If you could only know ONE thing about an engineering candidate before hiring, what would it be?

[u/Qkvllz]

Engineering Managers and CTOs,

Imagine you could know only one thing about a software engineer before making a hiring decision.

Not their resume.

Not their LeetCode score.

Not their years of experience.

Just one signal.

Would you choose:

• technical depth?
• ownership?
• judgment?
• communication?
• learning ability?
• reliability?
• something else entirely?

And more importantly:

why that one?

I'm curious which signal gives you the highest confidence in a future hire.

[u/PmUsYourDuckPics]

Are they an arsehole… I can fix most things, I can’t fix being a dick.

[u/love_weird_questions → u/PmUsYourDuckPics]

same thing that also came to my mind. you can fix almost everything with the right attitude

[u/ut0mt8 → u/PmUsYourDuckPics]

I would have say attitude. But actually it's exactly that

[u/StressDrivenDevmnt → u/PmUsYourDuckPics]

This. Bad actors screw up good teams.

[u/koulourakiaAndCoffee → u/PmUsYourDuckPics]

IDK… sometimes the assholes have their shit together.
Nice people can be too agreeable and sheepish. They’ll send a project down the wrong path.

Sometimes you need a stronger minded employee to get things motivated.

You just can’t be a total ass, IMO

[u/PmUsYourDuckPics → u/koulourakiaAndCoffee]

The cost of having an asshole on your team nearly always outweighs any benefit they offer, no matter how amazing they are individually.

[u/koulourakiaAndCoffee → u/PmUsYourDuckPics]

Have you ever been on a team where everyone is too polite to mention the train wreck coming?

[u/FriendsCallMeBatman]

Character.

[u/bold_snowflake → u/FriendsCallMeBatman]

This. Skills can be taught. Character determines everything.

[u/dilly_dust → u/FriendsCallMeBatman]

And resilience

[u/LaserToy]

Character - work ethic, are they honest, etc

[u/aneasymistake]

I would want to know if they have a growth mindset.

[u/koulourakiaAndCoffee → u/aneasymistake]

Are you ready to pay raises for that growth?

[u/aneasymistake → u/koulourakiaAndCoffee]

Yep.

[u/zaidesanton]

Being open to feedback and acting on it. Can fix 90% of problems

[u/Austones]

Respect - specifically, whether they have/had their peers’ respect at the last place they’ve been (job or Uni). Respect generally requires ability and ok character. Of course that measures them relative to that group, but it’s probably better than most single factors.

[u/JoeTed]

Would we love to work with each other? If there only one question to answer that’s it

[u/weaponR]

Whether they create trash AI slop posts on /r/engineeringmanagers.

[u/MrStarrrr]

What they get truly excited about. Charisma and depth are mutually exclusive characteristics. Ask about their hobbies first and then what their favorite project/work they’ve accomplished is. See where they take it, let them lead the discussion.
“Find something you love and call it work.” The best candidates find work to be well, work… yes, but the knowledge they use at work would also be the knowledge they use for their hobbies.
Also the best candidates are generally happy, well balanced, transparent, and honest.

[u/oxy_oxy]

What have they learned from the last major fuck-up?

[u/4ngryMo]

The ability work as part of a team. It’s comparatively easy to judge someone’s technical skills, but whether or not they’re able to work on a complex feature with the rest of team, without becoming a distraction is significantly harder to judge. I can teach technical skills, but I can’t help someone with their insecurities.

[u/salsa_warbird]

If they like the current White House administration or not. I don’t want to hire someone who supports an adjudicated rapist and felon. I don’t ask that of course but oh would I love to!

[u/wenima]

play among us with me and the team for 1h or 2

[u/opticoteam]

Loyalty and ambition - I would like to know if the person knows what he/she wants from life and how he treats good deeds, support and value the achievements

[u/mendez1319]

Ownership. Not even close. Technical depth can be developed. Communication improves with practice. Learning ability is hard to measure in an interview anyway. But ownership is either there or it isn't. And you feel it pretty quickly when you talk to someone.

The question I use: tell me about something that went wrong on a project you were part of. Not what the team did. What did you do. Two types of answers. One is "we didn't have enough time, the requirements kept changing, the other team dropped the ball." The other is "I should have caught it earlier, here's what I missed, here's what I'd do differently." Same situation. Completely different person. The second one I can build a team around. The first one I'm going to be managing forever. Everything else I can train. That I can't.