fucking god damned fucking time vampire."

That was the first time I heard the term "time vampire" and have been using it ever since. I don't think this tangent is fully off topic.

https://www.theonion.com/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-s...

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#86
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually ask the questions differently: "Is it worth being paid $X to work here?" "What is the likelihood I'll be paid $X elsewhere" And if they're paying a lot of money, I can tolerate the crappy working conditions -- I first heard of this a couple decades ago as "crying all the way to the bank." A CEO that comes in to fix a company has a similar question. "It's going to be a nightmare to turn this company around,…

Interesting. I'm asking this question myself right now (crappy management+high stress but good pay/stock options). Of course the $ amount to satisfy 'worth it' differs for each person. Can you share your personal experience? How did you go about answering this question of 'is it worth it'?

I've seen this posed the other way. "How much money would it take to have me quit immediately?" On bad days, a grand or two would do it. But I guess this a combination of both love/hate for your job and any current financial commitments..

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

candidate showing some glaring interpersonal issues (I once had a guy who used the word "fuck" during an interview like 100 times) That sounds less like interpersonal issues and more like a tic disorder.

It is possible to have personality traits that are not a medical diagnosis.

Absolutely. And if he was swearing occasionally, I'd say it was a personality trait. But swearing 100 times in an hour? That's rather extreme -- and a high stress situation like an interview is exactly when such a disorder would show up the most.

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#88
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually ask the questions differently: "Is it worth being paid $X to work here?" "What is the likelihood I'll be paid $X elsewhere" And if they're paying a lot of money, I can tolerate the crappy working conditions -- I first heard of this a couple decades ago as "crying all the way to the bank." A CEO that comes in to fix a company has a similar question. "It's going to be a nightmare to turn this company around,…

Interesting. I'm asking this question myself right now (crappy management+high stress but good pay/stock options). Of course the $ amount to satisfy 'worth it' differs for each person. Can you share your personal experience? How did you go about answering this question of 'is it worth it'?

So a large percent of people have a crappy job and work with crappy people and have crappy bosses. The last century of management still hasn't solved that issue, so it's likely going to be an issue for the next century.

I ask myself these questions:

1. Do I have a life outside of work? "Yes" is a good thing. But "No" is not a deal breaker.

2. Is my identity of myself too entwined in the corporation? If "yes" it's time to do things entirely unrelated to work. They're paying me to do work, not sit around and stew how unfair they're treating me after all the loyalty I've shown them.

3. Are the people there decent human beings that don't know how to manage, or are they back stabbing assholes? The former is far more forgivable than the latter. Once the culture of back-stabbing starts, you're not gong to fix it ever.

4. Are the hours you're working actually making a difference? IOW have you been told to work 60 hours a week on a project that got canceled? This one is rough, because you're not getting those hours back, nor are you going to get to get a bonus for working hard on a canceled project. At what point did it become clear things weren't working?

5. What does my job enable me to do that I couldn't do without it? Expensive hobbies or travel?

6. Is work/life balance a two way street? "Yes" awesome. Again a "No" is not necessarily a deal breaker. Many people have jobs they need to be on call for or stay late for.

7. Am I growing? Am I learning how to deal with difficult people? Or is this a wasted amount of energy?

8. How long does it take me to reset from "anger" and "frustration" to calm and productive? If I can't leave in the evening and forget about work then something's wrong.

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#89

Throwaway account for obvious reasons. I’m mid-way through my first experience with this. Some warning flags to add for anyone wondering if it’s them or you: - You’re beginning to wonder if it’s you that’s crazy, despite successful previous roles. - Their conversation has moved from “we” to “I” (or “you” and “us”). - Your number of known unknowns (usually people- or business-based) suddenly spikes for no apparent rea…

I've had that (the gaslighting) happen to me so many times. "You didn't do this assignment" "Er, yes I did, here it is" "Well, you didn't keep me up-to-date on it" "Er, here are my weekly status report e-mails" "But you know I don't read my e-mails" Huh? Another good one was the following: I had assigned one of my reports a task before going on vacation. During said vacation, my "manager" pulls said report from that…

You know that landlord who tried to keep your deposit by dinging you on everything, especially normal wear and tear?

Yeah, I've caught managers doing the same thing. I may have opportunity to call them on it coming up.

Re: “Culture fit” is a two way street (2018)

#90

This is a great post and so spot on. At some point in my career my 'review prep' (which was the time I spent working on my own evaluation of my year at a company) became answering the question, "Do I still want to work here?" I categorize my 'review' in four sections (which are each rated at one of five levels, needs improvement, sometimes meets expectations, meets expectations, sometimes exceeds expectations, or con…

Can you please put your CIP idea into a nice blog post, so that I can refer to it more easily.

The best post in a year.

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