Comment by el_dev_hell | Hacker News Reader

Comment by el_dev_hell | Hacker News Reader

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> Cuture fit is a blank check to fail a person's interview just because you didn't like them in the first 30 seconds.

I hear this all the time. Yeah, that might be true in some cases, but it's also valid in quite a lot of instances (like the example you provided).

> it is categorically impossible to establish in a 45 minute interview whether a person is actually a "fit" or not

I've run/sat in on several trainwreck interviews over the years (for ad account manager roles and logistical analyst roles mostly). Here are a few examples of candidates that were perfect in every way until the interview based on culture fit:

* The guy that mentioned he only traveled to Thailand because ladyboys do it better.

* The guy that mentioned he wouldn't work with anyone that drank alcohol because it's "the retardant of the masses". Fair enough opinion. About 20% of our ad sales came from alcohol-related businesses. I asked if he would have a problem dealing with liquor businesses. He explained that wouldn't be a problem as long as they didn't ask if he drank.

* I was sitting in on an interview with the Marketing Director for an account management gig on a Monday morning. We asked the candidate if she did anything noteworthy over the weekend. She told us she went dancing with her friend "Molly" at a music festival and laughed.

* The analyst that mentioned he scrapes NSFW subreddits in his spare time and links throwaway accounts to main accounts based on comment history, similar subreddit crossover, posting times, and vernacular (his tool was pretty impressive -- it sent him an email whenever it had a hit with over 50% accuracy or something which he received during the interview).

I don't see this as a culture issue, but really poor professionalism. These are people who don't seem to realize that work small-talk is... at work.

My non-work life is by most measures pretty unusual. But my answer during the Monday standups to "what did you do on the weekend?" is.. "Oh, not much, some housecleaning and laundry".

What's the problem with dancing with Molly?

2nd definition:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Molly

I was wondering the same thing - if you're a good dev, I could care less what recreational drugs you're doing on weekends. Bringing it up in an interview is a bit of a faux pas though.

Molly is a drug, so basically they said they got high all weekend. I don't have a problem with it personally, but a lot of workplaces do.

Or maybe Molly is just Molly in this case. As in, a human friend, with whom the interviewee went to a music festival and danced. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

To be absolutely fair, being all into drugs myself - if someone actually used a phrase “I danced at a festival with my friend molly”, I would absolutely never want to spend my time with them again.

That literally is the trashiest thing you can ever say.

What's your definition of trashy here if its not simply using drugs?

There's a big difference between using drugs discreetly and using drugs and talking about it in an inappropriate situation.

If its not immoral to use drugs it shouldn't be immoral to talk about it. "Trashy" is just an label for behavior deemed unwanted or associated with low class. But the parent (presumably) deemed using drugs not trashy by his own admission of using them.

> If its not immoral to use drugs it shouldn't be immoral to talk about it.

I don't think I can agree with that reasoning in the context of a job interview. I wouldn't want to hear about your sex life either, but that doesn't mean you can't have one.

It's also not immoral to have sex. It would be, at a minimum, very odd to share the blow-by-blow details of such activities the prior weekend with an interviewer. I don't think I'm being a prude to say I would probably close out that interview as soon as reasonably possible and move on.

By my definition of “trashy” - it’s only “cool” to share the fact that you had sex with someone when you’re 15.

Same is here: I can imagine many situations where discussing the effects of drugs and your experiences of them to be interesting. But “I spend a weekend dancing with molly” sounds more like a 15-year-old just got access to sex for the first time.

I don't take the "dancing with Molly" as a blow-by-blow, more like an acknowledgement of a certain activity. But I wouldn't take acknowledging that you had sex to be trashy if relevant to the conversation. But the the interviewer made the dancing response relevant when they asked if they did anything noteworthy over the weekend.

I’ve known several women named Molly. There are even women named Mary Jane.

The issue isn't that they have fun on the weekends, it's that they would bring it up in a formal job interview. The interview is the absolute 100% best behavior you will ever see from them (bar a bit of nervousness), so I personally would see this as a major red flag.

Presumably, the interviewers interpreted it to mean the drug. But another potential interpretation is that she's gay and laughed because she was uncomfortable with the left-handed admission to her sexual orientation. Perhaps she was testing the waters to see how people would react to news that she went dancing with a woman.*

Perhaps it was a wild misunderstanding or perhaps not. I'm sure we would all rather think it's a drug policy, but the reality is that the LGBTQ crowd faces discrimination severe enough that they are at increased risk of homelessness compared to the general population.

* Edit: Or perhaps she didn't really think about what she saying, then realized after the fact that she just admitted in a job interview to a same sex date, then laughed uncomfortably.

I would not recognise this as a drug reference, but even if it is, as long as you restrict it to the weekends, I see no problem with it. Dancing with a woman does not automatically imply LGBTQ, and even if it did, seeing that as a lack of cultural fit is kinda awful; that'd be using 'cultural fit' as an excuse for discrimination.

"Molly" is another name for ecstasy/MDMA.

OK, I knew that there was something fishy about it. I thought initially that the poster was openly admitting to discriminate against gay people.

I mean, there are people named Molly. I definitely have a lack of cultural fit with people that freak out at coincidences, because I see so many every day. Accidental double entendres are a thing that happens.

Sharing knowledge of illegal activities with strangers shows a complete lack of filter and poor communication skills.

Someone who drops that in an interview is going to be having HR complaints against them within their first week.

Three out of those four don't seem particularly bad.

+1. And the one that is bad is similar to the trainwreck I mentioned in the original post (complete lack of self-awareness). GP just underscored my point without intending to do so.

...curiously, which three aren't particularly bad?

Depends on your culture.

Funny - one out of four doesn't seem particularly bad to me - I wonder what the overlap is.

1/4 is homophobic.

No matter what your sexuality, it's not appropriate to bring it up in an interview.

Nor in the workplace. That's how sexual harassment happens.

No, we should aim for people to live their authentic lives. If people cannot live their truths then society has failed.

No, it's not. That comment being inappropriate had nothing to do with the candidate's sexual preference. It had to do with a candidate making an inappropriate sexual remark during an interview.

If the comment was "X women do it better" it would still be inappropriate.

Ironically, the HR staff member present during the interview was a gay man himself. I guess he must be homophobic in your eyes also for discarding the application?

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