[theorique]

In my experience, culture fit is exactly that - a nice way of saying that the candidate was "a huge asshole or complete weirdo."

It's shorthand for "I think they could probably do the work, but I don't think that I/we could actually stand working with this particular candidate".

[txcwpalpha]

>It's shorthand for "I think they could probably do the work, but I don't think that I/we could actually stand working with this particular candidate".

Agreed, but in my experience, "don't think we could stand working with this candidate" is much more than talking about assholes/weirdos. It's also the catch-all for things like "our team likes to go out to bars and clubs all the time, and you don't seem like you enjoy going out", or "we tell raunchy jokes at work and you seem like you would be offended by it and make us stop", or even "you seem like you're on the opposite side of the political spectrum than we are so we think we wouldn't want to work with you".

Hell, I've even seen teams at a consulting company (and seen HR defend such teams) reject candidates for being vegetarian, because the team thinks that there wouldn't be "culture fit" since the team likes going out for burgers and steak every week.

[ryandrake]

I’m glad at least someone can use specific examples. These are the kinds of reasons that come to mind when explaining what a “cultural fit” rejection is about. It’s not that the candidate is an asshole or toxic. It’s that he’s not enough like the interviewers.

I once had in interviewer ask me what I thought about going to football games as team building events (this was not a job that had anything to do with sports). I knew where that job opportunity was going...

[sonnyblarney]

In my experience, it seems to be 'is this person cool or not, given what I think is cool?' or 'does he have the same political inclinations as I do?'

WeWork has banned meat from their meals - you can't even submit an invoice for a meal containing meat. This is not so obvious discrimination for the 'type of person' they want at the company; 'Veganism' is pretty strongly correlated with a bunch of values, including political.

'Cultural fit' is a very slippery slope and though I guess WeWork has the right to make such assertions ... I think it's unfair and wrong. I could easily live with that kind of rule, but I just wouldn't want to work for a company that had such a rule.

[harryh]

Ya.

Are you a sports loving bro? I don't care.

Are you an arty hipster? I don't care.

Are you a birkenstock wearing vegan nature lover? I don't care.

Do you yell at people when you get upset over minor disagreements? Well that's gonna be a problem....

[sampleinajar]

How do you reliably and accurately select for that in an interview? Try to constantly trigger them?

[finnthehuman]

Asking about their previous work experience and steering the conversation towards teamwork is usually enough rope for them to hang themselves.

[seppin]

Well you covered every possible person one can meet in SF..

[paulie_a]

Or on the flip side you interview with numerous people and some how manage to rub one of the ten the wrong way...or hell maybe that one individual got cut off on the way to work and is in a bad mood.