7 ms·

What's wrong about that? My golden rule in hiring is that if there is no sense of enthusiasm for the product - don't hire.

Merad 8y ago
It's utterly unrealistic for (IMO) probably 75+% of development jobs. The world runs on mountains of software that isn't sexy and that very few if any people are truly enthusiastic about.
- toomanybeersies 8y ago
  I didn't even know exactly what the product did when I applied for my current job. Then they described what it did in my interview, and I understood a bit better, but not really. Took me a few weeks on the job to actually understand exactly what we do. When people ask me what the software I work on does, I just tell them "it's complicated". There is so much b2b software that fills a specific niche in a specific industry that makes absolutely no sense to people outside of that space.
  - jiveturkey 8y ago
    Your current job at facebook? Or some other company. It's not uncommon for candidates to not understand a product. Many products are complex and if you weren't a shopper for that product or a deep user, you won't get it from the scant research you might do before a job interview.
    - toomanybeersies 8y ago
      Another company, working in a fairly niche b2b space.
- jiveturkey 8y ago
  It's not about being enthusiastic, it's about being able to express enthusiasm as a hiring candidate. If you can't even feign enthusiasm to get hired ... move on.
randycupertino 8y ago
imo most people fake it, so you're mainly self-filtering for people who are good actors.
AdrianB1 8y ago
A healthy criticism is more valuable than fake enthusiasm, otherwise you will get the "emperor is naked" situation. They already got it.
decebalus1 8y ago
that's a pretty brown rule. You should try hiring professionals - people who have enthusiasm for a job well done. Most products are shit and most people know that. So when you hire product enthusiasts, you're hiring good actors. Unfortunately, the parts of the industry I interacted with share your golden rule so many years ago I found refuge in infrastructure/backend where being enthusiastic about the product is never on the list of stuff to care about.
- mrguyorama 8y ago
  It spreads because devs who are willing to kiss butts to get hired are also willing to be paid less
freyir 8y ago
I had a CEO who always kept a gaggle of yes-men at his heels. They were very enthusiastic about the product, even as degraded into a flaming pile of garbage and the walls crumbled around us.
kumarvvr 8y ago
> What's wrong about that Such hiring practices is how cults start.
tdb7893 8y ago
This rule is a little weird to me having worked at places where there were a lot of good engineers who weren't overly enthusiastic about the product (I used to do legal software at a medium sized corporation). What did you hire for that you could have that as a rule? I imagine it would work a lot better at a smaller company or a company with a product that software engineers are likely to actually use.
scarejunba 8y ago
I love this. I think for my next job I want to work at a place where people have enthusiasm for the product. It's very important to me to not just be building something that someone else told me to build. And I think that sort of team where engineers want to contribute to the definition of the product will make itself visible through enthusiasm for the product. I'm sure there's room for the guy who wants to just build what you tell him to do and he's great it. I just don't want to do that and I want to be surrounded by people not like that.

Merad 8y ago

It's utterly unrealistic for (IMO) probably 75+% of development jobs. The world runs on mountains of software that isn't sexy and that very few if any people are truly enthusiastic about.

toomanybeersies 8y ago
I didn't even know exactly what the product did when I applied for my current job. Then they described what it did in my interview, and I understood a bit better, but not really. Took me a few weeks on the job to actually understand exactly what we do. When people ask me what the software I work on does, I just tell them "it's complicated". There is so much b2b software that fills a specific niche in a specific industry that makes absolutely no sense to people outside of that space.
- jiveturkey 8y ago
  Your current job at facebook? Or some other company. It's not uncommon for candidates to not understand a product. Many products are complex and if you weren't a shopper for that product or a deep user, you won't get it from the scant research you might do before a job interview.
  - toomanybeersies 8y ago
    Another company, working in a fairly niche b2b space.
jiveturkey 8y ago
It's not about being enthusiastic, it's about being able to express enthusiasm as a hiring candidate. If you can't even feign enthusiasm to get hired ... move on.

randycupertino 8y ago

imo most people fake it, so you're mainly self-filtering for people who are good actors.

AdrianB1 8y ago

A healthy criticism is more valuable than fake enthusiasm, otherwise you will get the "emperor is naked" situation. They already got it.

decebalus1 8y ago

that's a pretty brown rule. You should try hiring professionals - people who have enthusiasm for a job well done. Most products are shit and most people know that. So when you hire product enthusiasts, you're hiring good actors. Unfortunately, the parts of the industry I interacted with share your golden rule so many years ago I found refuge in infrastructure/backend where being enthusiastic about the product is never on the list of stuff to care about.

mrguyorama 8y ago
It spreads because devs who are willing to kiss butts to get hired are also willing to be paid less

freyir 8y ago

I had a CEO who always kept a gaggle of yes-men at his heels. They were very enthusiastic about the product, even as degraded into a flaming pile of garbage and the walls crumbled around us.

kumarvvr 8y ago

> What's wrong about that Such hiring practices is how cults start.

tdb7893 8y ago

This rule is a little weird to me having worked at places where there were a lot of good engineers who weren't overly enthusiastic about the product (I used to do legal software at a medium sized corporation). What did you hire for that you could have that as a rule? I imagine it would work a lot better at a smaller company or a company with a product that software engineers are likely to actually use.

scarejunba 8y ago

I love this. I think for my next job I want to work at a place where people have enthusiasm for the product. It's very important to me to not just be building something that someone else told me to build. And I think that sort of team where engineers want to contribute to the definition of the product will make itself visible through enthusiasm for the product. I'm sure there's room for the guy who wants to just build what you tell him to do and he's great it. I just don't want to do that and I want to be surrounded by people not like that.