'They copy-pasted from AI': Tech company offers Rs 20 lakh, can't find a single techie who understands code
A technology firm recently launched a hiring campaign for a well-compensated entry-level position offering a handsome Rs 20 lakh per annum. However, despite conducting a staggering 450 interviews, the company failed to find a single candidate suitable for the role. The recruitment team turned to the
Developers India subreddit
to share their ordeal, hoping to shed light on the complexities of hiring in the AI era.
The company had posted job listings on LinkedIn for junior-level frontend and backend developers, as well as QA roles. The salary range—up to Rs 20 lakh—attracted a wave of over 12,000 applications. From the outset, the hiring team filtered out nearly 10,000 applicants, citing reasons such as poorly tailored resumes and a lack of relevant technical abilities. According to them, the early elimination was not about being overly selective but about saving both their own time and the applicants' from fruitless interview rounds.
Those who did make it to the interviews were tested on fundamental programming principles as well as standard data structures and algorithms topics like trees, heaps, linked lists, and graph traversal methods such as breadth-first search and depth-first search. Interestingly, the firm even permitted the use of tools like ChatGPT during assessments to simulate a real-world working environment.
However, this modern approach backfired. While candidates were quick to churn out working solutions—often copied directly from AI—the problems began when interviewers asked for an explanation. Most were unable to describe what their own code was doing or provide details about its time and space complexity. This led to the realization that many candidates were simply copying and pasting without comprehending the logic behind the code—a phenomenon the recruiter described as "vibe coding."
This troubling pattern prompted the company to reflect on its own methods. Was the interview process too rigid or flawed? Or was it indicative of a larger issue where aspiring developers rely too heavily on AI tools, skipping the foundational learning necessary to become competent programmers?
The Reddit community didn't hold back in its response. Some users questioned the company's recruitment practices, pointing out that spending 450 hours on interviews without hiring a single person suggested deeper internal problems. One user criticized the process as inefficient and misguided, arguing that the HR team might be more at fault than the candidates themselves. Another suggested that if so many interviews yield zero hires, it could be a sign that the hiring strategy—and not the talent pool—is broken.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
13 minutes ago
- Hans India
FM hands over loan sanction letters worth Rs 5.13 crore to beneficiaries in Leh
Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday handed over loan sanction letters worth Rs 5.13 crore to beneficiaries in Ladakh's Leh, under various Central government financial inclusion schemes. The move is part of the Centre's continued efforts to empower local communities through targeted economic support and strengthen entrepreneurship in remote regions like Ladakh. The Finance Minister distributed the sanction letters during the Credit Outreach Programme organised in Leh, where beneficiaries of schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), the PM Vishwakarma Yojana, the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PM-FME) Scheme, and Joint Liability Group (JLG) loans received official support from participating banks. FM Sitharaman, who is on a four-day visit to Ladakh, also interacted with beneficiaries and bank officials during the programme. Her visit comes at a time when the government is increasing its focus on financial inclusion in aspirational and border regions. Through these initiatives, the government aims to promote local entrepreneurship, generate employment, and ensure equitable access to formal credit systems. Earlier in the day, the Finance Minister visited an exhibition in Leh featuring local handicrafts, handloom products, and sustainable innovations developed by women-led self-help groups (SHGs) and small entrepreneurs. She praised their creativity and the role they play in preserving Ladakh's cultural heritage, while also contributing to rural economic development. The Centre's flagship schemes, like the PM Mudra Yojana and DAY-NRLM, have played a key role in driving financial inclusion across India. Under the PMMY alone, over 52 crore loans worth Rs 32.61 lakh crore have been sanctioned since its launch, with nearly 70 per cent of the beneficiaries being women entrepreneurs. The scheme's emphasis on collateral-free credit has enabled small business owners, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas, to become financially independent. The Finance Minister was also scheduled to meet with officials from the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) and the Union Territory administration, and inaugurate various developmental projects during her visit.
Indian Express
21 minutes ago
- Indian Express
AI and future of jobs: Here's what top tech CEOs Sam Altman, Jensen Huang are saying
As more companies adopt artificial intelligence and automate jobs, fears about AI's impact on low-level tasks and entry-level roles have sparked a heated debate about the future of white-collar jobs—especially among those just entering the workforce. Despite widespread fears that artificial intelligence could automate jobs and reduce employee wages, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes that while jobs are undoubtedly evolving in the AI era, entry-level white-collar roles won't be entirely wiped out. Huang leads Nvidia, now the world's most valuable technology company. 'Some jobs will be obsolete, but many jobs are going to be created… Whenever companies are more productive, they hire more people,' Huang said at the VivaTech conference in Paris last week. His comments were in response to recent claims by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who warned that up to 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs could be eliminated by AI, potentially pushing unemployment to 20% within the next five years. 'One, he believes that AI is so scary that only they [Anthropic] should do it. Two, that AI is so expensive, nobody else should do it… and three, AI is so incredibly powerful that everyone will lose their jobs, which explains why they should be the only company building it,' Huang said. 'I think AI is a very important technology; we should build it and advance it safely and responsibly. If you want things to be done safely and responsibly, you do it in the open… Don't do it in a dark room and tell me it's safe.' While Huang believes that AI will open more career opportunities in the future, OpenAI's Sam Altman have a different view on how artificial intelligence may impact the job market. According to Altman, whose company makes the most advanced LLM, expects there could be 'whole classes of jobs going away' as AI develops. 'The rate of technological progress will keep accelerating, and it will continue to be the case that people are capable of adapting to almost anything,' he said in a blog post last week. 'There will be very hard parts like whole classes of jobs going away, but on the other hand, the world will be getting so much richer so quickly that we'll be able to seriously entertain new policy ideas we never could before. We probably won't adopt a new social contract all at once, but when we look back in a few decades, the gradual changes will have amounted to something big.' According to Altman, while the job landscape may change in the coming years, there will also be new opportunities created by superintelligence: '…maybe we will go from solving high-energy physics one year to beginning space colonization the next; or from a major materials science breakthrough one year to true high-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces the next.' Huang and Altman aren't the only tech CEOs with strong views on AI and jobs—Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu also has clear thoughts on how AI could impact employment. According to Vembu, if artificial intelligence disrupts the job market, there are two possible outcomes: the prices of automated goods and services could drop significantly, or the remaining human-centered professions may see a substantial increase in pay. 'On the subject of AI and jobs: Hypothetically, if all software development were to be automated—I want to emphasize that we are nowhere close to that goal—and all software engineers like myself were out of work, it's not as if human beings would have nothing to do.' Vembu also pointed out the broader economic challenge: 'How do people afford all the goods that pour out of automated factories that employ no workers?' Meanwhile, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman believes that what young people learn in college isn't the most important factor when it comes to getting a job. According to Hoffman, the ability to apply AI tools and leverage connections is far more essential to landing a job. ''It isn't specific degrees, specific courses, [or] even necessarily specific skills that are relevant to you,'' he said in a recent video on his YouTube channel. 'It's your capacity to say, 'Hey, here is the new tool set, here's the new challenge.' That is actually what the future work's going to look like. One thing is to not focus on the degree, but to focus on how you learn and to be continually learning,' Hoffman said. ''The other part of college that's super important, that you should not forget, is that life is a team sport, not just an individual sport,' he continued. 'You can help each other.' In recent months, more and more tech CEOs have weighed in on the rise of AI and its impact on the job market. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has urged workers to embrace AI to stay competitive. 'If you're an artist, a teacher, a physician, a businessperson, a technical person—if you're not using this technology, you're not going to be relevant compared to your peer groups, your competitors, and the people who want to be successful,' Schmidt said at TED 2025 in May. 'Adopt it, and adopt it fast,' he warned. Others have downplayed the likelihood of widespread job losses due to AI. Among them is Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who described AI as an 'accelerator' for productivity and new jobs—while still acknowledging the importance of Dario Amodei's concerns and the need for an industry-wide debate. Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind, has expressed less concern about labor impacts, focusing instead on the broader risks of AI. Meanwhile, Bill Gates has argued that AI will lead to a proliferation of much-needed expertise across industries.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
22 minutes ago
- Business Standard
MSC Bank sets up country's first cyber security operations centre
In a move to bolster digital resilience in the cooperative banking sector, the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSC Bank) has established the country's first cyber-security operation centre (C-SOC) to provide protection against increasing cyber threats. The facility, Sahakar Suraksha, has been set up in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, at a cost of Rs 50 crore, a senior official said. In an interview with PTI, MSC Bank Chairman Vidyadhar Anaskar said the bank's decision to launch the C-SOC stemmed from a pressing need to protect cooperative banks and their customers from cyber fraud. "There have been more than 10 lakh cyber attacks on cooperative banks in recent years, causing financial losses running into crores. One particular fraud alone caused a loss of around Rs 50 crore," he said. Anaskar said most cooperative and rural banks are ill-equipped to build robust cyber defence infrastructure. "They neither have the technical manpower nor the funds. That is why we have developed a shared cybersecurity mechanism for the sector," he said. He emphasised that the C-SOC's services will be provided free of cost to member banks. "This is a cooperative initiative in its true spirit. We will not charge anything for providing 24/7 surveillance and protection," Anaskar said. The C-SOC, which was inaugurated on Friday, is designed to serve 31 district central cooperative banks in Maharashtra. The system, powered by an AI-driven platform, is capable of detecting known and emerging cyber threats in real time and issuing immediate alerts to participating banks. Anaskar said the centre recently helped avert a major cyber breach at a cooperative bank in Sindhudurg. "We issued an early warning to the bank, and the funds were secured in time," he said. The facility is currently manned by 35 trained cyber-security professionals working in shifts to ensure round-the-clock operation. MSC Bank also plans to offer cyber hygiene training to officials and staff of member banks to improve awareness and preparedness against online threats. Anaskar said the initiative is a forward-looking step for the entire cooperative sector and is expected to serve as a model for other states. "With increasing reliance on digital platforms and the rise of AI, such infrastructure is not optional anymore. It is a necessity," he added.
