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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

#291

Post by bambax »

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.

True. This is indeed next-level shit. Although human HR are often not much better.

There are many downsides to being an independent consultant/contractor but the main benefit is this: you never have to deal with anyone from HR, ever; you don't do "job interviews", no one asks you fake questions like "tell me about yourself" or "where would you like to be in your career five years from now", etc.

The discussion almost always goes like this: "here's my problem, can you solve it and how much will it cost". You answer with "yes" and a quote and off you go.

Source: I've been an independent consultant for 20+ years. Never once did I meet or even received one communication from anyone from HR at any of my clients, before, during or after a job.

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

#292

Post by nicbou »

1718627440 wrote: post #284
nicbou wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used a simple “tell me what you had for breakfast” line to filter out people who don’t read. It required no work from the applicant but filtered out some of the spam. I wonder if an AI-resistant version could be made.

Asking for personal information or other stuff that isn't required for the application is weird and somewhat illegal, so maybe I would have ignored it even if I noticed it while reading.

I think that someone getting hung up on something so irrelevant would probably not be a good culture fit.

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

#293

Post by ludicrousdispla »

tmoertel wrote: post #103
ossa-ma wrote: post #9

Perfectly encapsulates the state of the job market. Interviewing is genuinely a hellscape at this point and I've experienced many interviews where there was a complete breakdown of etiquette/guidelines and good faith. One was so bad I had to write about it: https://ossama.is/writing/betrayed

I'm sorry you had such a bad interviewing experience. You asked for feedback in your blog post, and since your blog doesn't allow comments, I hope you won't mind my responding here. You wrote something that I think is untrue of most tech companies, so I'd like to discuss it: > [As I and a friend spoke], I realised something: Three technical interviews went well, I was feeling confident going into the behavioural inte…

>> For most of these firms, the biggest problem is finding people they want to hire.

While the firm wants to hire someone, the hiring pipeline/process is made up of individuals that have their own individual preferences on who should get hired. One person can certainly sabotage a candidate, and the further into the process the greater their incentive.

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

#294

Post by shanjai_raj7 »

I build AI agents and honestly the problem here is not that it was an AI doing the interview. The problem is the company did not care enough to make the experience good. A well built agent can ask better questions than a bad human interviewer. This just sounds like low effort from the company side.

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

#296

Post by GJim »

ssl-3 wrote: post #231
shakehar wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call your fire department on their non emergency line and report this.

Called the fire department's non-emergency line. Got a bot. The bot sent out someone who said the noise isn't a safety issue, and left. Called the police department's non-emergency line. Got a bot that told me it's a civil problem and that there's nothing they can do. Scouted out the fire department and chatted up the fire chief in person while he was walking back in after lunch. He was very concerned about all of th…

So deliberately set the alarm off. Guaranteed to provoke a response.

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

#297

Post by tveita »

hunterpayne wrote: post #86
bbkane wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employers are also inundated by applications so they're applying higher bars to meet as a sort of back pressure. I hate it from the candidates' perspective, but it's not illogical from the employer perspective. No, I don't know how to fix it.

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…

> They are the ones who started using AI in the hiring process

Aren't you ignoring the reports of companies receiving thousands of ChatGPT-written resumes, bots sending applications, and interviews with applicants being live coached by AI?

This is a breakdown of trust on both sides.

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

#298

Post by rk06 »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #212
rk06 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a bit unreasonable. there are a lot of people applying to every job post. if a company can use AI to better filter the candidates, then it is an improvement. there is issue only if AI is encoded with human bias, but treated as neutral and impartial judge

No, it isn't remotely unreasonable. It is completely disrespectful of a candidate to make them "interview" with a bot. I'm not going to work for a company which disrespects me in that way right up front.

"disrespect" is doing quite a heavy lifting here. if the company is honest and upfront about it, why do you consider it any different from automated coding test or the implicit Resume scanner?

Ultimately, a company has to filter job applications and find the right fit. and I consider a number of things companies actually do to be very disrespectful and demeaning. for eg: getting interviewed by clueless HR who have zero techinical expertise, not sharing salary range in advance, asking leetcode hard questions, forcing AI bullshit etc

With that framing, i consider AI interview to be less disrespectful and something i am ok with.

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

#299

Post by rk06 »

Charon77 wrote: post #211
rk06 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a bit unreasonable. there are a lot of people applying to every job post. if a company can use AI to better filter the candidates, then it is an improvement. there is issue only if AI is encoded with human bias, but treated as neutral and impartial judge

Interview is a two-way communication. Just as companies evaluating the candidates, the candidates are also evaluating the company. How would the company feels if the people applying uses AI avatar to answer the interview questions too?

I am assuming that all interviews are not AI, and it is only initial filter. if not, then i will filter the company out!!

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

#300

Post by GJim »

tdeck wrote: post #193
YesBox wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. This happened before "AI" too. When all it takes is clicking an "apply now" button on LinkedIn some desperate people will spam any job they see.

We solved this by stating we would only accept applications by snail mail.

Magicly, the spamming stopped, and we only had applications from good genuine candidates with a real interest in the role.

The job of any technology (like email and "apply now" buttons) is to make life easier and better. If it doesn't do that, then don't use it!

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