Anthropic manager ends traditional coding interviews

Felix Rieseberg, an engineering manager at Anthropic, has stopped using traditional coding interviews for his team. He argues that AI makes these tests pointless because Claude now handles small programming tasks better than candidates do. Rieseberg states there is no reason to give candidates small programming tasks like React challenges or quizzes on Assembly anymore. He claims that good test scores no longer predict who turns out to be a top developer at Anthropic.

Rieseberg observes that relatively new engineers are overtaking more experienced colleagues at Anthropic. He summarizes this observation with the phrase 'Hunger beats tenure'. He redefines the term 'junior' developers to mean any engineer without social status, power, or a network inside their company. He argues that newcomers have a structural advantage because they notice problems that long-time employees accepted as givens. Rieseberg cites organizational researcher James March, who wrote in 1991 that organizations depend on a steady stream of naive and uninformed newcomers.

Rieseberg now looks for small prototypes in job applications that show taste, empathy, and principled thinking. He states that the classic coding interview isn't coming back. Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, stated that 70 percent of Information sector employers have switched to proctored or in-person skill assessments to deter cheating with AI.