Firebase is probably a bit of an edge case on this one, because it was a paradigm-shifting developer product before dev products were cool.

If you were a top-tier developer, there was a >0% chance that you would be super excited about the product because you realized the pain point that it would solve for you if you were building a real-time product at another company. And that excitement or lack thereof was a useful litmus test for Firebase specifically.

I agree that "excited about our company" is not something you get up front if you are interviewing at a company that is building an on-demand AI marketplace for ML-optimized scooter rental office spaces.

Everyone wants a candidate "excited about our company", but last time I interviewed after being laid off, so I was more "excited about a job". I didn't really get excited for my current job until about 3 months in, when I knew more about the internal workings of the team and the products, rather than what shows up on the public webpage.

He did post a disclaimer that their approach wasn't designed to work for every company.

For such a small team, and an early-stage company, I believe it's critical to hire people who are absolutely excited about the mission. They're not simply looking for "an employee," but a partner who believes in what they're doing, coupled with having the ability to help them do it.

The cynical side of me thinks that candidates are screened for this because screening for things like technical ability and communication skills is actually really hard, so we screen for this easy thing instead.

I wonder if "excitedness about the company early in the interview process" is in any way indicative of on the job performance later on.

I find it's a lot easier to work for someone if I personally want their product; compared to a product that I have very little interest in.

They want you excited so you work harder and complain less.

It does seem odd. Unless I'm begging for a job, you should be telling me why I'd want to work there.