nixCraft 🐧Dec 6
A Linux sysadmin tech interview conducted via Google Meet. The job interviewer now says: Take off your headphones, put on speaker, close your eyes, and tell me what an inode is and when you need it.
Show threadnixCraft 🐧Dec 6
We have reached this point because candidates are cheating during IT and software engineering interviews using LLMs. This is a new, low tech solution, but I wonder if candidates will find yet another novel way to cheat. The hell we are building makes me wonder if there is a future left in IT. Jobs are supposed to challenge your intellectual limits when you solve problems by building unique solutions, you gain rewards beyond just a salary. Now, it is a race to the bottom
Show threadsbmuellerDec 6
@nixCraft i never understood this. It takes at max 2 weeks into the job to figure out they’re no good, and fire them. I don’t get what wasting their own and everyone else’s time until then makes cheating attractive.
Show threadTim ChaseDec 6

@sbmueller

But that 2 weeks means you've told other candidates you're not interested, taken down job postings, you have to go through all the paperwork to establish them as employee (tax forms, insurance, that stack of onboarding paperwork), and have to pay severance if you fire them. And you're out those two weeks that a non-fraudulent employee could have been productive.

Now you have to re-open the job-listings, re-screen candidates (some of whom you might have to apologize with a "we're sorry we rejected you, but the person we thought was better turned out to be a fraud"), and do all the onboarding paperwork again.

So there's certainly value in determining fit up front.

@nixCraft

Show threadsbmueller
@gumnos @nixCraft oh yes, there is no doubt about the employer’s side. I was asking about the motivation of the candidate to play this game.
Dec 7 at 7:41pmWeb
Show threadTim ChaseDec 7

@sbmueller

I wish I had a good answer from the candidate side of things. I do contract work so it's very different from trying to get a traditional W2 (or whatever the equivalent is in other countries) job. For me, most work I've gotten has come from either knowing somebody who can get my resume in front of the right people, or from my publicly helping folks (mailing lists, Reddit, fediverse, formerly-Twitter, utilities I've shared on GitHub, and my blog).

And the AI rubbish is bidirectional—inept AI-assisted candidates applying to positions, and inept AI-assisted interviewers/HR systems ingesting the firehose of applications. The whole landscape is 💩

@nixCraft