3 ms·

I agree with you on this one. But it ("fun" or the impression of it) really used to be an attractive aspect early on in the career. > Isn't it far, far more im

by jatins 4y ago

I agree with you on this one. But it ("fun" or the impression of it) really used to be an attractive aspect early on in the career. > Isn't it far, far more important to find out things like: How do people communicate? How do people disagree with each other? Are people able to separate emotions and ego from the team's work output and outcomes? What values does each person want to embody in the work that they produce? Are people willing to sacrifice momentary comfort for genuine personal growth? I wish there was some easy way to gauge these in interviews. Seems like the only way to know this is knowing people who work at the company.

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh 4y ago
Yeah, I also used to value that sort of stuff when I was just starting out. Learned the hard way on that one. > Seems like the only way to know this is knowing people who work at the company. As far as I can tell, even this isn't enough. Is there some way you've been able to get a read on this just from talking to people who work at a company, before you start there yourself? In my experience, the real litmus test is the first time there's a meaningful disagreement: team A wants XYZ architecture, team B wants 123 architecture, they've both got data and emotions backing up their approach, and they need to sit down and figure out what the right way to go is. When done well -- in a healthy culture -- people are able to disagree, have a thoughtful debate about ideas instead of egos, put aside optics and performance reviews, and converge on a solution in the best interests of the broader company. To me, the ultimate sign of a healthy culture is that all the working relationships are genuinely stronger after something like this. I'm about to start a new job, and these sorts of "crossing the Rubicon" moments are definitely on my mind. I've been told that "wrangling stakeholders" is an important problem to solve for my team, and I'm optimistic (and admittedly a bit nervous) about seeing how it'll all play out over the first 90 days.

by jatins 4y ago

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh 4y ago

Yeah, I also used to value that sort of stuff when I was just starting out. Learned the hard way on that one. > Seems like the only way to know this is knowing people who work at the company. As far as I can tell, even this isn't enough. Is there some way you've been able to get a read on this just from talking to people who work at a company, before you start there yourself? In my experience, the real litmus test is the first time there's a meaningful disagreement: team A wants XYZ architecture, team B wants 123 architecture, they've both got data and emotions backing up their approach, and they need to sit down and figure out what the right way to go is. When done well -- in a healthy culture -- people are able to disagree, have a thoughtful debate about ideas instead of egos, put aside optics and performance reviews, and converge on a solution in the best interests of the broader company. To me, the ultimate sign of a healthy culture is that all the working relationships are genuinely stronger after something like this. I'm about to start a new job, and these sorts of "crossing the Rubicon" moments are definitely on my mind. I've been told that "wrangling stakeholders" is an important problem to solve for my team, and I'm optimistic (and admittedly a bit nervous) about seeing how it'll all play out over the first 90 days.