Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI • Hacker News Board

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#641

Post by yencabulator » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 11:32 PM UTC

whstl wrote: post #146

roguecoder wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen wild things in the last year. People taking minute-long pauses before answering questions. People confidently saying things that are factually incorrect and not being able to explain why they would say that. People submitting code they don't understand & getting mad when asked why they wrote something that way. I get that candidates are desperate for jobs, because a bunch of tech companies have given up o…

I interviewed every single candidate for development positions in a 300-400 company for the last three years and I saw some incredibly crazy stuff. - A candidate who wore glasses and I could faintly see the reflection of ChatGPT. - A candidate that would pause and look in a different specific direction and think for about 20, 30 seconds whenever I asked something a bit difficult. It was always the same direction, so…

Years back, I had someone interviewing in person for a low-level, bit-twiddling, C++ role without knowing what hexadecimal is (no clue how they got that far; the external recruiter was given "feedback"). Pretty much lied about everything, tried to bullshit his way through questions. I have no idea how they thought they'd manage the job.

Just like with semi-personalized phishing/spam, it's not that these things didn't happen already, it's that people are empowered and emboldened to cheat by it becoming easier. The difference is in quantitative not qualitative.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#642

Post by sarchertech » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 11:33 PM UTC

motorest wrote: post #406

sarchertech wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally no other industry except for the performing arts interviews like this. No one else expects senior people to perform “work samples” under pressure, they just talk to them and dig into past work. All of the really damaging hires, I’ve seen in the last couple decades have been engineers with high negative productivity who were great at passing high pressure technical interviews. Also in a couple decades workin…

> Literally no other industry except for the performing arts interviews like this. No, not really. Take for example FANGs. Their hiring process is notorious for culminating with an on-site interview, where 4 or more interviewers grill you on all topics they find relevant. Some FANGs are also very clear that their hiring process focuses particularly on soft-skills. Where in the world do hope to find an engineering job…

You’re comment was talking about performing under pressure and failing to perform with people watching them.

In this context when you say perform I assumed (as would most people) that you’re talking about technical/work sample interviews not culture fit tell me about a time you did x interviews.

If you’re talking about those, then yes every job in every industry does that. If you’re talking about stand at this white board and solve a problem that I know the answer to to while I watch.

No one outside of software engineering does this for anyone but new grads.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#643

Post by sarchertech » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 11:38 PM UTC

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #616

ryandrake wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve always wondered: is there a LeetCode equivalent for doctors? When a hospital interviews a surgeon, do they roll out a cadaver and ask them to remove the gall bladder in 15 minutes while the interviewer scrutinizes how they hold the scalpel?

In the US, candidates to become physicians go through a 5-7 year residency which has low pay, dangerously long hours, and has a supervisor watching over them who can flunk them for failing to meet their standards. That's _after_ a normal bachelors degree and then medical school. Does that sound like something anyone would like to go through to become a software developer just to avoid technical interviews?

It’s not just medicine. No other job does solve this question on a whiteboard style interviews for anyone other than new grads.

The closest thing you’ll find is actors and musicians auditioning. But performing is an actually a part of their job.

Nurses only have 4 years of school and they don’t have whiteboard interview equivalents. Medical technicians don’t either and they don’t even have degrees in most cases.

Also one minor correction most residencies are 3 years, although some are longer.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#644

Post by esafak » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 11:43 PM UTC

whatamidoingyo wrote: post #452

esafak wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

... you do realize that India is in Asia, right?

Yes. I did not mean India, so I chose a broader label.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#645

Post by rblatz » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 11:43 PM UTC

exabrial wrote: post #594

jamesgasek wrote: post #361

"Preparing with AI" sounds like an issue here, and it's not. The issue is lying about your experiences, which people have done since the beginning of time. I "prepare with AI" by having it help give me hints when doing leetcode problems, which is very helpful. Interviewing is not a presentation, it's a conversation, and having a simulated other side can be helpful. This shouldn't be surreal at all. A candidate just w…

>I "prepare with AI" by having it help give me hints when doing leetcode problems, which is very helpful. It would be better if we just stopped asking l33tc0d3 questions, since it's been shown over and over again it's a pointless waste of time on both side of the aisle.

I don’t employ leet code questions in my hiring process, but I do think they can provide value or signal.

If a candidate is taking the time to practice and master leetcode it does show the candidate is motivated, demonstrates their ability to learn and internalize knowledge, and to utilize that knowledge under pressure.

If those are things you want to screen for and have a high volume of talented candidates I can see a use for them.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#646

Post by esafak » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 11:43 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #63

esafak wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Report them to LinkedIn. edit: I'm talking about egregious cases where the name, location, picture, and work history are false, not the exaggerations you mention. The profiles have few connections since they do get flagged and recreated with a new false identity...

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1338436/repor... > If you feel that a profile may be fake or that it is inappropriate, you can report it. A profile may be fake if it appears empty or if it contains profanity, fake names, or impersonates public figures They may use a real name and they may have worked some of those companies just lie about their technical level, experience, what part of the projects the…

This is what I'm talking about: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/08/fake-job-seekers-use-ai-to-i...

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#647

Post by WalterBright » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 11:48 PM UTC

gosub100 wrote: post #631

WalterBright wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employers pay big fees to recruiters who deliver qualified candidates. Recruiters are middlemen, and middlemen match customers with providers. For that, they get paid. They are not "harming" either, as the relationship and deals made are voluntary.

They don't need a percentage of my salary. Why don't they work hourly like I do? I don't work for a percentage of the company's revenue

People who run businesses don't do it for an hourly wage.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#648

Post by gosub100 » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 12:33 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #647

gosub100 wrote: post #631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need a percentage of my salary. Why don't they work hourly like I do? I don't work for a percentage of the company's revenue

People who run businesses don't do it for an hourly wage.

"it's like that because that's how it is"

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#649

Post by martin82 » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 12:55 AM UTC

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…

A suit is just another one of those lies that people have been doing for centuries.

Re: Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI

#650

Post by amrocha » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 1:02 AM UTC

Kirby64 wrote: post #567

amrocha wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels like such a narrow view of the world. Not necessarily discriminatory, but on the path to get there. So what if a candidate wants to look good? How you feel about your looks affects your confidence, and you want to be confident in an interview. And like, if a candidate came in with a well groomed beard would you think “he probably spends too much time on his beard, he must be a bad programmer”? I bet you do…

> So what if a candidate wants to look good? How you feel about your looks affects your confidence, and you want to be confident in an interview. Like it or not, if someone needs to wear a suit to feel confident that says something about them. It may just be a personality quirk of them unrelated to their skills, but it often is not. There’s no reason you need to wear a suit to feel confident. > You get judged on your…

You do see how discriminatory your statement is right?

Replace “wearing a suit” with literally anything else unrelated to programming skills. Wearing a dress. Having a particular speech pattern. Being old.

As soon as you start judging people for anything other than their performance you fucked up. People’s personality comes through in the interview process. By the end of an hour working with someone you should have a pretty good idea of what working with them is like, suit or no suit.