Re:What I’ve Learned in 45 Years in the Software Industry
by manfredo on Wednesday January 06, 2021 @02:01PM
(#25660931)
What sort of "quirks" are we talking about?
> interrupting me/talking over me, talking down to me, comparing their last junior position to being Steve Jobs, being sing-songy, inappropriate jokes in any way/shape/form, getting in arguments with themselves... etc etc.
Besides being "sing-songy", none of these things are quirks, they're ineffective communication or untruthfulness of their past positions.
As far as dress and "sing-songy" go, I would agree with the above poster: software development tends to be much more inclusive of these sorts of characteristics. Jeans and a T-shirt is perfectly acceptable attire for an interview. Do your software devs wear suits 5 days a week? Why expect a candidate to do so, either? A candidate I interviewed going, "uh-oh sphaghetti-oh!" when they hit a segfault when running their interviewing solution was kind of ridiculous, but ultimately has no impact on their contributions as a developer. Factoring in these kinds of thins into the hiring decisions is ultimately about including people from a culture similar to your own. Different cultures have different definitions of "weirdness" so selecting based on the ability of the candidate to identify what is "weirdness" is ultimately a cultural litmus test. And expecting male candidates to be shaved, as per your other comment, is just blatant cultural discrimination - some demographics like Sikhs could even sue you for illegal discrimination over this. This cuts both ways, both the case where a candidate in a T-shirt and jeans gets rejected for not wearing a suit and when a suited up candidate gets rejected for being too formal. Both ultimately hurt the company by excluding effective workers.
> interrupting me/talking over me, talking down to me, comparing their last junior position to being Steve Jobs, being sing-songy, inappropriate jokes in any way/shape/form, getting in arguments with themselves... etc etc.
Besides being "sing-songy", none of these things are quirks, they're ineffective communication or untruthfulness of their past positions.
As far as dress and "sing-songy" go, I would agree with the above poster: software development tends to be much more inclusive of these sorts of characteristics. Jeans and a T-shirt is perfectly acceptable attire for an interview. Do your software devs wear suits 5 days a week? Why expect a candidate to do so, either? A candidate I interviewed going, "uh-oh sphaghetti-oh!" when they hit a segfault when running their interviewing solution was kind of ridiculous, but ultimately has no impact on their contributions as a developer. Factoring in these kinds of thins into the hiring decisions is ultimately about including people from a culture similar to your own. Different cultures have different definitions of "weirdness" so selecting based on the ability of the candidate to identify what is "weirdness" is ultimately a cultural litmus test. And expecting male candidates to be shaved, as per your other comment, is just blatant cultural discrimination - some demographics like Sikhs could even sue you for illegal discrimination over this. This cuts both ways, both the case where a candidate in a T-shirt and jeans gets rejected for not wearing a suit and when a suited up candidate gets rejected for being too formal. Both ultimately hurt the company by excluding effective workers.