A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI • Hacker News Board

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#41

Post by tonyedgecombe » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

rapind wrote: post #16

theevilsharpie wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seems like a constant gripe about talent shortages but then conflicting stories about how to filter an overwhelming supply of talent. > I'm honestly curious how both can be true. There's an overwhelming number of applicants. That says nothing about their qualifications. I don't know what Big Tech's numbers look like, but when I did hiring, the percentage of applicants that were even remotely qualified was usually i…

Sounds like an education/ training problem then?

Perhaps there is just a small group of people who apply for every job and are continually rejected. Whereas most good people aren't really applying for any jobs or very few.

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#42

Post by anon463637 » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 5:42 PM UTC

"GATTACA II: The Revenge of The Robots"

Hello human, please submit blood sample, hair sample and credit history into the data port at one of the kiosks to the front in an orderly fashion.

(A sea of people line up and queue to the front.)

Number 139 - approved

Number 445 - approved

All other applicants check back tomorrow for additional opportunity updates. Thank you for applying to Tyrell Corporation. Goodbye.

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#43

Post by blakesterz » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 5:55 PM UTC

Maybe an even better headline would be

"A new obstacle to landing a job: getting approved by AI"

Doesn't this same problem exist for anyone finding a job? It's probably even worse when you're looking and your 40 or 50 and even worse if you're changing careers. I'd bet AI drops anyone over the age of 40, almost certainly 50.

I'm not saying "these darn kids have it so easy today" I'm sure it's not, but my 1/2 educated guess is that the older you get the harder it gets to make it past these algorithms.

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#44

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 6:00 PM UTC

blakesterz wrote: post #43

Maybe an even better headline would be "A new obstacle to landing a job: getting approved by AI" Doesn't this same problem exist for anyone finding a job? It's probably even worse when you're looking and your 40 or 50 and even worse if you're changing careers. I'd bet AI drops anyone over the age of 40, almost certainly 50. I'm not saying "these darn kids have it so easy today" I'm sure it's not, but my 1/2 educated…

[deleted]

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#45

Post by austenallred » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 6:00 PM UTC

danpalmer wrote: post #30

My brother has just finished a masters programme and is starting to apply for jobs, he's coming up against a lot of these. He's smart, motivated, very hard working, and has the necessary credentials on his CV, but when talking to him he's quite monotone and low energy. Because of this, he's failing these automated video interviews as he looks like he's not a "team player" or "personable". While interviewing practice…

Out of curiosity, how do you know that’s why he’s not being hired?

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#46

Post by vonmoltke » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #34

rapind wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's an oversupply of talent in tech then are H1Bs no longer being awarded? Seems like a constant gripe about talent shortages but then conflicting stories about how to filter an overwhelming supply of talent. I'm honestly curious how both can be true. Who's lying, or is it simply unwillingness to train local talent?

> " Seems like a constant gripe about talent shortages but then conflicting stories about how to filter an overwhelming supply of talent. " There is an overwhelming supply of people who claim to be talented but there is a dreadful shortage of those who actually possess it.

I think there is also an inability to define "talented" in an objective and consistent way.

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#47

Post by bencollier49 » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

Most probably unusable in the UK, as the AI won't be able to explain why it rejected a candidate ("why did you score them low for team working?") and the candidate will take the employer to the cleaners. God only knows what hidden variables it'll start discovering and exploiting. My guess is it'll reinforce well-known prejudices.

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#48

Post by vonmoltke » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

theevilsharpie wrote: post #14

rapind wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's an oversupply of talent in tech then are H1Bs no longer being awarded? Seems like a constant gripe about talent shortages but then conflicting stories about how to filter an overwhelming supply of talent. I'm honestly curious how both can be true. Who's lying, or is it simply unwillingness to train local talent?

> Seems like a constant gripe about talent shortages but then conflicting stories about how to filter an overwhelming supply of talent. > I'm honestly curious how both can be true. There's an overwhelming number of applicants. That says nothing about their qualifications. I don't know what Big Tech's numbers look like, but when I did hiring, the percentage of applicants that were even remotely qualified was usually i…

> There's an overwhelming number of applicants. That says nothing about their qualifications.

People explain away Google's high false negative rate, and desire to not do anything about it, by claiming they receive such large numbers of qualified applicants that it isn't worth caring about false negatives. How does that narrative jibe with the "talent shortage" or what you stated here?

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#49

Post by dpau » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

drongoking wrote: post #23

Whenever I see AI used for something like this, right after thinking "our dystopia is here," I wonder how it could be gamed. An experienced interviewer can tell when they're being told what they want to hear; I suspect an AI could not. The AI ends up rewarding preparation and acting skills. And when you make too many hoops for people to jump through, eventually you find you're just selecting for those who are good at…

i wonder the same thing, it's an arms race, perhaps someone will release a counter-measure like the chinese meitu (http://global.meitu.com/) that is trained against these types of ai's..

Re: A new obstacle to landing a job after college: getting approved by AI

#50

Post by randycupertino » Sat, Jan 18, 2020, 6:10 PM UTC

drongoking wrote: post #23

Whenever I see AI used for something like this, right after thinking "our dystopia is here," I wonder how it could be gamed. An experienced interviewer can tell when they're being told what they want to hear; I suspect an AI could not. The AI ends up rewarding preparation and acting skills. And when you make too many hoops for people to jump through, eventually you find you're just selecting for those who are good at…

I also think you're self-selecting for desperate people who couldn't get jobs elsewhere, as most in-demand candidates would not put up with this nonsense. I know when I was looking, anywhere that had one of those 100-question inane personality tests ("Would you rather lead a meeting, or go skydiving?") etc I would bow out of the application process.