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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?

#621

Post by thakoppno »

biztos wrote: post #463
Stratoscope wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was interviewing candidates at IBM, I came up with a process I was really happy with. It started with a coding challenge involving several public APIs, in fact the same coding challenge that was given to me when I interviewed there. What I added: 1. Instead of asking "do you have any questions for me?" at the very end, we started with that general discussion. 2. A few days ahead, I emailed the candidate the pr…

What, what? Harmonicas are tunable? TIL...

Isn’t every physical thing tunable since its materials have a resonant frequency?

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

#622

Post by lnsru »

MacsHeadroom wrote: post #580
lnsru wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the reality for most people. Creating many things under NDA with tools watching for IP theft. So no single line of code can leave the company. I know a guy who has a portfolio, but he’s freelance web designer.

IP secrecy isn't a moat in the age of AI. Open Source is the only way.

Tell this to the army of lawyers at my ex-ex-workplace. Every document I printed was reviewed by our security officer (I met him months after I left by accident and we had a chat).

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

#624

Post by vanceism7_ »

z3phyr wrote: post #616

Who do I want to work with? A person who can work with me, get stuff done and somewhat match vibe with their coworkers. They can be good in spelling bee, swimming, chess, marathon or leetcode, its on them. I do not get much useful information out of it. What I usually do is case study that I also do not know at the start of the interview. The case study does not imagine spherical cows and are not usually leetcode sty…

Thats a good point. That's probably a way better way to run an interview than anything else. Back in my highschool band, our band director used to say "play how you practice, and practice how you play" - this sounds like that rule applied pretty effectively. At the end of the day, our colleagues are people we problem solve with, so we should test things like that when we're hiring

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

#625

Post by michaelt »

danesparza wrote: post #610
neilv wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this became popular, wouldn't people start rehearsing for it like they do Leetcode interviews, and it would be become another performance that people focus on and optimize for, rather than on the skills for the job?

Rehearsing how to teach something is not a bad thing. And I'm sure you're going to get different questions about different aspects of the things you're trying to teach from different interviewers. The wonderful thing about this is that it models trying to teach a concept to a fellow coworker. How you handle the questions during the teaching time says a lot about the candidate.

But would this train people to teach well?

Or would it train people to choose topics very carefully, such that a little teaching skill goes a long way?

It's not like the interviewer getting a lesson in tuning a harmonica is going to bust out a harmonica and start putting his newfound knowledge to work, or revisit the subject in 6 months to see if he's retained the knowledge, or bring in a panel of harmonica tuning experts to check there weren't any major gaps or mistakes in the lesson.

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

#626

Post by gjulianm »

mmh0000 wrote: post #167
shaneoh wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently interviewed for my team and tried this same approach. I thought it made sense because I want to see how people can actually work and problem solve given all the tools at their disposal, just like on the job. It proved to be awkward and clumsy very quickly. Some candidates resisted it since they clearly thought it would make them judged harsher. Some candidates were on the other extreme and basically tried…

Over the years, I've walked from several "live coding" interviews. Arguably though, if you're looking for "social coders" maybe the interview is working as intended? But for me, it's just not how my brain works. If someone is watching me, I'll be so self-conscious the entire time you'll get a stream of absolute nonsense that makes me look like I learned programming from YouTube last night. So it's not worth the time.…

The interview works as intended because the main priority is to avoid hiring people who will be a negative for the company. Discarding a small number of good candidates is an acceptable tradeoff.

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

#627

Post by zeroCalories »

wakawaka28 wrote: post #554
bodge5000 wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just difficult, but there's just so many of them (for the same company ofc). You could ace 3 interviews and not even be half way through the process. You have to be continually on top form for days/weeks on end.

A lot of these people also have a policy that even one person can fail you. So if you do 8 interviews with 2 people each, then there's up to 20 people in the process that can ruin it for you. I think LLM performance on previously seen questions like interview questions is too good for it to be allowed. I wouldn't mind someone using an IDE or API docs, but you have to draw the line somewhere. It's like how you can't u…

I've only heard of candidates getting dropped like that after they've done something horribly inappropriate(like cheat).

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

#628

Post by the_snooze »

hibikir wrote: post #357
datavirtue wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's because AI shifted power over to the applicant.

Did it? What I see instead is total mistrust of the open resume pool, because the percentage of outright lies, from resume to behavioral to everything else is just that high. So I see companies raise their hands and going back to maximum prioritization of in-network candidates, where we have someone vouching that the candidate is not a total waste of everyone's time. The one who loses all power is the new junior stra…

Undergrads have many more opportunities to differentiate themselves than they realize. It could be internships, research, TA, clubs, sports, volunteering, Greek life, etc. Those put them closer to being "in-network" with certain organizations and people.

Even something like citizenship is a differentiating factor: an undergrad who applies to, say, a national lab won't compete with foreign students by definition.

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

#629

Post by forrestthewoods »

alok-g wrote: post #481
forrestthewoods wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or are your interview questions not representative of what the job actually entails? 100% of all job interviews are a proxy. It is not possible to perform an interview in ~4 hours such that someone sufficiently engages in what the job “actually entails”. A leetcode interview either is or not a meaningful proxy. AI tools either do or not invalidate the validity of that proxy. Personally I think leetcode interview ar…

>> It is not possible to perform an interview in ~4 hours such that someone sufficiently engages in what the job “actually entails”. >> ... leetcode interview are an imperfect but relatively decent proxy. I think all this is just the status quo that should be challenged instead of being justified. When I conduct interviews (environment: a FAANG company), I focus on (a) fundamental understanding and (b) practical prob…

> never gone wrong

How do you know? Every interview you conduct is for your team? And you’re a manager who participates in their annual review? No one bats 1000%.

> I focus on (a) fundamental understanding and (b) practical problems.

What do you ask? If you want to challenge the status quo you have to offer a replicable alternative. Not hand waive.

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

#630

Post by descendant »

michaelt wrote: post #625
danesparza wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rehearsing how to teach something is not a bad thing. And I'm sure you're going to get different questions about different aspects of the things you're trying to teach from different interviewers. The wonderful thing about this is that it models trying to teach a concept to a fellow coworker. How you handle the questions during the teaching time says a lot about the candidate.

But would this train people to teach well? Or would it train people to choose topics very carefully, such that a little teaching skill goes a long way? It's not like the interviewer getting a lesson in tuning a harmonica is going to bust out a harmonica and start putting his newfound knowledge to work, or revisit the subject in 6 months to see if he's retained the knowledge, or bring in a panel of harmonica tuning ex…

I think the lesson to be learned from the parent comment is to put candidates at ease and let them express their interests. I think it doesn't matter if you chose to use "teach me something" specifically. However, it does matter how to try to be accommodating towards the candidate either by asking about their hobbies, some recent news any fond memory/project etc.
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