okay this might be a dumb question but i need to know if everyone's experience is like this or if something went wrong.
did a HireVue async video interview for a tech role at a large financial institution (won't name them but it's one of the Big 4). they give you 30 seconds to prep and 2 minutes to answer. no follow-up. no human on the other side.
the questions were fine i guess. "describe a time you had to learn something quickly" and "how do you handle conflicting priorities." standard stuff.
but the whole experience felt like shouting into a void. i don't know if anyone watches these or if it's all AI scoring. i kept wondering if i should make more eye contact with the camera or if that matters at all.
did it actually result in getting to the next round for anyone here? i'm a bootcamp grad trying to break into fintech and i genuinely can't tell if this is a real step in the process or a filter that's set to auto-reject everyone without a CS degree from a certain list of schools.
5 replies
finance_faye
i've been through a few of these for finance-adjacent tech roles. it varies a lot by company. some of them genuinely do use AI scoring as a first pass and only route maybe 30% of candidates to a human reviewer. others have someone watching every one.
camera eye contact matters more than you'd think because it reads as confidence in the AI scoring models (or so i've been told by a recruiter friend). look at the camera dot, not at your own face in the preview.
bootcamp_bri
the camera vs. preview thing is such a good tip that i'm annoyed nobody told me before. i was 100% looking at my own face the whole time. do you think i can redo it or is that usually locked?
finance_faye
usually locked once submitted. email the recruiter, explain it was a technical issue with the setup, and ask if there's any flexibility. worth a shot. worst they say is no.
recruiter_rita
can confirm these are often AI-scored first pass. the ones i've seen use HireVue's built-in model which looks at things like word choice, pacing, and facial expression to some degree. it's imperfect and controversial and many companies are moving away from it after some bad press. but for now, treat it like a real interview and make the camera your audience.
ops_omar
i made it through a HireVue to an in-person interview at a large bank last year. no CS degree, community college background. so it's not an auto-reject for non-target schools, at least not universally. my answers were tight and specific. the STAR method really matters for that format because you have no room to ramble.