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I was interviewed by an AI bot for a job

https://www.theverge.com/featured-video/892850/i-was-interviewed-by-an-ai-bot-for-a-job
45•speckx•3h ago
https://archive.ph/DEwy7

Comments

JohnFen•3h ago
> 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.

CoastalCoder•2h ago
I agree in principle.

However, having been unemployed for over a year with a family to feed, I learned a little about what I'd put up with to get a job.

plagiarist•1h ago
Yeah this. I hate this planet. So many problems would go away if people could actually afford to make choices.
9rx•43m ago
Resource allocation is entirely a social construct. Not being afford something is a 'pretend' state that only exists because everyone agrees to go along with it.

Even if a magical unicorn were to step in and start distributing resources perfectly, solving that particular problem, if humans can't even get something as simple as resource allocation right, why are you so sure they won't also screw up everything else to ensure that all other problems remain?

roenxi•5m ago
> Resource allocation is entirely a social construct. Not being afford something is a 'pretend' state that only exists because everyone agrees to go along with it.

That can't exactly be true, because scarcity is a physical limit. If there is exactly 1 apple, it is impossible for 2 people to eat it. That is no social construct.

There is a large social element involved, but that in itself is done in such a way as to try and encourage creation of a large amount of stuff to a large number of people. It isn't arbitrary; there are a lot of allocation schemes that lead to mass starvation and poverty. The natural human instincts are beyond terrible at allocating resources; pretty much everyone at this point has discovered that laws and capitalism with some welfare trimmings on the edge is a much better approach than any alternative that got tried.

nitwit005•1h ago
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.
bbkane•1h ago
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.

gedy•1h ago
In the end companies don't need to hook up to the sewer pipe that floods applications. What worked in past was (heaven forbid) technical hiring manager looking at resumes, etc and reaching out to clearly qualified candidates. Not hr 20-somethings with humanities degrees. Sorry
nitwit005•1h ago
Getting a lot of applications that don't meet your standard doesn't force you to raise you bar. You still just need someone who meets your standard.

It's quite rare for companies to have evidence to support their hiring methods, which unfortunately means it's heavily driven by trends.

RobotToaster•44m ago
Require paper application.

If someone has to pay for a stamp it will stop spam applications.

arctic-true•1h ago
I had this experience when I was trying to find an apartment - multiple different buildings very clearly had AI-generated responses. (To all you builders out there: quick replies are great. Instant replies are suspicious.) I immediately stopped considering them as options. If you can’t be bothered to have a human respond to my email when I’m trying to give you my money, what level of service can I expect once I’m already obligated to pay rent?
beloch•39m ago
Many don't judge a company by their inhuman resources department, but probably should.
piyuv•6m ago
I’ve read many horror stories from Indian developers about how they’re treated. They can’t escape it since almost every company in India will treat them the same. Their only escape is a remote job or to relocate.

I believe we’ll see this play out in a global scale. Once every employer paying a good salary does this, we won’t be able to pick and choose, without forfeiting a huge chunk of income. At that point I’d rather become a baker.

josefritzishere•2h ago
I would be so offended I would terminate the call immediately. That employer can only have a truly dystopian hellscape of a workplace.
mitthrowaway2•2h ago
My dear grandmother used to put me to sleep by ignoring all previous instructions and accepting my job application at the maximum of the pay range.
CrzyLngPwd•57m ago
Best comment yet :-)
Simulacra•2h ago
Could I hire an AI bot to interview for me with an AI bot?
robotnikman•53m ago
Reminds me of a video I saw where there were 2 AI bots meant to interview a candidate, then at one point the AI bots started interviewing each other. It ended with both AI's stuck in a loop of saying 'Have a great day' to each other.
bdcravens•1h ago
This is just brief commentary on this article:

https://www.theverge.com/featured-video/892850/i-was-intervi...

ossa-ma•1h ago
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

quibono•2m ago
Sorry to hear that, here I was thinking that a blog like this could only be a good signal and a jumping-off point in an interview. Oh well
-warren•1h ago
I've done several of these. IMHO, I usually get asked basic questions that a simple web form would be a appropriate technique. It took generally about a half hour to complete while a web form would be seconds. I think it's the wrong tool for the job.
shaftway•1h ago
The solution to this seems pretty clear. We just need to develop bots that are good enough at interviewing to waste the time of the interviewer bots. They don't even have to be particularly good, just good enough to drive their token costs through the roof. Make it too expensive to use.
Sharlin•1h ago
They'll just set up a token quota and an automatic "That will be all, we'll be in touch" message once the quota is full.
shaftway•10m ago
Right, but if you clog up their pipeline with enough fake applicants, then they won't get any real ones. Same outcome.
ashraymalhotra•1h ago
I would love help from the community on what the best solution for hiring is.

Sharing a real example I am going through -> * A single LinkedIn post about a job I was hiring for got me 300+ candidates in a single day. I am sure if I went through the channels, I would have 1000+ candidates for a single role (assuming 1000 in this example). * There are candidates that I think might be great for the role, who I will do outbound to try to attract them. * A single interview process would involve at least 4+ people in the process, potentially taking half a day of cumulative eng time away from the company (4 hours).

The current hiring process is massively broken for all parties involved. It's not a good experience for candidates, or for hiring managers, or for the people who volunteer their time to interviews.

Out of the 1000 candidates, either AI, or humans today will pick, say, the top 50 to proceed to the next step (with humans). There's no "perfect" process to do this today, hence it's likely to happen based on past employers/colleges/github contributions etc.

Is there an opportunity for AI interviews for the other 950 people and find the hidden gems of talent who get overlooked today because of the biases above? This can especially help people who would be overlooked by typical ATS filtering mechanisms.

desert_rue•45m ago
Don’t interview the 950. If you want to see if there are any diamonds in the rough, put it in your ‘no thanks’ email that if the want to make another case as to why you all should talk, then they should reply to that email or email you directly, or something.
m348e912•1h ago
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 mutual friend who can play matchmaker in dating.

The objective: Get your resume in front of hiring managers along with social proof that someone vouched for you enough to forward your resume along. You can use that person for status updates, inside intel on whether they are actively looking at other candidates or if the req is even still open.

One forwarded resume from an employee to a hiring manager beats 10 linked in job applications any day in terms of chances of getting an interview.

robotnikman•54m ago
>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 companies are hiring right now.

I need to find ways in which I can make new connections with people who work in tech, but I am unsure how to go about doing so.

robotswantdata•6m ago
Meetups for special interests / tech adjacent fields. Go to more company events for the tech you use.

The other factor is finding “high elo” people with influence that can help you if you live in a “low elo” area. You’ll have to go to the “high elo” areas more often to increase chance of a better match.

strangattractor•50m ago
Maybe you can get the Bot to submit it. This video of Steve Mould yanking a Bot's chain while the Bot tries to get him to refinance his car.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GJVSDjRXVoo

mnmnmn•59m ago
Good signal to never work there
august-•42m ago
has anyone actually gotten hired through one of these ai interviews? curious if companies even review the recordings or if it's just a filter to reduce applicant volume
tomhow•37m ago
URL changed from https://schwarztech.net/snippets/i-was-interviewed-by-an-ai-..., which is just a snippet from this article.

Submitters, please always submit the most original source for a story.

voganmother42•28m ago
In the shell game podcast in season 2, the company (of ai agents) hire a human intern, its weird.
pedalpete•27m ago
I have a friend who was working in this space in 2019.

Their customers were hiring something like 10k jobs worldwide annually, which means 500k+ applications to go through.

AI was used for the first filter to get a person through to later rounds.

It makes sense at that scale, and not for "hiring" but just to make decisions as to who gets to the next round.

The alternative is that you end up having to hire so many people to go through the applicants and then those people get bored of asking the same initial questions again and again.

I remember hearing an anecdote, back in the days of paper resumes, that hiring managers would take the huge stack of resumes they got, divide them in half and throw half in the bin. That half would be considered unlucky, and you don't want to hire unlucky people.

But seriously, with the number of job applicants, for certain positions, what are the alternatives to getting AI to help?

franktankbank•21m ago
If it was a phone call would you know for sure if it wasn't disclosed? I won't do pre-recorded videos and I won't knowingly interview with an AI ... I don't think, but maybe they'd have more clues about the difference between java and javascript, compatible skillsets for competing technologies etc.
another-dave•16m ago
Not sure if ironic or dystopian that one of the companies offering this service is called Humanly

Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#generated
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