Company A wants to hire an engineer, an AI could solve all their tech interview questions, so why not hire that AI instead? There's very likely a real answer to that question, and that answer should shape the way that engineer should be assessed and hired. For example, it could be that the company wants the engineer to do some kind of assessment whether a feature should be implemented at all, and if yes, in what way.…
AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
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Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#152Company A wants to hire an engineer, an AI could solve all their tech interview questions, so why not hire that AI instead? There's very likely a real answer to that question, and that answer should shape the way that engineer should be assessed and hired. For example, it could be that the company wants the engineer to do some kind of assessment whether a feature should be implemented at all, and if yes, in what way.…
The even bigger challenge is that hiring experts in any domain requires domain knowledge, but hiring has been shifted to HR. They aren't experts in anything, and for some years they made do with formulaic approaches, but that doesn't cut it anymore. So now if your group wants to get it done, and done well, you have to get involved yourself, and it's a lot of work on top of your regular tasks. Maybe more work because…
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#153Company A wants to hire an engineer, an AI could solve all their tech interview questions, so why not hire that AI instead? There's very likely a real answer to that question, and that answer should shape the way that engineer should be assessed and hired. For example, it could be that the company wants the engineer to do some kind of assessment whether a feature should be implemented at all, and if yes, in what way.…
Problem is, company A doesn't need an engineer to solve those interview questions but real problems.
Let's not pretend 95% of companies are asking asinine interview questions (though I understand the reasons why) that LLMs can easily solve.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#154Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Problem is, company A doesn't need an engineer to solve those interview questions but real problems.
This is the answer. Let's not pretend 95% of companies are asking asinine interview questions (though I understand the reasons why) that LLMs can easily solve.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#156Code reviews. Teams are really sleeping on code reviews as an assessment tool. As in having the candidate review code. A junior, mid, senior, staff are going to see very different things in the same codebase. Not only that, as AI generated code becomes more common, teams might want to actively select for devs that can efficiently review code for quality and correctness. I went through one interview with a YC company…
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
The even bigger challenge is that hiring experts in any domain requires domain knowledge, but hiring has been shifted to HR. They aren't experts in anything, and for some years they made do with formulaic approaches, but that doesn't cut it anymore. So now if your group wants to get it done, and done well, you have to get involved yourself, and it's a lot of work on top of your regular tasks. Maybe more work because…
I saw this at the big corporate (not faang/tech) place I work at. Engineers run and score interviews, but we don't make the final decision. That goes to HR and the hiring manager who usually has no technically background.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#158Show code, ask questions about it that requires opinion.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
> WTF is this hobby coding bullshit expectations? What other professions expect you do more work after work as a hobby and show it? Do bus drivers film themselves driving busses after work as a hobby? Do surgeons cut up people in their spare time as a hobby? I think programming has more commonality with other creative, 'soft' jobs like graphic design (which itself can involve programming), architecture, media, market…
>architecture, media, marketing, etc than meets the eye. I disagree. Programing is more engineering than art. Art doesn't have source code. You can show the final painting and I can show the final product I worked on but not the source code I wrote as that belongs to my employer. Also, most art like paintings are not done by large teams, so you can show what you did in that painting but in a large SW projects, I can'…
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#160I mostly skipped the technical questions in the last few interviews I have conducted. I have a conversation, ask them about their career, about job changes, about hobbies, what they do after work. If you know the subject, skilled people talk a certain way, whether it is IT, construction, sailing. I do rely on HR having, hopefully, done their job and validated the work history. I do have one technical question that st…
> I have a conversation, ask them about their career, about job changes, about hobbies, what they do after work. If you know the subject, skilled people talk a certain way, whether it is IT, construction, sailing. My experience differs a lot. Many insanely skilled people are somewhat "weird" (including possibly - being a little on the spectrum, - "living a little bit in their own world", - having opinions on topics t…
I am actually a bit weird myself, so I can relate.
> What you consider to be "skilled people" is what I would rather call "skilled self-promoters". "Skilled people" and "skilled self-promoter" are quite different breeds of people.
I don't mean that they have told me that they are skilled, or that their resume has implied it. I mean that they actually have the skills. Self-promoters that don't know the information always look good on paper, but after a few minutes of talking to them you can tell that they don't quite match.
Before IT, I was a live sound engineer TV, theater, music. There was also a entertainment university starting up around the same time. They were pumping out tons of "trained" engineers that looked good on paper but couldn't mix for shit. I think we can blame them for the shitification of pop music.