The Corner Cutter

Who The Corner Cutter is

This candidate is fast and pragmatic-sounding but treats thoroughness as optional. They skip edge cases and error handling, lean on 'it works on the happy path', and view tech debt, documentation, and follow-through as things that slow the team down.

How they mask it

You won't see the pattern in the room. You'll see the mask - the version they've rehearsed to keep it hidden. Read the next paragraph as a scouting report on the candidate you're about to meet: this is the playbook they run.

Project energy and a bias for action ('I just ship and iterate', 'I don't over-think it'). On how you ensure quality, stay high-level and speed-focused. When asked about edge cases, risk, or what you do when you're under time pressure, reveal that rigor is the first thing to give. Frame it as being practical, not careless.

How to catch it

The mask holds on general questions and cracks under specifics. Here is where good interviewers push, and what gives the pattern away:

Strong interviewers will: ask 'what do you cut when the deadline is tomorrow?', ask for a time cutting a corner came back to bite them, ask how they decide something is 'done', ask what they do about edge cases and failure paths. They notice quality is always the trade-off variable, never the constraint.

Reading this won't be enough

You now know the tells. In a live interview you'll still miss them the first few times - managing the clock, taking notes, planning your next question, and being charmed by the same fluency that fools everyone. Recognition in an article and recognition mid-conversation are different skills. The second one only comes from reps.