Try being a minority, and consistently get rejected because you aren't a good "culture fit" on an all white team.

edit: I didn't mean to sound like I was trivializing your experience. The "culture fit" is really nasty and sucks for everyone who isn't "the norm".

My experience in tech is that companies will go above and beyond to hire minorities including women, big companies will sometimes lower requirements to get more of these candidates in. You have to be wary though particularly with startups who talk a lot about culture, usually it translates to 'you should be working on our product in your spare time'.

I don't know if I can say I've ever seen affirmative action work in my favor.

Naw it's all good. I hear ya. It's similar in the sense that if that thing age, race, whatever is the thing... I can't do anything about that and it seems to preempt anything else.

The "not the right fit" one always makes my blood boil especially in these cases.

I worked at an HR tech startup that did recruiting services for a lot of seed/series A companies. Maximum ages for roles were discussed openly and nobody even considered the possibility doing so might be illegal.

Yeah a coworker of mine looking for a tech job in a different industry had someone straight up tell them they were worried he was too old.... dude wasn't that old. When he mentioned it to the recruiter she didn't even seem to think it was an odd thing to say... so she repeated it.

“Culture” is a catch all for lack of rapport. Either because of their biases or our own. Which is fine for me, I probably wouldn’t have liked working with them if the most significant finding they come away from the interview is that I want to go home at a reasonable hour or I’m not a sports fan. Lol. Finding a good job fit takes time unfortunately. Having a network helps, because you probably already have shared values.

Perhaps focus on rapport at the start of your interviews?

>Perhaps focus on rapport at the start of your interviews?

I don't think that is the issue. I was looking for an entry level position at the time, it's a CROWED field, and the handful of places where I and another much younger classmate both interviewed where I could compare included at least one, often more phone interviews. If I wasn't getting along well with them I don't expect they would have brought me in. Most of the phone calls and interpersonal in person interviews went great IMO.

To be clear I have no idea what their idea of "culture fit" actually was.

I've since started asking, nobody has been able to answer without first looking confused and humming and hawing a while. Most of the answers were usually surprisingly generic and such about "openness", "fun" and such, I suspect a few were made up on the spot. Amusing ;)

I agree with your points entirely, but "culture fit" is a very ugly thing when used to exclude people that cannot be legally discriminated against. There's a reason these employment laws exist; people have a right to a job they are qualified to do regardless of whether they share the hobbies or opinions of the interview team.

I agree 100%. I mention trying to build rapport, but I really don’t want to work with a team that would exclude someone for “culture” the companies that hire for culture make it very difficult for the few outsiders that mistakenly get hired.

I always get invited to the good Ole boys club but I truly hate them. They turn out shit work and make for a really crappy environment for the people who are not in. Diverse teams are enriching and productive...buy not as fun or friendly.

BTW, That's happening to everyone. Think about Uber, which was toxic because they didn't try to foster a good culture.

Welcome to the "culture" wars.

I fear culture is just a variable for "my personal / our group bias".

Trust me, this was a good thing.

If you had been hired in those companies, you wouldn't have lasted long. Unless you have a supernatural talent on filtering out bullshit.

I think filtering out BS is pretty much every job, it's just what the bs is, where, and etc.

It also has to do with will you hang out and play ping pong all night or if you’re an 8-5er

7-to-3er