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

charity.wtf

131–140 of 167 posts

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

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if we're headed to a point where this kind of self-selection basically creates companies consisting of either people who are all about DEI, or people who only care about skills/qualification, then the market will decide which one is the winning strategy.

The DEI people seem to me like they have a tendency to try to enforce their view via legislation. So I'm skeptical about the "market will decide" part.

Really like a lot of things, it's both.

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

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if we're headed to a point where this kind of self-selection basically creates companies consisting of either people who are all about DEI, or people who only care about skills/qualification, then the market will decide which one is the winning strategy.

Or corrupted governments will decide. Is there a difference nowadays?

All you can really say there are governments that are "less corrupted" or at least "less authoritarian", they're all corrupted to the core, but some actually do good work in some cases because they have to answer at least in part to voters unlike in authoritarian countries where the only question they'll ask themselves is "will this be bad enough to incite a rebellion"

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

#133
post #44
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People forget that (1) women are not a minority, and (2) that tech is one of the kost diverse industries (full of Asians, Indians, immigrants, …)

Women are not a statistical minority, but in social rights and power, they are still very much a minority. As such they get some legal and societal protection for that. Anything else is burying your head in the sand.

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

#134

If you get any sniff of non-meritocracy - run!

Meritocracy is a lie, a device to help rationalize the advancement of in-groups over other less privileged groups. An analogy: as a parent you should probably not reward purely on naked results; you should stimulate and reward effort instead. The first option just reinforces existing traits; the second empowers actual self-improvement. Not saying this is always easy or clear-cut. I understand the wish for getting rew…

Almost everyone I've ever heard says that merit and talent don't count would rather argue politics and social issues than about which algo would best fit our scale out plans over the next quarter. I don't care about your position in life or your take on socialism vs capitalism. I want to do my work and go home, where I can choose to participate in politics, social activism, or play CoD on my own time.

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

#135
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A decent and self-aware work team is one who treats each other as equals and respect and keeps their political beliefs outside the work environment. An iterviewee who brings race into the discussion clearly doesn't understand work/personal boundries and is going to be a liability.

Sorry, the work environment is inherently political these days. I'll "keep my political beliefs outside the work environment" when it's no longer political to say that - Women, queer people, and minorities should be hired, treated, and paid the same as straight cis white men - Abusive and exploitative treatment of workers is unacceptable - Every human being deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless…

> Sorry, the work environment is inherently political these days.

For most companies it isn't at all. They consentrate on issues relevant to staying competitive in the market.

I agree that actual cases of discrimination should be addressed and corrected.

Putting forth the ideology that "people" are "imposing their political beliefs on us every moment of every day" says more about you than it does anyone else.

Because that's exactly what you are doing.

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

#136
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting _the_ job, not necessarily. Getting a job in a decent and self-aware team, on the other hand, yes, that's a good strategy. The question is both a direct and an indirect one.

A decent and self-aware work team is one who treats each other as equals and respect and keeps their political beliefs outside the work environment. An iterviewee who brings race into the discussion clearly doesn't understand work/personal boundries and is going to be a liability.

Have the people in this thread ever actually interviewed and hired people in the last decade?

It's a super softball question that gives that gives the interviewer a chance to brag about any small advancements they've recently made.

In 2022, if a hiring manager didn't have a decent response to this question locked and loaded, it would be a super red flag.

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

#137
post #109

I am currently in my perfect job (scaleup, market leading tech product with two big moats, about to close series B.) I know this lot are keepers because, this time around, I had the chance to come onsite (!) for the final round of negotiation and I got to meet two VPs, the chief architect, the managers of three other teams adjacent to the ones I was joining, another candidate (different role :), my upcoming manager (…

I don’t know about that. I had an interview very early in my career with a financial services company that lasted two days. I spoke with 12 (!!!) people. All of them asked me the same questions, and very few of the interviews were technical in nature. What I learned from doing that is that they need a LOT of people to do anything, i.e., everything gets done slowly there.

I had an offer after meeting five people, the rest was me finding out more about them.

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

#138
post #105

It's interesting to me how trendy "diversity" is these days, and it's always in the context of race. It's interesting how we don't ever think of diversity in terms of class, wealth, disability, etc. An Ivy League educated black person and an Ivy League educated white person are far more similar than a poor white person and a rich white person. And yet, it seems as though we don't really care about hiring people from…

> complaining about diversity in a place where there's just demographically not going to be that many minorities is a bit unnecessary

In the software industry, I suspect sexism and ageism are far more rampant than sexism, and women and older people are everywhere.

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

#139
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes sense to me. Discussing non work related politics with coworkers seems like a bad idea. No idea why that was downvoted. I had a weird interview last year. After about 30 minutes talk, the guy started shifting to politics and expressing his ideas about Europe, the UK, refugees, etc. I didn't want the job anyway so I told him that I don't agree with his (barely contained) right wing opinions. He immediately…

Diversity in the workplace is a work issue. If that’s political, well, work _is_ political too (and even work organization becomes quickly political).

Only if diversity is relevant to whatever value the business is providing or it's mission.

Healthy work issues are centered around whatever's going to help the company succeed. People want coworkers who produce and are positive. It affects everybody's livelihood.

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

#140
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.

Not only that, asking this question is a red-flag for the company to disqualify you.

Employees who are obsessed with diversity and social justice often create toxic environments and can even be a legal or security liability to the company.

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