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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?

#181

I've let people use GPT in coding interviews, provided that they show me how they use it. At the end I'm interested in knowing how a person solves a problem, and thinks about it. Do they just accept whatever crap the gpt gives them, can they take a critical approach to it, etc. So far, everyone that elected to use GPT did much worse. They did not know what to ask, how to ask, and did not "collaborate" with the AI. So…

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Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?

#182

I've let people use GPT in coding interviews, provided that they show me how they use it. At the end I'm interested in knowing how a person solves a problem, and thinks about it. Do they just accept whatever crap the gpt gives them, can they take a critical approach to it, etc. So far, everyone that elected to use GPT did much worse. They did not know what to ask, how to ask, and did not "collaborate" with the AI. So…

Yeah I've been doing the same. Have been pretty stunned at people's inability to use AI tools effectively.

Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?

#183

I've let people use GPT in coding interviews, provided that they show me how they use it. At the end I'm interested in knowing how a person solves a problem, and thinks about it. Do they just accept whatever crap the gpt gives them, can they take a critical approach to it, etc. So far, everyone that elected to use GPT did much worse. They did not know what to ask, how to ask, and did not "collaborate" with the AI. So…

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> I am a 10x developer

lol, okay.

Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?

#184

I've let people use GPT in coding interviews, provided that they show me how they use it. At the end I'm interested in knowing how a person solves a problem, and thinks about it. Do they just accept whatever crap the gpt gives them, can they take a critical approach to it, etc. So far, everyone that elected to use GPT did much worse. They did not know what to ask, how to ask, and did not "collaborate" with the AI. So…

This has been my experience as well. The ones that have most heavily relied on GPT not only didn't really know what to ask, but couldn't reason about the outputs at all since it was frequently new information to them. Good candidates use it like a search engine - filling known gaps.

Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?

#186
post #164

To get an idea of just how advanced cheating tools has become, take a look here: https://leetcodewizard.io/ I think every interviewer, hiring manager ought to know or be trained on these tools, your intuition about candidate's behaviour isn't enough. Otherwise, we will soon reach a tipping point where honest candidates will be at a severe disadvantage.

The faster leetcode interviews can be completely broken to the point they are abandoned the better.

Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?

#187

My company, a very very large company, is transitioning back to only in-person interviews due to the rampant amount of cheating happening during interviews. As an interviewer, it's wild to me how many candidates think they can get away with it, when you can very obviously hear them typing, then watching their eyes move as they read an answer from another screen. And the majority of the time the answer is incorrect an…

Is it cheating if I can solve the problem using the tools of AI, or is it just solving the problem?

If you are pretending to have knowledge and skills you don't have you are cheating. And if you have the required knowledge and skill AI is a hindrance, not a help. You can solve the problem easily without it. So "is using ai cheating"? IDK, but logically you wouldn't use AI unless you were cheating.

Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?

#189

Changed 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.

What worked for me is just ignoring the job listing websites, and calling recruiters directly on the phone. Don’t bother hitting “easy apply” just scroll to the bottom and call the number. I’ve also been asked for the first time in ages to come to the companies office to do interviews.

What do you tell them on the phone? Are they prepared for just "Hi I want to apply for the $job position"? And do they have an answer besides "cool, use the website"?

Re: Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?

#190

The traditional tech interview was always designed to optimize for reliably finding someone who was willing to do what they were told even if it feels like busywork. As a rule someone who has the time and the motivation to brush up on an essentially useless skill in order to pass your job interview will likely fit nicely as a cog in your machine. AI doesn't just change the interviewing game by making it easy to cheat…

> what you need now is someone with high creative potential and great teamwork skills.

That’s exactly what we always needed, long before LLMs arrived. That’s why all the interviews I’ve seen or give already were designed to have conversations.

I’m agreeing with you, but I’ve never seen these ‘interchangeable cog’ interviews you’re talking about.

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