Hacker News Reader

Comment by bdavisx | Hacker News Reader

Sometimes "Culture Fit" is a way around age (or other discrimination).

Sometimes it really means you have a specific culture you want to maintain. But you better watch out if you do this, at some point, all the "yes people" in your culture will end up missing something that would be obvious to someone who doesn't fit your culture.

Basically, if you hire for "Culture Fit", you're saying that diversity is bad...

View on HN

I have personally been discarded from a startup without even a phone interview, because of "not being a cultural fit to the company". What makes it more absurd (if possible, how do you determine "cultural fit" from a CV?) is that the position was remote. What makes it even more absurd is that the company actively used a software I wrote.

I deduced that "cultural fit" translated to the fact I was over 35.

Eh, to me fit comes down to that ineffable quality: chemistry. Chemistry can't be defined. It doesn't mean you're looking for people exactly like you... My office has a pretty diverse group. But the group gels because of interpersonal chemistry.

Frankly, my opinion is that fit is equally important as skill set. The difference between a good team and a great one often comes down to chemistry, which causes the group to come together under pressure, to support one another, to coach and help one another, etc.

Culture Fit itself isn't quite a bias, because some studies [1] have shown that it reduces employee turnover. Whether or not that causes other prejudices to be used is not really clear.

[1] (pdf) http://advancesearch.com/culturefit/whitepages/Person%20cult...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com