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"Culture fit" doesn't mean "open-mindedness, inclusion, and confidence in leadership" (and if meant the third of those you'd be being taken for a ride--leadership doesn't deserve confidence, results must be substantiated and all "confidence" does is let a company's leadership abuse you). In my experience, what "culture fit" really means is merely "are they like me." It is a filter to remove women and (most) minorities because those people are harder for most (often white, usually young, overwhelmingly male) startup people to relate to. And this makes them uncomfortable, and discomfort is to be avoided because otherwise one might engage in introspection. Pass; no hire.

I'm very good at passing such tests because I know how the kinds of people who think this is a good idea operate and what to feed them--by avoiding discomfort and self-introspection I think it's a lot easier to end up in a mental cul-de-sac that leads to being easily played. But knowing the game makes playing it even more gross, so I don't. (Things are better here on the East Coast than the Bay Area, but they're not good.)




It may be as you say. Can you present any evidence that "culture fit" is a filter to remove women and most minorities?

"It seems to me..." does not count as evidence.

Nor do demographic reports on the composition of companies that use "culture fit," since correlation does not imply causation.


To me, open-mindedness, inclusion, and confidence in leadership are incredibly important to the culture of an organization.

Good leadership earns, deserves and requires confidence from the community that makes up the organization. I would go a step further to say great leadership earns, deserves and requires faith (to be crystal clear, non-religious faith).

The cynicism and reductive reasoning you are expressing is a good counterpoint.

Leaders have numerous tools and opportunities to shape culture positively or negatively. Thanks for showing a counterpoint to my view. Whichever perspective you choose it speaks to the relevance of culture fit.


And how do you actually interview for these things? What is the quantifiable test you use to determine it? Cause if you don't have one of those, then yes, "culture fit" is a fool's errand at best, and a tool for discrimination at worst.


I shouldn't have put that tailchaser into my post, because I knew it's what you'd seize on. Silly ol' reductive me, I guess.

So let's not let you dodge. How about the structural and institutionalized sexism and racism involved in "culture fit" as is actually practiced, not how you'd like to redefine it? "Culture fit is about open-mindedness and inclusion" except when somebody has some melanin to them or an accent or a couple of X chromosomes. We just going to pretend that's not a thing, now?


I think you sank your teeth in to the wrong piece of meat.

You seem to be taking issue with the the fact that organizations use culture fit to veil their racism, sexism, etc. I am not denying that happens and I believe that is wrong.

As I said in my previous post, my point is that, "It's a less tangible, but collective agreement about purpose and objective." It has validity, value and relevance.

Maybe it's the term or your experiences that prompted your response, but that's really not the conversation I'm having. If you want to post something about calling it something else, or have a conversation about, "when culture fit goes wrong..." I'd probably participate in that too.


"Collective agreement about purpose" is why sexism and racism pervade this sort of thing, though. Because the purpose is not what is stated. My contention is that there is no fundamental difference between what I am saying and what you are saying and that, while I believe that you might have good intentions, you're providing a shield for bad behavior.




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