Let's skip the boilerplate and get down to brass tacks. My life consists of hazy segments between coffee-induced rampages over build failures (or worse, successful ones that _should_ have failed) and Slack alerts indicating that production has caught fire, both of which are followed by tearful Googling for whatever documentation exists while I promise to sacrifice the system (and myself) to the Dark Gods. I want to tell you that I am "passionate" about software engineering, but let's face it - I don't do any of this because it's enjoyable. I do it because I hate myself, like being sleep deprived, and have a pathological problem with authority - not to mention that I also possess a deep, yearning desire to suffer over trivial things; had I been born in the Middle Ages, I would have become a flagellant (or been promptly burned at the stake). My skillset generally involves software engineering, belligerent masochism, and awkward dad jokes.
Wherever I go, I expect the company culture to value humane relationships and nonviolent communication so people can do their job without feeling shitty about it, and create teams with actual diversity (i.e. with women, LGB and transgender people, people of color, immigrants, and other minorities). I do not have time for "rockstar teams" that are actually full of stereotypical brilliant jerks.
I wrote this helpful FAQ for you; please read it before reaching out.
Here's a list of books, articles, videos, and products that made me go "fuck, why didn't I do this sooner?"
This is the problem-solving heuristic I use for interview-style questions.