Disruptive Interviews

In response to Ryan's post about being disruptive... here goes.

I feel that it's great to ask questions in an interview. It's the initial phase of discovery for both parties. Both sides want a positive experience. Expressing that you don't like a process or tool isn't going to kill you. It's just an indication of how well you'll fit into the corp culture.

As JP mentioned, it's great to be able to get into a job and then change things for the better from the inside. However some places have so much momentum that it would take more force than someone "on the bottom" to be able to change it. Disruptive is good, provided that change is possible. If change isn't possible, then it's just frustrating for both parties.

What am I? I'm not actually sure. Sometimes I act "robot-ish" plugging away to get the job done. Other times when I feel the time is right I push to change the status quo. So far I had been able to influence change in 2 major technologies as well help focus on quality. Those times I really do rock the boat. Sometimes I say things that I really shouldn't[1]. I feel that it's all about picking your battles.

Having said all that, it doesn't mean that people you interview can't change just as much as a business. One of the best developers that I work with I helped interview. In the interview I asked "what do you think of unit tests?" to which he replied "I don't like them. I don't do them." Not a good sign? Perhaps. I told him that I do write them. It was an easy sell in the end. He's test infected now. ;-)

I've seen other people who are like "oh, I love unit tests, I write them all the time" but don't. They talk the talk, but they don't walk it. Asking a question and getting the right response isn't necessarily mean you'll get the right behaviour. That's what Ryan was talking about when he said "The only way to know is to jump in the team and do 4-8 months of real work."

I think that even disruptive people have lulls where they are not being "disruptive" just for the simple fact that they have found something that works for them. Change usually happens in spurts.

In the end I think that it's all about clichÈs

• keeping your ear to the ground
• picking your battles
• being passionate

[1] In a meeting with a bunch of people I said we don't build software well, that we're not doing a good job. I said that we can be doing a much better job. One of the guys took me aside later and asked why I said that, why would I say that we doing a bad job (in front of his boss).