Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

1-on-1 meeting questions

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 313 posts

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#221

Post by artsyca »

RotaryTelephone wrote: post #63

My 1on1's at a 100k+ international corporation always went like this: Manager: so how's it going? Me: great Manager: any issues? anything you want to discuss? Me: everything is fantastic! I'm very happy with my job :D Manager: cool cool... well let's do this again next month. Me: yay! I don't want someone in a similar situation like I was to get inspired by lists like these and go into their next 1on1 wrecking havoc…

Love your cynicism bro but you gotta realize that's only the beginning of the realization you still haven't decided which pill you're going to choose

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#222

Post by rgoulter »

m_b wrote: post #12

Can someone point to me the goal of using NodeJs to produce a list like this? Why not just modifying the .md file directly?

I suspect the dev wanted to make the list available in a readable format (markdown) but also have it on a website elsewhere.

TBH since the markdown is in a simple format of "# " + "- ", having the JSON seems redundant over just reading in the markdown.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#223

Post by titzer »

Forge36 wrote: post #157
huhtenberg wrote: post #144

> How are your parents/grandparents? "Grandparents are dead. Parents are divorced. Father is a roaring alcoholic, mother is on a death bed with cancer. Also they are both A-grade assholes that made my childhood miserable." Really sets the mood for the rest of the interview, doesn't it? In other words, stay the hell away from any personal questions.

Thank you for your honesty. It sounds like you aren't close with them. There is nothing wrong with that. Do you have anyone you are close with to talk about things? Is there anything going on in your personal life you need to deal with which may be impacting your work? IE: I care about more than just the work you do, I care about you. I'd like you to be happy and know more about your life to ensure when you turn into…

There's a bit of a thread below, but I'll just reply here.

I was a manager for a few years. People vary. Some people don't want to talk about their personal lives, and having their managers try to drag it into a work scenario can be anywhere from annoying to infuriating. Some people don't want another therapist. Sometimes work for those people is therapy, is a kind of escape.

My advice: don't ask about your reports' personal lives at all, unless they are brimming with it. Keep a professional distance. Don't try to become close friends if your relationship starts off as report/manager. You can tell them up front a version of this that is not standoffish. "I'm your work manager. If you are having any out-of-work issues you want to talk about, you can, but don't feel obligated, please. I am going to respect your privacy and not proactively ask." Professionalism is the default. They will respect that.

Resist the urge to be a terrible psychologist.

But, of course, do watch for warning signs.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#224

Post by [deleted] »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #137
anonred wrote: post #120

Questions aside, I honestly thought the steps to submit a new question was satire... Contributing 1. Fork it 2. Run npm install 3. Add your resource to questions.json 4. Run node index to update README.md with your changes 5. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature) 6. Commit your changes (git commit -am "Add some feature") 7. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature) 8. Create new Pull R…

If they ever make a website for the collected data, consuming JSON is less brittle than parsing a README file.

[deleted]

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#225

Post by KKKKkkkk1 »

inerte wrote: post #201
huhtenberg wrote: post #144

> How are your parents/grandparents? "Grandparents are dead. Parents are divorced. Father is a roaring alcoholic, mother is on a death bed with cancer. Also they are both A-grade assholes that made my childhood miserable." Really sets the mood for the rest of the interview, doesn't it? In other words, stay the hell away from any personal questions.

No, don't stay away. That's not how these things happen, anyway. You don't start a relationship exploring anyone's childhood and family issues, you start by asking: "So how was our weekend?" And then if people, and most of them do, say things like "oh cool I took my son to the park / watch the game" or "my parents are in town", then what you do next week is ask: "So, how's your son?" And if they start talking, and mo…

> But let me tell you as a manager who had dozens of reports over the years, I never met a single person who has refused to talk about their spouses, children, or hobbies.

How often do your subordinates say "no" to you in general?

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#226

Post by artsyca »

RotaryTelephone wrote: post #63

My 1on1's at a 100k+ international corporation always went like this: Manager: so how's it going? Me: great Manager: any issues? anything you want to discuss? Me: everything is fantastic! I'm very happy with my job :D Manager: cool cool... well let's do this again next month. Me: yay! I don't want someone in a similar situation like I was to get inspired by lists like these and go into their next 1on1 wrecking havoc…

[flagged]

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#227

Post by koonsolo »

jstummbillig wrote: post #98
koonsolo wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a strange, helpless way to look at the world. Employment is not a boss->servant relationship, it's a relationship where both parties gain something. You offer a service, and they pay for that. End of story. They act out? Then you find someone else who needs your services. As a programmer myself, I'm in this great position where there is a shortage of good developers, and plenty of companies searching for good de…

It's a realistic depiction of how this thing works (albeit for different reasons than the opposite of what you imply). The issue is that employees, in general, are much, much worse at the employment game than their respective employer. This makes a lot of sense: Your employers job, after reaching some level, is to employ the right people (and even beyond that to hire the right people to hire the right people). That's…

I agree with you, and therefore I made that post. Because in my opinion, most of that disadvantage is in the employees head.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#228

Post by koonsolo »

denkmoon wrote: post #210
koonsolo wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a strange, helpless way to look at the world. Employment is not a boss->servant relationship, it's a relationship where both parties gain something. You offer a service, and they pay for that. End of story. They act out? Then you find someone else who needs your services. As a programmer myself, I'm in this great position where there is a shortage of good developers, and plenty of companies searching for good de…

>As a programmer myself, I'm in this great position where there is a shortage of good developers, and plenty of companies searching for good developers. That's why you/we can afford to view the world that way. For many positions, especially those that don't require specific technical skills or other aspects where demand outstrips supply, servility is the only important trait.

I agree. But in that case you still have the option to re-educate and move into a more lucrative job market. As long as you are either smart or handy, there are very good jobs out there.

For example plumbers here in Belgium make a lot of money because of the high demand.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#229

Post by koonsolo »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #82
pbk1 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would your response change if the shortage of "good" developers stops? Or when they decide 2 "bad" but cheap developers cost less than 1 "good" one?

Or when your constraints change as you age and develop your private life. Programming jobs are plenty until e.g. you have a spouse and a kid to provide for, making your salary demands higher and relocation more difficult.

I'm 40 and have 4 kids, so no problem here.

Maybe in other parts of the world. But at that point you need to convince them you're a "senior architect with loads of experience"

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#230

Post by bartread »

koonsolo wrote: post #73
RotaryTelephone wrote: post #63

My 1on1's at a 100k+ international corporation always went like this: Manager: so how's it going? Me: great Manager: any issues? anything you want to discuss? Me: everything is fantastic! I'm very happy with my job :D Manager: cool cool... well let's do this again next month. Me: yay! I don't want someone in a similar situation like I was to get inspired by lists like these and go into their next 1on1 wrecking havoc…

What a strange, helpless way to look at the world. Employment is not a boss->servant relationship, it's a relationship where both parties gain something. You offer a service, and they pay for that. End of story. They act out? Then you find someone else who needs your services. As a programmer myself, I'm in this great position where there is a shortage of good developers, and plenty of companies searching for good de…

> "Hey, fix your shit or I'll have a new job next week that pays more from day 1, and you will search the next 6 months for my replacement and train that person another 6 months before (s)he's somewhat productive."

Yes, and with that attitude you are absolutely welcome to.

Difficulty of replacing developers depends very much on where you are (I suspect, and amongst a welter of other factors), and where I live it doesn't take 6 months nor anything like it.

It also doesn't take 6 months for people to become "somewhat productive". I've been nigh-on shocked to see all of our devs making useful contributions to our systems and services (many of which are not straightforward to work with) within a couple of weeks, and finding their way around pretty handily after 2 - 3 months.

I agree that you shouldn't go into every 1:1 begging and scraping for your job - that sounds awful - but, at the other end of the spectrum, neither do I think it's wise to go in with a massively inflated sense of entitlement.

Both you and your manager would be best served by acting like reasonable human beings with well-developed social skills.

Post reply on HN