Thoughts, tips, and some prompts
I have been hearing concerns lately from fellow interviewers that they are worried that candidates may leverage AI for passing technical interviews. The concern is that using LLM technology like ChatGPT or Bard, they may “game” the system and solve problems during technical interviews.
I think you should make use of AI for passing interviews, but not how you would initially expect.
The most important element for passing an interview is really preparing for it and the best way to prepare is to practice.
Some companies would charge thousands of dollars and would take candidates through mock interviews, giving them feedback and highlighting areas to improve. This creates a significant opportunity gap for people that can’t afford to pay for such services.
With the emergence of the new LLM technology, the question is if AI is leveling the playing field and if the tech can be used as a tutor for practicing mock interviews. First, let’s dive into the wrong way of leveraging AI.
Let’s first try to address this valid concern. Should you be using an LLM service (could be ChatGPT, Bard — you name it) to try to get the answers to technical questions while in the interview? The tech works, but the real question is should you, as a candidate, really use it that way?
In my opinion, the answer is no. Doing this will hurt you both in the short and long run. Let’s go over some reasons for not doing it:
You will get caught
Interviews are stressful, most likely the interviewer will catch on if you are split screening, trying to search for the answer and saying something you don’t fully understand.
I have been holding over 1000 interviews throughout my career and I have had a few instances where candidates were trying to do a split-screen approach and were trying to search for the answer while talking to me. This was very obvious.
How would I know they were searching for answers? They would not pay attention to my hints…