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> I also switched to only on-site interviews. My initial technical screenings are still done remotely. Pro tip for anyone hiring engineers for remote positions
by cj 2y ago
> I also switched to only on-site interviews. My initial technical screenings are still done remotely.
Pro tip for anyone hiring engineers for remote positions:
Tell the applicant that there “might be” an in person technical assessment, even if you know the process will be 100% remote.
The amount of fake candidates at the moment is insane. The only thing that makes fake candidates self-select out is knowing there’s the possibility that they will be required to be somewhere in person.
Another trick I’ve used is saying “Oh, you live in Flint Michigan?? We happen to have an employee 20 minutes away, would you be open to meeting them?” And then suddenly they drop out of the interview process.
There are a lot of foreign scammers exploiting the WFH trend in the US to the point where it drowns out real candidates. It’s really bad.
- evantbyrne 2y agoPeople who are serious about doing remote work are going to pass on anything that indicates hybrid. The simplest screening technique is to give instructions within the job post to submit via email rather than the job board form. Even before LLM slop became the norm people were spamming their resumes with Easy Apply.
- apitman 2y agoWhat do you do when a real person says they'd be happy to meet your fake employee?
- cj 2y agowere honest with the candidate about why we asked the question.
- generalizations 2y agoAs someone looking for remote work atm, can confirm this sounds fair to me: if the employer looks legit and would fly me out (like my current employer did), I'd be totally willing to do an onsite interview. Right now my approach has been focused less on proving my skills, and more on proving I'm a real person. Hah.
- bovermyer 2y agoI agree with this approach. In this field, unless you're hiring a junior engineer, you can have a reasonable expectation that a potential candidate will fly out for an interview even if it's a 100% remote job. If they refuse, well, there's a chance it's just because they can't afford to. The chance is far greater, though, that you dodged a bullet.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kevinventullo 2y agoTo be clear, you expect candidates to fly out on their own dime just for the interview?
- throwawayq3423 2y agoIt's more about the reaction by obvious scammers.
- Teever 2y agoYou're talking about the entity trying to make people spend a nontrivial sum of money, time, and effort to get a job, right?
- dallasg3 2y agoWhat’s the scam? Get a job they can’t do…continue to get paid?
- cj 2y ago1 paycheck of just a few thousand dollars USD is a lot of money in other countries. The scam is hold on to the job for at least 1 paycheck. It’s a expensive for companies to (legally) fire people, so if you get hired you typically can get at least a few grand even if you do zero work.
- swang 2y agoi saw a tiktok where the guy had his phone propped up but not in view of his webcam, and basically the interviewer's mic was going through his phone on some llm and the llm was spitting out responses for him to reply to the soft questions his interviewer was asking. the interviewer also made him "quickly" turn on his screen sharing so he could see that his computer didn't have anything assisting him. i haven't done an interview in a while, it's kinda crazy all the things people are pulling now for interviews on both sides. the process feels really broken.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jakewins 2y agoBut like.. what happens after this supposed trick? I don’t understand how they wouldn’t just be fired after the first week if they can’t actually do the job? Is it that they are applying to places where you don’t pair program?
- ponector 2y agoIn most cases in corporations you are not interviewed by people you will be working with. Interview stage is a generic assessment by random people. Yo simply need to pass them. Also they are usually asking questions not related to the real job.
- 1231232131231 2y agoYou're making the (large) assumption that the interviews are actually relevant to the position.
- neilv 2y agoThe reality is that most developers are bad at their jobs. Also, there's the "fake it till you make it" thinking.
- Mawr 2y agoThat's assuming the interview process tests for job performance with any sort of accuracy.
- koliber 2y agoI do technical hiring for remote senior Java roles. I have not noticed a fake applicant problem. Can you share more about it? I see plenty of people with poor technical skills claiming to be senior. They seem to be real enough though.
- ikiris 2y agoIn fairness, its probably a lot harder to tell llm java code from human made java code.