What if you used a chatbot like ChatGPT to take the technical part of a job interview at a prominent tech company—and it managed to actually land you a job?
As posted by CNBC, teams at Google recently used the increasingly popular ChatGPT, an A.I.-powered chatbot, to answer questions in a job interview. According to an internal document generated by those Google teams, “ChatGPT gets hired at L3 when interviewed for a coding position.” (For those unfamiliar with Google’s ranking system, L3 is a starting position for full-time software engineers.)
ChatGPT is also capable of generating code. When asked whether chatbots with that capability will eventually replace software developers and engineers, ChatGPT reportedly responded that A.I. wasn’t capable of “fully replacing the expertise and creativity of human programmers... programming is a complex field that requires a deep understanding of computer science principles and the ability to adapt to new technologies.”
According to levels.fyi, which crowdsources compensation data, Google engineers who land an L3 job can expect to earn average total compensation of $179,487 per year, including a base salary of $138,707, stock grants worth roughly $32,965 per year, and a bonus of $7,815. L3 is the bottom of the software-engineering ladder at the search-engine giant, and those with more experience ascend through L4, L5, and so on; an exceptional few will eventually land positions as an L9 (Distinguished Engineer) or even L10 (Google Fellow).
At the L3 level, engineers are expected to write and review code, participate in design reviews, contribute to documentation, and effectively squish coding bugs. To fulfill those responsibilities, they must have a solid handle on coding, which means mastery of at least one programming language such as Java, JavaScript, and Python; it’s also critical to understand the principles of software engineering. Last but certainly not least, Google engineers must have a good grasp of “soft skills” such as empathy and communication if they want to advance, since much of the job involves dealing with management and other stakeholders.
Chatbots like ChatGPT are becoming increasingly effective at writing low-level code, but anyone who’s built software knows there’s also a need for creativity and problem-solving—two qualities that A.I. has difficulty replicating, at least right now. As engineers advance in their careers, their focus shifts increasingly to system design and managing complicated projects, which are likewise difficult for chatbots to tackle in their current state.
While ChatGPT has many tech professionals worried about their professional futures, keep in mind that many engineering and development jobs are far more than just coding. During job interviews, emphasize how you’ve used all of your skills to help companies launch products, reach goals, and fulfill their strategies. And while ChatGPT and its ilk can generate code, there’s no guarantee the code quality is superior to what a human can produce.
