Ask HN: What do your job interviews look like? (August 2026)

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now more like IA interviews, in order to speak with ppl at least you need to speak with a couple of machines.

Interview first task, help this laptop (windows) install ai agent (Openclaw or Hermes). that's what happen in my last interview.

Yes, something different. 5 stages interviews are more common now, technical questions during first HR interview (they record and use transcript), personal projects don't matter, recommendation don't matter.

Thinking about which profession to choose next, cause I'm not passing so many gates so far.

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Did a few interviews during the summer and received 2 offers. No AI involved, except screening the CV.

But one thing is very common. It's that the cultural fit interviews are longer and carry more value than ever (possibly more than technical interview). Out of 5 stages, 2 or 3 are meeting non tech people, coming to the office, having an informal chat, etc. Companies really want to know you as a person and are very careful who they pick. It's the same for remote, hybrid or office based work.

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Same interview process. Recruiter call, Live coding, System design, Behaviour interview.

The only difference is that in the Live coding session they now allow AI to be used. I didn’t use it and went old way (because I had already rehearsed it the old way, and found no feedback on the internet about how the company assess AI usage, so I didn’t want to be the Guinea pig)

Interview took place this summer. Major tech company in EU (not faang tho). Also Live coding is not leetcode.

What job interviews? The market is trash dude

The market is trash rn

The last interview I went to looked like this:

So this company wanted to replace MuleSoft with a home grown solution using TypeScript and Node.js. The primary reasons were the high costs of MuleSoft and the inability to pivot from MuleSofts most basic approach to REST. A home grown solution would quickly pay for itself in operating costs and could be relicensed as a future product that solves problems MuleSoft can’t. This new initiative has 0 lines written and the position called for a Node.js expert to start this off.

There were three rounds of interviews each for 30 minutes with different leaders. One of these interviewers was aware of TypeScript and how Node works but none knew what to ask from a technical perspective.

The final interview was with the person assigned as the architect of this effort who was greatly opposed to training people and opposed this initiative generally.

After leaving the interview it was clear that the person hired would be on their own and scapegoated by insecure personalities with conflicting agendas not related to product or the underlying financial motive.

In a way this experience felt like a game of a pending marriage divorce with ambitious personalities versus highly neurotic people focused on their own things. The more I thought on it the more it reminded me so much of several past employment experiences.

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I did some interviewing before the summer holidays.

I didn't find a place which I liked an stopped the process most of the times after the initial interview.

A waste of time in other words..

Wait you all are getting interviews?

A couple interviews ago, I found myself in a situation where the zoom did not work. They sent me a list of questions to answer. Every single one of the questions was something I did not like doing. I ended the interview, I would have been in charge of politics, grants, outreach and all the functions which required public outreach. They called me back after I said no and I had to say no again. I seem to be getting a lot of requests which exactly match my current skills. It does not seem to matter when I tell them I would like to do something else. There is a rigidity in the job market which is surprising.