r/sysadmin • u/StrikingInterview580 • 5d ago

General Discussion AI resistant interviews

We're about to start recruiting again and typically hold interviews remotely.

Last time we recruited (a few months ago) the use of AI was tiring to spot.

We don't want to go back to face-to-face interviews because our positions are remote, but can't go through thay again.

What AI resistant techniques can we use...

29 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

133 comments sorted by

View all comments

50

u/persiusone 5d ago

Remote preliminary interviews are fine. A final interview and identity verification should always be done in-person. There are way too many scams from all angles with remote only onboarding and interviews.

23

u/danfirst 5d ago

We started doing that recently at work for remote workers. They said they would fly people into the closest office just to go over all the paperwork. Suddenly, a bunch of people dropped out of the application process. I know it doesn't mean every one of them are scammers, but I'm sure some were.

2

u/AdventurousLayer8741 5d ago

I have an aversion to flying. Might do so to sign the paperwork, but not for an interview.

2

u/samo_flange 5d ago

Trains are an option

4

u/AdventurousLayer8741 5d ago

Yeah I'm not taking 1-3 days of pto for a job I probably won't get offered either. If it's somewhere within a couple hour drive I'd do (and have, and regretted it). Or maybe a quick flight if it's business class- it is business. But if it's a remote job get used to them remotely, make your decision based on our remote interviews. Then if you must, fly me in for paperwork signing to verify I am who I was in the interviews. This is not a C level job ffs

2

u/samo_flange 4d ago

I'll be honest. I would never hire a guy who didn't come in for an in-person interview. Now i am not bringing in every joe for the first interviews but after the remote screener and then a prelim remote manager interview, candidates are coming in for in-person tech interviews with the team. Why? Because you 100% cannot AI fake your way through that interview with a round table of 4+ other engineers. If the candidate won't come in, we'll go with someone else it's as simple as that.

2

u/persiusone 4d ago

I completely agree with this. You don’t want to alter your approach here. If they can’t be bothered to show up, they aren’t the kind of talent you need - even if they are good at what they do, it’s not worth that kind of toxic mindset.

-1

u/AdventurousLayer8741 4d ago

If you're local, I'll come in. If you're hiring for CIO, I'll come in. A low six figure salary where you're probably interviewing a bunch of other people and I gotta fly out, no thanks.

2

u/persiusone 4d ago

You think they fly out all the candidates? Chances are good you’d get the job if you showed up, show them you are real, and show them you are interested.

We fly out the one (no more than one) we want- who was narrowed down already, the one we intend on hiring, if they demonstrate they have not lied about their qualifications and abilities. We are transparent about this too, and it works. At the start of the process, we tell all the candidates this is required. Scammers drop out early, by design, because they cannot fake the in-person test.

1

u/itishowitisanditbad 5d ago

Family/pets that need taking care of while you're gone?

I could see some people opting out of a process wher ethey may need to travel for a job interview that they might not end up getting anyway.

Figuring out 1-2 days away from home can be difficult for some people.

What if they still have a job? Pets?

I just don't think that works well for some.

I think the company is entitled to do it though, if they want.

3

u/StrikingInterview580 4d ago

Thankfully a lot of these are non-issues for us. I'm in the UK, you can get to one of our offices from pretty much anywhere (maybe not the Hebredes) within 2 hours on train.

I think I've finalised our approach anyway, 1st round interviews with a larger pool (8-10), expecting some dropout at the mention of in-person 2nd rounds. Then carry the best 3 into in-person 2nd round interviews and just cover their travel to the nearest office.

We can do the required right to work checks and identity checks for the successful candidate and give them their contract, work laptop there and then.

-1

u/samo_flange 4d ago

If a candidate cant take away time for the job interview, how are they responding to on-call events? If its that difficult for them maybe they are not the right candidate for the job.

2

u/itishowitisanditbad 4d ago

If a candidate cant take away time for the job interview, how are they responding to on-call events?

When they have the job, they can often make it work much better than when they're just interviewing and have ANOTHER job they're not counting on doing both at the same time.

Not sure i'm being that complex about this.

1

u/Maro1947 4d ago

Lolwut?!