The events below happened around two years ago while I was still trying to get to the Pacific Northwest (PNW) from the Chicago suburbia.
The names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Day One
After a rough winter and several years of job searching without filling out an application as I can be choosy about what I apply for. None of the ads I have seen have fallen into two categories, either not my thing (not even close) or the company is in a business that I want nothing to do with (think DOD type jobs). Then I found one, it looks like a good fit, in kind of in the area we are looking to move to in Oregon. Time to update the CV.
I filled out the application (really just uploaded my CV/Cover letter) and fix what the “great” software decided I meant about three weeks ago.
Today I got an email.
Subject: Interview with [New Company] Body: Hello [Me], You’ve piqued our interest and now we want to learn more about you! [New Company] would like you to participate in an on-demand digital interview.
And now I have an interview. Sort of. It is through HireVue and is my making video answers to written questions.
As (Hiring company name removed) describes the hiring process:
By combining AI with a video interview, (Hiring company name removed) assesses your candidates based on criteria proven to be predictive of job performance. By unifying the assessment and video interview experience into a singular process that a candidate can complete in under 30 minutes, (Hiring company name removed) empowers your recruiters with comprehensive insight so they can spend less time managing tasks and more time making strategic hiring decisions.
Around the same time I happened to see this article, it didn't help much to make me feel that the interviewing AI would be friendly to me.
Applying For Your Next Job May Be an Automated Nightmare Slashdot
merbs writes:
If you think looking for a job is already daunting, anxiety-riddled, and unpleasant, just wait until the algorithms take over the hiring process. When they do, a newfangled 'digital recruiter' like VCV, which just received $1.7 million in early investment, hopes it will look something like this: First, a search bot will be used to scan CVs by the thousands, yours presumably among them. If it's picked out of the haystack, you will be contacted by a chatbot. Over SMS, the bot will set an appointment for a phone interview, which will be conducted by an automated system enabled by voice recognition AI. Next, the system will ask you, the applicant, to record video responses to a set of predetermined interview questions. Finally, the program can use facial recognition and predictive analytics to complete the screening, algorithmically determining whether the nervousness, mood, and behavior patterns you exhibit make you a fit for the company. If you pass all that, then you will be recommended for an in-person job interview.
[...] VCV, which did not respond to a request for comment, is far from alone here. A growing suite of startups is pitching AI-driven recruitment services, promising to save corporations millions of dollars throughout the hiring process by reducing overhead, to pluck more ideal candidates out of obscurity, and to reduce bias in the hiring process. Most offer little to no evidence of how they actually do so. VCV's much-larger competitor, HireVue, which has raked in a staggering $93 million in funding and is backed by top-tier Silicon Valley venture capital firms like Sequoia, is hocking many of the same services. It counts 700 companies as its clients, including, it says, Urban Outfitters, Intel, Honeywell, and Unilever. AllyO, which was founded in 2015, and "utilizes deep workflow conversational AI to fully automate end to end recruiting workflow" has $19 million in backing.
Well, not really looking promising but lets give it a go.
Day Two
So I spent about an hour getting setup to do my “sample” interview questions. Why an hour? My desktop computer runs Linux (Fedora) and for some reason Firefox did not want to play nice with my webcam (Some 1080 Logitech) I borrowed from work. The introduction video from the site was so bad I could not listen. Think of the first days of watching a video on the internet, a word or two every few seconds. Check the usual things, bandwidth is good, videos play, OS is updated and current, WTF?
Before even trying I installed Cheese, camera works but it locks up trying to capture video but that’s OK, it can find it.
So I install chromium and give that a try. No joy, no mic.
Fire up Audacity and it can find the mic and records just fine. A little searching and digging in the settings I figure out how to set the webcam mic as the default.
Lets try the sample questions.
WOW! I look like an addict stopping cold turkey, blinking like I have something in my eyes and twitching like I had ants in my pants. It did get better but one of the problems (I can only assume it is for the AI) is I had to move my monitor half way out from the back and sit right up to the desk to try and get my head where they want it. Are peoples heads really that big? I can’t fill it especially if I try to get my shoulders where they want them.
At least I know it works now and I have six more days to “detox” and practice for this.
I think it is something about looking into a camera that is about 12 inches away instead of a person a few feet away because while I want to look into the camera, focusing on something that close is more of a distraction than a person.
On to tomorrow.
Day Three
Having been at the same place for almost 11 years (end of may) this is all new to me. For my prospective $Employer, their introduction video said to lose the business dress for the interview and dress as you would for a dinner with close friends. Reviewing the company website images this is how they do seem to dress. Hawaiian shirt it is!
Additional things to think about:
You have 30 seconds to read the question and then start recording your answer.
You have up to three minutes to answer but are not required to use all of it if your answer is short.
You only have three tries to make an answer.
I think I am going to try and change the camera location so that I can look beyond the camera and see if that helps.
Did some more practice runs today after I put the webcam on a tripod and moved it so that I could see past it. It worked out much better for me. Much better looking videos, still need some more practice before I do the final questions. YMMV.
Also, if the practice question format is the same for the real questions then there seems to be unlimited time between 1st try and 2nd try and 3rd try.
Day Four
Did the interview today. 5 questions - 10 minutes it said. Reality is a whole different thing. 5 questions - 3 1/2 hours is the reality.
Why so long?
No prep time limit
So I could take as long as I needed to write out my answers to the questions, read them out loud, edit them, read them again, edit them again, practice a few more times and them record the answers with unlimited time in between the three tries.
What were the questions?
Here they are, edited because.
What makes you interested in the $JOB role at $COMPANY?
What keeps you coming back to work day after day? Please give specific examples.
Sometimes, we aren’t always successful. Tell me about a time that you failed to deliver something at work. What was the outcome for the organization and for you personally?
What do you hope to gain by working at $COMPANY? How do you think you can contribute to $COMPANY in the $JOBs role?
What else should we know about you in considering you for this role?
It is out of my hands for now, we will see what happens next.
Ten Days Later
Welp, no joy for this one, on to looking for the next with a different reality on how getting a job is these days.
Two Years After
We have been out in the PNW for almost a year and half, self employed, working part time for my former employer and one other customer I have still in the Chicago area, and still looking for a work place to call home. I have yet to encounter another AI interview but I am pretty sure that places are still using AI to review resumes or at least some sort of filtering of them. I have applied at several places and have heard nothing back other than a thank you for applying email. The trend still seems to be going on and this article recently showed up in one of my feeds.
The computers rejecting your job application BBC News
Frankly, it was a little stressful to know that my application was being judged by a computer and not by a human being.
A professional journalist, I had recently applied for a new job, and for the first part of the recruitment process the publisher made me play a number of simple online games from the comfort of my own home.
These included having to quickly count the number of dots in two boxes, inflating a balloon before it burst to win money, and matching emotions to facial expressions. Then an artificial intelligence (AI) software system assessed my personality, and either passed or failed me. No human had a look-in.
I wondered: is it fair for a computer alone to accept or reject your job application?
Welcome to the fast-growing world of AI recruitment.
...
I am not quite sure but it seems that these days having decades of experience in several fields would be worth a few degrees, but it seems that most companies are looking for you to have spent four or more years getting "educated" for a piece of paper and a large loan that will take decades to pay off. But what do I know. A lot that would be worth you time to ignore the AI recommendations.