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Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

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Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#31

Post by MrDarcy »

crooked-v wrote: post #12
lurker919 wrote: post #10

I recently interviewed an engineer who was somehow using ChatGPT realtime on another laptop beside him. The irony was that the questions were pretty simple overall and our rubric also wasn't very strict, so he likely would have passed if he just used his memory and common sense. Though the answers weren't wrong overall, I still felt cheated because of the deception and had to reject him later.

I rejected an applicant earlier this year who was obviously reading off another screen for every answer (as in, blatant pauses while I could literally see their eyes moving back and forth). I don't understand if they thought I wouldn't notice or what.

This situation terrifies me as an autistic person. I can’t fathom maintaining eye contact while taking the time to think about a response to an interview question, even over a video call.

I at least look up toward the ceiling while thinking so maybe that’s sufficient to not give off cheating vibes.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#34

Post by neilv »

Incidentally, I really-really like that they asked questions based on the person's resume.

That was typical before some students got handed a lot of dotcom boom money.

(And then somehow most interviews throughout the industry became based on what a CS student with no experience thought professional software development was about. Then it became about everyone playing to the bad metrics and rituals that had been institutionalized.)

You can ask questions based on a resume without them disclosing IP, nor the appearance of it.

That resume-based questions thwarted a cheater in this case was a bonus.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#35

Post by loloquwowndueo »

MrDarcy wrote: post #31
crooked-v wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rejected an applicant earlier this year who was obviously reading off another screen for every answer (as in, blatant pauses while I could literally see their eyes moving back and forth). I don't understand if they thought I wouldn't notice or what.

This situation terrifies me as an autistic person. I can’t fathom maintaining eye contact while taking the time to think about a response to an interview question, even over a video call. I at least look up toward the ceiling while thinking so maybe that’s sufficient to not give off cheating vibes.

Look at the camera, not at the other person’s eyes on your screen. You are not maintaining “eye contact” but the other person will think you are. Genius!

It’s actually fun how in video calls everybody thinks they’re doing eye contact by looking at other people’s faces on screen which in reality makes them look down and not straight at the camera.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#36

Post by esafak »

bitlad wrote: post #3

Sounds like all the interviews I do in india.

I've seen it more with candidates in Asia. And they claim to be based in the US :) A few even used digital face transplants, stuck in the uncanny valley, to hide it. I imagine it will be hard to tell in a few years.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#37

Post by tekla »

MrDarcy wrote: post #31
crooked-v wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rejected an applicant earlier this year who was obviously reading off another screen for every answer (as in, blatant pauses while I could literally see their eyes moving back and forth). I don't understand if they thought I wouldn't notice or what.

This situation terrifies me as an autistic person. I can’t fathom maintaining eye contact while taking the time to think about a response to an interview question, even over a video call. I at least look up toward the ceiling while thinking so maybe that’s sufficient to not give off cheating vibes.

You know you can just not make eye contact during a video call. I dont remember the last time I ever bothered.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#38

Post by yieldcrv »

Anyone that’s been on the market lately know that some companies encourage AI use in various ways

so all I can say is fix your assessments because this whole “they cheated” idea isnt universal, and more likely matches what people do on your job already

but for anyone that didnt read this article yet, this one is just about embellished experience custom tailored to get the interview, and there was no technical assessment

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#39

Post by loloquwowndueo »

OptionOfT wrote: post #17
theamk wrote: post #2

An interesting story! I've also had an AI cheater during phone screen, but they were pretty clumsy... A question of form "You mentioned you used TechX on your resume, tell me more what you did with it" was answered with a long-winded but generic description of TechX and zero information about their project or personal contribution. Another thing that I can take away from that is "take home project" is no longer a goo…

I've had situations where I submitted a take-home exercise, only for me to get feedback that it didn't match their required level. After some back & forth I was able to (politely) prove their feedback was not correct, which actually granted me a follow-up interview. Unfortunately, this was a unicorn, most companies don't give feedback, let alone admit they were wrong. But, take-home is preferred, I want to use my IDE…

It’s like a scene in Swordfish where a hacker (Hugh Jackman) has to infiltrate a system while getting a blowjob and having a gun pointed at his head.

“If you can do the job under these constraints, imagine what you can do under optimal, normal conditions!! Hired!”

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