I’m a software engineer who sometimes interviews other software engineers. I’m not given a script to go off of, I get to ask them whatever I want. Usually we just talk about technology and coding from a high level. I’m not a big fan of whiteboard tests.
I’ve noticed, however, that a lot of people applying to software engineering jobs feel very alien to me. I started coding when I was 12 and spent most of my teenage years on technology forums. A lot of people applying to these positions are very much ladder-climbing type people who got into the career for the money. Working with these people is an absolute drag.
We also interview for “culture fit”. I would like to add in a single question to my interviews to assess that: what is your favorite science fiction book. You don’t even have to have read it recently, you just have to have read one and formed an opinion on it. My thoughts
Pros:
- Weeds out a lot of people since half of Americans don’t read books at all.
- Theoretically filters out people who love this kind of tech subculture from people who are just in it for the money
Cons:
- It’s unfair to people who enjoy fantasy novels, or any other form of fiction
- Being motivated by money probably shouldn’t be a disqualifying factor (I certainly wouldn’t do this job for free), I’m just tired of working with yuppies and lashing out at poor unsuspecting Jr Devs
I’m half-hearted on this. I see why it could be considered unfair but I’m really tired of the kinds of people I work with.
I like to ask folks what they do for fun, gives me a better general idea of who they are
Other pros:
- You might filter out people who want to Create The Nexus of Torment from Hit Sci-Fi Novel Don’t Create The Nexus of Torment
Other Cons:
- Keep in mind a lot of people don’t read much, if at all which is sad. Meanwhile, you still need to hire people.
- We’re all motivated by money. Like you said you don’t work for free. Neither would I. A job is a job and for most people it means sacrificing very precious hours of their time (time they will never get back, no matter how well they get paid) in exchange for that money. It’s nothing but a contract which can be summarized as this: you give me money, I give you my expertise/willingness to sweat on my part of that contract. End of the contract. We’re not family, we’re not (yet) friends (and we never be), as an employer you have no say in what I do outside of work (no matter how it’s becoming the norm to think the opposite), and what I like to read is none your business as my employer. Obviously, we may both be willing to talk about it but that’s a personal choice. I just re-read P.K. Dick’s Ubik, have you read it?
I interviewed someone today whose hobby was poetry of the African diasporia, for a position relative to logistics.
While I know very little about that specific poetic oeuvre, hearing them talk about their passion gave me an insight into their personality.
Perhaps ask questions about what they’re into rather than if they’re into thing.
Perhaps ask questions about what they’re into rather than if they’re into thing.
This is great advice! Asking about something specific is off-putting and could lose a great candidate.
Asking an open ended question about their hobbies can get the same positive result, and will catch candidates who wouldn’t have anything to say about science fiction.
I mostly read manga. But for sci-fi books the freshest one in my memory is Dune.
Would you hold that against me?
No
I grew up coding but don’t read sci-fi. You need to expand your idea on what a good motived coder looks like. It sounds like you’re in a bubble.
You’re right, it’s exclusive when it shouldn’t be.
I would expand the question. “Sci-fi had always inspired me, what clicks for you and why?”
When dating people, I often ask “name a book that’s not Harry Potter”. Doesn’t even have to be one you’ve read. Pick any book at all (other than Harry Potter) and tell me why you thought of it.
I’m not gatekeeping people who do or don’t read books, and i don’t care if it’s sci fi, fantasy, fanfic, nonfic, whatever. what i do care about is that you are aware of at least one book and care enough to remember what it’s about. That’s a low bar, but not as low as you might think.
The “no Harry Potter” clause isn’t specifically due to jkr being a terf (although that too), but because it’s such an overused answer. Yeah, I do remember the books that were so popular that they had their own brand of jelly beans. I have run out of things to say about them. Pick literally anything else.
I imagine being in a date and my mind panicking and coming up with the Kamasutra first.
This doesn’t correlate with good developers at all in my experience. If I was to ask one question it would be “tell me about your passion project” or “What’s the last thing you nerded out on?”
It’s not 100% about getting the best developer, it’s about team culture
it’s about team culture
If you’re interviewing for something like team culture you’re going to end up with a bunch of people in your own demographic, because shared life experience is the biggest predictor of team culture.
People say we don’t need DEI because they aren’t racist. And you’re not racist. But this is how accidental racism sneaks in. It’s nefarious.
If you asked something relevant, like “how many servers are in your basement?” Or “what open source projects do you contribute to?”, you’ll not be leaning on culture, but it tells you more about them than coding ability.
You’re not interviewing for friends. “Team culture” in this case seems like shorthand for “someone just like me so I don’t get challenged”. I would suggest spending some time thinking about why scifi books in particular and what that says about you.
Look up any personality+leadership theory, DISC is a common one I’ve seen. Teams with a mix of personalities and backgrounds are more optimal than a team of basically the same person. Yes, even “ladder climbers” can be good for a team, provided they have other positive traits that go with it.
Look up any personality+leadership theory, DISC is a common one I’ve seen.
Ew. Personality tests are a terrible way of building a working team, and the idea that every need field needs the same kind of people is just demonstrably stupid
Not that I said “read theory” not “make applicants take personality tests”.
“Needs the same kind of people is demonstrably stupid”… yet OP is headed in that direction and doesn’t appear to be stupid. Just lacking in exposure to other ways of doing things… thus reading about them is a way to close that knowledge gap
Leadership type books aren’t to be followed 100%. They are written for a person to take the 10% that best applies and is helpful to them. It’s why they’re so damn repetitive and obvious the more experience you have.
The takeaway is not “build a team of four people with these four styles”. That’s way too literal. It’s “see the value in a mix of people, and recognize strengths in others that you don’t have”.
Not that I said “read theory” not “make applicants take personality tests”.
Ah, that’s a much better take.
Not sure why you get downvoted.
Culture fit, is what makes a team holds together. And it’s different in banking or in a R&D company.
That said, what is your role during the interview. Culture fit is more for the HR and manager and less for the expert conducting the technical part of the interview.
you may want to be careful how you word this; if you focus too hard on a specific culture then you inherit that culture’s biases. I don’t think english language sci-fi novels are known for their racially and sexually diverse fandom, for instance.
No. What? No.
Unless you publish sci-fi novels as a business, I suppose. Then maybe. But no.
I don’t have anything against “culture fit”, but that means that if you think someone will make your life miserable by sharing a space for eight hours it’s okay to go with someone else. It’s not a blank check to audit people’s Spotify histories. Job interviews aren’t dates.
This seems terrible.
- Weeds out a lot of people since half of Americans don’t read books at all.
Is that always a good thing? What about people who don’t read much but listen to audiobooks and go to the theatre a lot?
- Theoretically filters out people who love this kind of tech subculture from people who are just in it for the money
One of the best programmers I ever worked with was ‘in it for the money’. He was what Goldman Sachs used to call ‘long term greedy’ though which meant he had an eye on the success of the project above and beyond his own responsibilities and his own code. That’s why he was one of the best programmers.
listen to audiobooks
Listening to an audiobook is reading unless you’re really fucking pedantic. (and in that case, you shouldn’t be taken seriously)
The content of an audiobook of, idk, name a story you enjoy, is exactly the same as the content of the paperback or ebook.
The fact that you even weighed the pros and cons of your proposal puts you light years ahead of most hiring managers.
Haha I’m afraid every time I interview someone. I know that I personally hate being asked whiteboard algorithm questions, and I don’t think they’re very useful either. When I interview people I ask them two main questions:
- What is your hottest take on coding? It can be controversial or not, it just has to be a strongly held opinion. For example, if you despise Windows, tell me why. If you are a zealot for Vim/Emacs, rant at me. If you think that dynamically typed languages are the worst thing ever, prove it.
I don’t actually care about what their opinion is (though I think it’s good to hire people with a lot of intellectual diversity), I just want to see if they can extemporaneously rant about coding for 10-15mins
- What is a technology (an API, a cloud service, a programming language, a new kind of algorithm, etc.) that you are excited about and that you want to be able to use at work some day
Again, the actual tech doesn’t matter too much to me, but this indicates that they read up on the latest goings-ons of the industry they’re in. I also think that it’s a good character trait to be someone who desperately searches for problems to apply a novel solution to. I don’t think it’s always a good idea to ACTUALLY create a solution looking for a problem, but I think it’s a good intellectual trait to have
Those are both great questions.
Agreed. Hiring manager green flags for sure.
Interesting, I posted a top level comment to you but you’re already doing some similar things to what I posted.
Maybe just ask them if they have read anything interesting lately ?
I would try to leave it more open-ended when asking what their hobbies are outside of work, and then ask whatever follow-up questions you can think of that would let them express what they’re passionate about.
As a tension softener, I tend to open interviews with: What’s the best movie ever and why should I love it too?
It helps me tell how good they are convincing someone else of something while also it helps them relax a bit, as a softball before we start pitching curved ones.
I prefer doing this rather than asking for hobbies as the interviewees tend to gave prepared corporate-grade answers.
I tend to finish asking to give us a song recommendation, which sets a better mood (hopefully) to end it.
I just hope there’s nobody out there still trying to figure out if they gave us the wrong recommendations.
Oh that’s so stressful. I actually hate sharing my song and movie recommendations because I usually like weird indie shit that nobody else enjoys (as pretentious as that makes me sound). I get extremely self conscious about my taste in stuff and would 100% worry that I gave the wrong recommendation.
Oh god just thinking about this is giving me anxiety.
I want someone that’s pleasant to work with and can pull their weight, but that’s just my preference.
Echoing this. Even as someone who does read sci-fi, I think leaving it open ended is better. Hobbies is a good angle; it could also be “What show, book, or film did you enjoy recently?” then follow it up with “Why?” and work from there.
What this shows:
- They live a balanced-enough life that they have time to do relaxing stuff, aren’t money-focused tryhards like OP is trying to weed out.
- Allows them to demonstrate explaining a topic unfamiliar to the interviewer.
- Shows how they respond to unexpected questions outside the normal, practiced interview set.
- Follow up questions can still weed out people who are viewing it “just because”, they heard it was popular, or whatever.
I never got super into sci-fi; it just wasn’t my cuppa. I was always on the fantasy side of things with regard to fiction, being heavily into D&D and many of the novels around the various settings and characters. Edit: I’ve been a developer since the mid aughts and alternately worked in tech and other jobs before that. I wrote my first programs in basic around 9 or 10 when dad gave me something to do to keep out of his hair.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” -Arthur C. Clarke
Always loved this one as a sci-fi and fantasy kid. When you love dragons and teleportation and talking animals, it kinda doesn’t matter how they are delivered to your brain.
I like to say that Star Wars is to fantasy what Discworld is to sci-fi. Star wars is swords and sorcery in space, and Discworld is ethics and robotics in middle earth.
Discworld is ethics and robotics in middle earth.
You just blew my mind, a little. Dang. That’s Apt.
clacks header
GNU Terry Pratchett.
A buddy of mine was interviewing for a job and got it in part because he was a player in one of my games. They knew they could get along with him.
I speak casually but my aim is just to find out if they have the technical skills necessary for the role. I find little social things come up by happenstance.
