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Ask HN: Would you hire a burnt out engineer?

3 pointsby uptownhrover 5 years ago
If a candidate responds, "because i'm burnt out." To why are you leaving your current company? Would you disqualify them?

2 comments

ThrowawayR2over 5 years ago
That depends on exactly what the candidate means by "burnt out" but it is a red flag that warrants asking some deep and probing questions. If it's just shorthand for "I was tired of my old job", fine, that's not a problem, probably. If it's actually incapacitating or the candidate has a history of such, well, that would be very concerning. I've been in the throes of long-term burnout before and I know very well how hard it is to get anything done when that happens.
davismwflover 5 years ago
I can&#x27;t say it would disqualify them out right, but it would definitely be a major red flag. If you are a solid candidate then I&#x27;d be asking questions to understand how you got burnt out and why.<p>Being burnt generally means one of a couple things (there are others but this is where I&#x27;d start wanting to understand):<p>1. You can&#x27;t manage expectations so you overload yourself. e.g. you can&#x27;t say no<p>2. Your manager was poor and drove people into burn out.<p>And to be clear, I wouldn&#x27;t be asking you if you just can&#x27;t say no, I&#x27;d be testing you in the interview to see if you can be disagreeable. If you can&#x27;t be disagreeable then you&#x27;ll just do the same thing for me and I&#x27;d be replacing you again shortly if I hired you. So it would be a pass.<p>If instead it is #2 or some deviation of the same, then it&#x27;d be less of a red flag, but still concerning to make sure you were good by the time you start on my team.