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I agree answering using the phone in interview is wrong. You should be polite in a interview. However I have noticed any quirk can put you out of a job. Stutte

by UK-AL 14y ago

I agree answering using the phone in interview is wrong. You should be polite in a interview. However I have noticed any quirk can put you out of a job. Stutter? Slightly eccentric? Aspergers? Its seems you are under a lot peer pressure to conform to a set standard and not deviate. Then companies wonder why they can not innovate. Fact is a lot of brilliant individuals(leaders, technically brilliant) are a little 'odd' sometimes. Sometimes brilliance is the other side of the eccentricity coin.

sunir 14y ago
Brilliant individuals get hired. I don't believe this article was about them. The anecdotes are about the socially oblivious and the data was a survey of hiring managers, with no indication of how well constructed the survey was.
- UK-AL 14y ago
  Not really. I have heard plenty of stories of people with aspergers having to to quit due to being ostracised by management or getting fired. Then going on to on to form companies or invent new technologies. Meaning they weren't fired for performance or skills reasons but because of their eccentricities. One I can think of is Bram Cohen.
untog 14y ago
I see this opinion often on HN. Perhaps it is because a lot of us are somewhat socially awkward developers at heart. The truth is that eccentric geniuses aren't all that hirable, despite their genius. After all, Steve Jobs got fired. If you can't be relied upon to turn in results, you're a potential liability. It might be better to hire someone with less genius and more predictability. That's not to say that there are no jobs out there for eccentric geniuses- maybe they just have to be in charge (see Steve Jobs again), or just work by themselves. But I don't think we can argue with hiring managers who don't take on a risk. The distribution of responsibilities means they wouldn't get any of the credit if the employee turned out to be fantastic anyway.
- hkmurakami 14y ago
  Technically, Jobs resigned from Apple rather than having been fired. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Apple_Computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Apple_Computer
  - UK-AL 14y ago
    I think "resigned" has to be in speech marks.
- nawitus 14y ago
  The parent said "slightly odd", which is different from "eccentric genius". He provided examples of trivial differences from the average, like stutter, which I happen to slightly suffer from. I wonder if I've been rejected on that basis in the past..
- jimmaswell 14y ago
  Steve Jobs was a genius now?

by UK-AL 14y ago

sunir 14y ago

Brilliant individuals get hired. I don't believe this article was about them. The anecdotes are about the socially oblivious and the data was a survey of hiring managers, with no indication of how well constructed the survey was.

UK-AL 14y ago
Not really. I have heard plenty of stories of people with aspergers having to to quit due to being ostracised by management or getting fired. Then going on to on to form companies or invent new technologies. Meaning they weren't fired for performance or skills reasons but because of their eccentricities. One I can think of is Bram Cohen.

untog 14y ago

I see this opinion often on HN. Perhaps it is because a lot of us are somewhat socially awkward developers at heart. The truth is that eccentric geniuses aren't all that hirable, despite their genius. After all, Steve Jobs got fired. If you can't be relied upon to turn in results, you're a potential liability. It might be better to hire someone with less genius and more predictability. That's not to say that there are no jobs out there for eccentric geniuses- maybe they just have to be in charge (see Steve Jobs again), or just work by themselves. But I don't think we can argue with hiring managers who don't take on a risk. The distribution of responsibilities means they wouldn't get any of the credit if the employee turned out to be fantastic anyway.

hkmurakami 14y ago
Technically, Jobs resigned from Apple rather than having been fired. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Apple_Computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Apple_Computer
- UK-AL 14y ago
  I think "resigned" has to be in speech marks.
nawitus 14y ago
The parent said "slightly odd", which is different from "eccentric genius". He provided examples of trivial differences from the average, like stutter, which I happen to slightly suffer from. I wonder if I've been rejected on that basis in the past..
jimmaswell 14y ago
Steve Jobs was a genius now?