I started feeling like a factory worker well before LLMs. My reputation and network stopped mattering and it all came down to take this assessment and do this Leetcode to prove you are a good enough replaceable cog. I have about 15 more years before retirement and I doubt there is anything left to look forward to in my career.
I echo this. Software development stopped being a dignified profession a long time ago once we fully coopted the metrics / performance theatre that the MBAs brought in. I'm talking agile / SAFe / leetcode / mandatory "side projects" as a filtering mechanism etc.
Now that clankers are generating full end-to-end products with an easy to understand dollar per token cost outlay the MBAs have finally gotten what they've always wanted. Good for them! But it also gives us ICs an opportunity to switch to (hopefully) more fulfilling career paths. For me personally working with computers was always more of a hobby anyway. Ideally I'd like for it to stay that way but we will have to see how the next 5-10 years shake out.
I suppose you have to look at it as this person is just unwilling or unable to operate in a different way at this price point, and if you want a new beam spring keyboard, right now there is no competitor.
I'm pushing 50 now and I hit the wall almost 10 years ago. No real raises, new opportunities pay less. Inflation has been ratcheting down on me constantly, and my family has to make continual changes to stay in the black.
It's just not as good as a notebook. I've tried to make it as good. It sleeps, there's too much fumbling around with it to get to what you want. You lose the muscle memory of where something is in the book, you can't quickly flip to anything. You notice you used to do certain things, like flip to two different pages at once. Everything is just immediate and tactile.
They do indeed, but the trend is clear. In the 1940's, people in the US went to the movies about 25 times a year. In 2002, it was just under 5 times a year. Today, it's around 2 times a year.
It’s absolutely not. Putting people in a vulnerable position and then pressing them for information you don’t need and should not ask for is a good way to demonstrate that you are an unethical or at best incompetent interviewer.
It might be a good way filter for candidates that have a high tolerance for being mistreated, though, if that’s the goal.
Also a great way for candidates to filter out employers who play bizarre mind games and think personal trick questions are appropriate in an interview.
Literally he’s saying to behave inappropriately in a professional interview and see if the candidate plays along. Might as well see if you can get the candidate to offer a bribe or sexual favors for the job since we’re going all in on entrapment.
The opposite. Are you breaking the rule to leave your private stuff home just because the other side is or are you capable of keeping out of such sources of interpersonal conflicts, take over and redirect the discussion back to a professional level?
Of course it depends for what field and role you apply. For any leading role or customer contact point the capability to stay professional is essential. If you flip burgers at McDonald's then it's your right to be grumpy.
You are literally saying it’s a good idea to attempt to entrap potential employees by intentionally behaving the way you want them to not. It’s like pouring margaritas for you and the interviewee and then after they take a sip you say you don’t hire people who drink on the job.
This is unethical and it’s also a shitty filter because they people you want to hire (the ones why won’t talk personal stuff at work; or won’t drink on the job) are likely to write you off because they also don’t want to work with the guy who wants to drink margaritas and chat personal trauma at work.
I am literally saying that the role the person applied to was for a "founding engineer at a mental health startup".
This is a leading role(!) in the mental health(!!) industry. That should give some clues. They also announced that the follow-up interview as a "non traditional - a ~90 minute culture fit chat" dropping more hints.
Unfortunately he also "fail to recall the exact wording of the discussion topics".
I bet the exact wording was open enough to leave enough room to not "felt completely emotionally drained" afterwards.
I think the interviewer did him a favor. He is just not able to handle a leading role in the mental health industry in a way that would have been mental healthy for him.
If an interviewer, who has the power to deny you a job unless your answers are satisfactory to them, is unprofessional enough to abuse that by pressing you for inappropriate personal details during the interview, then there actually is no correct answer.
You can't assume that person is going to act in good faith about anything else in that situation, so even refusing to take the bait is still ultimately a roulette wheel that can just as easily be labeled as "difficult" or "combative."
If it would be unprofessional to bring those things up freely, then it's actually more unprofessional to coerce people about them as a screening criteria -- whether that's coercing them into putting on a show of dancing around the issues, or coercing them into giving you honest answers.
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