Shopify was just a really fun place to work. And in part this was because they did a really good job of interviewing. Technical, yes, but in particular behaviorally.
So I can honestly say that many of the colleagues I know being let go are truly great colleagues. They were some of the most impactful people I worked with in my org (discovery) and they are a great get for any company.
I'm still at Shopify (even after today). I can confirm that the colleagues I'm losing are just all around great humans—in addition to having good technical chops. The hiring process optimizes for nice colleagues, and it seems to have worked quite well.
Former Shopify here, there are a lot of really special people going today.
People who mentored me, who work hard, and do high quality work, and people who really carried the best of culture of the company (both technical and personal culture).
The buddies I made at my first internship at Shopify are friends I still chat with to this day, despite us living all over the continent. I think that was my fourth of five co-ops, but it was by far the most socially stimulating.
I'm bummed to hear about the layoffs, I hope the culture doesn't suffer too much. Shopify Ottawa was genuinely warm and familiar in a way few tech offices are able to be.
+1 for an awesome interview experience. I had an offer last year which I didn't end up accepting (for various reasons) but I walked away from the process having actually enjoyed it.
Shopify calls its first interview the "life story" interview, and (in my experience) it was a great place for me to talk about my career, reflect on past successes and mistakes, and demonstrate empathy and self-awareness.
I didn't feel compelled to share anything I didn't want to share. I really felt free to frame it in a way that I was comfortable with. It's as much a "career story" as a "life story", IIRC.
That’s a bit presumptuous. I was enthusiastic about the interview until afterwards
The interview was conducted by the recruiter and while she didn’t flat out ask personal questions, she asked questions that would almost cause me to reveal personal information such as my marital status and sexuality. It was not fun coming with made up responses to avoid that because it’s none of her business.
There’s a reason interviews should stay professional. I’m surprised they haven’t been sued.
Sorry if my comment came off at an personal attack, that wasn't the intent.
With that said, there are lots of reasons why a company might want to vet candidate attitude besides discriminating based on protected characteristics.
Out of curiosity, what kind of questions did you find invasive or discriminatory?
So it wasn't the questions themselves, but when you start asking about why you moved from this city to that, or why did you choose this school, etc. Maybe it's because your SO got a job there, or some other personal reason.
I get that it's totally an innocent intent, but there are much better ways to assess a candidate's soft skills, that is strictly related to their professional experience.
Okay, my Original Point was that maybe one of the soft skills the test is assessing is the ability and willingness to share their personal self in a positive and constructive manner.
Many if not most people find us a desirable attribute in coworkers and workplaces. I get that it's not for everyone, but not every workplace is a good fit for everyone.
I think you're getting some rude comments because of exactly this fact
honestly that is something I value as well, but I think that's when a lot of bias can come into play. Perhaps that bias is desired for culture fitting, but you still have to be careful if protected-class stuff comes up and you want to reject the person.
fwiw, when I interview candidates in a technical interview, I still attempt at some small talk to get a sense of "can I have a normal conversation with this person"
Sure, I think I agree that once you get into picking people based on cultural fit, you run some risk of discrimination suit, real or unreal. It is a tricky area.
Uh. I hope this was for a non-technical role. Otherwise, it sounds like a bad idea and best and a torturous thing that filters out a lot of non-native, non-extroverted people.
But then again, that's probably why the environment seems 'fun'
Being able to communicate empathetically with your coworkers is a core competency for technical workers too. There's a difference between an introvert and an asshole.
Asking people to tell their "life story" in a job interview seems like a sign of boundary issues, not empathy. An empathetic person would realize that people come to job interviews expecting to talk about their professional experience, so it isn't the appropriate environment to ask such an invasive question.
You choose what to talk about and what to share. It's open ended to give you the ability to share as much as you're comfortable with. You can tell the story of your career, no need to get any more personal unless you want to.
You've interviewed at places that didn't require you to talk about yourself?
Just because Shopify might name it something specific, doesn't mean it's all that unique. Some companies hold this potion entirely on a first/second phone call, others might having an initial section of the interview dedicated to talking about yourself and your experience.
Not sure how this weeds out non-native or non-extroverted people, both of whom are very capable of talking about their experiences. It would be great if you wouldn't infantilize them.
This is a strawman. Nobody is saying that people should not have to talk about themselves in job interviews. What people are saying is that "tell me your life story" comes off as creepy and invasive in a professional context where the parties don't know one another.
Huh? I'm an introvert and I can communicate and actually like interacting with people. But I'll need time for myself to re-charge afterwards. But everyone needs to re-charge somehow.
So only people who have slick enough social skills to bullshit their way through that will get hired. The quiet unassuming engineer who spend their free time programming will get passed on and the extroverted engineer who spent their free time partying will get hired.
1. That is a very deterministic statement
2. This is a part of the process, not the entire process. There are still technical elements tested during the interview.
3. The signal that they are looking for, but do not tell candidates, is a story about overcoming obstacles.
What I will say about the lifestory, is that it aligns with the skillset required to do well in a corporate environment. Namely telling stories, being relatively interesting, and having some ability to sell yourself and your accomplishments (in addition to being technically competent which is tested elsewhere).
“Yeah, we see here that you developed your own machine learning framework in your free time. That’s great and all, but jross225 didn’t find you interesting enough, so we’re going to have to pass, sorry.”
If you developed an ML framework in your free time and can't tell a compelling story about it in 45 minutes then I probably don't want to work with you either
I got the whole way through to the end of a senior backend role interview process a couple of years back and it was very enjoyable because of the people.
Sadly I got vetoed by one interviewer for an inelegant game of life solution (first time I’d ever seen GoL and I got bogged down in the middle logic) - never been so disappointed ever as every interview I had went really well on a personal level and (with the exception of that one) all my code was fine.
I hope to see Shopify continue to do well, I’ve used it for over 10 years and love using the platform.
Shopify was just a really fun place to work. And in part this was because they did a really good job of interviewing. Technical, yes, but in particular behaviorally.
So I can honestly say that many of the colleagues I know being let go are truly great colleagues. They were some of the most impactful people I worked with in my org (discovery) and they are a great get for any company.