[crazygringo]

> Peter Thiel said PayPal once rejected a top­-notch engineering candidate because he said during an interview that he liked to play “hoops,” and a PayPal engineer does not play basketball, much less “hoops.”

> Carwoo is a company that’s a little weird, so they ask every interviewee how weird she thinks she is on a scale of 1 to 5. There is a right answer. 3­-4 is the sweet spot ­­a weird person who is self-­aware.

I'm sorry, but these are just bizarre. Company culture is great, but this just sounds cultish and even cargo-cultish.

It strikes me almost as strange that we have anti-discrimination laws for hiring practices concerning races, sexual orientations, religions, etc... but companies are free to discriminate against people who play "hoops" (or don't), or are either insufficiently self-identified "weird", or overly self-identified "weird".

Well you just can't legislate against human stupidity...

[wpietri]

We have those laws because there are major societal issues we are trying to address, and because we have decided those factors are not material to hiring.

You shouldn't legislate against human stupidity. Meanness, though, is a fine target for legislation.

[Tipzntrix]

The same article he linked to says that PayPal had trouble hiring women, so... you know, I'm not sure legality came into the equation.

[sontek]

In my experience, a happy team, is a good team. We tried a lot of different interviewing tactics and had hit or miss results. Now our interview is just going out for beer or coffee with the candidate and bullshitting for a few hours.

If they aren't smart or not fun to hang around with it usually comes out in those few hours. We've had 100% success rate.

[greyboy]

I thought those were rather lame. Even most of my _friends_ don't have the same interests as I do.

Plus, in my basketball playing years, that was a great example of teamwork.

[yuhong]

Personally I think these laws are likely fundamentally flawed anyway, as hiring is subjective.

[pinko]

Just because hiring is subjective doesn't mean everyone is equally subjective with respect to race/gender/etc.

I mean, aesthetics are subjective too but most people prefer not to have poo on a pedestal in their living room.

You can find strong and widespread biases (e.g., against fecal art) even in a subjective domain.

[yuhong]

Not what I mean. I am thinking in terms of proving discrimination etc.