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Comment by techbunator | Hacker News Reader

Our typical filter question is: "are you happy to use PHP, C++, Mongo, Java?" Not that we have those in our stack yet, but it quickly weeds out those that sneer at any or all of that list. Let them destroy someone else's startup with their wanky tech attitude.

We are more interested in problem solvers.

The best answer we had was from employee # 2 - "if it gets shit done, and we ship, sure, why not?".

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"Are you happy to use technologies we don't actually use, for reasons we aren't discussing with you, to solve problems that haven't been defined?"

No. Next question please.

Why do they need to be 'happy' about it, though? I'd be willing to use any of those, but I wouldn't enjoy working with them as much as I would with others. Does that mean I have a "wanky" attitude and immediately disqualify me?

This one is good question. Why do all hiring people want you to be UBER happy to work for them and if you are not extremely aroused when you think about their company name they will not want to hire you.

I can be super happy to work for company after year or so when I get to know how it is to work there. Before that I can be interested or looking forward to get to know how it is working for them.

Yes, some employees' obsession with people having to love their jobs is so weird. I can't imagine someone looking at a job description and exclaiming "wow, I love this!". Maybe after a year, though. When they actually know what they're supposed to do, and are invested in the work on some level.

> Yes, some employees'

Meant to write 'employers'.

They believe (with good reason) that the more excited the candidate, the lower the compensation they'll take to snag that coveted position.

The real problem is that landlords, grocery stores and, in particular, pubs don't really understand when you tell them that the reason one can't pay that bill is because one hasn't yet came across a role in a super cool company, with wonderful customer experience around a product that one loved to the point of wanting to have sex with it, jazzy open space office and relaxed, integrating company culture, that scores 12 on the Joel Test!

So, having opinions about the tools you use all day is a bad thing?

Does this extend to other tools as well, or just the tech stack?

Preference != condescension.

Or preference <> condescension, if you swing that way.

I'm currently dayjobbing in a world of Java on Windows. It's kinda horrible, especially after recent experience with Ruby, Docker, and fully automated infrastructure. But there's more to the job than tool choices. Fifteen years of legacy code has its own interesting challenges to overcome, and the work environment is terrific in many other ways that I probably wouldn't get at a modern startup.

> Preference != condescension.

"Not being happy using X" is preference, for sure, but is also not equal to condescension.

On the other hand, "Only morons would use X" is condescension.

Well, my answer would be "Not particularly. In particular, PHP is a security nightmare; there are far better options than C++ nowadays; NoSQL stuff tends to be overhyped relative to real databases like PostgreSQL unless we have a zillion customers (and you don't or you would be giving talks at scalability conferences); and Clojure/Scala/whatever is probably better than straight Java although Java isn't actively bad. However, I'm also not going to rewrite a working stack if that's what you guys wrote it in. Revenue rules."

So, you wouldn't hire me, and that's probably a good thing.

You can get "shit done and ship" with practically any technology choice. Ironically, there's probably some other startup which has a similar question, but filters out everyone who is happy to use e.g. PHP.

So if I'm an android dev, you will disqualify me from using the only practical option of Java?

Have you tried Kotlin? Having a blast using it to do Android dev... Compiles sorta fast (comparable to Java) and is a bit saner

> The best answer we had was from employee # 2 - "if it gets shit done, and we ship, sure, why not?".

He knows how to play the game.

Indeed. It's probably not optimal to ask questions where the interviewee can easily guess what you want to hear.

Not sure I'd say "shit" during an interview, but other than that I totally agree with #2.

Why would you not say "shit" during an interview? I wouldn't make it my every other word, but I find nothing wrong in talking to someone as I'd talk to them on a daily basis if I were hired.

Because swearing in an interview is unprofessional.

eh, i think the stigma associated with swearing has started to wane over the last decade or two. Admittedly if you swear every other word, you're not a very good communicator, but the occasional, impassioned (and well selected) swear word can be endearing, even in a professional environment.

I have no idea what the interviewer's attitude toward casual swearing is. Once I'm hired, I'll cuss like a sailor, cause by then it's really too late for them to do anything but ask me to keep the profanity down.

Because, and maybe I'm old-fashioned, I don't think it is the appropriate place for it. Besides, I try to find other ways to express myself. Swearing, to me, is lazy and I don't want that to be something someone remembers me by.

just curious, but if they dispute the idea that those are the best tools, what's your response?

"Do I have to maintain it?"

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