Cover image from Passion (1954), public domain. Screenshot by Wayne77.
Popular job advice, especially in highly competitive fields like tech, ofte...
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"We're looking for someone passionate" on a job description translates to "We want someone that works harder at no additional cost." Prove me wrong.
I reply to them with "How is excellence measured in your company and how is it rewarded." The answers are quite interesting.
For me its just about finding people that have an eye on quality instead quantity. I want to work with devs that are going to try to find ways to improve the code, and not just work on stories. I want thinkers not robots.
I fully agree with you. I'm a picky developer in terms of code quality, and I want to deliver always as best as possible within time frame. This pursue of quality is what motivates me to find new approaches and technologies, listen and learn from people and, at the same time, share my knowledge. I would call that passionate.
I have something clear though: I'm a professional and I appreciate and give a lot of value to my free time. If something I do on my free time casually matches the company interests then good for them, but it's not my main driver.
Yes, you also have to make sure boundaries are respected. In my experience when those boundaries are not respected its usually caused by one or a combination of:
In short, "passionate" is a small part of what constitutes a good hire. Definitively a good trait to look for though.
Interesting point of view!
You can be competent without being passionate.
My rule of thumb is that, if the questions use the word "passion," it's always a cynical attempt to filter out candidates who won't center the company in their life. (A similar question is "why do you want to work for us?" because it frames their leadership as something to aspire to have in your life.)
It's far safer when they ask questions about contributions to projects, that might provoke a passionate response. That could still be about filtering people, but it's more likely that they're figuring out which project to put you on or confirming that you care about your work.
I can say that, when I've been a part of the interviewing process and the candidate doesn't get excited about anything they've worked on, that's a "no-hire." It actually has nothing to do with passion as such, but rather that they've made me suspicious. If nothing in their work history provokes an emotional response or even a story, it sounds suspiciously like they've been pushing work off on their colleagues.
I really like this response.
Good article-- I never thought about the passionate bias like that but it makes a lot of sense. I'm cynical and believe that most companies use "passion" to see if they can get extra work hours, but I believe that there are more facets. Asking myself "why is passion important?" the loudest answer is morale. Ceteris paribus, I believe people who are passionate think a little bit more clever, code a little bit faster, communicate a little bit clearer, take misfortunes a little bit better. Not because of any conscious effort but because of an unconscious fire-- they want to do this, they like to do this down to their core. This hypothesis also explains why companies are now looking for passion in all roles, even where it seems ridiculous-- morale is infectious.
In some cases I think companies look for passion in programmers because it means that the person is paying attention to detail and finishing projects in a polished way rather than a poorly tested and unfinished project.
Maybe, in that example, we are talking about passion when we should just call it being professional, because if we are talking about passion per se, maybe it would be more important to be passionate about the field of the company, whether it is medical, games, banking, etc. rather than being passionate about programming in general.
Coming from the biotech/science industry, people do not ask about 'your passion.' To many, that would be a ridiculous question. When I first heard this discussion, I became cynical about its use. But then I thought back to other interviews I have played a part in. Those questions were only slightly different. The questions I have come across (in my career) seem more pointed than the vague and blunt tool about your passion.
In the conservative world of biotech, people ask 'what are your interests' or 'why do you study x?' From there, people infer what is important to you. To me, that seems more direct than asking about your 'passion quotient'. The idea (at least in my tiny mind) is that there is/could be a certain amount of enthusiasm in our work and that enthusiasm should be born out to some degree.
Another question that I have come across that interested me was, "Would you consider yourself ambitious?" That seems to cut right to the heart of the matter more than this vague passion term. I guess one could even extrapolate this line of thinking to "What are your future plans?" Isn't that more attune to what you really want in your life, be it your personal and professional life?
To me, the term and question regarding passion is just another poor rewording of the same questions that have been around for a long time.
I really liked this - not because you're arguing that companies shouldn't be asking for "passionate" employees, but you're being very explicit about the real reason they do so.
There's a normative judgement and social capital in the word "passionate" - it's usually reserved for someone who is full of energy, dedicated to their craft, will achieve great success, etc etc.
I don't think your cynical answer is cynical at all - it's just that no company in their right mind would write "We prefer candidates who will willingly put in more hours for no extra pay because they will prioritize their job above other things in their life - family, friends, health, personal interests" etc, even though that's 100% the truth.
I personally appreciate you stripping the pseudo-meritocratic veneer off of this word when it's used in job descriptions. It has nothing to do with merit and everything to do with what is in the company's best interest.
while I agree that in many company Passion is translated to - work more pay less, or work extra hours for free or spend your entire weekend learning the framework we will start using in the next project (. in the end what's best than doing what you love?!?!) I don't necessarily consider a Red Flag.
As any Senior Engineer would answer for almost any problem: It depends
Honestly I can't understand how somebody that is not passionate about coding, technology and solving problem could even do this job, or at least be good at it.
Programming is hard, it is frustrating, it requires to learn a lot, and to unlearn a lot, things change constantly, so, if you don't really like it, how can you dedicate 40 hours per week to it.
Sure it is definetely better than dedicating 40hours per week to Cleaning Toilets or as a Cashier in a Supermarket, but then, well yes.. ** if your only reason to work as a Developer is "there is worse than that" probably then yeah.. that might not be the Passion companies are looking for.**
But then.. how do you demonstrate passion?
Sure, contributing to OS could tell a lot.
Sure, blogging about Software Engineering counts.
Sure, reading articles or learn something out of your working hours is important.
but all this, to a certain extent, to me that could also tell that you _ don't have a life _ . And as soon you find a partner, or you get a baby or find some hobby then you will stop doing all that.
Passion is to be demonstrated at work, during standups, during meetings with stakeholders, during code reviews, while pair programming. It is showing that you care about what you are doing, that you are interested in the feedback you are getting from your colleagues and you like sharing your knowledge to others, it means being proactive, have initiative, find joy in whatever challenge you are faced ( be it fixing a lint rule error or writing UML diagrams, refactoring a crappy piece of legacy code, or architecting a new app.
not just waiting for the PM to assign you a ticket, work on it trying to meet the estimate, push and wait for what's next.
So true! I'd like to note here that some of the best developpers I've met in my carreer are dads with other preocupation than maximizing their entreprise's wealth. What they lacked in passion they made up for in diligence and patience, which are qualities that I admire.
To me it means nothing. Why? I and all the others I know in this industry are already passionate. In fact passion drives persistence, which is mandatory in order for us to keep our jobs. How many new things did we learn just last week even though we've been in programming for 25+ years?
I wouldn't demonize the question for passion in general. For example: an interviewer might ask you "what are you passionate about" to get a better idea about you and your values.
However, I totally agree that this can be easily misused to find out how much you are willing to do for free. If the job requires "passion" I would in return ask for the way they count working hours and how overtime will be compensated. Note, that overtime compensation makes only sense if there is a system established to measure overtime, otherwise you will never officially get overtime counted...
Interesting topic. In my case, whenever I've had the chance to interview people, I don't ask for passion but I try to identify it from every candidate. I do it because, to me, it shows they like what they do, they like to dig deeper, and also learn.
If those candidates I see as "passionate" work extra hours or learn on their leisure time, it's mostly their choice. Myself (and the company I work for) encourage people to not work extra time, to stop working on time or earlier. This is way I do look for "passion" but don't ask directly.
Nonetheless, what you mentioned is really important and it's something I'll bare in mind next time I interview someone and don't find the "passion" on her.
Thank you for reading and commenting!
For me, I'm looking for something milder than passion. Call it satisfaction. If someone feels like the work is something they enjoy and often feel satisfied by, that's great.
If they hate the work, that's obviously bad. It's also concerning if they really really love the work.
So i suppose i want someone for whom work is a 7/10, pretty good thing.
Phrasing in things like job descriptions is actually my partner's area of expertise, and some of it's rubbed off on me. I could talk about whether you should ask for it, but I'm inclined to think that most of the time, "passion" is a catchy-sounding space-filler like, "detail-oriented" or "team player" that HR or recruitment agents put in because they can't think of anything original.
To me, the term and question regarding passion is just another poor rewording of the same questions that have been around for a long time.
I think it's clearly the case of "be careful what you wish for". What companies do not realise is that a passionate person is much harder to keep at bay: they are driven by passion after all. It's good to have a visionary on the team, but not all of them. Luckily for companies, most hires are truly passionate about providing for their families.
Sometimes, what employers mistake for passion is actually “plenty of free time” or “some disposable income to spend on personal projects.” This can make passion a metric that inadvertently locks out women, people of color, and working-class people from tech positions where they might otherwise thrive
I couldn't agree more.
That's amazingly well said. I'm saving this in my quotes folder if you don't mind!
+1 point for using the word "orthogonal" 😁
"conflating" I had to look it up (I'm not an english native) but still +1 point.
I agree with you and I think what some workplaces want are devs who have integrity and take pride in their work, those are the devs that will, with every ounce of their being, work hard to complete tasks and projects without supervision.
putting on orange eye-mask Yes.
It's a stopgap and the most cliche thing ever to put on a job description, belongs right there on the bs/buzzword bingo card ... yeah I understand why the word is used, but I'd say avoid it.
You can always ask your self "have you ever had success with something when you did it without passion"
Like the Cover Image you used😀
I'm think this video explain it perfectly:
tiktok.com/@imac_her_roni215/video...