Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questions in interviews

Re:Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questi... by circlefavshape on Thursday April 28, 2016 @07:34AM (#11587985)

I have one of these on my team right now, and he has caused me more sleepless nights than anyone I have ever met. Finding it very difficult to get mgmt to understand that most of his code needs to be re-written

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Re:Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questi... by arethuza on Thursday April 28, 2016 @08:52AM (#11588399)

This may sound paranoid, but I have seen it happen: make sure the person you are having problems with isn't sucking up to your managers and also making you look bad to them.

[99% of the people I have worked with have never played those kind of political games but I have seen the utter chaos that can happen if a politically savvy operator is let loose in a trusting and politically naive environment.]

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Re:Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questi... by ArkyBeagle on Thursday April 28, 2016 @09:20AM (#11588561)

Frankly, if that works and you get fired, you didn't lose much to start with. Sorry, but keeping your job is a different skill set than doing your job.

I've had to opposite experience twice - I got drop-shipped into projects where somebody had gone rogue and I cleaned it up, and then they were let go. It's most unpleasant, and had they been more perceptive they'd have known that's what was going on. In both cases, I believe they were ready to go ( and I lost any trust in the management that used this gambit and left myself shortly).

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Re:Hire characters, not skill sets. My most important questi... by circlefavshape on Friday April 29, 2016 @09:27AM (#11595538)

Valuable advice, said individual has indeed already tried this approach with my immediate managers and my peers. Luckily I've been here long enough to have a reputation that can't easily be besmirched

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