The key is having interviewers that know what they are talking about so in-depth meandering discussions can be had regarding personal and work projects which usually makes it clear whether the applicant knows what they are talking about. Leetcode was only ever a temporary interview technique, and this 'AI' prominence in the public domain has simply sped up it's demise.
Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
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Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
#12Part of my resume review process is trying to decide if I can trust the person. If their resume seems too AI-generated, I feel less like I can trust that candidate and typically reject the candidate. Once you get to the interview process, it's very clear if someone thinks they can use AI to help with the interview process. I'm not going to sit here while you type my question into OpenAI and try to BS a meaningful res…
There are much more sophisticated methods than that now with AI, like speech to text to LLM. It's getting increasingly harder to detect interviewees cheating.
Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
#13Changed enormously. Both resumes and interviews are effectively useless now. If our AI agents can't find a portfolio of original work nearly exactly what we want to hire you for then you aren't ever going to hear from us. If you are one of the 1 in 4000 applications who gets an interview then you're already 70% likely to get an offer and the interview is mostly a formality.
Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
#14Changed enormously. Both resumes and interviews are effectively useless now. If our AI agents can't find a portfolio of original work nearly exactly what we want to hire you for then you aren't ever going to hear from us. If you are one of the 1 in 4000 applications who gets an interview then you're already 70% likely to get an offer and the interview is mostly a formality.
Does that mean you will not hire anyone without a public portfolio?
Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
#15The key is having interviewers that know what they are talking about so in-depth meandering discussions can be had regarding personal and work projects which usually makes it clear whether the applicant knows what they are talking about. Leetcode was only ever a temporary interview technique, and this 'AI' prominence in the public domain has simply sped up it's demise.
This is the way. We do an intro call, an engineering chat (exactly as you describe), a coding challenge and 2 team chat sessions in person. At the end of that, we usually have a good feeling about how sharp the candidate is, of they like to learn and discover new things, what their work ethic is. It's not bullet proof, but it removes a lot of noise from the signal.
The coding challenge is supposed to be solved with AI. We can no longer afford not to use LLMs for engineering, as it's that much of a productivity boost when used right, so candidates should show how they use LLMs. They need to be able to explain the code of course, and answer questions about it, but for us it's a negative mark of a candidate proclaims that they don't use LLMs.
Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
#16I recently reviewed a medium-complexity assignment—just questions, no coding—and out of six candidates, I only approved one. The others were disqualified because their answers were filled with easily identifiable ChatGPT-generated fluff.
And I had made it clear that they should use their own words.
Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
#17Part of my resume review process is trying to decide if I can trust the person. If their resume seems too AI-generated, I feel less like I can trust that candidate and typically reject the candidate. Once you get to the interview process, it's very clear if someone thinks they can use AI to help with the interview process. I'm not going to sit here while you type my question into OpenAI and try to BS a meaningful res…
There are much more sophisticated methods than that now with AI, like speech to text to LLM. It's getting increasingly harder to detect interviewees cheating.
I think GP's point is that this says as much about the interview design and interviewer skill as it does about the candidate's tools.
If you do a rote interview that's easy to game with AI, it will certainly be harder to detect them cheating.
If you have an effective and well designed open ended interview that's more collaborative, you get a lot more signal to filter the wheat from the chaff.
Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
#18The key is having interviewers that know what they are talking about so in-depth meandering discussions can be had regarding personal and work projects which usually makes it clear whether the applicant knows what they are talking about. Leetcode was only ever a temporary interview technique, and this 'AI' prominence in the public domain has simply sped up it's demise.
This is the way. We do an intro call, an engineering chat (exactly as you describe), a coding challenge and 2 team chat sessions in person. At the end of that, we usually have a good feeling about how sharp the candidate is, of they like to learn and discover new things, what their work ethic is. It's not bullet proof, but it removes a lot of noise from the signal. The coding challenge is supposed to be solved with A…
> The coding challenge is supposed to be solved with AI. We can no longer afford not to use LLMs for engineering, as it's that much of a productivity boost when used right, so candidates should show how they use LLMs. They need to be able to explain the code of course, and answer questions about it, but for us it's a negative mark of a candidate proclaims that they don't use LLMs.
Do you state this upfront or is it some hidden requirement? Generally I'd expect an interview coding exercise to not be done with AI, but if it's a hidden requirement that the interviewer does not disclose, it is unfair to be penalized for not reading their minds.
Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
#19My startup got acquired last year so I haven't interviewed anyone in a while, but my technical interview has always been:
- share your screen
- download/open the coding challenge
- you can use any website, Stack Overflow, whatever, to answer my questions as long as it's on the screenshare
My goal is to determine if the candidate can be technically productive, so I allow any programming language, IDE, autocompleter, etc, that they want. I would have no problem with them using GPT/Copilot in addition to all that, as long as it's clear how they're solving it.
Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
#20Changed enormously. Both resumes and interviews are effectively useless now. If our AI agents can't find a portfolio of original work nearly exactly what we want to hire you for then you aren't ever going to hear from us. If you are one of the 1 in 4000 applications who gets an interview then you're already 70% likely to get an offer and the interview is mostly a formality.
If the interview is mostly a formality is it still multiple hours of leet code?