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AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

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Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

#51

Post by userbinator »

jochem9 wrote: post #50
OptionOfT wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed at a place where I had to do a take-home exercise. It's fine, I don't mind. No Leetcode. Just my own IDE, my own shortcuts, and write a piece code that solves a problem. I was asked whether I used AI/LLM for the solution. I didn't. I felt like using an LLM to solve the problem for me wasn't the right way of showcasing knowledge. The role was for some form of 'come in with knowledge…

When I started coding I did it in notepad. I thought it was hardcore and cool. I was young and stupid. Then I adopted an IDE and I became much better at writing code. To me AI is just another tool that helps me solve problems with code. An auto complete on steroids. A context aware stack overflow search. Not wanting to adopt or not even work somewhere where colleagues use it, sounds to me like coding in notepad AND i…

I still mainly use a text editor after several decades, and do a lot of thinking and initial design with pencil and paper. IDEs just get in the way.

I've seen the type of code AI generates. It might work, but if you think that's good or that massaging it so it works will make you any better, I have some bad news for you...

Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

#52

Post by MathMonkeyMan »

userbinator wrote: post #29
neofrommatrix wrote: post #28

I've been considering using a second webcam stream focused on my screen just to assure hiring managers that I don't have ChatGPT on my screen, or anywhere else. Kind of like chess players do it sometimes on online tournaments. I've been hearing people complain about cheating a lot.

Ask for an in-person interview instead of voluntarily encouraging more mass surveillance.

But what if I bring my AI butt plug?

Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

#53

Post by hcfman »

Very funny :) I too failed an interview at google, also related to binary search on a white board. I never write with pens. I'm on keyboards the whole time, my handwriting is terrible.

I've built a search engine for two countries and then I was failed by a guy that wears cowboy hats to work at google in Ireland. Not a lot of cows there I'm guessing. (No offence to any real cowboys that work at google of course).

I did like the free flight to Ireland though and the nice lunch. Though I was disappointed I lost "Do no evil" company booklet.

Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

#54

Post by MathMonkeyMan »

el_benhameen wrote: post #15
tonymet wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the idea is sound. create a basic standardized test targeted at tech/engineering jobs. not actually SAT -- operated by a vendor like The College Board. There are plenty of standardized test operators

Would certainly make it easy for employers to differentiate themselves by saying “well, at least we don’t do THAT”.

Interviewing fads are set by these large companies that have the problem of systematically evaluating many thousands of candidates. A standardized test is all they want. Then they could do the rest like college admissions, and at a fraction of the cost.

Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

#55

Post by thefz »

hcfman wrote: post #53

Very funny :) I too failed an interview at google, also related to binary search on a white board. I never write with pens. I'm on keyboards the whole time, my handwriting is terrible. I've built a search engine for two countries and then I was failed by a guy that wears cowboy hats to work at google in Ireland. Not a lot of cows there I'm guessing. (No offence to any real cowboys that work at google of course). I di…

TBH, not the #1 source of animal meat, though plenty of cows in Ireland.

Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

#56

Post by MathMonkeyMan »

OutOfHere wrote: post #47

Show the remote candidate an AI's deficient answer to a well-asked question, and ask the candidate if they understand what exactly is wrong with the AI's assessment, or what the follow-up/rewritten prompt to the AI should be. Compile a library of such deficient chats with the AI.

AIs are probably good at answering such questions.

Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

#57

Post by hcfman »

thefz wrote: post #55
hcfman wrote: post #53

Very funny :) I too failed an interview at google, also related to binary search on a white board. I never write with pens. I'm on keyboards the whole time, my handwriting is terrible. I've built a search engine for two countries and then I was failed by a guy that wears cowboy hats to work at google in Ireland. Not a lot of cows there I'm guessing. (No offence to any real cowboys that work at google of course). I di…

TBH, not the #1 source of animal meat, though plenty of cows in Ireland.

Good for google. Plenty of passable interview candidates then.

Dang! I knew it was a mistake leaving my hat at home. Little things like that people tend to forget.

Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

#59

Post by azthecx »

mixedCase wrote: post #31

I've been interviewing a bunch of developers the past year or so, and this: > Architectural interviews are likely safe for a few years yet. From talking to people who have run these, it’s evident that someone is using AI. They often stop with long pauses, do not quite explain things succinctly, and do not understand the questions well enough to prompt the correct answer. As AI gets better (and faster), this will like…

I think this approach is not very favoured by hacker news but it's also what I prefer. It's so much easier to quickly gauge a minimum level of the basic programming knowledge and other sw knowledge by just asking some simple directed questions.

I once got a guy that claimed to have implemented multiple default HTTP JSON REST APIs and somehow had never:

- tested his API with JSON payloads, serialise serialise - never queried his APIs manually or semi automatically (no knowledge of curl, postman or anything similar)

Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

#60

Post by twelve40 »

Prediction: faangs will come up with something clever or random or just fly everyone onsite, they are so rich and popular, they can filter by any arbitrary criteria.

Second-rate companies will keep some superficial coding, but will start to emphasize more of the verbal parts like system design and retrospective. Which sucks, because those are totally subjective and mostly filters for whoever can BS better on the spot and/or cater to the interviewer's mood and biases better.

My favorite still: in-person pair programming for a realistic problem (could be made-up or shortened, but similar to the real ones on the job). Use whatever tools you want, but get the correct requirements and then explain what you just did, and why.

A shorter/easier task is to code review/critique a chunk of code, could even just print it out if in person.

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