When interviewing for your next role, you may encounter a mix of chatbots and automated video interviews as well as background algorithms collecting key data, according to the Harvard Business Review.
Based on video responses that candidates record, an artificial intelligence (A.I.) tool would flag potential candidates who could be a fit. A.I. can analyze candidates based on traits such as word choice, keywords and facial expressions, according to Bestcolleges.com. The interviews also incorporate computer vision to analyze a candidate’s surroundings in the camera shot.
So how should technologists approach these new developments in A.I. that could change the interview process?
Be yourself, Zahira Jaser, associate professor at the University of Sussex Business School, and Dimitra Petrakaki, professor of technology and organization at the University of Sussex Business School, write in the Harvard Business Review: “In trying to make a good impression on the algorithm, many of our interviewees told us they felt like they were becoming robots themselves.”
Interviewing with an A.I. tool could make candidates act unnaturally, such as with a robotic posture or fixed gaze, they added. It’s also important to maintain your self-confidence against an A.I. platform that could be potentially flawed.
As with any other job interview, it’s important for candidates to practice beforehand with a live person via video conference, as well as in front of a blank computer screen. It can also be helpful to record yourself answering questions and then refining your responses.
A.I.-Generated Questions Train Candidates for Interviews
A.I. can also help candidates prepare for interviews. For example, Adzuna, which offers a job search engine, has introduced an A.I. interview-coaching tool called Prepper, which uses generative A.I. to produce tailored interview questions. The tool provides tips for job seekers on how to respond. When candidates paste in a job title, job description and company name, the A.I. coaching tool generates five interview questions. When users answer them, Prepper scores the candidates on their performance. The goal of the tool is to address interview anxiety.
Meanwhile, HR technology Phenom has developed the generative A.I. tool Phenom X+, which incorporates a feature called Talent Companion to help candidates prepare for interviews with real-time responses to questions.
Giancarlo Hirsch, managing director for executive search firm Glocomms, sees the potential for A.I. to generate questions to help companies screen interviewees before they speak to a hiring manager: “Where we've seen it creep up is in the technical screening portion, and so I think there's definitely an opportunity for it to improve interview processes when it comes to giving the interviewee an opportunity to showcase their skill set as best as possible.”
A.I. may assist in the interview process, but people cannot effectively hire people without meeting them, Hirsch notes. Whether it’s an A.I. or a human, the interview preparation for candidates should be the same.
“How to prepare for an interview with A.I. is to deal with it as if it were a human being,” Hirsch said. “You want to be able to have good examples and qualify your answers with additional supplementary information.”
How A.I. Can Personalize Job Interviews
Candidates could use a generative A.I. tool and feed it information to generate personalized questions as practice for an interview with an employer, said Cliff Jurkiewicz, vice president of global strategy at Phenom. Then it could analyze your résumé against the job description to generate interview questions.
“You would be amazed at the feedback it can provide, especially if you're using one of the newer generative A.I. tools like GPT-4, which uses more data, so it knows more,” he said.
When using AI to train for an interview, candidates should include relevant keywords because the tool is likely programmed to look for terms relevant to a job description, Hirsch advised.
Talk about things you’re familiar with because a generative A.I. tool can follow up with questions based on what you’ve been discussing, Hirsch noted: “Any candidate should prepare to leave out buzzwords in technology that they do not have a fundamental understanding of because... AI would dive in potentially.”
As you prepare for your job interview, know which format to expect—but study up just as you would as if A.I. was not part of the process. “It's not something that's going to get in your way, or I wouldn't say there's anything special to prepare for outside of the standard preparation that you should be doing for an in-depth interview process,” Hirsch said.
