You want me to interview myself? In this economy?
"Tell yourself why you want this job"
Though I did once basically interview myself for this very publication, I’ve thankfully never been subjected to a one-way video interview in which I had to record my answers to common questions while a timer on the screen told me to wrap it up.
But for the countless college students spilling out into the job market this spring, this is now the norm for most jobs recruiting on campus.
Why? According to HireVue, a leader in the space, their “AI-powered platform pinpoints and validates the skills that drive job success.” They also claim to “put the human back into human resources” which is dubious messaging for a company that puts job seekers in a room by themselves and then evaluates them with software.
The real reason for this practice is that there are far more applicants than jobs these days, and I’ll allow that a systematic, allegedly bias-reducing tool would be helpful for combing through them. According to data from Greenhouse, a popular hiring software, the average knowledge worker job opening received 244 applications in February 2025, up from 93 during the same period in 2019.
At scale, the business case makes sense, but it’s the human experience I’m worried about. Job searching has always been a draining pursuit, but it’s downright bleak when a typical application cycle looks like putting on a shirt and tie, doing your best to throw some personality at your reflection, and later receiving an automated rejection email.
Maybe this generation is already primed for the challenges of a depersonalized world and will fight AI with AI, but if we really want them to believe us when we tout the benefits of collaborating in person, it wouldn’t hurt to extend the same courtesy from the start.
amen 🙏