A reader writes:
Over the previous yr, I’ve been making use of for jobs and have been invited for some interviews. I’ve seen that a number of of the locations that I’ve utilized to responded to my software by requesting a pre-recorded video interview.
I’m actually postpone by this follow. I would want to seek out the time to evaluation the questions, write out sufficiently detailed solutions to every query, then discover a place to movie myself answering every query. It feels imbalanced to anticipate this a lot effort to create what’s mainly an in depth video essay, once I haven’t even been given the prospect to have an precise dialog with an individual from the corporate. What if I’ve questions concerning the place that I would like answered earlier than making an knowledgeable determination?
I used to be interested by your opinion on the elevated use of pre-recorded video interviews.
I hate them.
Individuals who like them argue that they eradicate the back-and-forth of scheduling since candidates can do it at no matter time is handy for them, and hiring managers can watch at their comfort.
However it’s unreasonable to ask candidates to speculate that type of time in answering questions with out having the chance to ask questions of their very own to find out in the event that they’re even within the job. If an employer wants particular details about candidates earlier than they will do a primary culling of their applicant pool, they will ask folks to deal with these issues of their cowl letter or as a part of their software.
Furthermore, for the overwhelming majority of jobs, you don’t have to see folks’s faces at this stage, to not point out race, age, and different protected traits which can be properly established to result in unconscious bias, even in individuals who don’t intend it. And sure, you’re going to see these issues sooner or later within the course of, however there’s plenty of proof that the later within the course of that occurs, the higher your probabilities of negating a few of that bias.
One-way video interviews additionally put a better burden on most candidates, who have to discover a quiet place the place they gained’t be interrupted, fear about whether or not they and their setting look skilled sufficient, and take care of the awkwardness of being filmed in a one-way dialog the place they don’t know precisely what they’re being judged on past the content material of their solutions … once more, all earlier than they’ve had an actual dialog that might enable them to ask their very own questions.
From the hiring supervisor’s aspect, it’s additionally ridiculously inefficient; it takes for much longer to look at movies of individuals answering questions — notably the variety of them you’re taking a look at this early within the screening course of — than it does to kind by conventional purposes.
If the job requires the flexibility to talk off the cuff in a cultured and persuasive method, then by all means construct an evaluation for that into your hiring course of — however one-way video interviews are regularly used for jobs the place that’s not in any manner an essential qualification, which ends up in selections about who to maneuver ahead and who to reject being primarily based on the fallacious issues.
