How can you prepare for AI interviews to ensure you’re heard and understood loud and clear? To master an AI interview and beat an AI interview bot at its own game, it is essential to understand it well enough to develop your own strategies for guaranteed success in your job search.
Traditional interviews are exceedingly challenging in their own right, and the strain of performing under pressure is enough to leave even the most confident candidates drained. With the recent addition of AI interviewers into the mix, additional challenges await candidates. Job seekers often don’t have the option to select whether they are interviewed by a recruiter or an AI interviewer, which means that candidates who do not want to be caught off guard need to have a strategy in place to avoid panicking when the time to talk to technology dawns on them.
Job seekers now need to prepare for AI interviews and get comfortable with the evolutions in hiring practices that are currently underway. (Image: Freepik)
How to Prepare for AI Interviews: Tips and Tricks to Get Comfortable with AI Interviewers
Just like job interviews with human recruiters, AI interviews also require candidates to have a confident demeanor and a crystal-clear understanding of the industry they hope to work in. Despite this, there is currently a disconnect between people and technology. The idea of AI interviewers makes some nervous, while others expect AI to treat their applications and performance more carefully than a human interviewer who might have biases that interfere with the candidates’ chances of getting hired.
While an AI interviewer might have biases and limitations of its own, the technology appears to be here to stay, flaws and all. The World Economic Forum reports that approximately 88% of companies already use some form of AI for their initial candidate screenings. Conversational AI interviewers have not become as widespread, but there have been a growing number of cases where candidates were interviewed by AI bots that were far from functional.
There is little candidates can do when an AI interviewer whirrs out of control, but being prepared for these AI interviews can help them maintain their cool and react in a way that might allow them another chance with the organization. In order to increase one’s success with AI interviews, there are a few different ways to stay prepared.
Go Over All Communications with the Organization Before the Interview
It is much easier to handle an AI job interview when you’re aware that you are about to interact with an AI tool and not a human recruiter. Many organizations will explicitly inform the candidate that their interview is about to be conducted by an AI tool or recorded for internal review. In those cases, you can ask them if there are any specific ways you need to be prepared.
Candidates who feel braver can also explicitly ask the hiring team whether any AI will be used in the hiring process. Many states are currently working on laws to ensure employers mandatorily inform candidates about AI usage. Many of these regulations are expected to go into effect next year. Going over these policies can help you understand your rights as well.
Understand How AI Is Used In Hiring
The majority of employers who use AI in hiring do so in the resume screening process to determine which candidates will be selected for future interactions. At this stage, job seekers can only control how well their resume is tailored to match the job description and company expectations.
With AI interviews, job seekers are subjected to audio-visual conversations with an AI persona or are asked to provide written responses to an AI bot asking them questions. In some cases, the questions are preset and just require the candidate to respond to them the same way they would to a Google form questionnaire. In other cases, these AI tools listen and respond to the candidate, asking follow-up questions based on the candidate’s responses.
Let the AI Tool Take the Lead
Job seekers may be used to making small talk with an interviewer before the official interview begins. This may not be the case with an AI interviewer. However, it also doesn’t mean that a candidate should ignore the AI interviewer’s attempt at small talk if it is programmed to do so. Be prepared for all eventualities and let the AI take the lead in asking the questions.
If the AI interviewer asks you how you’re doing today, respond appropriately and ask the question back. The AI interviewer may not have any particular feelings about how their day is going. But if it is programmed to be conversational, it is likely assessing your conversational skills as part of its evaluation.
Review the Job Description and Organization Carefully
Whether you’re preparing for AI interviews or traditional ones, it is important to have a clear understanding of the role you are applying for. Review the company’s website, social media, past projects, and other available details to tailor your responses to the organization’s needs and priorities. Once you’re familiar with the organization and the role, the concepts used in these descriptions can double as keywords for you to mention during your interview.
Speak Clearly and Stick to the Point
Regardless of the format of the AI interview, job seekers must ensure they answer the question as clearly as possible without counting on the likelihood of a follow-up question to dive deeper. At the same time, it is important to stick to the point and avoid oversharing, as an AI interviewer may not have the “patience” to accommodate human nervousness and accommodate the oversharing.
This means sharing details but sticking to precise ones relevant to the question. Ensure your answer clearly relates to the question without too much fluff or flowery adjectives that might take attention away from your qualifications and experiences.
Practice Your Responses to Common Interview Questions
An AI tool will find it much easier to count the number of “ums” and “uhhhs” when a candidate is speaking, and this should not reflect poorly on your knowledge and expertise. It is important to practice your responses to common interview questions in advance to increase your success with AI interviews. The STAR method and other interview techniques will still come in handy with AI interviews.
Treat the AI Interviewer Like a Person
When faced with an uncanny AI persona or a static image of an AI interviewer, it can be easy to start treating it as a tool rather than a person. Many AI tools often assess aspects like eye contact and expression as well, and it is also possible that a human interviewer may review a recording of your performance at a later stage.
Coming off as unfriendly, uninterested, or contemptuous of the AI tool may reflect poorly on you. Do not be curt or mechanical, but instead maintain a friendly and professional persona throughout the interview, even if you are tempted to speak in bullet points.
Be Prepared For Issues With the AI Interviewer
With all AI interview formats, there is a possibility of the AI malfunctioning or getting stuck. It is essential to remain calm and respond in a composed manner. Explore if the application interface has a help button or a way to raise a complaint if the AI interviewer begins to talk to itself or begins repeating its lines.
Don’t rush to end the interview or restart it without waiting to check if the matter settles down. If the problem persists, consider interrupting with a simple question like “What was the next question?” or an equally simple and straightforward request to break it out of its loop.
Also, consider reaching out to the hiring team you have been in communication with and explaining the problem carefully. It doesn’t hurt to ask for a redo upfront, rather than hoping they will suggest it themselves.
Practice with a Camera or An AI Tool
The best advice we can offer for the AI interviewing process is to practice your responses to AI. Often, with AI tools, you may not receive the same non-verbal, visual cues you might expect with a human interviewer. This should not be enough to throw you off balance. Recording your facial expressions and responses may give you a better idea of what you need to improve.
Similarly, there are free AI tools that you can practice with. These may not be as good at the interview process as a chatbot built and customized to conduct them, but they should help you build your confidence in facing such situations.
Avoidance Isn’t Easy: It’s Best to Learn How to Beat an AI Interview Bot
Many job seekers, displeased with being surprised by an AI interviewer, will choose to terminate the conversation or their hopes of working with that particular employer. This is an option for job seekers who feel very strongly about AI, but it is also important to consider that the majority of employers are keen on using AI in hiring. The technology may soon become unavoidable.
In the coming years, it may be useful to take the advice on AI interviewing and prepare for these conversations to better your chances of finding work. Relying on AI in hiring can have many advantages for employers, but there is still work to be done to ensure it is used ethically, with all of an employer’s cards on the table.
Over time, employers will be able to get more refined results out of their AI interviewing processes, but while we wait for that eventuality, practice is key, and there’s no time like the present to get started.
Have other advice on how job seekers can prepare for AI interviews? Share them with us in the comments. Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insights on workplace trends, layoffs, and what to expect with the advent of AI.