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“Culture Fit,” Inane Rules, And The Other Box-Checks Of Hiring
I can avoid belaboring this one, but let’s just go through a couple of stories and terms here fast.
“Culture fit” is the most common reason people get rejected from jobs — assuming any feedback is even provided about the rejection — and that’s completely logical. Because “culture” is not a well-defined work concept, the idea of “culture fit” can mean anything, including “You’re not white” and/or “We didn’t like the sound of your voice during the interview.” It can also mean “We had the best friend of the girlfriend of the founder want the job at the 11th hour.” It can mean a lot of things. Most words that mean a lot of things, which we call “suitcase words” because they carry multiple definitions, ultimately end up meaning nothing. Work has tons of those words: culture, engagement, mission, vision, purpose, etc. “Culture fit” is just another one of those.
Inane rules: I was recently talking to this company called NASCO, which appears to be a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. I had some good interviews with them. We talked about true crime, the University of Georgia, storytelling, etc. It was nice! Well, last Sunday, in between cleaning my house, I posted something on LinkedIn and I alluded to how long and tedious my…
