> > Culture is much harder to "teach". For me testing for culture fit has become much more important than tech acumen, particularly at more senior levels. You need to have a sense of at least whether the candidate aligns with the company culture, and is willing to fit.
> On the other hand if you never hire anyone with different ideas then you'll inevitably create a monoculture that had difficulty seeing its own weaknesses and making improvements.
This is a balancing act for which there isn't a hard and fast rule, because organizations need a culture, but not all cultural values are good.
A group might want to bend on someone who is weaker on their Documentation And Testing value, but not bend on someone who is weaker on their Honesty value; but maybe they won't bend on Documentation And Testing because they view it as essential and don't want to risk that the FNG won't internalize it.
"But that isn't the cultures I object to," I've heard critics say. Of course not. But sometimes those are the cultural values that folks are trying to conserve. That's why there's no hard and fast rule.
Sometimes the cultural values are dishonesty or bigotry or cronyism, or simply an aversion to being called "bro". But often they're honesty and open-mindedness and fairness. We should not toss out the baby with the bathwater.
> On the other hand if you never hire anyone with different ideas then you'll inevitably create a monoculture that had difficulty seeing its own weaknesses and making improvements.
This is a balancing act for which there isn't a hard and fast rule, because organizations need a culture, but not all cultural values are good.
A group might want to bend on someone who is weaker on their Documentation And Testing value, but not bend on someone who is weaker on their Honesty value; but maybe they won't bend on Documentation And Testing because they view it as essential and don't want to risk that the FNG won't internalize it.
"But that isn't the cultures I object to," I've heard critics say. Of course not. But sometimes those are the cultural values that folks are trying to conserve. That's why there's no hard and fast rule.
Sometimes the cultural values are dishonesty or bigotry or cronyism, or simply an aversion to being called "bro". But often they're honesty and open-mindedness and fairness. We should not toss out the baby with the bathwater.