PSA: Things tech companies are watching out for

Last week, I shared the drama around the corporate espionage between Deel and Rippling. This week, we’ve got a Columbia student going viral for building an AI tool to help software engineers successfully pass coding tests. He lost his internships with Google and others, but he’s building his own company and is probably coming out on top in the long run here.

This definitely has recruiting teams looking over their shoulders. Some predictions on my end?

1. I suspect companies are going to start rolling out more formal stances on the use of AI in their recruitment processes. They may ask candidates to confirm they aren’t using AI (like Anthropic) or otherwise.

2. I would expect that companies are going to be doing more to verify who is on the other end. Cameras on during interviews, perhaps more live technical assessments where you’re screen sharing, or more in person interviews.

3. There will likely be greater scrutiny over things like references and background checks, and perhaps delays in making offers until all of these things come back clear.

And it’s not just the bad actors in the system. We’re already seeing massive upticks in the volume of AI-generated applications - often with completely false information. We have people using AI filters to have other people do portions of a virtual interview on their behalf. People are using AI tools to give them answers during their interviews.

Of course the end result will be companies developing even more hoops for candidates to jump through in order to avoid falling for these traps, making things even tougher on those who are trying to do the right thing in their interview processes.

This week, I wanted to share 1440 Media as a neutral source of information. They share short snippets about current events, and link to generally unbiased/fact-based media sources (with no paywall!) I appreciate them sponsoring this issue, and recommend you check them out!

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Career Resources

• Did you hear about Meta’s “Block List” of employees that can’t be hired? In my experience, some employees who are exited for cause may be labeled “not eligible for rehire”. It’s not really a “formal” label, but any time a former employee applies, a recruitment team will check out their previous performance and manager feedback which may essentially make some people “unhireable”. In my experience, if you’re exited for a violation of the code of conduct or really poor performance, then it may be really hard to get back in. But I doubt this is something most people need to worry about.

• I thought this “open to work” document from Emily Worden was cool…it’s a spin on a resume; not something I would submit for jobs, but may be helpful for codifying your thoughts on what you’re looking for, and your core messages you want to communicate in applications, outreach, etc.

In the News

• Every day Americans are struggling to get by, CFOs say we’re headed for a recession, ad firm Magna scaled back projections for US growth, but Wall Street continues to say that the economy is booming, and rewarding over 200,000 securities employees with, on average, quarter million bonuses!!

  Privatization always helps investors and the rich, and will always leave the general public worse off. This is true whether it’s private equity buying up stores and medical practices and daycares, and now they’re coming for the mortgage industry.

• There was a snippet during this mornings hearings about “Signalgate” where Tulsi Gabbard was asked about retweeting content from a Russian journalist; she expressed that this was covered by her 1st amendment rights - a reminder that not everyone in the US has those rights these days (for example, this Turkish student at Tufts.) If you’re not a US citizen, please be careful out there.

🙋Answering Your Questions🙋

Each week, I’ll answer one (or more!) of your questions in this section. You can submit your questions here.

This can be so dependent on what you’re applying for, and on where that education took place. Unfortunately, I do think there can be discrimination here, especially if your experience is from non-English speaking countries.

A few things you might do:

1. Offer context on your education, employer, etc. For example, share an “anchor statement” sharing more about the company (ex. Zapier is a global remote-first company that automates workflows between over 6,000 apps, empowering professionals to streamline processes and enhance productivity.)

2. Depending on your background, target roles that could leverage your international experience. Not sure where you were, but if you were in France for example, target jobs where you may be working with French companies, where French language is a nice-to-have, etc. These might be hard to come by but you could be a really standout applicant for the right job!

3. Focus on global companies where your knowledge of another country/continent could be a big advantage.

4. Network! Referrals and introductions can help you overcome potential questions marks about your experience.
   
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