It may not feel remotely natural to sit in front of a computer screen and talk about yourself to an artificial prompt – but that’s exactly what many people could find themselves doing at their next job interview.
Since Covid-19 struck, hiring managers have had to think creatively about how to streamline their interview processes. With traditional face-to-face meetings on hold, the solution for some has come in the form of asynchronous video interviews, or AVIs, in which applicants film themselves answering a predetermined set of questions, with no human interviewer present.
In some cases, these recordings are then evaluated by a hiring manager, in others artificial intelligence and facial analysis software are used to assess candidates. Companies report that this type of interviewing can make the hiring process more efficient, but for applicants this job screening method − which may feel like a one-way Zoom conversation – can be uncomfortable.
As the pandemic continues to prevent in-person meetings, job seekers in manufacturing, retail and other industries are more likely to find themselves chatting with a bot at their next interview. Adapting to this format and understanding how to maximise the chance of a positive interview could be key to a successful job hunt.
Saving time
Even before the pandemic, AVIs were being used as the first stage of recruitment in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, tech, business and finance sectors, according to Carlos Flores, a career management specialist at Rutgers University in the US state of New Jersey. While exact statistics are hard to come by (AVIs have been adopted relatively recently by major companies and market reports don’t distinguish between them and face-to-face video interviews), experts say that for larger organisations with a national workforce of lower-skilled positions, AVIs have become a convenient way to skim through hundreds or thousands of applicants at a faster rate.
HireVue, one of the leading interview technology companies, says it is used today by more than 700 businesses, including a third of Fortune 500 companies, who collectively have conducted over 10 million interviews through its platform. Modern Hire, another interview technology platform, supported over 20 million assessments and interviews, and saw a 40% increase in users in 2019.
