> It's valid, I believe, for the company to vet candidates for culture fit
I'm not sure what culture fit means. I have been passed over for culture fit and seen others passed over for culture fit and I have never seen it be because someone couldn't be productive with their peers. It seems, anecdotally, to just be based upon affinity, which seems stupid to me unless you're a lifestyle brand, like FitStar.
In the Army I learned culture can be taught. All of these groups who hire for culture fit seem like they want to hang out with other people like them. People who are nothing like me have been my best hires. I've indoctrinated them into our values, and only on rare occasions has that not worked out.
If culture fit isn't a "bro test" then why test at all? Why not just teach people your culture? Do companies expect people to come in off the street serendipitously sharing the same values? That smells to me like a leadership vacuum.
This requires effort. The obsession with "leanness" translates into skimping on many things; instilling a rigorous culture is one of them. It takes too long and costs too much and it's easier to just emoji-shrug.
Navy (reserve) vet here - I definitely agree that culture can be taught but unfortunately you have to find someone willing to learn. And unfortunately, most software developers aren't of the military "situationally adaptive" mindset but rather the "I'm a hot commodity where the hell is the ping pong table" mindset.
It's far easier for most young companies with ping pong tables to hire developers that like ping pong than actually endeavor to build a company culture and attempt to instill those values into their hires.
You're correct and I was mistaken to give the impression that it is a "military-only" sort of thing - far from it. That being said, the human tendency to optimize for laziness often overrides our adaptive capabilities and instead pushes for maximizing comfort. The military does tend to train against this mindset (to varying degrees of success) - yet they are far from the only (or even most successful) of that ilk.
I'm not sure what culture fit means. I have been passed over for culture fit and seen others passed over for culture fit and I have never seen it be because someone couldn't be productive with their peers. It seems, anecdotally, to just be based upon affinity, which seems stupid to me unless you're a lifestyle brand, like FitStar.
In the Army I learned culture can be taught. All of these groups who hire for culture fit seem like they want to hang out with other people like them. People who are nothing like me have been my best hires. I've indoctrinated them into our values, and only on rare occasions has that not worked out.
If culture fit isn't a "bro test" then why test at all? Why not just teach people your culture? Do companies expect people to come in off the street serendipitously sharing the same values? That smells to me like a leadership vacuum.