It doesn't matter if AI makes interviews harder. An utterly broken system is not practically worse when it becomes more broken.
We were already well past the point of futility before AI became part of the system. The only real way to get a job is by the equivalent of mass spamming and luck (which also means low chance of fit if hired) or by human connection and familiarity (the one true way for anything in life).
by human connection and familiarity (the one true way for anything in life)
Every job I've had since grad school was through personal connections. (And luck.)
I suspect the state of SWE (and adjacent roles) for the past decade+ leads to a lot of SWEs believing that sending out a few applications will result in a great offer in a week.
I'm not sure how much AI has to do with making spray and pray less effective or enabling various cheating in interviews--presumably leading at some point to only allowing in-person interviews after an initial screen--but it probably decreases the time spent on the initial filter and you start relying more on heuristics like where they went to school.
The problem with connections is that some people have none.
I help immigrants for a living, and the biggest underlying challenge for recent immigrants is the lack of a network. They truly start from scratch, so for a year or two they are often completely alone.
Networking is absurdly effective, since all nodes stake their reputation every time they recommend another node. However it only helps those in the network. This leaves a lot of good candidates out. It can end up creating sort of exclusive club.
Comments
It doesn't matter if AI makes interviews harder. An utterly broken system is not practically worse when it becomes more broken.
We were already well past the point of futility before AI became part of the system. The only real way to get a job is by the equivalent of mass spamming and luck (which also means low chance of fit if hired) or by human connection and familiarity (the one true way for anything in life).
Every job I've had since grad school was through personal connections. (And luck.)
I suspect the state of SWE (and adjacent roles) for the past decade+ leads to a lot of SWEs believing that sending out a few applications will result in a great offer in a week.
I'm not sure how much AI has to do with making spray and pray less effective or enabling various cheating in interviews--presumably leading at some point to only allowing in-person interviews after an initial screen--but it probably decreases the time spent on the initial filter and you start relying more on heuristics like where they went to school.
The problem with connections is that some people have none.
I help immigrants for a living, and the biggest underlying challenge for recent immigrants is the lack of a network. They truly start from scratch, so for a year or two they are often completely alone.
Networking is absurdly effective, since all nodes stake their reputation every time they recommend another node. However it only helps those in the network. This leaves a lot of good candidates out. It can end up creating sort of exclusive club.
I just landed a contract today after 9 months of not working. It was dumb luck.
Agreed, it's a total gamble, but even in a game of luck there can be factors that make your odds even worse.