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How can you tell if the company youre interviewing with is rotten on the inside?

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Re: How can you tell if the company youre interviewing with is rotten on the inside?

#21

Post by bawolff »

peakaboo wrote: post #17
bawolff wrote: post #3

> This is a GREAT one: “As a white man, I’d ask what they’ve done to find qualified women and minorities for the role I’m interviewing for.” I can't help but feel that asking questions during an interview that encourage the interviewer to hire someone who is not you, is a bad strategy for actually getting the job.

Diversity has nothing to do with company culture being good or bad in most cases. Example: Let's say the company has 100 employees and 90 of them are white and 10 of them are black. As a white engineer, it won't help you if they invite more black people to work there. It's much harder to know if 90% of them are assholes and diversity will never help with that.

In my experience it can be a bit of a canary.

People who are assholes tend to be extra-assholey to out-groups (which often is minorities). If members of minority groups don't want to work somewhere it usually means that the people who work there are assholes.

Re: How can you tell if the company youre interviewing with is rotten on the inside?

#22

Post by rgoulter »

awakeasleep wrote: post #15
bawolff wrote: post #3

> This is a GREAT one: “As a white man, I’d ask what they’ve done to find qualified women and minorities for the role I’m interviewing for.” I can't help but feel that asking questions during an interview that encourage the interviewer to hire someone who is not you, is a bad strategy for actually getting the job.

This is a shibboleth virtue signal. Neither side takes it at face value

Many may be cynical.. but, say, Chloe Valdary's Theory of Enchantment looks wonderful. https://theoryofenchantment.com/

At least, I found its principles striking:

1. Treat people like human beings, not political abstractions.

2. Criticize to uplift and empower, never to tear down or destroy.

3. Root everything you do in love and compassion.

Re: How can you tell if the company youre interviewing with is rotten on the inside?

#24

Post by anticristi »

MattPalmer1086 wrote: post #2

My two favourite questions to ask at interview are: 1. Tell me about a time things didn't go to plan and what you did about it afterwards? 2. Do you enjoy working here? Of the two, the second one gives me the most useful signal. Every business has difficult times, so the first usually isn't too hard to answer, and they can gloss over stuff. The second one is more personal. Nobody can say no to that one. It's the way…

> Do you enjoy working here?

I wouldn't ask non-factual questions. Of course the default answer is "yes". I wouldn't be able to answer such a question honestly in front of a stranger.

Re: How can you tell if the company youre interviewing with is rotten on the inside?

#25

Post by jdowner »

"You want to work at a company on a strong growth trajectory for lots of reasons, but a big one is your own growth potential. You will learn the most the fastest at places that are growing fast, and have way more openings for promotions and leadership roles than a slower-growing company."

While I think this is a reasonable opinion, it's been my experience that companies who tout 'strong growth' are a cluster fuck. Communication quickly becomes a nightmare that is really hard to rein in. When that goes, there are a lot of likely outcomes -- none of which are good. Typically, the organization because fractured and siloed. That plucky team that punched above their weight, is now filled with a whole bunch of new people and the culture just became totally different. Now, there are a bunch of people pushing different agendas, and trying to get something done is no longer an engineering problem but also a political one.

You WILL learn a lot but, if my own experience is anything to go by, it will be lessons on how not to do things rather than "this is a good way to do things".

Re: How can you tell if the company youre interviewing with is rotten on the inside?

#26

Post by peakaboo »

bawolff wrote: post #21
peakaboo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diversity has nothing to do with company culture being good or bad in most cases. Example: Let's say the company has 100 employees and 90 of them are white and 10 of them are black. As a white engineer, it won't help you if they invite more black people to work there. It's much harder to know if 90% of them are assholes and diversity will never help with that.

In my experience it can be a bit of a canary. People who are assholes tend to be extra-assholey to out-groups (which often is minorities). If members of minority groups don't want to work somewhere it usually means that the people who work there are assholes.

I know this is the classic thinking about these things. But working in a company where they keep bringing in new employees that are rude (the "strong woman" template), it has given me something to think about.

It's just not a given that reducing out-groups makes a company culture better. It can make it worse to include those groups sometimes. It's just hard to know before.

But it's morally right to not exclude people so I'm of course supporting that. Just saying it may not be a sign of a good culture even though we may think it is.

Re: How can you tell if the company youre interviewing with is rotten on the inside?

#28

Post by gdy »

DonHopkins wrote: post #10
loudtieblahblah wrote: post #5

Quoted post unavailable.

What exactly do you mean by "pronouns person"? Do you enjoy misgendering people on purpose? Because that's one way the company interviewing you can tell that you're rotten on the inside. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Popehat%27s%... Popehat's Law of Goats He who fucks goats, either as part of a performance or to troll those he deems has overly delicate sensibilities is simply, a goatfucker. He claim…

Another way to tell that someone is rotten on the inside is the use of the 'goatfucker' slur to refer to zoo-sexual people.

Re: How can you tell if the company youre interviewing with is rotten on the inside?

#29

Post by nefitty »

rgoulter wrote: post #22
awakeasleep wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a shibboleth virtue signal. Neither side takes it at face value

Many may be cynical.. but, say, Chloe Valdary's Theory of Enchantment looks wonderful. https://theoryofenchantment.com/ At least, I found its principles striking: 1. Treat people like human beings, not political abstractions. 2. Criticize to uplift and empower, never to tear down or destroy. 3. Root everything you do in love and compassion.

Thanks for sharing this. I'm down so far.

I realized I've taken on a lot of identity-separatism baggage, even as I strive to avoid it. I'm trying to counter that by intentionally reincorporating Marxist and other class-conscious frames into the way I interpret interpersonal interactions. It's slightly embarrassing to be a professional with a chewy punk center, but I remind myself that I too am a wage laborer.

Re: How can you tell if the company youre interviewing with is rotten on the inside?

#30

Post by leetrout »

anticristi wrote: post #24
MattPalmer1086 wrote: post #2

My two favourite questions to ask at interview are: 1. Tell me about a time things didn't go to plan and what you did about it afterwards? 2. Do you enjoy working here? Of the two, the second one gives me the most useful signal. Every business has difficult times, so the first usually isn't too hard to answer, and they can gloss over stuff. The second one is more personal. Nobody can say no to that one. It's the way…

> Do you enjoy working here? I wouldn't ask non-factual questions. Of course the default answer is "yes". I wouldn't be able to answer such a question honestly in front of a stranger.

> I wouldn't be able to answer such a question honestly in front of a stranger.

For me it is even easier to be honest to a stranger.

"You may or may not find it as rewarding to work here as I have- of course it is a rollercoaster but I wouldnt still be here if I didnt like somethings about it but it is a job like any other."

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