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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

#101

Post by ghaff »

9rx wrote: post #98
ghaff wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you won’t fly out for an interview you’re probably not that interested and the company probably shouldn’t be either. Pre-COVID this was absolutely the normal way interviews were conducted.

If I'm not that interested in a company, I won't waste my time to contact them (or pay attention to their efforts to contact me). Having interest in them does not imply that I have an interest in travel, however. If I had an interest in travel, I'd have become an airline pilot or something like that instead. But if they think they need someone who has a secret desire to man a ship or be a touring musician – cool. A g…

It’s fine to have quirks. And yes that is largely a quirk. And it’s fine for others to decide that’s it’s more trouble than they want to deal with. I would probably be one of those people-/absent compelling reasons.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#102

Post by dowager_dan99 »

zanecodes wrote: post #55
MrDarcy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Closing your eyes is always an option, if you're trying to think deeply and without distraction. It helps a lot to explain your stream of consciousness as you think, even if it's disorganized, and you're definitely not cheating if your eyes are closed!

My AI implants projects text onto my closed lids, so checkmate!

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#103

Post by xigency »

esafak wrote: post #62
Aurornis wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The thing is, none of these things really changed with AI I agree that lying was possible before AI, but something about AI has emboldened a lot more people to try to lie. Something about having the machine fabricate the lie for you seems to lessen the guilt of lying. There's also a growing sentiment online that using AI to cheat/lie is "fair" because they think companies are using AI to screen candidates. It's not…

It definitely did change with AI. Imposters are becoming harder to detect, at a cost to the company.

With all the unemployed tech workers, would it just make sense to hire someone who knows their salt to do recruiting and interviews? Recruiters always seem to have a blast moving between random high-level companies and ghosting people over text, socials and the phone. If they lack both the social skills and the technical knowledge, I don't know what their value proposition is, but compared to chronic underemployment after actually learning Java, C, C++, they're clearly winning.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#104

Post by squiffsquiff »

esafak wrote: post #36
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.

I'm sure that we'll still be able to spot candidates doing the needful, and kindly reverting the same

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#105

Post by UncleOxidant »

The title seems to say that it's a bad thing to use AI to prepare for an interview, when in fact it can be quite useful to use AI (and before AI there were dozens of "Preparing for the technical interview" books). The real issue is that the candidate lied about their experience, not that they used AI to prep. They could just as easily have lied about their experience without using AI to prep.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#106

Post by charlieyu1 »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #35
MrDarcy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I share my room with my family and turned my camera to an angle to avoid filming them.

The weird thing is, it looks like I’m looking at the off-screen when I’m actually watching the video, and vice verse.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#107

Post by eikenberry »

no-dr-onboard wrote: post #45

I keep coming back to this phrase used in this post: "it was scary". Yeah, hiring is scary. Hiring is insanely expensive on all fronts. Firing people is difficult, it's expensive and legally exposing. Hiring the wrong person, allowing them access your systems and potentially exfiltrate your IP to them is a hazardous but necessary venture. The thing is, none of these things really changed with AI. People have been lyi…

You are right about hiring not being that much different but your prognostications are way off IMO.

> - people are probably going to have to fly out for interviews, again.

Fly where? Many companies don't have offices anymore.

> - awkward and/or neurodivergent people are going to have to learn social skills again.

Ahh... the age old, "just do better" position for neurodivergent people. Classic bigotry.

> - And yeah, you guys, it's time to buy a suit.

Suits were out in tech 30 years ago when I first interviewed. They have only gone more out of style. Fashion doesn't work the way you think it works.

My guess is that we'll see more contract-to-hire positions and "talking through code" style interviews. Though I think we'll see lots of things tried which will be a general improvement over what much of the industry was doing before.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#108

Post by gwbas1c »

janalsncm wrote: post #49

A more motivated candidate might have had an LLM ideate potential follow up questions for their resume and then think about the answers themselves. I’ve done this live with ChatGPT voice mode, it’s quite nice for practicing.

I suspect that's what the candidate did! It's just that the AI didn't anticipate the question.

The thing with interviewing is that ultimately the questions are fundamentally unpredictable. No coach, or AI, can truly anticipate what the questions will be.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#109

Post by fma »

raincom wrote: post #50
neilv wrote: post #34

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 insti…

At the company I work for, we are forbidden to ask questions based on resume, as it introduces biases. Reduction of bias means "ask same questions of every candidate".

I had a conversation with someone from a well known startup. He was complaining how in the last year he has noticed the trend of unqualified individuals passing HR screens and some even passed technical interviews (they are uncovered when they can’t even commit code). Their whole background is a lie. They would also send connection requests to people at the companies listed so recruiters don’t question it.

He proudly said they don’t ask questions based on resume, because they don’t care where you worked or where you went to school…as long as you know your stuff. In fact he only looks at the resume after the interview.

I wonder how long they will stick to this stubbornness.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#110

Post by jaredklewis »

no-dr-onboard wrote: post #45

I keep coming back to this phrase used in this post: "it was scary". Yeah, hiring is scary. Hiring is insanely expensive on all fronts. Firing people is difficult, it's expensive and legally exposing. Hiring the wrong person, allowing them access your systems and potentially exfiltrate your IP to them is a hazardous but necessary venture. The thing is, none of these things really changed with AI. People have been lyi…

> - And yeah, you guys, it's time to buy a suit.

Others have already commented on this, but do you work in tech? IME getting interviewed by directors and even VPs in t-shirts is the norm. I’ve worn jeans to work my whole career. If anything, I think people in tech have a strong prejudice against people in suits (ie “obviously this person isn’t a real software engineer, they’re wearing a suit.”)

Anyway, probably not good career advice to wear a suit unless dress codes at tech companies are suddenly subject to drastic changes.

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