I am open to learning other sides here because this is so foreign to me. What are the cases where you don't want to work in a place where people care about the mission and culture and want coworkers who do as well?
What are the cases where you're happy working for the company whose attitude is "we don't care who you are and what you value, as long as you have the basic skills and are willing to take what we pay, welcome aboard?" Do such companies become great places to work and if so how?
I am asking genuinely curious because I've always looked for high culture high mission companies because that's what I am like.
I'm a very mission-oriented person, so I understand where you're coming from. But there are a lot of places where people don't care very much, and people who work in those circumstances long enough tend to pick up those values.
The most obviously mercenary industry is finance. I did that for a few years and then got the fuck out. But I've met plenty of mercenary people in tech, especially in startups and BigCos. For plenty of people programming is a job like any other; they're going to come in, do whatever the boss wants (however little sense it makes), and go home. I would die from that, but a lot of people either find their meaning elsewhere or just don't care much about meaning.
There are plenty of people in this boat 1 the so-called “dark matter” developers. There are lots of people who find their fulfillment via means other than work, and work is a necessary evil that pays the rent. I personally couldn’t stand that kind of place, but understand why others are fine with it.
A few years ago, my company finally wound up my team, and brought all their development over to The Old Country (I am in the US, and it was a Japanese company). The jury's out, on whether or not it was a good idea for that company.
For me, I had plenty of investments and savings, that I didn't need to work, if I didn't want to, but I wanted to work. I love working on teams; the more eclectic, the better. I have a fairly unusual confluence of skills, experience and character that I know is quite valuable, and quite rare. I was a manager for a long time ("discussion" interviews were the way I worked). That means that I’m quite aware of the value of my skills. I’m not God’s gift to SWE, but I’m no slouch.
I also have a very big portfolio, to prove what I say. I'm not blowing up my CV with padding and BS. In fact, I had to remove a great deal of stuff, in order to keep it to a couple of pages.
I know that not everyone has a portfolio like mine, but it's what I have. It's dozens and dozens of completed, ship-ready, ultra-high-quality projects that can easily be examined, installed, built, run, and, in some cases, submitted to the App Store. There’s at least a decade of commit history, across these codebases, and a ton of documentation. Anyone can look at it. I make it very easy to find.
Couple that with many, many blog postings, training modules, essays, tutorials, etc., and you have a pretty damn good idea of who I am, what drives me, and what I can bring to the table.
You really can't get more solid than that.
In my experience, this was completely ignored, when I was searching for work. I understand the excuses that many managers use for this, and, in some cases, I can't argue against them, but, in other cases, they really missed the boat. I could have actually made a significant difference to their bottom line; especially a couple of smaller companies.
In the end, I just gave up looking, and went to work on my own. I found some folks doing nonprofit work, that looked like they could use some help, and I've been working with them, for free. I'm also making that "significant difference" that I mentioned earlier.
I have absolutely no intention of looking for work in the corporate rat race anymore. I'm quite disappointed in the zeitgeist of the modern software development industry, and don't want to darken my spirit.
It took me a few years to realize just how bad it was for me, and how much better it is, now. It would be nice to have the extra money that a continued paid career would give, but I've become used to feeling good about my work, and I work a lot.
Having worked on teams that super duper care about the mission it isn't always roses. Why are you leaving work at 5pm or taking a vacation? Don't you care about the mission? If you aren't drinking the coolaid you don't fit in. Also I have met a fair number of people who think the mission is so important that it gives them a license to be rude. After all what are a few hurt feelings compared to the MISSION.
Where as working at a bank or a retail company no one is there because they are super into banking or selling generic household items. They are there to do good work and leave at the end of the day. They are professionals.
This depends on what you are looking for.