7 ms·

In most cases when a company rejects you because of "culture fit", chances are there's something wrong with yourself. Not the other way around. Companies are N

In most cases when a company rejects you because of "culture fit", chances are there's something wrong with yourself. Not the other way around. Companies are NOT out there to bring you in, waste several collective hours of their employees time who could be working otherwise, just to reject you. They WANT You to pass the interview. If you don't pass the interview because they think you are not qualified, then that's something that can be fixed. You just need to study more and get more experience. But if you don't pass because you're not a "culture fit", it means you probably came off as a difficult person to work with. And this article shows why.

ronilan 10y ago
> In most cases when a company rejects you because of "culture fit", chances are there's something wrong with yourself Obviously. In Silicon Valley, Company knows best. /s
djhworld 10y ago
While I know you mean well, have you heard of Poe's law?
- pharrington 10y ago
  He's explaining the joke for anyone who doesn't get the joke.
vvanders 10y ago
If you find out the culture is working weekends and 14hr days is that still "difficult person to work with"?
- bhups 10y ago
  Relative to that culture? Yes absolutely. Not being a "culture fit" can be a boon for the candidate if they are not compatible with a culture in which they would be miserable.
mattnewton 10y ago
Or you made the person feel insecure, you were poorly understood in the 45 minutes they had to talk to you in between meetings and a hard problem they were working on, you didn't have the right clever data structure shibboleth that their Cs 101 course taught, etc etc. There are a lot of reasons you can fail the culture fit. Doesn't mean you aren't the problem, but as someone frequently interviewing candidates I can tell you blame also rests on the other side of the table.
dnackoul 10y ago
>But if you don't pass because you're not a "culture fit", it means you probably came off as a difficult person to work with. And this article shows why. I don't think that's necessarily the case. A lot of companies have very strong cultures tailored to certain personality types. Company A may encourage bluntness and risk taking where Company B may encourage more tactful feedback and careful planning of any task. It depends on the market the company operates in and the ingrained culture.
amyjess 10y ago
"Culture fit" is typically a thinly-veiled excuse for age discrimination. Or other kinds of discrimination, for that matter. Or they're the kind of company that will ask you about your hobbies and then reject you if you don't have the same hobbies as the rest of the team. If you're a mild-mannered, introverted enterprisey person, and the company is a hip young startup staffed with extraverted brogrammers, you're going to be rejected for "culture fit". It's toxic.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
_d8fd 10y ago
(not sure if you were being sarcastic, so...) >> In most cases when a company rejects you because of "culture fit", chances are there's something wrong with yourself. I completely disagree. Interviewing teams reject candidates for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do the candidate. Reasons (valid or not) a applicant gets reject include: - thinking candidate would get bored in a menial job - discrimination - unstated hiring freeze - position is closed during hiring process - position requirements are revised - candidate wants to pair program, company does not, and vice versa - interpersonal communication challenges, mostly around language barriers - candidate seems too expensive - candidate seems way too cheap, which seems too good to be true - company believes candidate will not tolerate commute for extended period of time - candidate bugged recruiter one too many times about status of interview process - candidate overdressed for interview - candidate underdressed for interview - candidate reminds an interview too much of themself ("I'm the vision person, and we need some who likes to build the plan I come up with") - the job is a demanding grind, and everyone who previously had kids has quit - company doesn't like candidates education - company worked for a stigmatized employer - a backdoor reference check doesn't go well This list could go one forever, and none of these things are something wrong with the candidate. Source: was recruiter, saw people rejected for all sorts of reasons
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
lj3 10y ago
Being rejected on "culture fit" is a generic response companies give because they don't want to risk a lawsuit. It's not the actual reason for the rejection.
- cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
  If you are a type of person who files a lawsuit because you didn't get hired, wait till you get hired.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
freyr 10y ago
I've seen interviewers pass on assertive candidates because they want somebody they can domineer. I've seen passive candidates get passed over because the absentee manager is worried he'll actually have to come into work on a regular basis and manage. There are all sorts of reasons why a "culture fit" is not a problem with strictly with the interviewee.
YZF 10y ago
This comment has been rejected because it has poor cultural fit. :) A job interview is a social game. An interviewee coming in to an interview thinking this is purely about their ability to whiteboard a solution or solve a puzzle may end up a "poor cultural fit". The main deciding factor is whether you can get along with the people interviewing you for the duration of the interview. The secondary factor is that you meet some minimum bar of smart/skills/knowledge. Companies are NOT out there to do anything. They don't want you to pass or fail. The person interviewing you, who may have had a good day, a bad day, may have a certain background or certain preference, may know the hiring decision has already been made, may have another candidate they already prefer, may have their own little special FizzBuzz, or whatever. This person and you have to sit down for an hour and you have to convince them they should hire YOU. Even if they had a bad day. Even if you think vi is better than emacs and they prefer emacs. Even if they like object oriented programming and you're a functional programming guy. Even if they think you're too old to know how to code. You CAN do it. Then it's up to you to decide whether you want to work for a person who prefers emacs ;)
brooms 10y ago
I've noticed a lot of tech companies now starting to adopt psychometric testing. So you might be bloody good at balancing an AVL tree on a whiteboard but a pretty difficult person to work with so they won't hire you. We place a lot of emphasis on psychometric testing in combination with how good a candidate is technically. If you fall into the wrong quadrant (generally indicating you are difficult to work with) we won't hire you.
- thesmallestcat 10y ago
  You also won't hire me and many others because we run as fast as we can from the rare companies that give personality tests. The moment that gets mentioned in a job description, I laugh and close the tab. My view is that if somebody thinks a bullshit personality test is a good way to assess a candidate, they're the crazy ones, and they may as well propose a polygraph too.
  - flukus 10y ago
    Typical EDC type.
- 92837923982 10y ago
  Sure, in SV there are more and more people who cannot program and form cults and coalitions instead. Are you aware that you sound like an apparatchik? (Sorry if your post was sarcasm, I wasn't sure.)
coffeefirst 10y ago
"Culture fit" is a weasel word. It means nothing at all.
jasonthevillain 10y ago
"Culture fit" is a weasel word. It means nothing at all.

ronilan 10y ago

> In most cases when a company rejects you because of "culture fit", chances are there's something wrong with yourself Obviously. In Silicon Valley, Company knows best. /s

djhworld 10y ago

While I know you mean well, have you heard of Poe's law?

pharrington 10y ago
He's explaining the joke for anyone who doesn't get the joke.

vvanders 10y ago

If you find out the culture is working weekends and 14hr days is that still "difficult person to work with"?

bhups 10y ago
Relative to that culture? Yes absolutely. Not being a "culture fit" can be a boon for the candidate if they are not compatible with a culture in which they would be miserable.

mattnewton 10y ago

Or you made the person feel insecure, you were poorly understood in the 45 minutes they had to talk to you in between meetings and a hard problem they were working on, you didn't have the right clever data structure shibboleth that their Cs 101 course taught, etc etc. There are a lot of reasons you can fail the culture fit. Doesn't mean you aren't the problem, but as someone frequently interviewing candidates I can tell you blame also rests on the other side of the table.

dnackoul 10y ago

>But if you don't pass because you're not a "culture fit", it means you probably came off as a difficult person to work with. And this article shows why. I don't think that's necessarily the case. A lot of companies have very strong cultures tailored to certain personality types. Company A may encourage bluntness and risk taking where Company B may encourage more tactful feedback and careful planning of any task. It depends on the market the company operates in and the ingrained culture.

amyjess 10y ago

"Culture fit" is typically a thinly-veiled excuse for age discrimination. Or other kinds of discrimination, for that matter. Or they're the kind of company that will ask you about your hobbies and then reject you if you don't have the same hobbies as the rest of the team. If you're a mild-mannered, introverted enterprisey person, and the company is a hip young startup staffed with extraverted brogrammers, you're going to be rejected for "culture fit". It's toxic.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

_d8fd 10y ago

(not sure if you were being sarcastic, so...) >> In most cases when a company rejects you because of "culture fit", chances are there's something wrong with yourself. I completely disagree. Interviewing teams reject candidates for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do the candidate. Reasons (valid or not) a applicant gets reject include: - thinking candidate would get bored in a menial job - discrimination - unstated hiring freeze - position is closed during hiring process - position requirements are revised - candidate wants to pair program, company does not, and vice versa - interpersonal communication challenges, mostly around language barriers - candidate seems too expensive - candidate seems way too cheap, which seems too good to be true - company believes candidate will not tolerate commute for extended period of time - candidate bugged recruiter one too many times about status of interview process - candidate overdressed for interview - candidate underdressed for interview - candidate reminds an interview too much of themself ("I'm the vision person, and we need some who likes to build the plan I come up with") - the job is a demanding grind, and everyone who previously had kids has quit - company doesn't like candidates education - company worked for a stigmatized employer - a backdoor reference check doesn't go well This list could go one forever, and none of these things are something wrong with the candidate. Source: was recruiter, saw people rejected for all sorts of reasons

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

lj3 10y ago

Being rejected on "culture fit" is a generic response companies give because they don't want to risk a lawsuit. It's not the actual reason for the rejection.

cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
If you are a type of person who files a lawsuit because you didn't get hired, wait till you get hired.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

freyr 10y ago

I've seen interviewers pass on assertive candidates because they want somebody they can domineer. I've seen passive candidates get passed over because the absentee manager is worried he'll actually have to come into work on a regular basis and manage. There are all sorts of reasons why a "culture fit" is not a problem with strictly with the interviewee.

YZF 10y ago

This comment has been rejected because it has poor cultural fit. :) A job interview is a social game. An interviewee coming in to an interview thinking this is purely about their ability to whiteboard a solution or solve a puzzle may end up a "poor cultural fit". The main deciding factor is whether you can get along with the people interviewing you for the duration of the interview. The secondary factor is that you meet some minimum bar of smart/skills/knowledge. Companies are NOT out there to do anything. They don't want you to pass or fail. The person interviewing you, who may have had a good day, a bad day, may have a certain background or certain preference, may know the hiring decision has already been made, may have another candidate they already prefer, may have their own little special FizzBuzz, or whatever. This person and you have to sit down for an hour and you have to convince them they should hire YOU. Even if they had a bad day. Even if you think vi is better than emacs and they prefer emacs. Even if they like object oriented programming and you're a functional programming guy. Even if they think you're too old to know how to code. You CAN do it. Then it's up to you to decide whether you want to work for a person who prefers emacs ;)

brooms 10y ago

I've noticed a lot of tech companies now starting to adopt psychometric testing. So you might be bloody good at balancing an AVL tree on a whiteboard but a pretty difficult person to work with so they won't hire you. We place a lot of emphasis on psychometric testing in combination with how good a candidate is technically. If you fall into the wrong quadrant (generally indicating you are difficult to work with) we won't hire you.

thesmallestcat 10y ago
You also won't hire me and many others because we run as fast as we can from the rare companies that give personality tests. The moment that gets mentioned in a job description, I laugh and close the tab. My view is that if somebody thinks a bullshit personality test is a good way to assess a candidate, they're the crazy ones, and they may as well propose a polygraph too.
- flukus 10y ago
  Typical EDC type.
92837923982 10y ago
Sure, in SV there are more and more people who cannot program and form cults and coalitions instead. Are you aware that you sound like an apparatchik? (Sorry if your post was sarcasm, I wasn't sure.)

coffeefirst 10y ago

"Culture fit" is a weasel word. It means nothing at all.

jasonthevillain 10y ago

"Culture fit" is a weasel word. It means nothing at all.