[nanijoe]

This "culture fit" business is beginning to trend in a dangerous direction in my opinion..where are we going to draw the line between the so-called "fit" and outright discrimination? Can someone be explicit about what EXACTLY culture fit refers to? Referring to a different hiring post from yesterday, does my dislike for techno and alcohol make me un-hirable at companies where it is their "culture" to play techno and drink beer? What if I can't curse and swear like a sailor? Or if I can't hang out after work because I'd rather do something else?

Hopefully, someone can provide a definition for "culture fit" that clears the air on these questions.

[daenz]

I think "culture fit" is just another way of saying "if we like you or not." It doesn't really matter how good you are, if you don't laugh at their jokes, or they don't like the way you dress, or if they think you might be a threat to their intelligence, you might as well be completely unqualified, because you're not going to "fit." Do I sound jaded? :)

[lachyg]

I think you're spot on, but I definitely don't see anything wrong with it.

[blaines]

Dead on, I have too much cultural experience. The term is abused.

[apike]

If the company culture is to listen to techno and drink beer, then sure. For that company you wouldn't be a culture fit if everybody else is going to bother you by doing these things. More important parts of culture could be, say, a reverence of quality, or being nice to people. If a candidate is an asshole, that would fly at some companies, and not at others.

It's not discrimination because one could choose to not be an asshole, or to develop an appreciation for techno. Discrimination is when you don't hire somebody because they were born differently than you, not because you don't get along.

You could try to spin not hiring people who like techno as discrimination, saying they were born not liking techno. You might be able to bend the definition to fit, but I doubt we'll ever see legal protection for people who don't like techno.

[elliottcarlson]

When attempting to determine if someone is a culture fit, I am trying to determine if the candidates personality would mesh well with the personalities of the rest of the dev team (and the company overall). Not everyone is exactly the same, and not everyone is going to be a perfect match for what I personally am looking for, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are ruled out because of that either.

We just want to find someone we can work with on a day to day basis.