Human Enduring Skills

is leetcode still a viable way to screen candidates? and why human enduring skills is the new meta.

Engineers at top labs have been debating whether to allow applicants to use AI tools in their interviews. On one hand, you want to simulate how the applicant would actually work day to day. On the other, you want to see their raw problem solving capability. But honestly, this method kind of sucks for both sides.

For the applicant, you know you could just copy and paste this problem and you’d get a working solution. So it feels dumb to dedicate months of your life to prepare for an interview on a skill that you wont even need on the actual job. Not only that, in order to keep up with what the labs are actually doing, you NEED to use AI to execute and learn at the speed they are shipping at. So it just feels yucky to spend time grinding Leetcode when you could have spent meaningful time learning something new.

For the companies, it would be laughable to think you could know how someone works by asking them a few questions in a couple hours. People’s moods change, people get burnt out, the interview itself might make them seem extra motivated. And more often than not, you know that strong candidates have grinded Leetcode JUST for the interview. So its really hard to tell who is truly a creative problem solver or who is just a memory bank of answers.

The goal of Leetcode

isn’t to see if you can memorize the solutions to 75 different types of problems. It’s to see your problem solving skills and how you deal with pressure. But humans are the masters of gaming verified rewards. And ultimately, Leetcode has become something we all consider a “standard” because there’s not really any other scalable way to measure how different types of people think. So we “cheat”by memorizing the way to solve certain things… but that immediately defeats the whole purpose of finding creative problem solvers. If we just wanted to hire someone/thing that could regurgitate answers, I’d rather have an AI do it.

Enduring skills

is what companies should interview for. These are skills that will never fade regardless of how good AI will become one day. Examples are like persuasion, communication, decision making, empathy, comedy, and so much more that I list out here. These skills are what makes us uniquely human and what is truly valuable in an era where AI is magnificently changing the way that work is done.

In fact, I think companies that still require their applicants to solve Leetcode problems are optimizing for the wrong type of workers. They’re essentially just hiring subpar versions of the AI subscriptions they’re already paying for.

But increasingly, what you truly want people who are great communicators, iterate fast, and are truly creative. These type of people can explore many options, test them all, and explain what worked and why. These type of people generate lots of value because they are able to discern what is signal and what is noise. In today’s market, that is increasingly important because there is just so much slop.

If it wasn’t clear enough, my take is:

“DOWN WITH THE LEETCODE! IN WITH THE HUMAN“

Let’s start hiring with handshakes

again. Like walk into a business, smile, and tell them you are hard working and learn fast. Let's go back to square 1 and hire humans—not memorizing machines.

—joseph