A great deal of negativity has been directed lately at the practice of hiring for culture fit. I find this troubling because its a central tenet of Etsy’s hiring. This pithy insight was shared with me yesterday by one of our senior most engineers, and I slept better last night.

“As time passes, I focus more and more on interviewing for communication skills over technical skills.

Even the most brilliant engineer can get off course. But a great communicator might move slower, but they will always be moving in the right direction.”

(actually I didn’t sleep better last night, but that was the baby’s fault, not anxiety about contributing to oppression.)