How to be an interviewer in the LLM era…..

After the rise of LLMs, we’ve got a quirky new problem: resumes that look too good to be true — because they are! These AI-powered resumes are often better than anything a regular human could whip up. And the fun doesn’t stop there. During interviews, some candidates sneakily use AI assistants to answer our questions. Sometimes, the answers are so spot-on that we can’t even tell if it’s the person or their digital sidekick talking!

So, how do we outsmart these AI-savvy candidates? Here are a few tricks I use to separate the humans from the machines:

Ditch the yes/no Q&A style: Instead of asking questions that an AI could answer in seconds, dive into the nitty-gritty. If they’re talking about a project they’ve done, ask things like:

• How many people were involved?
• How long did it take to complete?
• What was YOUR specific role?
• What was the toughest challenge, and how did you solve it?

A real pro can answer these with conviction, while an AI-reliant candidate might stumble.

Spot the robotic talk: If the answers sound too polished, generic, or suspiciously like a Wikipedia entry, it’s time to raise an eyebrow. Real people have quirks, pauses, and personal takes, while AI tends to stick to the script.

Be wary of perfect answers: Be skeptical if something sounds too flawless. We want humans, not machines, to do our jobs — flaws, creativity, and all.

Face-to-face matters: Whenever possible, insist on in-person interviews. If that’s not feasible, have candidates join from a controlled location, not their cozy AI-infested home setup.

In the end, while AI can do the job, as interviewers, we prefer a human as a candidate, not a machine. !!