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If you are a job hunter, you should know the answer to this because you've already thought about it. I usually start a job hunt with a spreadsheet so I can tra

If you are a job hunter, you should know the answer to this because you've already thought about it. I usually start a job hunt with a spreadsheet so I can track progress and also scoring along my key metrics. When I get asked questions similar to this, I reveal that I have thought about this deeply and discuss my criteria and how I operationalize things like "good coworkers". So far, the reaction to this revelation has been quite telling about the person on the other side of the table; I have gotten everything from disbelief to disgust to admiration. The marginal cost of being organized (and combatting things like recency bias or charisma) is minuscule compared to the marginal gain.

andrewem 15y ago
I'd love to hear more about your criteria and metrics and how you operationalize them, especially for less-tangible things like good coworkers.
- aaronblohowiak 15y ago
  metrics: position, notes on boss, code love, product social good, location, $, required hours, good coworkers, Operationalizing good coworkers: while evaluating "good" I try to take notes about skills, morality, humor and pre-existing relationships. Skills are the easiest and I like to get a sense of their skill level relative to mine for overlapping skills and also the breadth of skills that they have that I do not. I have found that morality is binary: are there any red flags? Humor is trickier. I like to work with people that enjoy themselves but not at the expense of others. About the last point; there has only been one group that can have gentle ribbing between coworkers that wasn't an excuse to be mean, and it was a lot of fun, but ultimately I know that I changed the list of people that I would want to invite into that environment because it can be off-putting for people and other people would be tempted to shift the dynamic for the worst. Self-deprecation, puns, deriding microsoft and your own old code:yes. Fat jokes: no. I don't gather info about every metric for every company, as red flags short-circuit the process.

andrewem 15y ago

I'd love to hear more about your criteria and metrics and how you operationalize them, especially for less-tangible things like good coworkers.

aaronblohowiak 15y ago
metrics: position, notes on boss, code love, product social good, location, $, required hours, good coworkers, Operationalizing good coworkers: while evaluating "good" I try to take notes about skills, morality, humor and pre-existing relationships. Skills are the easiest and I like to get a sense of their skill level relative to mine for overlapping skills and also the breadth of skills that they have that I do not. I have found that morality is binary: are there any red flags? Humor is trickier. I like to work with people that enjoy themselves but not at the expense of others. About the last point; there has only been one group that can have gentle ribbing between coworkers that wasn't an excuse to be mean, and it was a lot of fun, but ultimately I know that I changed the list of people that I would want to invite into that environment because it can be off-putting for people and other people would be tempted to shift the dynamic for the worst. Self-deprecation, puns, deriding microsoft and your own old code:yes. Fat jokes: no. I don't gather info about every metric for every company, as red flags short-circuit the process.