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Comment by Narciss | Hacker News Reader

I was actually thinking about this the other day while vibe coding for a side project.

I am a lead engineer, but I’ve been using AI in much of my code recently. If you were to ask me to code anything manually right now, I could do it, but it would take a bit to acclimate to writing code line by line. By “a while”, I mean maybe a few days.

Which means that if we were to do a coding interview without LLMs, I would probably flop without me doing a bit of work beforehand, or at least struggle. But hire me regardless, and I would get back on track in a few days and be better than most from then on.

Careful not to lose talent just because you are testing for little used but latent capabilities.

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In your scenario though, how do you avoid hiring based on blind faith?

How do I know you aren’t just a lead with a very good team to pick up the slack?

How do I separate you from the 20 other people saying they’re also good?

Why would I hire someone who can’t hit the ground running faster than someone else who can?

Furthermore, why would I hire someone who didn’t prepare at all for an interview, even if just mentally?

How do you avoid just hiring based on vibes? Bear in mind every candidate can claim they’re part of impressive projects so the resume is often not your differentiator.

We're gonna have to reinvent swe hiring

You invest time into actually looking at applications properly and look at their previous work and ask them questions about that. The curious and learning mind will probably have some projects, because they are not only into the job for the money, but because they have a passion for the job. That's not a requirement, but it distinguishes the great ones from the mediocre ones.

That’s also something any number of people can fake easily. There’s a ton of smooth talkers who can hype up a project and talk in abstract about their previous projects but weren’t on the side of delivering it.

Show code and explain, or it didn't happen. Takes a capable interviewer, of course, to distinguish sweet talk from profound knowledge.

I’m confused by your response. You expect the candidates to show code from their current/previous employer ? Or side projects that most people aren’t allowed to do by employers?

Which employers don't allow side projects? Not every side project has to be a SaaS hustle with Stripe billing.

My employer definitely doesn't own all the code I write in the evenings and on the weekends on my own time. Does yours?

No, not previous employer, of course (unless open source). I expect candidates to show code they worked on in their own projects. That is, if they have any. Having any not just forked and click deploy projects in itself is a signal, that is worth looking into.

If all their previous employers don't allow side projects (must be in US or something, where employees don't have rights), then they should pay accordingly more to balance that restriction and loss in experience.

Expecting senior job applicants to have regained basic coding skills seems reasonable to me. I would be skeptical of an applicant who hadn't made the level of effort you're describing before applying.

A few days to brush up those skills really should not be too much to ask. I am against leetcode as much as anyone. But maybe just maybe refamiliarising yourself with well fundamentals is not bad idea. At least on the most prominent technologies you advertise.

The problem becomes distinguishing someone like you, who has the skill but hasn't recently used it vs someone who doesn't have the skill.

Leetcode was always a skill mostly practiced for interviews though, right? Arguably its a better signal now in the era of vibecoding that someone can do it themselves if they have to. It used to be "yeah of course I'm responsible in my job, I use a library for this stuff". But in this era, maybe performative leetcode has more value as a signal that you can really guide the AI.

Isn’t the solution to tell the interviewee that they will have to write some code without llm support? In the case of someone like you I’d hope they’d take that as notice to spend a tiny bit of time getting back up to speed. If it really is just a day or two then it shouldn’t be an issue

Yes, I fore warn all candidates that they will do a coding test, with examples of similar tests.

They are allowed to suggest the language they’re most familiar with, they’re told they don’t need to finish and they don’t need to be correct.

It’s just about seeing how they work through something.

If someone like the person you replied to would show up that unprepared , I would really question their own judgement of their abilities.

>> and I would get back on track in a few days

Thats the issue. How can one be sure you can actually get back on track - or - you never were on the track in the first place and you are just an AI slopper?

Thats why on interview you need to show skills. And on actual job you can use AI.

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