As a Software Engineer, what would you look for in a Software Company before joining it?
As far as I'm concerned it's not a discussion. It's seeking specific advice to a specific problem. What justification is there for forcing it to CW?
Edit: let me counter the predictable arguments.
It isn't programming related.
- Questions about social engineering, management, or career building, ergonomics, or other “soft” topics related to development work. (7)
...
The “winners” of this poll, items 1-7, map strongly to my idea of what we built Stack Overflow for.
Exhibit B: 792 questions tagged with 'career-development'.
It's about the reputation.
I had ~25 upvotes beyond the daily rep cap of 200 on that day so no it isn't. Even if I didn't it's still not the reason.
It's subjective.
So are 5,716 other questions. Beyond pure syntax, most programming topics have varying degrees of subjectivity. "Should I use an interface or a class for this?" is subjective. "Is anything wrong with this object model?" is subjective.
It's a duplicate.
If it's a duplicate, close it as such.
Conclusion
If there's been some change in policy I'd like to know about it. There's nothing on the blog and nothing new in the FAQ so I'd really like to know why a mod took it upon himself to force something to CW with no explanation why (there or here).
I think it's important for programmers to be able to ask such "soft" questions. If that's no longer the case, fine, no problem. While it is fine, such questions should be left alone. If they're of no interest to you, just add "career-development" to your ignored tags and move on.
EDIT: Still looking for an answer to this one.