AI killed the tech interview. Now what?

Post by BobaFloutist » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 6:36 PM UTC

juujian wrote: post #144

perlgeek wrote: post #132

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.…

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…

Post by duck2 » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 6:38 PM UTC

rachofsunshine wrote: post #211

mattkrause wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of these people … just suck. Another possibility is that their job subtly drifted. I wrote a lot of code as a grad student but my first interviews afterward were disasters. Why? Because I’d spent the last few months writing my thesis and the few months before that writing a very specific kinds of code (signal processing, visualization) that were miles away from generic interview questions like “Make the longe…

We don't ask "make the longest palindrome". We ask "convert this English into code that does what it says". If you want to make the discussion more concrete, we have a public practice problem [1] that we send out with our interview bookings so that people know what to expect. The real problems we ask are very similar to it. Do you feel like there's anything there that any reasonably skilled programmer shouldn't be ab…

Post by jimbokun » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 6:40 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #295

williamdclt wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people have still written code for school or a hobby project School was years and years ago, and has nothing to do with my current skills. From the people i personally know, most do _not_ have a hobby project, even fewer have hobby projects that showcases their technical skills. Nor should they be expected to. Most people have non-programming hobbies. > I cannot understand how some developers have no code to s…

> It's really not that deep, I'm worried if you really cannot understand. I don't code outside of work, I'm not interested in doing it. I'm good at software engineering, not passionate about it. I have a bunch of other hobbies. There's no reason I'd have any code to show now or at any point in the future. It's like asking a dentist interview candidate to show you examples of fillings and crowns they did at home as a…

Post by michpoch » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 6:43 PM UTC

Tade0 wrote: post #238

michpoch wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you're trying to make the non-tech parts of the role too interesting. Unless your role is trivial to replace with an LLM, you need to understand the business. Maybe not for really junior role, but everything above - you need to solve issues. Tech is just a tool.

You don't have to understand the entire business to start being productive. Particularly when you have experience from other, similar businesses.

Post by ghaff » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 6:46 PM UTC

scarface_74 wrote: post #244

apwell23 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also hard on introverts who already get punished in workplaces that promote ppl based on proximity and visiblity.

Dealing with people and communication can be learned. I get it. By nature I was very much an introvert except for certain scenarios when I was in my comfort zone until at least my mid 30s. I was an only child, the stereotypical short, fat kid with a computer growing up in the 80s (still short, became a gym rat, part time fitness instructor and only stopped the latter as my other obligations became greater). Horrible…