9 ms·

I failed my Anthropic interview, came to tell you about it, so you don't have to

44 points by fxlrnrpt 2y ago

spoonsies 2y ago
yeah, interviews like that are artifical bullshit interviews whose main purpose is ensure conformity with the way the company thinks rather seek innovation. Be glad you didnt make it thru
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
blitzar 2y ago
I probably would not have hired you based on your description of things, you probably wouldnt have hired you either. Nevertheless, based on the process, it sounds like they will end up hiring pretty medicore candidates.
- wiz21c 2y ago
  I doubt so. Open ended questions like "generating ideas" allows the interviewer to judge what your level of reasoning is. If you propose "add more GPU" or "let's tweak the transformer parameters with some quantization, like in this research article published a year ago" it makes a huge difference. IOW the expectations are hidden from the interviewed person.
  - blitzar 2y ago
    Open ended questions like generating ideas was the "Culture Fit" session (and if it wasnt or the company doesnt realise it is then it is an even bigger problem)
    - mannyv 2y ago
      Culture fit is a funny thing. I was set up for an interview and one of the things was a take-home tic tac toe. I asked "uh, what's the point when I can just ask ChatGPT to do this? Is there something else I could be doing?" And I was instantly dinged because I didn't align with their culture. Which I guess is true, since I'm not into time-wasting questions that aren't even fun.
      - toyg 2y ago
        Or rather, you're not into "following orders without challenging them first". What the order is, doesn't really matter.
- fxlrnrpt 2y ago
  Well, I definitely failed the brainstorming stage. Disappointed with the result, but have no hard feelings. Wish they let me do the take-home assignment, but it is what it is. Rolled the dice. It was not my day. Will roll it again with as many companies as it takes to get a good gig.
- ai-christianson 2y ago
  > Nevertheless, based on the process, it sounds like they will end up hiring pretty medicore candidates. What would you change in order to hire higher quality people?
  - blitzar 2y ago
    Its the answer nobody hiring wants to hear, spend more (skilled not hr) human time screening and interviewing the candidates. The process outlined put a stronger emphasis on luck, and catching fire in the 6 minutes you had than skill.
    - ryandrake 2y ago
      Don't forget the inevitable emphasis on "grinding Leetcode."
      - blitzar 2y ago
        As usual the best existing employees would fail the interview process.
trash3 2y ago
[dead]
Starlevel004 2y ago
This would be a more compelling post if it wasn't written in Linkedin Standard English.
- fxlrnrpt 2y ago
  If only I knew English well enough xD Originally, it was in Russian.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  I found OP's English to be fine and the article sounded authentic. Nothing like "LinkedIn fluff".
  - fnqi8ckfek 2y ago
    [dead]
s__s 2y ago
Sure. From the employers perspective, I get the appeal of references. As a candidate I find them to be a huge overstep and will almost never provide them. No, I’m sorry. I’m not going to pester my friends and colleagues to “hop on a quick call” or fill out a 2 page survey every time I interview somewhere. Quite frankly, I really don’t need or want my friends to be intimately involved in my job search. This poor guy had to have all his references book a call, only for them to all be notified shortly after that they weren’t needed any more, because he flunked the interview.
- blitzar 2y ago
  I don't usually give, as references, people who think I am a useless waste of space. > I get the appeal of references. Referals and word of mouth are 1000x more valuable than the references candidates put on their CV.
- someotherperson 2y ago
  > Sure. From the employers perspective, I get the appeal of references. Respectfully, it doesn't seem like you do. References in many cases are actually needed for compliance purposes. An example for Anthropic is if the employee might be exposed to medical data, then reference checks can be used as part of a larger validation of employee identity to satisfy HIPAA requirements. Amazon and others have the importance of reference checks baked into their agreements for those who work with them.
  - snailmailstare 2y ago
    Don't you mean background checks? A company sees the value in talking to 4 people of the candidates choice for HIPAA is just sad.
  - s__s 2y ago
    > References in many cases are actually needed for compliance purposes. Those aren’t the kind of checks we’re talking about. In any case, those can be performed once an offer is made.
linotype 2y ago
Thanks for posting this, interesting to see the process at a large AI company.
patrickhogan1 2y ago
Don’t worry. I found a bug in one of their repos, fixed it, documented it, and submitted a PR—four months later, it’s still not merged. People love to believe that Company A has top-tier engineers while Company B doesn’t based on mostly nonsense interview practices. The best ideas come from deeply thinking through a problem from the customer’s perspective for days and days not from rushed coding interviews.
xyzsparetimexyz 2y ago
That sounds absolutely awful and like you dodged a bullet. Meanwhile deepseek is hiring college grads and the like, for way better tech. I highly doubt that they've got a better ai but are too scared to show it off. Is there any independent verification of that?
- fxlrnrpt 2y ago
  Thank you or your support! I am disappointed with the result, but, to be honest, no hard feelings. Wish they let me do the take-home assignment, but it is what it is. Rolled the dice. It was not my day. Will roll it again with as many companies as it takes to get a good gig. > Meanwhile deepseek is hiring college grads and the like, for way better tech. If only I knew Chinese... > I highly doubt that they've got a better ai but are too scared to show it off. Is there any independent verification of that? Nope. Just the rumor
  - Xmd5a 2y ago
    >Also, 3.5 Sonnet was not trained in any way that involved a larger or more expensive model (contrary to some rumors). Source: https://darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-and-export-controls https://darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-and-export-controls
HacklesRaised 2y ago
Seems like you dodged a bullet.
- fxlrnrpt 2y ago
  I would rather take the "bullet" but it wasn't my day xD Tbh, I don't think there was anything substantially wrong with the process. They have a ton of CVs from thousands of the smartest people out there. They have to filter somehow. I'm certainly sad I did not make the cut, but it's not like the guy next in line is any worse then me.

44 points by fxlrnrpt 2y ago

yeah, interviews like that are artifical bullshit interviews whose main purpose is ensure conformity with the way the company thinks rather seek innovation. Be glad you didnt make it thru

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

blitzar 2y ago

I probably would not have hired you based on your description of things, you probably wouldnt have hired you either. Nevertheless, based on the process, it sounds like they will end up hiring pretty medicore candidates.

wiz21c 2y ago
I doubt so. Open ended questions like "generating ideas" allows the interviewer to judge what your level of reasoning is. If you propose "add more GPU" or "let's tweak the transformer parameters with some quantization, like in this research article published a year ago" it makes a huge difference. IOW the expectations are hidden from the interviewed person.
- blitzar 2y ago
  Open ended questions like generating ideas was the "Culture Fit" session (and if it wasnt or the company doesnt realise it is then it is an even bigger problem)
  - mannyv 2y ago
    Culture fit is a funny thing. I was set up for an interview and one of the things was a take-home tic tac toe. I asked "uh, what's the point when I can just ask ChatGPT to do this? Is there something else I could be doing?" And I was instantly dinged because I didn't align with their culture. Which I guess is true, since I'm not into time-wasting questions that aren't even fun.
    - toyg 2y ago
      Or rather, you're not into "following orders without challenging them first". What the order is, doesn't really matter.
fxlrnrpt 2y ago
Well, I definitely failed the brainstorming stage. Disappointed with the result, but have no hard feelings. Wish they let me do the take-home assignment, but it is what it is. Rolled the dice. It was not my day. Will roll it again with as many companies as it takes to get a good gig.
ai-christianson 2y ago
> Nevertheless, based on the process, it sounds like they will end up hiring pretty medicore candidates. What would you change in order to hire higher quality people?
- blitzar 2y ago
  Its the answer nobody hiring wants to hear, spend more (skilled not hr) human time screening and interviewing the candidates. The process outlined put a stronger emphasis on luck, and catching fire in the 6 minutes you had than skill.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    Don't forget the inevitable emphasis on "grinding Leetcode."
    - blitzar 2y ago
      As usual the best existing employees would fail the interview process.

trash3 2y ago

[dead]

Starlevel004 2y ago

This would be a more compelling post if it wasn't written in Linkedin Standard English.

fxlrnrpt 2y ago
If only I knew English well enough xD Originally, it was in Russian.
ryandrake 2y ago
I found OP's English to be fine and the article sounded authentic. Nothing like "LinkedIn fluff".
- fnqi8ckfek 2y ago
  [dead]

s__s 2y ago

Sure. From the employers perspective, I get the appeal of references. As a candidate I find them to be a huge overstep and will almost never provide them. No, I’m sorry. I’m not going to pester my friends and colleagues to “hop on a quick call” or fill out a 2 page survey every time I interview somewhere. Quite frankly, I really don’t need or want my friends to be intimately involved in my job search. This poor guy had to have all his references book a call, only for them to all be notified shortly after that they weren’t needed any more, because he flunked the interview.

blitzar 2y ago
I don't usually give, as references, people who think I am a useless waste of space. > I get the appeal of references. Referals and word of mouth are 1000x more valuable than the references candidates put on their CV.
someotherperson 2y ago
> Sure. From the employers perspective, I get the appeal of references. Respectfully, it doesn't seem like you do. References in many cases are actually needed for compliance purposes. An example for Anthropic is if the employee might be exposed to medical data, then reference checks can be used as part of a larger validation of employee identity to satisfy HIPAA requirements. Amazon and others have the importance of reference checks baked into their agreements for those who work with them.
- snailmailstare 2y ago
  Don't you mean background checks? A company sees the value in talking to 4 people of the candidates choice for HIPAA is just sad.
- s__s 2y ago
  > References in many cases are actually needed for compliance purposes. Those aren’t the kind of checks we’re talking about. In any case, those can be performed once an offer is made.

linotype 2y ago

Thanks for posting this, interesting to see the process at a large AI company.

patrickhogan1 2y ago

Don’t worry. I found a bug in one of their repos, fixed it, documented it, and submitted a PR—four months later, it’s still not merged. People love to believe that Company A has top-tier engineers while Company B doesn’t based on mostly nonsense interview practices. The best ideas come from deeply thinking through a problem from the customer’s perspective for days and days not from rushed coding interviews.

xyzsparetimexyz 2y ago

That sounds absolutely awful and like you dodged a bullet. Meanwhile deepseek is hiring college grads and the like, for way better tech. I highly doubt that they've got a better ai but are too scared to show it off. Is there any independent verification of that?

fxlrnrpt 2y ago
Thank you or your support! I am disappointed with the result, but, to be honest, no hard feelings. Wish they let me do the take-home assignment, but it is what it is. Rolled the dice. It was not my day. Will roll it again with as many companies as it takes to get a good gig. > Meanwhile deepseek is hiring college grads and the like, for way better tech. If only I knew Chinese... > I highly doubt that they've got a better ai but are too scared to show it off. Is there any independent verification of that? Nope. Just the rumor
- Xmd5a 2y ago
  >Also, 3.5 Sonnet was not trained in any way that involved a larger or more expensive model (contrary to some rumors). Source: https://darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-and-export-controls https://darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-and-export-controls

HacklesRaised 2y ago

Seems like you dodged a bullet.

fxlrnrpt 2y ago
I would rather take the "bullet" but it wasn't my day xD Tbh, I don't think there was anything substantially wrong with the process. They have a ton of CVs from thousands of the smartest people out there. They have to filter somehow. I'm certainly sad I did not make the cut, but it's not like the guy next in line is any worse then me.