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Respectfully, your answer seems like the exact type of sidestep/intentional opacity that causes this blog post/problem to exist in the first place. Much less, f

Respectfully, your answer seems like the exact type of sidestep/intentional opacity that causes this blog post/problem to exist in the first place. Much less, flip the table around. If you asked a question to a candidate and they responded as vaguely as they possibly could, would you hire them? Would you just let them give extremely vague answers without asking further clarifying questions? > 1. "My company isn't organized around a single dimension that can be used to measure one problem in absolute terms against all others. Every team is working on a series of problems on a month to month basis and in turn every individual is working on problems of their own." Are you saying your company internals have no shared issues? Each business unit is totally agnostic from all the others? There aren't any company-level concerns you have as a business owner? Some common examples include: Massive refactors/re-orgs, changing of company direction, growing pains, changes in sales strategy, offshore development problems, remote work problems > 2. "The biggest threat to our company is the one we don't know about." This again feels intentionally vague. It seems like one could've assumed "that you know about", as your answer is inherent to all companies. > 3. "Nothing keeps me up at night, I sleep fairly well." "What's your biggest weakness?" "My biggest weakness is that I have no weakness."

Kranar 5y ago
If I asked a vague question to a candidate I wouldn't be surprised to get a vague response, which is why I don't ask vague questions. No, I don't have any massive refactors, massive reorgs, massive anything for that matter. As I said the question presumes a degree of drama that just doesn't exist either at my company or most fairly well established companies I know about. As surprising as this may seem, there are a lot of companies out there that are not undergoing massive or dramatic change. Should there be? >"What's your biggest weakness?" Exactly, I consider a question like what's your biggest weakness to be completely worthless. Do people still ask that with a straight face?
- darkerside 5y ago
  When I get a vague question on an interview, it's an opportunity to answer the interpretation of the question that puts me in the best light. It's generous. Failing that question is a little sad, really. It's ok if you don't have "big" problems. Pick a little one. It's all relative anyway. If you can't speak candidly about some of the problems your company faces, you are naive, lazy, or dishonest.
  - Kranar 5y ago
    I cant answer that question honestly, but I don't accept your accusation that I am therefore lazy, dishonest or naive. As a candidate when you ask a vague question to a company, you are inviting them to BS you and that's what you'll get as a result of it. I don't wish to spend time during the interview BSing people about my work culture, so either I am one of those things you mentioned, or that question isn't really a good way to get to know my company's culture, or the culture of many other companies. My advice is to ask specific questions to a company; how much overtime have developers worked in the past year? Is it compensated? How big are the various teams at the company? How is performance measured and how can I ensure that I am progressing in my career? How much time and money can developers spend on self-improvement, training, conferences, etc... How frequently do people get to work from home? Once details about your current compensation have been disclosed, ask about how future compensation works, are raised given out yearly? On what basis? Those questions are tangible and are much more likely to get an actual answer instead of asking the moral equivalent of "What's your biggest flaw that keeps you up at night?" I think jumping to the conclusion you did about me is poor form and overly judgmental off of very little information, but that said people can come to their own conclusion on the matter.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - hitekker 5y ago
      I think there's more truth to the GP's comment than you realize.
      - Kranar 5y ago
        Speaking of dishonesty, you made this same post and when it got downvoted to be barely visible you deleted it only to repost it again. That's pretty shameful in and of itself.
        hitekker 5y ago
        I'm sorry my original comment hurt you. For what it's worth, I deleted the original after I realized it was indeed too sharp. I wrote the new comment to be nicer.
- void_mint 5y ago
  > As surprising as this may seem, there are a lot of companies out there that are not undergoing massive or dramatic change. By definition, every company that exists has a "biggest" problem internally. That is the point of the question. To say "Nope, no problems here", is either a bold-faced lie or a level of oblivious-ness that would signal to a candidate to steer clear. Nobody's demanding to hear about all the skeletons. Acknowledging that every business has problems and could improve is not an admission of guilt. "Things are generally pretty good but moving to Salesforce has caused some frustrations that we're working through" is not"massive or dramatic change" and still satisfies the question.
  - Kranar 5y ago
    >By definition, every company that exists has a "biggest" problem internally. This is absolutely false. Problems are not all measured along the same axis so that two problems can be directly compared to each other. If I have one problem related to customer acquisition, and another problem related to legal/regulatory issues, they are both problems but neither of them has to be bigger than the other. Furthermore saying I don't have a singular biggest problem that keeps me up at night isn't the same thing as saying I have no problems whatsoever. Every business has many problems they are working on along many dimensions: legal, sales, development, hiring, accounting, you name it... they are all important and separate problems. Usually if one area of the company has such a big problem compared to the others that it can be considered the "biggest" problem then it's a sign of a poorly managed company. Most decently sized and well managed companies do not face such single-dimensional or dramatic issues. Problems manifest themselves locally and are dealt with locally in a fairly boring/undramatic manner. >Things are generally pretty good but moving to Salesforce has caused some frustrations that we're working through Exactly, it's an answer that satisfies the question and says absolutely nothing to the candidate. I could give you some other menial answer "Yeah things are good but the biggest problem right now is integrating our build system with a new platform we're targetting..." Satisfies the question and really tells you nothing of value. Instead I'd suggest asking questions that can't be satisfied superficially and that actually reveal valuable information. Spend your time on tangible questions that can be used to make a concrete decision about whether you want to work there... clarify details about work conditions, work hours, compensation, career progression, management structure, meetings, those things matter and are reveal facets of a company's culture. Knowing a company is moving to Salesforce or some other BS a company says about itself is not going to tell you anything worth knowing, it just wastes time for the both of us.

Kranar 5y ago

If I asked a vague question to a candidate I wouldn't be surprised to get a vague response, which is why I don't ask vague questions. No, I don't have any massive refactors, massive reorgs, massive anything for that matter. As I said the question presumes a degree of drama that just doesn't exist either at my company or most fairly well established companies I know about. As surprising as this may seem, there are a lot of companies out there that are not undergoing massive or dramatic change. Should there be? >"What's your biggest weakness?" Exactly, I consider a question like what's your biggest weakness to be completely worthless. Do people still ask that with a straight face?

darkerside 5y ago
When I get a vague question on an interview, it's an opportunity to answer the interpretation of the question that puts me in the best light. It's generous. Failing that question is a little sad, really. It's ok if you don't have "big" problems. Pick a little one. It's all relative anyway. If you can't speak candidly about some of the problems your company faces, you are naive, lazy, or dishonest.
- Kranar 5y ago
  I cant answer that question honestly, but I don't accept your accusation that I am therefore lazy, dishonest or naive. As a candidate when you ask a vague question to a company, you are inviting them to BS you and that's what you'll get as a result of it. I don't wish to spend time during the interview BSing people about my work culture, so either I am one of those things you mentioned, or that question isn't really a good way to get to know my company's culture, or the culture of many other companies. My advice is to ask specific questions to a company; how much overtime have developers worked in the past year? Is it compensated? How big are the various teams at the company? How is performance measured and how can I ensure that I am progressing in my career? How much time and money can developers spend on self-improvement, training, conferences, etc... How frequently do people get to work from home? Once details about your current compensation have been disclosed, ask about how future compensation works, are raised given out yearly? On what basis? Those questions are tangible and are much more likely to get an actual answer instead of asking the moral equivalent of "What's your biggest flaw that keeps you up at night?" I think jumping to the conclusion you did about me is poor form and overly judgmental off of very little information, but that said people can come to their own conclusion on the matter.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - hitekker 5y ago
    I think there's more truth to the GP's comment than you realize.
    - Kranar 5y ago
      Speaking of dishonesty, you made this same post and when it got downvoted to be barely visible you deleted it only to repost it again. That's pretty shameful in and of itself.
      - hitekker 5y ago
        I'm sorry my original comment hurt you. For what it's worth, I deleted the original after I realized it was indeed too sharp. I wrote the new comment to be nicer.
void_mint 5y ago
> As surprising as this may seem, there are a lot of companies out there that are not undergoing massive or dramatic change. By definition, every company that exists has a "biggest" problem internally. That is the point of the question. To say "Nope, no problems here", is either a bold-faced lie or a level of oblivious-ness that would signal to a candidate to steer clear. Nobody's demanding to hear about all the skeletons. Acknowledging that every business has problems and could improve is not an admission of guilt. "Things are generally pretty good but moving to Salesforce has caused some frustrations that we're working through" is not"massive or dramatic change" and still satisfies the question.
- Kranar 5y ago
  >By definition, every company that exists has a "biggest" problem internally. This is absolutely false. Problems are not all measured along the same axis so that two problems can be directly compared to each other. If I have one problem related to customer acquisition, and another problem related to legal/regulatory issues, they are both problems but neither of them has to be bigger than the other. Furthermore saying I don't have a singular biggest problem that keeps me up at night isn't the same thing as saying I have no problems whatsoever. Every business has many problems they are working on along many dimensions: legal, sales, development, hiring, accounting, you name it... they are all important and separate problems. Usually if one area of the company has such a big problem compared to the others that it can be considered the "biggest" problem then it's a sign of a poorly managed company. Most decently sized and well managed companies do not face such single-dimensional or dramatic issues. Problems manifest themselves locally and are dealt with locally in a fairly boring/undramatic manner. >Things are generally pretty good but moving to Salesforce has caused some frustrations that we're working through Exactly, it's an answer that satisfies the question and says absolutely nothing to the candidate. I could give you some other menial answer "Yeah things are good but the biggest problem right now is integrating our build system with a new platform we're targetting..." Satisfies the question and really tells you nothing of value. Instead I'd suggest asking questions that can't be satisfied superficially and that actually reveal valuable information. Spend your time on tangible questions that can be used to make a concrete decision about whether you want to work there... clarify details about work conditions, work hours, compensation, career progression, management structure, meetings, those things matter and are reveal facets of a company's culture. Knowing a company is moving to Salesforce or some other BS a company says about itself is not going to tell you anything worth knowing, it just wastes time for the both of us.