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> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and ho
by hypfer 4mo ago
> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products.
Have you considered just answering truthfully?
Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading?
That sounds not like a job but a toxic relationship.
- emodendroket 4mo agoI assume it's because he is seeking to pay rent, food bills, and other expenses through employment.
- hypfer 4mo agoI mean maybe that is because I live in a still mostly not failed state (Germany), but I can't imagine that these things would be _so bad_ that living in fear of saying the wrong thing would be something worth considering. Plus, and leaving that aside, I have my doubts that even if you did that, that that company would stay alive for very long. Reality has the habit of eventually ripping this kind of unproductively delusional people (like e.g. a boss that flips if you don't say the right word with regards to the current hype) to shreds eventually.
- retired 4mo agoHow is Germany relevant in this?
- hypfer 4mo agoAcknowledging that my perception might be skewed because there are still a ton of social safety nets in place. The same might not be true everywhere.
- retired 4mo agoLast time I was in Germany I saw elderly people going through garbage bins in the park I sat at. I think you overestimate the safety net in Germany. In my European country the elderly sit at cafes drinking coffee, not going through bins. Update: Every street corner has a yellow garbage bin for recycling. That is where your plastic bottles go. Seems like a better system than having elderly going through bins.
- hypfer 4mo agoThat's why I said "mostly"
- ezst 4mo agoNot OP but many people eligible for social benefits don't seek it, for all kinds of reasons (not knowing about it, pride, ideology, peer pressure, ...)
- inigyou 4mo agoThey make it that way on purpose, to save money.
- malfist 4mo agoWho is "they" and what specific actions are they taking?
- inigyou 4mo agoThe government that runs the benefits programs. They make you jump through hoops to get any benefits. The first hoop is even knowing that a program exists that you qualify for.
- ezst 4mo agoBut then they also pay social workers to guide you through the steps of applying and receiving this support. Sometimes the biggest hurdle is to get to know what you don't know.
- lukevp 4mo agoThe US has no social safety net. Healthcare comes from your employer. Everything is centered around having a job. Opinions on AI diverge significantly and someone’s response to this question would be pivotal to me in a hiring role. The market is not great for job seekers. The hiring manager can wait for someone who aligns with their company’s perspective on this.
- atomicnumber3 4mo agoNo, if anything, I would say a very unfortunate trait of existence right now is that reality does NOT tend to punish corporations for being completely idiotic, at least not very fast at all. Look at musk's companies. They will basically never (on any near timescale...) produce GAAP profitability and yet their IPO is in the trillions. To the point that S&P refusing to suspend their GAAP profitability requirements means the index will basically never see this company in it (which I'm quite pleased about). The power of already-accumulated capital is simply more powerful than things like "don't be completely pants-on-head stupid about a recent fad" "don't seig-heil in front of the world stage" "there's no point in having people come to an office just to spend all day on zoom" etc etc etc. The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent, and companies can remain irrational longer than you can go without contributing to your 401k.
- emodendroket 4mo agoYes, I'm sure in Germany nobody ever muffs an interview by offending the interviewer.
- ben_w 4mo ago> Reality has the habit of eventually ripping this kind of unproductively delusional people (like e.g. a boss that flips if you don't say the right word with regards to the current hype) to shreds eventually "Eventually" yes, but while this phrase may have been about the stock market, it also applies to management: "the market can remain irrational for longer than you can remain solvent". One concept I only learned a few years ago was the difference between "mistake theory" and "conflict theory". Rational decision-making is the former, political decision-making, including office politics, is the latter. It's important to know which of these kinds of battle you're fighting, or you'll make the wrong type of move. Also, FWIW, I live in Germany and my unemployment insurance has run out because the job market is just that bad right now; I'm fortunate that I have enough passive income to support myself, but even then if my partner's unemployment insurance ever runs out I can't support both of us.
- acc_297 4mo agoyou assume correct
- retired 4mo agoI typically seek employment for the free electricity, coffee, internet, water, microwave usage and coverage from rain. Some employers even offer showers! The best benefit about working in a large office is that nobody checks the basement.
- furyofantares 4mo agoI think honesty is still probably correct - if you're struggling to figure out how to hedge. I think you'd rather have good odds at some companies and 0% at others, rather than abysmal but non-zero odds at all companies. And as an added bonus, you might get hired at a company where you're actually a good fit, rather than one you weasled your way into, and get to pay rent, food bills, and other expenses through employment for a long time!
- simonw 4mo agoIt's pretty easy as an interviewer to spot when a candidate is hedging on a question, and it's the kind of thing that might get discussed in the post-interview debrief. "Wouldn't give a straight answer on question X" isn't an instant no-hire, but it's not a positive signal.
- airstrike 4mo agoironically, I'd understand people not giving a straight answer on this particular topic
- ipaddr 4mo agoThis doesn't make sense in practice. He hedged so not sure need to look at other factors vs he picked a side and he selected the opposite of what we wanted no-hire or he answered what we wanted small positive signal need to look at other factors.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- knollimar 4mo agoI just interviewed a guy and all three interviewers asked him functionally the same question. He hedged 3 times and we just wanted an honest answer...
- onraglanroad 4mo agoThe guy wanted a job, didn't know what answer you wanted for the job, and you guys were being assholes. If you can accept that then you've learnt something.
- massysett 4mo ago“I assume it's because he is seeking to pay rent, food bills, and other expenses through employment.” Fair enough, so if there were one “right” answer, that would be the one to give whether true or not. But here there is no obvious right answer. If the employer is looking for a particular answer, the poster doesn’t know what it is. In that case, the best thing to say is simply the truth, particularly when the truth that the poster gives here is completely reasonable.
- inigyou 4mo agoThe best thing to say when you don't know the answer probabilistically is to give the most likely correct answer.
- incognition 4mo agoCommon sense not common
- what 4mo agoYou can’t have common sense when you have no shared values.
- tmcdos 4mo agoOr just say that you do not know the answer - but have the capacity to find it.
- lwansbrough 4mo ago> But here there is no obvious right answer. According to you. That's not the opinion of every prospective employer. Hedging is the right strategy.
- reg_dunlop 4mo agoIt's possible to work for an employer, and not have to compromise your values and or professional integrity. The attitude suggested by your response suggests you haven't lived that reality yet. Either way, I'd rather be rejected by an employer for speaking my truth, than lie to be somewhere I'd rather not be.
- lazide 4mo agoCite needed - FAANG certainly leaned hard into ‘lie to survive’.
- pesus 4mo agoThis a very condescending and privileged comment. The job market is much different when you're just starting out, and it's especially brutal these days for new grads.
- d_silin 4mo agoIt is not. I made that choice in the past and will do it again. "Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes"
- KittenInABox 4mo agoI think it depends. The people that I know that have made significant sacrifices to live along their morals are usually people who 1) are intensely bitter when others will not sacrifice as much as them; 2) are completely understanding of people who will not sacrifice as much as them or acknowledge that they simply have less to sacrifice than others. For example someone who is willing to live the "dirtbag" lifestyle out of their car to dedicate to their outdoorsman activity who is either bitter others have the relative financial security or feel immensely grateful they have consistently good enough health that allows them to be outdoors with so little resources. For example I think the decision to stick to certain morals is very hard if someone has a disabled dependent, are disabled themselves, or require consistent access to healthcare. There are different lines for different people of course. Our ire shouldn't go towards individuals who make these decisions but the people in power who force others to be in a position where these decisions need to be made.
- tfehring 4mo agoIt's still just a bad answer across the board. Having opinions and being able to articulate and defend them clearly is itself an extremely important hiring signal regardless of a company's stance on generative AI. An AI-forward company will be looking for an answer like "I haven't written code manually since 2025, I use ..., I stay on top of new tools without drowning in hype by ..." If that's not your answer, you probably aren't a good fit for those companies, but companies that would be a fit will still want a similar level of decisiveness. Much better to give an honest answer that will sound good to the right people than a wishy-washy answer that will sound bad to everyone.
- stevage 4mo agoSurviving in most companies requires a certain amount of wishywashiness.
- pipes 4mo agoA truthful, nuanced, well reasoned answer will be well received by an employer with a culture you want to work in.
- arcanemachiner 4mo ago> an employer with a culture you want to work in A modern luxury, unavailable to many.
- coldtea 4mo ago>A truthful, nuanced, well reasoned answer will be well received by an employer with a culture you want to work in. If you're into long shot betting AND your savings aren't running out while waiting to land a new job, that might be a good strategy
- TACD 4mo agoI don’t see why “truthful, nuanced, well reasoned” is the long-shot vs cagey and evasive.
- coldtea 4mo agoObviously because the latter lands more jobs.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- overfeed 4mo agoHave you seen the job market lately? You call the response "cagey and evasive", but that is for an objectively a bad interview question, one wrung below "How many years experience do you have prompting Anthropic Opus? We are an Opus shop." People are not locked into their current way of using AI and it is trivial to match how one works with AI to match employers requirements. It's a question that deserves an idealized non-answer
- throw1234567891 4mo agoBut it doesn't make sense to do a job you'd hate. Just be honest, land the job where you're happy.
- monocasa 4mo agoMaslow's hierarchy of needs comes into play.
- simmerup 4mo agoBut no one will pay me to watch tv all day
- kmote00 4mo agoIf you're good enough at it, I suppose someone would. (There are television critics after all.) But I'm just curious: if someone were to give you a living wage to do nothing but watch TV all day for the rest of your life, how many years do you think might go by before you would start to ask yourself, Is this really what I want to spend my one, exquisite, irreplaceable life on?
- throw1234567891 4mo agoOh but they will: https://gracenote.com/ https://gracenote.com/. These people sit and watch TV, note down every event taking place then sell the data. Search for Infostrada and how it came under Gracenote. That's where the info like "this is his first X since the game Y Z years ago" comes from.
- grugagag 4mo ago> But it doesn't make sense to do a job you'd hate. Just be honest, land the job where you're happy. In this economy it's really a luxury to nitpick about the job when there are bills to pay, mouths to feed, a roof over one's head is a must. The well of have a lot more options regarding this.
- account42 4mo agoAs a software developer with a non-bloated lifestyle? Bullshit.
- bravetraveler 4mo agoI'd assume they're seeking longevity to that employment. You, or others, might be able to maintain a facade; I can't recommend it for long.
- satvikpendem 4mo agoNot everyone has that luxury when there are bills to pay and mouths to feed.
- grugagag 4mo agoYeah, I just responded the same thing almost verbatim before reading your response. Yes, it's a luxury if you're not well off in the first place.
- hdhdhsjsbdh 4mo ago> Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? This just sounds like a standard tech interview. Mind reading to find and perform the secret “signal”. Nobody flips out if you don’t find it, they just move on to one of the other 1,000 candidates for the role.
- blitzar 4mo ago> Have you considered just answering truthfully? I remember the graduate recruitment days - If you told the truth you were the only candidate they saw all day that wasn't the captain of the football team, top of the class and voted most likely to succeed - aka the worst candidate they saw all day.
- ACCount37 4mo agoWould being truthful improve my chances of being hired?
- hypfer 4mo agoIf whoever is hiring is actually good at their job: yes. That is of course assuming that they're looking for some long-term stable team member. A skilled interviewer smells dishonesty. However, and to be fair, whether and how they act on it depends on the specific situation.
- ACCount37 4mo agoWhat is this "skilled interviewer" thing and where have you seen it?
- hypfer 4mo agoWhile this industry surely is frustrating and full of pitiful fraudsters, I don't think that what you're saying is fair or leading us anywhere. Most of our stuff in this world actually does work, and the reason why it does is that skilled (teams of) people that care have built it. Meaning that these people can be found in many _many_ places.
- ipaddr 4mo agoThe skilled interviewer is rare. But if truly skilled they understand why people hedge and would not consider that dishonesty but a skillset the company might need. A semi-skilled interview might pick up on that and assume the worst. Very few jobs are looking for opinioned most are looking at people who might fit in unless you are hiring to distory from without.
- michaelsalim 4mo agoIt's funny cause I just interviewed some people last month and I asked the same exact question. And the answer to your question is probably. The technology is so new that I expect people to have a variety of different opinions. From the 3 people I interviewed, all of the answers are very similar which is along the lines of: Kinda, but we need to be careful of using it, privacy, hallucination, etc. All very safe answers and doesn't say anything new to me. If they had been more specific about why and their experiences with it, I'd probably favor them more due to their experience with it. It'd also signal to me that they form their own opinion rather than simply following the crowd.
- maxbond 4mo agoI don't think having trouble knowing how to tailor your message to your audience because of limited information implies it isn't truthful. Answers to jobb interview questions are usually very manicured and rehearsed but I don't think they're generally lies.
- yawnr 4mo agoBecause almost every HR department now has a directive to only let people through the screening process who say they are using "fully agentic workflows" even though that's moronic.
- jazz9k 4mo agoAs if most people have a choice in the matter. To be honest, I don't think I would want to work with or hire you, based on your response here.
- queenkjuul 4mo ago> Have you considered just answering truthfully? It's 2026, you gotta sell your soul just to get a phone screening
- Forgeties79 4mo ago> Have you considered just answering truthfully? We all filter and “nudge” the truth during interviews. We all cater our responses to the person in front of us. Let’s not pretend otherwise. Your interviewers sure aren’t.
- zerobees 4mo ago> Have you considered just answering truthfully? ... That sounds not like a job but a toxic relationship. It's a job, not a relationship. It's best not to confuse the two. In any workplace, you will occasionally have to do things you find boring or objectionable. And if you're hoping to find a corporation that is a "perfect match", it will only hurt more when they unceremoniously fire you because the quarterly revenue growth is 1% off or because you cracked an off-color joke.
- csomar 4mo agoDefine objectionable? Not ethical is not illegal but maybe if you are okay with it, do it for yourself. Illegal is just dumb, you are still responsible. So at least, if you are doing, make sure you are appropriately compensated.
- zerobees 4mo agoThe parent was talking about giving a diplomatic answer about your attitude / use of AI. I'm not talking about Enron here.
- quintushoratius 4mo ago> It's a job, not a relationship. It's best not to confuse the two. A relationship is defined as two parties that interact. It's not friends, it's not romantic, and it's definitely not family, but a job _is_ a relationship. That said, GP is absolutely correct that you can fall into toxic relationships with your employer. Especially in the US where, realistically, we're forced to rely on our employer for too many things (e.g. healthcare coverage), employers can and do take advantage of the situation.
- zerobees 4mo agoYou're being pedantic. By your standard, I also have a relationship with the DMV, and to avoid a "toxic relationship" (parent's language), I should be honest with them about all the times I rolled past a stop sign.
- aduwah 4mo ago"Have you considered just answering truthfully?" Said by no-one who has a decent paying job and has bills to pay
- mitthrowaway2 4mo agoEven a truthful answer can require a lot of long-winded disclaimers because an interview is a new relationship without shared context. You have to state the obvious because nothing can be taken for granted.
- sumeno 4mo agoYou are playing a role at every job. In 20+ years I've never had a job where there would be no negative consequences for speaking truth to power
- surgical_fire 4mo ago> Have you considered just answering truthfully? This is terrible advice. Everybody lies on interviews. Especially the interviewer.
- solatic 4mo ago> Have you considered just answering truthfully? To give you just a little more context than other commenters - You answer truthfully when you're interviewing from a position of power. Either you're already employed somewhere and you're taking your time exploring your options to see if maybe you can end up somewhere a little better, or you're an employer with applicants lined out the door and you want to winnow them down to the best match. In either case, you don't care too deeply if an individual interview sucks, you just move on. Truth is always the first casualty of war. And when someone is out of work and fighting for their ~life~ livelihood, or a founder is trying to convince the first customer or the first engineer to take a risk on them so that they can get their baby off the ground, the truth dies real quickly.
- coldtea 4mo ago>Have you considered just answering truthfully? It's a job interview, you're not supposed to do that, and they don't appreciate it when you do. Try something like: - Where do you see yourself in 5 years? - Working at a much better company than this shithole and see how it goes.
- chrysoprace 4mo agoThe two job interviews I had recently - the interviewers were clearly AI maximalists. My answer each time had been to the effect of "yeah I use it but I make sure to check it over thoroughly since it can make mistakes" and I'm guessing that wasn't the answer they were looking for. It's a gamble of the dice as to whether the engineering manager is equally realistic about LLMs or has unrealistic expectations about what LLMs can or can't do.
- harrall 4mo agoThis isn’t an AI problem. You can’t ask anyone to “be truthful” on any subject because everyone sees through their own world perspective. Two people might say “they love camping!!” But does it mean… - Going camping twice/year and partying by the river? - Or going 20 times per year, sometimes on 4 week long trips? Both types of people will, with complete honesty, tell you “they love camping” and only you, the asker of the question, can decode what that means. ayli can’t
- __mharrison__ 4mo agoAt this point, why wouldn't you ask on the phone screen what attitude towards AI is? I would hedge towards AI usage if you didn't probe before and then justify why. Ymmv, can also gauge whether you want to work for the company based on this
- pmontra 4mo agoInterviews work both ways: employers select employees, employees select employers. Unfortunately often employees forget that part of the goals of an interview. An employer never forgets its goal. Of course the asymmetry stems principally from who pais whom and secondarily from who can wait more to find a better fit. Sometimes that's the employee. If one is not desperate to get a salary immediately, it helps thinking that the company applied for an interview and agreed to let the interviewer come and inspect their premises, their personnel and their processes. The right questions derive from that realization. By the way, that's what auditors do.
- tychota 4mo agoOn top of the other answer, the people interviewing you might be HR people ressource with limited tech knowledge and this lack of nuance. They are here recruit "AI ready engineer" or other vague, bullshitty slogan. You often need to pass this first barrier to discuss with real futur colleagues. Thus you have to give them what they want to hear. Which is hard on AI considering how polarised the subject is.
- AlwaysRock 4mo agoHa. Interviewing is about answering questions in the way your interviewer wants them to be answered. It is a game of trying to "read minds" by figuring out the most common/best possible interview answer for any given question even if it doesnt reflect your own personal opinion. People will say this is bad but then when they interview folks judge the interviewee if they dont answer questions how they expected the question to be answered.
- butlike 4mo agoTo this point, there are many advantages to answering truthfully. The job might be tailored (a little) to your expertise. Maybe the heavy AI tickets will get de-prioritized from your queue if you say you have light experience. If you say you're all in on AI, you just might find yourself becoming an AI expert out of necessity. Not because that's what the company wanted out of filling the position initially, but because that's what they got. It's expensive to have an open seat. The interviewing door swings both ways. You're looking for a fit just as they're looking for a fit. Going in every day pretending to be "a fraud" (or however else you might start to internalize it) eventually starts to weigh on the body, soul, and mind.