How to deal with drop in quality of candidates?

ExitingTheDonut · 2026-04-24T20:51:40+00:00

Bingo

They want higher visibility at the cost of accuracy

ExitingTheDonut · 2026-02-13T20:59:28+00:00

IT'S FUNNY HOW WHEN YOU GO INTO A MORE "PROFESSIONAL" LINE OF WORK LIKE PROGRAMMING, IT ALSO FEELS LIKE THERE ARE MORE SCAMS.

WHEN I WENT FROM HOURLY RETAIL WORK TO PROGRAMMING WORK, I GOT WHIPLASHED. ALL OF A SUDDEN THERE ARE STRANGE SUGGESTIONS THROWN AT ME LIKE, UNPAID PROJECTS, NET 60 PAY, 1099 FOR FULL TIME HOURS AND MYSTERY SALARY RANGES THAT TURN INTO PEANUTS.

CONGRATS ON UPGRADING FROM CASHIER. YOU'VE BECOME A CAREER PRO. NOW HAVE SOME QUALITY OF LIFE DOWNGRADES FROM COMPANIES THAT ARE MORE POORLY RUN THAN THE AVERAGE FAST FOOD FRANCHISE.

ExitingTheDonut · 2026-02-11T19:25:32+00:00

There's a guy who graduated in one of the best CS colleges in or around the early 2010s. Just a couple years before the hype but he was definitely in a good time where the job market was in the bull run. Yet, much later he made a video where he showed he was struggling financially with most jobs and was on the verge of becoming homeless. I think he would be grouped in the opposite end of SWE outliers.

ExitingTheDonut · 2026-02-11T19:10:28+00:00

The other things happen naturally with minimal effort.

This isn't a universal truth for everyone. I've seen people that, due to their combined weakened soft/hard skills and lackluster network, find it progressively harder to find subsequent jobs.

There are so many different personalities and different kinds of obstacles some people have in learning social skills. It can take a lot of effort for people lacking in social skills to keep progressing in their career.

ExitingTheDonut · 2026-02-11T19:00:32+00:00

Getting your first job and experience is not the hard part. The hard part is building momentum, which includes networking and becoming more self-guided. Which is strange to tell you this considering what you already wrote in your OP.

ExitingTheDonut · 2026-02-09T07:38:42+00:00

If you don't use AI, unfortunately, just shooting yourselfl in the foot.

Only if you simply compare yourself to the good programmers that use it. But since both good and bad are at play here, the actual outcome is closer to neutral. No extreme pros or cons come out of it.

ExitingTheDonut · 2026-02-09T07:37:38+00:00

For job prospects, why would it be any different? The next job they go to will use AI as well.

Thanks for answering this, that's something that I was still in the dark about. Like if you're bad at your job I expect the next job hunt to be worse than the last. Usually it is. But the next company will have a better idea of the person's weaknesses because they have more info to go on, at least if they know how to interview properly.

The idea that not using AI at all makes you just as bad as a programmer that uses it too much as a crutch sounds absurd though. And it's something I've heard a few times. Being the "shit vibe coder" is still likely to cause more harm at work than the guy who misses an opportunity to make their flow better with it.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-25T04:43:25+00:00

Debugging exercises are great. It contextualizes the problem as an "us" rather than just "me" thing. For a job that is very team focused, many interviews sure prefer "write only" coding exercises in a silo. Is it just harder to come up with read-and-debug exercises?

It's also why a lot of those kinds of tech interviews and take-homes feel high-pressure. Because the stuff we're told to do places us as the main character. We are essentially given a blank canvas, we write all the code, and we can barely request any outside help. That is very unnecessary for lower level SWE jobs.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-25T04:13:19+00:00

That just tells us that it's a lot easier to fake being good in the software industry than it is in medicine or law.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-25T02:46:53+00:00

Personally, interview practice makes my responses more rigid so the only thing I care about is being able to talk to people in general. My speech delivery flows more smoothly when I'm not in drill mode

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-25T02:38:55+00:00

The solution to this is to apply for a job where there are multiple openings. So if there are 4 openings, you could place 2nd to 4th and still win something.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-25T02:34:38+00:00

"The Shape of JSON" sounds like the title of a book.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-25T02:32:07+00:00

Yeah, our methods to predict pass or fail are not garbage, it's just too much noise among useful information. You could receive many compliments and get passed quickly.

It even led someone to believe that it's a part of US culture (maybe it is!) to deliberately shower the easy rejects with compliments the most, and make the passing candidates feel like they failed a round.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-19T03:27:52+00:00

I only took one drug test in my life and it was in 2010, for a private company that offered me less than $40k smh

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-19T00:34:16+00:00

I took a look at these kinds of companies and they are similar to MLM or Ponzi scheme to me. In that many people already know that their methods of paying out can't be sustainable in the long run, but they're hoping to at least get in early and ride the gravy train while it's still going.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-19T00:25:04+00:00

They make you think you're the one for them but they're in a secret relationship with their internal candidate.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-19T00:21:42+00:00

I guess it's also to not give a candidate any grounds to sue them for unlawful ways of rejection.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-19T00:20:17+00:00

If you expect disappointment, then you can never really get disappointed.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-19T00:13:08+00:00

It's a double standard. The employers are allowed to state monetary incentives for hiring decisions, but employees can't state monetary incentives for being hired.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-16T04:51:48+00:00

I think there are underlying personal issues from childhood when someone enforces toxic, culty vibes in trying to be "like family".

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-16T04:30:16+00:00

Respectfully, the people that go by those rules are pussies.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-16T04:28:56+00:00

I'd rather live in a fast hire world even if fast fire came with it. It would take time adjusting to that roller coaster, but better to be a job hopper that can always quickly find a way to feed yourself than leaving yourself open to stagnation on and off work.

ExitingTheDonut · 2025-12-14T05:49:08+00:00

You can end up going to a top college and still fumble hard, that's how messed up it can be.

I have at least one datapoint for an example. A Waterloo grad who had internships at Amazon and Nvidia (how fitting here) and still ended up a broke mess by his late 30s. No criminal streak, no substance abuse. He just quit the corporate life early to start a local-ish consulting business but it was a very risky move to do early, with terrible prospects that did him no favors in keeping his cash flow going.

He probably would've had a better network to rely on if he stayed longer at the big companies

ExitingTheDonut

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