this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025

54 points (87.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

28172 readers

2340 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Should I ask applicants about what scifi books they've read? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) by shortrounddev to c/asklemmy

71 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm a software engineer who sometimes interviews other software engineers. I'm not given a script to go off of, I get to ask them whatever I want. Usually we just talk about technology and coding from a high level. I'm not a big fan of whiteboard tests.

I've noticed, however, that a lot of people applying to software engineering jobs feel very alien to me. I started coding when I was 12 and spent most of my teenage years on technology forums. A lot of people applying to these positions are very much ladder-climbing type people who got into the career for the money. Working with these people is an absolute drag.

We also interview for "culture fit". I would like to add in a single question to my interviews to assess that: what is your favorite science fiction book. You don't even have to have read it recently, you just have to have read one and formed an opinion on it. My thoughts

Pros:

Weeds out a lot of people since half of Americans don't read books at all.
Theoretically filters out people who love this kind of tech subculture from people who are just in it for the money

Cons:

It's unfair to people who enjoy fantasy novels, or any other form of fiction
Being motivated by money probably shouldn't be a disqualifying factor (I certainly wouldn't do this job for free), I'm just tired of working with yuppies and lashing out at poor unsuspecting Jr Devs

I'm half-hearted on this. I see why it could be considered unfair but I'm really tired of the kinds of people I work with.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 12 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

As a tension softener, I tend to open interviews with: What's the best movie ever and why should I love it too?

It helps me tell how good they are convincing someone else of something while also it helps them relax a bit, as a softball before we start pitching curved ones.

I prefer doing this rather than asking for hobbies as the interviewees tend to gave prepared corporate-grade answers.

I tend to finish asking to give us a song recommendation, which sets a better mood (hopefully) to end it.

I just hope there's nobody out there still trying to figure out if they gave us the wrong recommendations.

[–] garbagebagel 5 points 12 hours ago

Oh that's so stressful. I actually hate sharing my song and movie recommendations because I usually like weird indie shit that nobody else enjoys (as pretentious as that makes me sound). I get extremely self conscious about my taste in stuff and would 100% worry that I gave the wrong recommendation.

Oh god just thinking about this is giving me anxiety.

[–] regrub 5 points 16 hours ago

I want someone that's pleasant to work with and can pull their weight, but that's just my preference.