[plants]

This is so funny, I was just doing this with ChatGPT to apply for jobs. If you make me fill out a bullshit form where I fake being passionate about your company, I’m going to get a chatbot to write it for me. End of story. I just need a job, why do you care if I’m passionate about building CRUD apps for you?

[avgDev]

This is how I feel.

I am a pretty hard to read person. I don't excited about switching jobs even if its for more money. I generally have a monotone voice when interviewing.

Some time ago, after an interview I aced, the recruiter called me and asked "why I don't seem to be interested in the position". I was like what? Apparently, because I didn't sound excited about working for an insurance company they were on the fence. The manager I interviewed with at the end was obnoxious, saying things straight from a script. I don't think I can work with people who act like "excited puppies". I'm a damn adult just trying to program and learn new stuff, but mostly put money in my bank.

Maybe I would be excited about working for some space program......but even then there is always the day to day.

[zepolen]

> I just need a job, why do you care if I’m passionate about building CRUD apps for you?

Because people that lack passion for their work cut corners to avoid doing it.

[anigbrowl]

I'm not convinced of that, there's lots of people who are diligent but quiet about it. Passion works great in some job contexts, in others it can lead to exploitation, cult-like behavior, groupthink that results in a terrible product etc.

Obviously you want staff that like their work enough to be fully engaged with it, but fake passion is bullshit that's often foisted on us by marketing/HR drones. Think of how people who work at Subway stores are called 'sandwich artists' when the reality is that they'd probably be fired if they deviate even slightly from the approved recipe.

I don't want to work with people who are primarily driven by passion tbh, because they're likely to either burn out or be intransigent when there's a difference of opinion. I just want people to be friendly and not robots.

[bluedevil2k]

I think the opposite applies here - they want “passionate” people because they’re the ones that will work > 40 hours for free.

[noisy_boy]

In my current role, I have to sometimes write T-SQL or PL/SQL stored procedures in 80's/90's tech, sometimes scripts in Groovy, sometimes starightforward Java and sometimes code that interacts with relatively more modern tech like Kafka. Do I prefer some over others? Yes. Do I spend equal amount of care towards quality of code? Also yes.

A good programmer will always try to do a good job irrespective of their level of passion with the stuff they are working on. Does enjoying a specific piece of work more produce better code? Maybe because I would have more fun writing it. But I doubt most of us gets to do the exciting work everyday. Ironically, if you are relying that much on passion, you might get those who cut corners on unexciting work. Rely instead on good programming skills coupled with professionalism.

[tomjen3]

I think it is the opposite, actually.

A professional gets shit done. With my higher experience, I have a better understanding of what provides business value and don't work on it more than that, because it is not valuable.

I am passionated about technology, programming and system design. I have about zero passion for writing documentation and good pull requests - but I do it anyway, and I like to think I do it well.

If I only did the parts of my job I had passion for, I wouldn't be a very good employee. If people only worked for companies they were passioned about most companies would have so much more trouble hiring (who is passionate about working for Wells Fargo? Doing SCADA work for a flour factory?).

[RobotToaster]

Passionate people can cut corners because they want to see results.

If you want everything done "by the book", you want a pedantic anal retentive asshole. Unfortunately I never see that in job descriptions.

[billsmithaustin]

What would be an example of a non-bullshit form?

[FpUser]

Her is the example:

We at company XXX are building a solution that does a,b,c.

We want senior level programmer with a preference given to a candidates having these specific skills / domain knowledge.

The job is in the office, (no) need to travel. Requires (or not) clearance / degree / license / etc.

We pay this much (range is ok) and offering such and such benefits.

Please explain why you are a good candidate for this job.

Skip enthusiastic, passionate, hard working, woke, tolerant, etc. etc. bullshit because everyone is asking the same crappy questions here and gets the same crappy answers and it is all meaningless.