[stuntkite]

I was recently hired for a job at a high level position that I'm really excited about. While hiring me the CEO said "You are a bit outside of our normal culture, but we have talked and think that's an asset". I had to question that.

I'm a college dropout with 18 years of consulting and startup experience and they are all highly skilled academics. He even recognized that it was a backhanded compliment. The "culture fit" term has always bugged me, but it really came clear to me in this meeting. It's a useful cypher for exclusion on class and world view. I'm pretty sure that's not immoral or wrong, but I do think the concept is damaging to organizations that want an exceptional outcome. Turns out business is risky and basically runs on what can be predictable.

Working with people you like is really important and at high level jobs, there are few people that can transcend from outside orbits. The only reason I can involves a lot of hard fought failures and an ability to explain myself in documentation and method. A large amount of successful engineers have had a protected arc of experience that makes the unfamiliar grating and closes off dynamism that could come from people that don't whip ideas from the same pocket they pull from. Being an engineer seems to also be magnetically opposed to the nuances of human resources too. A lifetime of meditation on failure can sometimes nerf the poetry available in human experience.

I have no solution to it broadly. Stoked on the new job, it looks like I'll be in charge of hiring too. I have a good track record with it in my own org, but the stakes here are bigger. If I get proof of my method I'll report back, if I fuck it up I'll probably be fired for bad culture fit.