Ep 296: I'm a Culture Fit for Your Open Job If...

We're rejected from job applications so often and we don't even know why. Sometimes they claim we just don't fit. In reality, we fit the job description... but maybe the work and workplace don't match the job description.

We'll start with my article https://medium.com/r-before-d/im-a-culture-fit-if-743eccd74983, and discuss from there!

You can now buy my new book in most formats. https://AtomicPMF.com  That pages also links to my course on product-market fit and using AI thoughtfully in research! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Welcome, low ego action heroes and phoenixes. This is Debbie Lovitt from Delta CX, and I've turned the gate on my microphone. Let me know if you can hear me okay. Hi, Anna Lucia. Welcome to episode 296. I'm a culture fit if. And we're going to look at an article that I wrote, and um, and hopefully my microphone sounds okay. This one's finally back at my desk, and um discuss it. And I want to talk also a little bit about why the article even exists, because what happened was uh there was an exchange that I had had with a an in-house HR person for a particular job. And uh I would say that there were aspects of that exchange that didn't go fantastically. Some of them were public in LinkedIn comments, and then some of it moved to the the private conversation. And um the person said some strange things to me that basically made it sound like they're not gonna consider me because I'm not uh a culture fit. Uh, they called me passive aggressive, and I was like, oh, I'm neither. Um, there's certainly nothing passive about me, but I'm also not aggressive. I'm just honest. And there are things about your job that set off red flags, and I'm just gonna mention that honestly. And if that doesn't fit in at your company, then, you know, I'm sorry to hear that you want someone who is submissive, and you know, you want a UX researcher, but you want someone who's submissive. Okay, you know, good luck with that. And their reply was basically, no, no, we really value research and we want someone who's gonna be a strong personality and uh change minds and uh really deliver the information we need to hear. And I was like, okay, but you don't want me, so then you're just gonna hire my personality, but let me guess, someone younger with less with less experience. Congratulations! And scene. And and that kind of inspired me to write this uh article, just you know, kind of thinking about the people who say, you know, that you wouldn't fit at this company. And sure, I'm not gonna fit at every company, and I don't expect to, but um, I had some opinions, and I got the feeling if I wrote them out, some of you would go, Oh, yeah, that's me, me too. So uh let's take a look at the article. As always, you can find it in our medium um uh publication, and of course, all of our links to everything are at DCX for Delta CX, DCX.to, which is my URL shortener, and that's it. Just go to dcx.to. You'll find our free Discord community, our free Patreon, my books, uh medium, uh coaching, everything. It's all there. Um, and you'll be able to find this. You can also search online if you'd like. Uh just look for, I usually I put my last name medium, so last name Levitt, medium, and the name of the article, which is I'm a culture fit if. And uh as I go, let me know if you have questions or or comments. And this article is from just a couple of weeks ago, April 13th, 2026. Culture fit, in air quotes, is too often used to hide sexism, ageism, racism, and many other isms. It's hidden in plain sight in phrases like, we're fast, to mean the team is young. It's more overt when job applications ask for your age, high school graduation year, or if your gender now matches what's on your birth certificate. Let's be honest and blunt as we usually are in this publication. And if this is also you, hello cousin, I see you. I'm a culture fit if you're not ageist. I'm 54 years old in 2026, and that scares some companies, but I'm not sure what they're afraid of. I'm faster than I've ever been before because I'm better and better at my work each year. Experience brings me speed and efficiency that people who have less experience than I have, regardless of age, are still working to find. If you want to balance speed and quality, then you want to interview me. If you want max speed and quality is second or optional, then you don't want me because I'm a culture fit if you care about outcomes. I see jobs saying they want people who will influence stakeholders and change minds. That's my whole brand. Or did you not really want that? You say you care about outcomes, but maybe you mean numbers. If you want the person who will move mountains and do shady things just to make the numbers look better, you don't want me. I'm not interested in those outcomes. I'm looking at the realities of customer satisfaction, conversion, retention, growth, and atomic product market fit. I'm a culture fit if you want honesty. It's that simple. I'm often asked what's going wrong, how something can be improved, or why this is broken. And that makes sense, given that I'm working at many companies as a researcher, strategist, change agent, or some combination of those. I find some gentle way to tell the truth, and someone doesn't like that, I'm going to point out where and how the emperor isn't wearing any clothes, especially if someone makes it part of my job to find that out. If your company values honesty, I'm a culture fit. If you want problems uh swept under the rug, even when you ask me specifically to find out why that happened, then I'm not a fit. If you will make it part of my job to learn why, but you don't really want to hear why, you don't want me in that job. And I'm not sure who you want in that job, but it might be nobody. Oh, I just lost my screen. Hold on. I accidentally did a multi-finger swipe on my trackpad and lost my whole screen. I'm a culture fit. If you want a strong person who's good at influencing evidence-based decisions, yep, that's me. Or will you call that person annoying, not a team player, aggressive, passive aggressive, blocking innovation, a bitch. If you genuinely want that person, that's me. And I have plenty of work stories to back that up. I find and solve problems, I provide information teammates and leaders need to make better decisions, fail less, and succeed more. I'm a culture fit if you want critical thinking. That's my brand. Thinking critically, taking time to do good work well, getting work done thoughtfully, amplifying the good, and questioning the less good or the bad. I'm a culture fit if you want an innovator. Companies love to say they want someone innovative. Candidates love to say that they are innovative. Do you ever ask in interviews how someone has been innovative? Innovation is more than we took what Airbnb was doing and we tried it at our company. Nope. You need examples of when you led, not when you followed or copied. I have those stories. I can innovate even without a scripted, scheduled workshop telling everybody to be creative right now. I was awarded a patent in March 2025. I'm your culture fit. I'm a culture fit if you really want someone comfortable with ambiguity. I can tell if someone's not comfy with ambiguity when they want to know more about the ambiguity. The ambiguity will not be clear. The ambiguity is ambiguous. Companies can't even tell you where or why so much of their work is wrapped in unknowns and random changes. But it is, and you need to be okay with that. Yeah, I'm okay with that. That sounds like nearly every job I've done. I'm a culture fit if you want a resilient person. You're gonna need a strong person given the toxic leaders and teammates over there, right? Someone who can put up with them and not let it get them down, someone who knows when to stand up to them and when to play along. You want to put someone in a crappy workplace and situation and have them stay, be productive, and not burn out and quit, taking lots of company and domain knowledge with them. Well that's me. I'm resilient. But we shouldn't need resilient at work resilience at work. Work shouldn't be a place where we need protection from others and their attempts to harm us. But let's be honest, bad jobs require resilience, and the more resilience you have, the better. I'm a culture fit if you want someone who is proactive. As a futurist and someone who is bizarrely accurate with her predictions, I'm definitely proactive. I'm a planner and a strategist. I can see the better paths early and help move teams and projects down those paths. I've invented systems to help companies be proactive. Who remembers my behavior triggers from 2019? That's just one example. You want someone who is proactive and will take action? I'm a fit. In short, I'm a culture fit if your job description is honest. And that's where this tends to fall apart. The job description isn't really that honest, is it? It's setting me up for the HR poster of the workplace, not the realities of the toxic leaders, lack of strategy, burnout, and unethical race toward anything that improves metrics. Because if you really wanted what the job says you wanted, you'd want me. And so many other well-qualified, nice to work with people. I'm not a culture fit if you want exGoogle or something like that in my LinkedIn tagline. If you were hoping for someone fired by a famous company, that won't be me. Or maybe you want someone who quit there or was laid off from there. Sure, I understand golden resume company names and how that can change the perception of a candidate. But some of those jobs require you to sell your soul to an unethical company or project. If you want the person who's happy to sell their soul or has no soul left to be sold, that won't be me. I and many fast, talented, strong, experienced people like me are available for full-time contract and freelance work. Hire us. And that is today's article. If there's any questions or thoughts or disagreements or commentary, let me know. Uh but that's what I wanted to share with everybody today. That article did get some nice comments from people who said, oh, this is me also. So just uh just a little article to tell everybody you're not alone. So yeah. Uh anyway, uh, if you don't have any other comments or questions, we can certainly wrap up the show with a reminder that tomorrow is the Ask Me Anything show where I'm happy to talk about anything from the work or personal universes. Check DCX.to for all of our links. Oh, I've got a new link I have to remember to add there. Let's make a note. dcx.to. Note to self. Okay, I've got a new link to add there. Um, so yeah, and don't forget to check out deltacx.coach. I'm offering a new type of coaching that I'll be writing an article about soon, so that will uh hit the airwaves soon enough. But uh yeah, the bottom line is many of us would be great additions at many companies, and they're just not being honest about what they're looking for. I wish they were. Can you imagine what job descriptions would say if companies were honest about what their workplace is like and what they're looking for? Oh, that'd be great. Anna Lucia says, Unfortunately, there are too many sexist people in the workforce, and they like using the you're too aggressive when you know how to stand up for yourself or you're simply assertive. Yes, usually a man is told he's bold and strategic and commanding, and a woman is told she's aggressive or passive aggressive or not a team player. And uh, okay, hashtag sexist. And so we will all just keep doing whatever we're doing and try to make the best of it. Uh, so on that note, I will play our wrapping up music, uh, Quit Forever by Toe Hyder. Um, and uh thank everybody for joining this either live or viewed later on YouTube, where I hope you'll give us a thumbs up and a comment, and now of course on podcast platforms as well. So thank you for joining me for episode 296. We do have episode 297 planned for not next Tuesday, and actually not the Tuesday after that, because that will be Eurovision, and my friend wants to have a watch party at our house. So, our next Tuesday, episode 297, will be May 19, where I'm going to be talking about the new Claude skills that I've created. Uh, one is already available for uh purchase at DeltaCX.academy, and I'm working on two more now that I hope will be ready in time for that show, so that if people are curious, they can give them a spin. Um, so yeah, that will be the next Tuesday show after today. So see everybody tomorrow for the Wednesday show. Thanks. Bye.