With the rise and spread of artificial intelligence technology, we’re starting to see some major shifts in the job market. Some companies are embracing AI tools to optimize workflows and improve efficiency.
Naturally, this has many workers worried—especially those attending job interviews where they’re evaluated not by living, breathing human beings but by AI programs. One job applicant, redditor u/over-sight, shared their dystopian and degrading AI interview experience with the r/antiwork online community. Scroll down for the full story.
Bored Panda has reached out to the author via Reddit, and we’ll update the article as soon as we hear back from them.
In this day and age, some companies rely on AI tools to conduct some of their interviews
Image credits: August de Richelieu (not the actual photo)
One job applicant shared their bizarre experience participating in one such interview
Image credits: ThisIsEngineering (not the actual photo)
Image source: over-sight
The technology used in these interviews is potentially problematic
According to the author of the viral post, they were interviewed by HireVue. It’s a US-based company that provides AI and human resource management services. Originally, the business was founded all the way back in 2004. These days, HireVue allows its clients to conduct digital interviews where the candidates interact with a computer, not a real person.
HireVue has received some substantial criticism for the way it analyzes job applicants’ facial and verbal data and microexpressions during the actual interview.
Some journalists like Katherine Reynolds Lewis, from Fortune, have described it as a “potentially terrifying innovation.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Feloni mentioned in a piece on Business Insider that “the AI learns from the employee pool hiring managers choose to feed it. It can then be customized to remove certain biases, such as vocal tics, but that is also dependent on human judgment.”
Drew Harwell, from The Washington Post, noted that the tech used by HireVue was “pervasive in some industries,” acts as “a powerful gatekeeper for some of America’s most prominent employers,” and was “reshaping how companies assess their workforce.”
In short, the way that potential workers prove that they’re qualified, capable, and fit a company’s values is changing with these AI interviews. It’s bound to cause a lot of stress for many applicants.
This new job interview format can put off some genuinely good candidates
For one, you might be worried about your microexpressions and eye movements being tracked. That might make you anxious, and you might do poorly when answering the questions that are the meat and potatoes of the actual interview.
Even if you’re perfect for that particular position, you might not make it to the next round of (hopefully, in-person) interviews due to the unusual format of the interview.
The upside, at least for businesses, is that the hiring process is smoother and cheaper. The interviews can take place at any time and in any part of the world zone. This can be great for some applicants who might not have the luxury of doing an interview when it would suit the recruiters.
Meanwhile, the recruiters in charge of reviewing the interviews can analyze them whenever it suits them. This is especially important for international corporations that hire many employees remotely from all around the globe.
On top of that, the technology can help companies filter out candidates who might not be a good fit (and would otherwise waste their staff’s time). That being said, some employees might feel that there’s potential for discrimination or that they’re not being treated with the respect that they deserve. After all, when a company representative takes the time to personally interview you, it shows that they’re serious about evaluating you.
If the recruiters feel that the applicant is a good fit after reviewing their AI interview, they often then schedule a follow-up interview, whether remotely or in person. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to hire someone based solely on their performance in an AI interview. At the same time, rejecting someone simply because they didn’t meet the arbitrary thresholds set by some AI tool is also very iffy.
What are your thoughts about AI interviews, dear Pandas? Have you ever done any one-way or AI interviews personally? What advice would you give someone who’s completely new to job interviews in the first place? If you have a moment, share your thoughts in the comments. We’d love to hear your take on all of this.
The author revealed some more context about their experience
Here’s what some internet users had to say about the rise of AI interviews
