FIELD NOTE / TIKTOK
Both candidates saw the same agent patch.
The complete written thought and the evidence behind it. The video edition will follow its public release.
The written argument is here.
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Both candidates saw the same agent patch.
Video caption
Both candidates saw the same agent patch. The missing decision lives outside the repo. Keep the fundamentals check separate. #EricFieldNotes
Full written post / accessibility read
Imagine two candidates shown the same agent-generated billing patch and green tests. One says it is ready. The other asks which downstream service can replay the old event and who can approve a compatibility window. The interviewers supplied the patch; neither candidate was asked to spend days building one.
This is no hidden junior syntax mistake. The local repository cannot establish a downstream business contract. Listen for producer and consumer owners, replay of old events, deployment order, a rollback signal and authority to set the migration period. A candidate who can explain why local green is insufficient is showing system understanding in conversation.
Add one late fact: a consumer cannot upgrade for two weeks. Ask how the release recommendation changes and what a small independent replay test would need to prove. A strong answer may pause launch and propose a dual-version path while leaving the exact duration with the owner. The candidate describes the test; the team can run it later.
My rule: bring the generated diff into a short structured interview. Ask a few open questions and score whether the candidate traces the system, challenges green evidence and owns the release boundary. Do this because code generation can equalize a first patch while engineering judgment determines whether it belongs in production.
#EricFieldNotes
Four-beat scene transcript
1. Both candidates saw the same agent patch.
Imagine two candidates shown the same agent-generated billing patch and green tests. One says it is ready. The other asks which downstream service can replay the old event and who can approve a compatibility window. The interviewers supplied the patch; neither candidate was asked to spend days building one.
Visual: Only one asked who consumes the event.
2. This is a system contract, not a trick bug.
This is no hidden junior syntax mistake. The local repository cannot establish a downstream business contract. Listen for producer and consumer owners, replay of old events, deployment order, a rollback signal and authority to set the migration period. A candidate who can explain why local green is insufficient is showing system understanding in conversation.
Visual: The missing decision lives outside the repo.
3. Reveal the lagging consumer.
Add one late fact: a consumer cannot upgrade for two weeks. Ask how the release recommendation changes and what a small independent replay test would need to prove. A strong answer may pause launch and propose a dual-version path while leaving the exact duration with the owner. The candidate describes the test; the team can run it later.
Visual: Observe revision, not performance theater.
4. Hire the model of reality.
My rule: bring the generated diff into a short structured interview. Ask a few open questions and score whether the candidate traces the system, challenges green evidence and owns the release boundary. Do this because code generation can equalize a first patch while engineering judgment determines whether it belongs in production.
Visual: Keep the fundamentals check separate.
Research and claim limits
- U.S. OPM: Work Samples and Simulations (S151)
- U.S. OPM: Designing an Assessment Strategy (S156)
- U.S. OPM structured interviews (S203)
The examples identified as illustrative or simulated are design probes, not reported incidents. Vendor specifications do not establish workload performance.