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Technical Skills Are Overrated. Focus on Your Attitude

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Re: Technical Skills Are Overrated. Focus on Your Attitude

#71

Post by [deleted] »

nox101 wrote: post #66
treflop wrote: post #6

It is definitely an attitude thing. However, you shouldn’t be focusing on improving your soft skills so much as it’s improving your mindset, and then the soft skills will just flow like hot butter. This is what I tell my friends: Don’t see interviews as an adversarial thing. At the end of the day, your mindset should be: * The company is looking for someone to do a specific job * You have a unique set of skills and y…

That might be true a small company but that's not my experience with FAANG interviews and all the companies with x-FAANG employees that just continue to do the same style of interview. I get asked what I consider, silly and unrelated stuff. I work on native APIs and was being hired for native API stuff yet my interviews including things like designing server farms for which I have next to zero knowledge. I've never s…

[deleted]

Re: Technical Skills Are Overrated. Focus on Your Attitude

#72

Post by drewcoo »

slily wrote: post #33
bequanna wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather work with a slightly less qualified person who has a positive attitude than an overqualified person with a terrible attitude. The second type might write great code, but is energy draining for the whole team.

You sound like a manager. As an IC I'd much rather work with someone who's a little difficult but actually contributes, and the fake positivity that I often see from people in HR-adjacent roles/glorified paper pushers who don't have much actual work to do is really annoying.

> You sound like a manager [not wanting an "overqualified person with a terrible attitude"]

They sound like a bad/lazy manager. If their report is overqualified, they need to be fed better, harder, larger work. If their report has a bad attitude, a decent manager would figure out what's misaligned and fix it.

Re: Technical Skills Are Overrated. Focus on Your Attitude

#73

Post by drewcoo »

ungreased0675 wrote: post #7

Interviewers need to be careful to remain unbiased and objective about their criteria. Saying you evaluate on attitude and personality is pretty similar to letting personal biases and stereotypes drive the process.

> letting personal biases and stereotypes drive the process

also known as "culture fit"

Re: Technical Skills Are Overrated. Focus on Your Attitude

#74

Post by drewcoo »

Jensson wrote: post #36
sokoloff wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring candidate attitude is not the way either, IMO. Think back to how many ex-colleagues with insufferable attitudes you had to work with. Unless that’s near zero, I think attitude has to have some weight.

If you meet plenty of "insufferable" people then maybe you are the problem. I find most people behave nicely, no bullying or anything they do their job and they answer questions when asked if you don't ask too often. The worst for team morale were the people who had a hard time with their job and tried to defend or hide that, such people don't answer questions when you ask not because they don't want to but because t…

I completely agree with this assessment.

But to play devil's advocate, someone else might claim that if I never meet any insufferable people, I am likely the most insufferable of all. (Just trying to steel man the position I disagree with here.)

Re: Technical Skills Are Overrated. Focus on Your Attitude

#76

Post by robocat »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #3

This is hard to take seriously from Amazon. I realize it's a big org with many diverse teams. It's just that the company seems to be rotting from the head down. And it's hard to overlook the stories of how some employees get so exploited.

> the company seems to be rotting from the head down

A strange metaphor that is more fiction than fact (as most cliches are). I couldn't find an academic paper on the topic but did find an article that said "putrefactive processes occur in the intestines, that is, in the section of the fish carcass inhabited by bacteria and microbes that enter the body with food." which sounds likely.

A more thoughtful response: https://thoughtmanagement.org/2011/11/21/does-the-fish-rot-f...

Personally I think many people have a deep belief in hierarchy and they pick models that fit that belief (or conspiracies!).

I try to look at things more systematically and I tend to look for emergent causes from our society rather than blame individuals ostensibly in charge!

But a great saying. Terrible SEO spam article but contains a little history: https://vogueindustry.com/17250557-the-fish-rots-from-the-he...

Re: Technical Skills Are Overrated. Focus on Your Attitude

#77

Post by takerjop »

Depends. I rather have world most obnoxious but most skilled in history brain surgeon operating my brain than a nice guy soothing my ear but me dying on the operating table. Deep down we all prefer Dr House. But PC culture mandate we picked a more PC person. Always look for technical skills first then evaluate how you can work with that. You want a superior culture of technical expertise and have the team built around it. Not the other way round building teams around a nice bean counter...e.g. what happen to Philips.

Re: Technical Skills Are Overrated. Focus on Your Attitude

#79

Post by bequanna »

skellington wrote: post #59
bequanna wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, of course some minimal technical competence is a requirement. I’m just saying that an unnecessarily negative attitude is more damaging to a group than one below average contributor.

that's hilarious...a grumpy senior engineer who has been in the trenches and is usually the kind of person that gets hard problems out the door is "damaging" but toxic managers who screw their team with a smile is normal or expected. I realize you didn't say that exactly, but this is what the tone of OPs article is. IF you are a lowly IC, no matter how skilled, you must be the good subservient. The King demands a che…

> But the King is allowed to behave in any way he chooses. Capriciously firing people. Yelling, demanding, berating, snap judgements, etc...

I don't think anyone said that.

Bad attitudes are damaging regardless of which team member acts that way. Manager, Project Manager, Jr. Engineer, etc. An anxious/spazzy Project Manager can unnecessarily put everyone on edge.

Shitty people make other people miserable, period.

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