Comment by paulcole | Hacker News Reader

Comment by paulcole | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

"Tell me what led to the most recent time you fired someone in a role like this."

A big red flag is anyone who's never fired someone or never had a bad fit. The key to me is the follow-ups you ask:

• If you've never fired someone, what was the closest you've come? What was the outcome of that situation? Did they quit or did they improve? Why'd you wait for them to quit instead of addressing the issue directly? What made them improve?

• If it was a performance issue, how did you know they were underperforming? What steps did you take to help them improve?

• If it was a culture problem, why did it get missed in the hiring process? If they were initially a good culture fit, what changed?

• How do you identify low performers? Objectively? Subjectively? A mix of the 2.

The caveats are if a) you really really want this job or b) you really really need this job. In those cases, you should only be asking questions that you think make you look good to the hiring team.

I've hired a lot of people over the course of my career, and questions like this would be a major red flag. I'd pass on the candidate.

Completely fine to ask how performance is measured and/or how performance reviews are handled, but the nature of these questions is off-putting. Is a candidate trying to figure out how they can get away with being a low performer? How would their poor judgment in asking questions like this show up elsewhere? Likely a high-maintenance individual.

And, the caveats at the end of the comment indicate the author knows these questions would not make you look good to the hiring team. If the company hired you anyway, probably wouldn't be a good place to work.

Agree. I would simply ask about team growth and turnover (also ask about engineering department in general). That's a totally legitimate question and it might even get you the answer you want without bluntly asking when they last fired someone. That's like being asked if you took a shit that morning. Like, yeah... and everybody does it, but it's not ok to ask someone about it.

Different strokes I guess. I've hired a lot of people and would love it if somebody asked me these questions. Would make me excited to work with them.

> Is a candidate trying to figure out how they can get away with being a low performer?

If you're wondering this, just ask them.

I mean I dislike bullshit rankings and metrics as much as the next guy - but if someone asked me these questions I would just pass on the candidate - a person covering his ass about being a bottom performer, from the interview, is not really someone I would be thrilled hiring.

At least OP phrased it as career progression question.

I don't know. I think they're useful questions for a top tier performer to ask to make sure they're not joining a shitshow where they have to clean up after people who have been underperforming for a year and haven't been given any feedback.

Yeah, I'm not a top performer but I use those types of questions for a similar reason. Also any interviewer who's put off by those questions signals to me a company culture that I'm not particularly interested in. Additionally, I really enjoy flipping the script and interviewing the interviewer whenever possible.

Of course, if I was desperate for any job, I'd do what it took to get hired, not to satisfy my curiosity and find the right job.

You can be a top performer and still be fired for various reasons. The cultural questions and things related to firings are very important.

I’ve seen quite a few eng fired for non-performance reasons and entirely due to culture. Firings for performance are something I’ve rarely seen.

If you think these are questions a low performer would ask to see what they can get away with, just ask them if that's the case.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com