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The job applicants shut out by AI: ‘The interviewer sounded like Siri’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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When Ty landed an introductory phone interview with a finance and banking company last month, they assumed it would be a quick chat with a recruiter. And when they got on the phone, Ty assumed the recruiter, who introduced herself as Jaime, was human. But things got robotic.

“The voice sounded similar to Siri,” said Ty, who is 29 and lives in the DC metro area. “It was creepy.”

Ty realized they weren’t speaking to a living, breathing person. Their interviewer was an AI system, and one with a rather rude habit. Jaime asked Ty all the right questions – what’s your management style? are you a good fit for this role? – but she wouldn’t let Ty fully answer them.

“After cutting me off, the AI would respond, ‘Great! Sounds good! Perfect!’ and move on to the next question,” Ty said. “After the third or fourth question, the AI just stopped after a short pause and told me that the interview was completed and someone from the team would reach out later.” (Ty asked that their last name not be used because their current employer doesn’t know they’re looking for a job.)

A survey from Resume Builder released last summer found that by 2024, four in 10 companies would use AI to “talk with” candidates in interviews. Of those companies, 15% said hiring decisions would be made with no input from a human at all.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The problem with that is that the people defining what makes the process "better" actually enjoy making it more annoying for you. It's going to be even more obnoxious than it already is, which is pretty goddamn terrible to start with.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That part where you say "people enjoy making the process worse", seems unlikely to me. When people make stuff like this, I kind of doubt anyone is sitting there thinking "Mwhahaa these little bitches are gonna hate this!"

Like, I get it. This would probably piss me off as an applicant too. But ultimately, the goal is to hire someone. Initial phone interviews are all the same. They last like 10 or 15 minutes even with a human on the line, and they're just looking for basic qualifications. So I also see from the hiring perspective how this could be useful. It's meant as a baseline filter.

It might be a step in the right direction but it sounds like it's not ready yet.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Nah, lots of places try to make interviews as unbearable as possible. It's "how they judge your ability to work under pressure". Like my previous employer would fly you in seemingly with as many layovers as possible so you're exhausted by that night. Put you up in a crappy hotel and make you come in super early. Put you in a tiny room and make you stay there for about 9-10 hours of intensive back-to-back interviews with a 30 min box lunch break. Pretty similar tactics as the military. And it's not uncommon in tech.