Have you ever had a date where the first thing someone talks about is something like having babies, or going on and on about their ex, or they want to know how much you make in the first 15 minutes? It is not a pleasant feeling, and makes it pretty clear what their priorities are (and aren’t). Namely that having some idea who YOU are and if they like you doesn’t really matter much.

If someone starts the interview process talking about about the vacation amounts (and not much else), that isn’t that different. Chances are at that point they don’t know folks on the team, and vice versa, they don’t know about the company (much), or what the job would likely look like, it may entail, or really much of anything.

It’s just weird, and a bit concerning, in the same way that someone might ask about perks and pay without even trying to understand any of those factors too. Because those factors matter too, a lot.

I’m not saying asking about vacation is a round file thing - rather I have seen, and can definitely imagine, scenarios where it is or would be a pretty major red flag.

If part of the general background comp discussion after someone has spent some effort figuring things out, or as part of the initial listing? Of course, that’s not weird at all. And giving a pay range for a role is of course necessary to avoid people wasting their time.

So ‘it depends’

Interview is not a date. Its a formal meeting where parties are trying to acheive something concrete. Hire a good employee, find a good job.

If someone starts off with asking about essential thing that is important factor for them it means that its a dealbreaker issue for them.

Whats the point of interview if they know there is no flexi time, and you only look for flexitime jobs??

Its actually a matter-of-fact approach that goes straight into details and saves everyone time. Given it was properly delivered I would be more inclined to hire engineer like that.

If properly delivered? Sure. As many folks seem to be indicating in these threads, as the primary or even sole topic of interest to them?

Would you then consider that a plus?

They know what they want, they do go around the bush doing pleasantries and waiting for the script to get to the place where they can ask the question they wanted to ask in the first place.

To me person like that will be first to raise a hand when something is not right in the project. It might also be a good indication of goal oriented thinking, they know whats important and prioritize to achieve goal

As long as they’re not just talking about nothing but what they want, then they aren’t the problematic cases I was referring to.

The few times I’ve had someone do that, the last thing those folks did was (as one put it) “look for problems” by raising project issues or really doing anything but the bare minimum. A bare minimum that had to be clearly articulated several times to the several people I’ve run across - who one then specifically asked EXACTLY what I meant by ‘keep the system running’, so they could exclude a bunch of long term maintenance work from that minimum shrug

IMO, if someone is curious and cares about what they are working on, it shows, and we would never even have this discussion about them - even if they did ask about EXACTLY what the vacation policy was.

Sure, I've just found that it can be helpful to clarify intent is all, especially when you're dealing with someone you've just met - e.g. maybe the interviewer is mostly reasonable, but is scarred from past negative experiences with colleagues who were legitimately lazy. This phrasing might help such a person understand where you're coming from a bit more easily.

If you need to clarify intent for something as fundamental as work/life balance, wouldn’t that be (at best) a yellow flag?

This needs to not be a taboo. It’s very important how many days I get off, how many hours I’m expected to work and if I’m expected to work nights and weekends. Those are like my top 3 concerns, I don’t really care about your snacks or vision or stack to be honest.

But they do care about those things - a lot. And since being employed requires both parties are happy with the deal, it is something worth considering that obviously not caring about the things they care about could cause them concern.

It goes both ways of course - them not caring about your well-being is obviously just a big a red flag for a candidate.

If you are not dealing with a reasonable person you don't want to work there anyway.