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I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

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Re: I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

#161

Post by fwipsy »

suzzer99 wrote: post #142
tharkun__ wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think we have to distinguish two things though. It's not really bad to ask someone to do a design session with them and "build their product with them from scratch" isn't inherently bad. That's actually pretty neat if you ask me. What's bad is if there's only a single answer and that's whatever they actually built themselves, which might be a pile of thrown together startup poo that was never cleaned up. But you…

2 spaces ftmfw. I want to see as much on the screen as possible. Horizontal scrolling is bad. Who still uses 8? Isn't that like a COBOL thing?

Linux kernel still uses 8 I believe. IIRC wide indentation+narrow pages were chosen partly to encourage using functions and avoiding deep nested logic.

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.10/process/coding-style.h...

Re: I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

#162

Post by hedora »

YesBox wrote: post #88
nitwit005 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me the issue isn't seeming inhuman, but cost. Employers often seem happy to impose rediculous time costs on the people they're hiring: take home tests, long series of interviews, etc. What held that back is they also paid a price. Full automation leaves them free to impose infinite cost with no guarantee of anything.

Applicants are using AI too. I've heard from people who hire/post jobs that they gets hundreds to low thousands of applications, and maybe 5% of them have any relevant experience. The problem is the breakdown of trust is costing all of us.

For the 95% irrelevant and 5% relevant groups, I wonder what percentage of resumes come in through a third party recruiter.

I get tons of spam that could be generated by even a basic LLM based on public information about me, but for positions that are not a reasonable fit.

Apparently, it is common for such cold calls to come from “recruiters” that are not affiliated with the hiring firm, but are trying to collect some sort of referral bounty.

I have no idea why an HR department would be dumb enough to set up such a pipeline (by actually paying for the third party “service”), but I guess once they have the program in place, they also need an LLM to screen spam applications.

Re: I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

#163

Post by fwipsy »

diacritical wrote: post #134
hunterpayne wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why would this be the case? Maybe the solution is to ban AI from the hiring process. This seems like companies being hoisted by their own petard. This is because they are the ones who drove the hiring market to be this way. They are the ones who started using AI in the hiring process. They are the ones who decided to make applying so much work driving applicants to use AI to survive. Also, if you are having troub…

I wouldn't pay anything to a company I'm applying to, but I would gladly send a small amount of money to a charity and show them the relevant bank or cryptocurrency proof if they explain why they need the micropayment. They could present me with a list of 10 or 10000 charities, I'd pick 1 and put "micropayment for applying to company X" in the comment of the payment. That way I know I'm not giving money to some huge…

To avoid overhead for many small payments, start a platform where users can buy many credits at once by contributing larger amounts to charity. Then, you burn your credits to apply to companies (or cold message applicants) to show you're not just spraying and praying.

Re: I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

#164

Post by fragmede »

suzzer99 wrote: post #142
tharkun__ wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think we have to distinguish two things though. It's not really bad to ask someone to do a design session with them and "build their product with them from scratch" isn't inherently bad. That's actually pretty neat if you ask me. What's bad is if there's only a single answer and that's whatever they actually built themselves, which might be a pile of thrown together startup poo that was never cleaned up. But you…

2 spaces ftmfw. I want to see as much on the screen as possible. Horizontal scrolling is bad. Who still uses 8? Isn't that like a COBOL thing?

Let's compromise. What do you think of 3?

Re: I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

#165

Post by kermatt »

y1n0 wrote: post #120
kermatt wrote: post #117

I encountered two of these in a recent search, and they put me off so badly that I started ignoring subsequent opportunities that started off like this. I don't mind written Q&A as part of a screening, but AI interactions, via voice or text, seem very unsuitable for the task of identifying candidates. The questions were non-specific, I was cut off mid sentence (voice prompts), and although the systems were supposed t…

Your loss. Potentially. I wouldn't judge a company by the HR department. Unless you are applying for an HR job, naturally. I'd see this as something you can hack to get to level 2. Assuming you are interested in the company. I wouldn't let this sort of thing put me off of something I wanted.

If company culture means anything, then the first impression set by HR matters.

Re: I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

#166

Post by happyopossum »

robotnikman wrote: post #23
m348e912 wrote: post #20

There are a number of similarities between applying for a job and looking for a partner (typically through online dating). In both cases, the process is impersonal, rife with rejection, and heartless. The best tactic is to avoid the formal process, whether it's applying via the company website, or swiping right on a profile. Instead use an inside source, an employee you know at the company you are interested in, or a…

>The best tactic is to avoid the formal process, whether it's applying via the company website, or swiping right on a profile. Instead use an inside source, an employee you know at the company you are interested in, or a mutual friend who can play matchmaker in dating. As someone on the spectrum this is something I struggle with. I have few but close friends, and only 2 of them work in tech; neither of their companie…

100% of the jobs I’ve gotten in the past 25 years have been through current or former coworkers. Some have become friends, yes - but some were merely work acquaintances who knew first hand what I was capable of and wanted me on their team / in their company.

Don’t overthink this - I’m sure you’re great at what you do, and the people you work with and have worked with in the past know that you are.

Re: I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

#168

Post by kermatt »

data-ottawa wrote: post #151
kermatt wrote: post #117

I encountered two of these in a recent search, and they put me off so badly that I started ignoring subsequent opportunities that started off like this. I don't mind written Q&A as part of a screening, but AI interactions, via voice or text, seem very unsuitable for the task of identifying candidates. The questions were non-specific, I was cut off mid sentence (voice prompts), and although the systems were supposed t…

Having recently experienced talking to AI voice bots (for customer support, not for interviewing), it's bizzare that you don't know what they know and they're just making up. If you ask "Will the role expect me to XYZ" the bot probably only has limited context from a job posting 1 pager, so you can't actually trust it or try to align with it's goals/experiences.

What I can't trust it to do is properly represent me as a candidate the same way a human recruiter can.

I don't expect answers to random or ad-hoc questions. The A person can clarify a question that is part of a candidate screen. The AI "interviewers" so far have not.

Re: I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

#169

Post by happyopossum »

notabee wrote: post #59
m348e912 wrote: post #20

There are a number of similarities between applying for a job and looking for a partner (typically through online dating). In both cases, the process is impersonal, rife with rejection, and heartless. The best tactic is to avoid the formal process, whether it's applying via the company website, or swiping right on a profile. Instead use an inside source, an employee you know at the company you are interested in, or a…

The problem with this becoming the only reasonable tactic writ large is that it creates social bubbles just like social media. You wind up with very insular cultures and I think at least some of the hype addiction problems seen in tech can be attributed to these echo chambers. It's a hard problem to solve, especially now with LLMs being force amplifiers to low effort hiring and job seeking attempts. But to not solve…

I ah e not seen this play out in practice at all. In 25 years I’ve been at 8 tech companies, all of which came through connections.

None of those have had an insular bubble - typically you know a few people, and they each have worked with a few others, but unless you go all “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon” on it, none of these jobs look like what you’re describing.

Re: I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

#170

Post by dgudkov »

JohnFen wrote: post #2

> If your potential employer is dehumanizing you before you’re on the payroll, how will they treat you once hired? For me, this is the key point. If a company can't even be bothered to show up for my interview -- when everyone is trying to put their best foot forward -- that bodes very ill for how I'll be treated if I were to work there.

Dehumanizing customers by making them talk to (or chat with) AI bots is OK and kinda cool.

Dehumanizing [potential] employees by making them talk to (or chat with) AI bots is NOT OK and kinda sucks.

Am I getting it right?

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