AI-native 22-year-olds – Sierra cofounder Clay Bavor says some of the company’s most effective employees are 22 and 23, arguing that comfort with AI tools is compressing the gap between junior and senior workers. He also describes how Sierra is rewriting its engineering interviews aro
On the “20VC” podcast, Sierra cofounder Clay Bavor didn’t talk about AI as a distant trend. He talked about it as something he’s already seeing inside day-to-day hiring—where a 22-year-old can land in the same lane as seasoned talent.
Bavor, a former Google executive who cofounded Sierra in 2023, said he can’t remember a time when “a young person with no work experience, but with the right mindset and experience using some of these tools, has ever been so valued.”
His point was blunt: at Sierra, some of the company’s most effective employees are in their early 20s. Bavor said. “Some of our most effective employees at the entire company are 22 or 23 years old and have been completely AI-pilled and have a comfort and facility with these tools that many of our more experienced folks don’t.”.
That observation lands at a moment when AI is reshaping what employers expect from recent graduates. Bavor said he has “seen firsthand how AI is narrowing the gap between junior and senior employees.” The shift. he said. is pushing companies to look for candidates who can use AI effectively without sacrificing judgment—while also raising the bar for entry-level hires and changing how firms evaluate early-career talent.
At Sierra, that change shows up in the hiring process itself. Bavor said the company’s move toward AI has prompted it to overhaul its engineering interview process to be more AI-focused. Instead of relying on traditional coding exercises. candidates are now asked to build an app using whichever AI coding tools they prefer.
“We’re going to pay for your tokens and then build it. Tell us how you went through building it,” Bavor said.
He expects the approach to spread beyond engineering. Bavor said he would be “disappointed if in the next no more than two months not every one of our interviews has some strong AI native component to it.”
But outside the interview room, the mood around AI among new job seekers isn’t universally upbeat. Bavor’s comments come as AI has become a flashpoint for some recent graduates. During this year’s commencement season. speakers were booed for praising the technology. and some graduates told Business Insider they’ve struggled to find full-time jobs as companies increasingly cite AI when discussing layoffs and workforce changes.
Bavor didn’t dismiss that tension—he redirected it toward the advantage AI-ready students believe they already carry. He said students who have spent years experimenting with generative AI while at university may walk out with a practical edge over other midlevel employees.
“Coming out of university as a master of these AI tools,” he said, “let me point you to a thousand companies that would love to have you infuse what you know into how they’re doing things.”
That optimism, however, is up against signs that AI adoption inside hiring can also cut entry-level opportunities. A working paper from researchers at Harvard Business School and INSEAD found that AI-native startups it examined from 2020 to 2024 hire about 15% fewer entry-level workers than their non-AI peers. while hiring proportionally more senior and technical talent.
The storyline that emerges from those facts is uncomfortable in its simplicity: one part of the industry is treating AI fluency as a way to accelerate early-career performance, while another part is using AI-heavy models in ways that can reduce entry-level headcount.
For now, Sierra’s stance is clear in its own process—paying for “tokens” during interviews and grading how candidates build with AI tools. And Bavor’s prediction is immediate: within two months, he expects every one of Sierra’s interviews to include a strong AI-native component.
Sierra Clay Bavor AI-native graduates hiring engineering interviews generative AI token payments 20VC podcast entry-level workers Harvard Business School INSEAD startup hiring