alt Hacker News> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products.
Have you considered just answering truthfully?
Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? That sounds not like a job but a toxic relationship.
Replies
> Have you considered just answering truthfully?
To give you just a little more context than other commenters -
You answer truthfully when you're interviewing from a position of power. Either you're already employed somewhere and you're taking your time exploring your options to see if maybe you can end up somewhere a little better, or you're an employer with applicants lined out the door and you want to winnow them down to the best match. In either case, you don't care too deeply if an individual interview sucks, you just move on.
Truth is always the first casualty of war. And when someone is out of work and fighting for their ~life~ livelihood, or a founder is trying to convince the first customer or the first engineer to take a risk on them so that they can get their baby off the ground, the truth dies real quickly.
I don't think having trouble knowing how to tailor your message to your audience because of limited information implies it isn't truthful. Answers to jobb interview questions are usually very manicured and rehearsed but I don't think they're generally lies.
> Have you considered just answering truthfully? ... That sounds not like a job but a toxic relationship.
It's a job, not a relationship. It's best not to confuse the two.
In any workplace, you will occasionally have to do things you find boring or objectionable. And if you're hoping to find a corporation that is a "perfect match", it will only hurt more when they unceremoniously fire you because the quarterly revenue growth is 1% off or because you cracked an off-color joke.
> Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading?
This just sounds like a standard tech interview. Mind reading to find and perform the secret “signal”. Nobody flips out if you don’t find it, they just move on to one of the other 1,000 candidates for the role.
>Have you considered just answering truthfully?
It's a job interview, you're not supposed to do that, and they don't appreciate it when you do. Try something like:
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
- Working at a much better company than
this shithole
Even a truthful answer can require a lot of long-winded disclaimers because an interview is a new relationship without shared context. You have to state the obvious because nothing can be taken for granted.
You are playing a role at every job. In 20+ years I've never had a job where there would be no negative consequences for speaking truth to power
> Have you considered just answering truthfully?
I remember the graduate recruitment days - If you told the truth you were the only candidate they saw all day that wasn't the captain of the football team, top of the class and voted most likely to succeed - aka the worst candidate they saw all day.
Because almost every HR department now has a directive to only let people through the screening process who say they are using "fully agentic workflows" even though that's moronic.
"Have you considered just answering truthfully?"
Said by no-one who has a decent paying job and has bills to pay
> Have you considered just answering truthfully?
This is terrible advice.
Everybody lies on interviews. Especially the interviewer.
Not everyone has that luxury when there are bills to pay and mouths to feed.
> Have you considered just answering truthfully?
It's 2026, you gotta sell your soul just to get a phone screening
> Have you considered just answering truthfully?
We all filter and “nudge” the truth during interviews. We all cater our responses to the person in front of us. Let’s not pretend otherwise. Your interviewers sure aren’t.
As if most people have a choice in the matter.
To be honest, I don't think I would want to work with or hire you, based on your response here.
I assume it's because he is seeking to pay rent, food bills, and other expenses through employment.