"Video killed the radio star"
AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
591–600 of 651 posts
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#592Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm quite conflicted on this. While I do not think one needs to remember/memorize a bunch of brainteasers or past computer scientists'/mathematician's PhD discoveries in order to build CRUD applications. However, I do feel like there is perhaps some amount of truth to the thought behind the interview questions, no? As in, I would imagine someone that could invert a binary tree in 15 minutes on a whiteboard could prob…
No, it's not actually about mastery of binary trees or other abstract computer science concepts. leetcode is really a culture fit test and success points to the combination of "smarts", diligence, and conformity to some acceptable degree. It shows you have some baseline of familiarity with computing, can focus on an arbitrary task to pursue a goal, and will conform to an arbitrary process when it's asked of you. Thos…
The culture thing is huge. If you can’t find a few good leet code problems to enjoy, I don’t know if we are interested in the same field.
Having done a lot of interviews at least 70% of the time it’s filtering candidates who just aren’t very technical and haven’t studied computer science. The kind of people who hate reversing a linked list are the kind of people who haven’t touched a polynomial since high school.
It’s not unreasonable for a junior tech interview to expect you studied something like CS or EE. It’s a blessing that our field is open to all to give it a shot, but if that doesn’t describe you - you need to recognize that there is effort and study to fill that background.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#593Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no shame in taking time off after leaving a job to develop or contribute to an open source project or two. The world would be a better place for it.
I don’t think shame is the obstacle; it’s that for many, a break like this is financially straining or outright impossible.
That is a lot like saying that a college degree is financially straining or outright impossible. In many respects, developing open source is a lot less straining, as there are no large fees, with the main expenses being living expenses. This is why it's important to live far below one's means when one does have a job.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#594Earlier quoted context omitted.
It has turned into something similar to what people in trading companies on Wall Street deal with. Constant grind, unrealistic expectations, and projects done in order to get a promotion instead of because it provides value to the customers or the business. That said the amount that you make is insane some of the smartest engineers I’ve ever worked with have been at these companies and a lot of them have really stron…
Yeah, that sounds hypercapitalist. At least I hope those engineers make enough money to retire when they burn out.
Unfortunately hedonic adaption often prevents that.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#595Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but in this context, your FAANG experience is a negative signal for people who don't know you well yet. It's unfortunate for you, but a genuine factor you now need to account for. Your path through will probably look like having the luck of breaking in at one of these kinds of companies, and then staying for several years to demonstrate earnest commitment/fit while building a new network of connections, and the…
I find this attitude baffling. In my time at tier one companies I have worked with the best engineers I have come across in my entire career (even the worst engineers were more than competent) who were working on deep issues that could affect the revenue of the entire company because they’re laser focused on providing value to the business, instead of doing engineering for engineering’s sake. I have grown by far more…
> In my time at tier one companies I have worked with the best engineers I have come across in my entire career
You’re throwing a giant red flag right here. First of all, FAANG isn’t “tier one” except to people who idolize these companies. More agile startups are trying to disrupt these dinosaurs and do not thing very highly of them. Many of us who have worked with FAANG and ex-FAANG engineers were not impressed.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#596Earlier quoted context omitted.
I ask for code, and if they have none prepared I ask that they spend at most two hours building something they enjoy. I expect a decent developer to be able to bootstrap and write most of a fun toy project in a domain they know well or at worst some kata from the Internet within half an hour. Then we spend some time screen sharing and talking about it, similar to pair programming but less problem focused. If you can'…
Which is fine, you don't have to take in every candidate, nor do we need to apply to every company.
Sure. A bigger organisation with more layers in their technology department could treat candidates better that would struggle with a hiring process like mine. More detailed tickets, more mentors available, bigger cashflow, things like that.
In such settings it's also somewhat common to hire consultants in bulk, like 5-10 at a time, try them out for six months and keep the ones that enjoy the work and fit well in the organisation, and over time try to employ some of them directly.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#597Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is still the reputational risk of using selection methods with widely known disparate outcomes. Other methods also have disparate outcomes, but most of the criticism is directed at IQ tests. I've heard "IQ tests are culturally biased" but never "work sample tests are culturally biased", and I'll guess that's the experience of most hiring managers too.
Somehow these reputational risks accrue to the median hiring company, but not to the global brands like PepsiCo and Proctor & Gamble that do GMA testing already. I maintain: this is a message board trope.
Surely you can understand that the hiring needs and reputational risk of a tech startup and Pepsi are different?
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#598Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of companies have IQ like tests, in particular big consulting companies like McKinsey and so on.
McK's case interview is just as game-able as HackerRank style interviews. There are entire consulting clubs at many colleges that teach this exact interview style. It's true that it's harder (but not impossible) to use AI to help, but calling it an IQ-like test is true only as much as any other technical interview. That being said, McK did create an entire game that they claim can't be studied for ahead of time. If t…
IQ tests are just as gamable.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#599Nowadays I am on the other part of the fence, I am the interviewer. We are not a FAANG, so we just use a SANE interview process. Single interview, we ask the candidate about his CV and what his expectations are, what are his competences and we ask him to show us some code he has written. That's all. The process is fast and extremely effective. You can discriminate week candidates in minutes.
That process might work for your company precisely because you are not FAANG. You don't get hundreds of applicants that are dying to get in, so people don't have that strong of a motivation to do anything it takes (including lying) to get the job.
I’ve worked at a company with 150,000 employees. The interview process was pretty much as described here. There is absolutely no reason a Big Co needs to operate any differently.
Re: AI killed the tech interview. Now what?
#600Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people have still written code for school or a hobby project. Maybe I'm missing empathy, but I cannot understand how some developers have no code to show. If that's the case however, just let them make a small project over the weekend and then do another interview where you ask stuff about what they've made. It's not that deep
> 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…
If you have literally never written a line of code outside of your work in the last decade, you are not a culture fit. This itself is a filter.