I was filling out an application for a job that looks very interesting, and I know I could do well.

24 Comments

1. AnonymousApril 22,2023 at 6:18PM UTC

   Me personally? I would pass on it. I'm just really awkward on video (and my husband fancies us a youtube family). And then, the HR side of my cringes - I even cringe when candidates attach photos to resume. If you aren't comfortable, by all means pass on it. This is one way for them to whittle down the candidate pool.

2. AnonymousApril 22,2023 at 7:32PM UTC

   I'm the OP and all I could think was All I could think of was

   1) there's a lot of salt in my pepper hair, so they'd know right off the bat that I'm of "an age" (even though my resume lists over 15 years' worth of jobs) and

   2) that seems to be geared toward younger "hip now tikkin tokkin snappin chattin reelin" folks, and here I was thinking "I don't want to take hours developing a script, and graphics, and upload it to youtube and and and..."

   I passed.

3. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition SpecialistApril 22,2023 at 7:59PM UTC

   There's no company I want to work at bad enough to do that. There just isn't. If you want to interview me, then TALK TO ME.

   I don't know enough about your company yet to know if I want to work there. I don't know enough about the position to know if I'm uniquely qualified. What the hell does "uniquely qualified" even mean? That there's one person qualified for that position?

   Personally, I'm not a big fan of jumping through hoops early in the process. Hard pass from me.

4. AnonymousApril 23,2023 at 2:16PM UTC

   Very much agree with your decision- makes me feel quite uncomfortable

5. AnonymousApril 23,2023 at 2:30PM UTC

   I agree. It allows them to filter out their biases toward your race, age, or looks. It would be a waste of time for me, someone who is not photogenic and over 65.

6. Hannah JordanApril 24,2023 at 12:19PM UTC

   Not a change. Nope. Michelin had me do that for an "interview" and it was so horribly uncomfortable.

7. ANDREA RAGGAMBIApril 24,2023 at 12:23PM UTC

   I have a feeling this is a 'trendy' thing to ask for these days. I'm not sure how they review all these videos and that there are people qualified who do that are able to remove bias so I would agree to avoid it, especially since they are also asking for a cover letter. It certainly could be their way of 'weeding' people out as is happening to you.

8. AnonymousApril 24,2023 at 12:56PM UTC

   If a company asked me for something I wasn't comfortable with as part of the application process, I'd take it as a sign that the company culture isn't a fit for me. No harm in the company asking for what they need to get employees, it helps weed out extra candidates.

9. Mary PoolApril 24,2023 at 1:15PM UTC

   From a company perspective, this is such a bad idea. You have to be able to demonstrate the company was unbiased in their hiring (in my company, we take out all identifying information, name, gender, age, race, religion, graduation dates, marital status, number of children, anything that tells us something about the person that should not be considered when selecting applicants) before passing the information on to the hiring department. I am shocked this passed HR. It is a discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen. Now if they selected you and then asked for a video, that is something else entirely. I would question going to work for a company that has this practice simply because it shows such poor judgment on the part of management.

10. Sandra SwearingenApril 24,2023 at 2:07PM UTC

    That a tricky slop - video presentations are not unheard of and in the age of the Z generation they are used more frequently but it can be used to determine age, culture, and other areas that may or may not go against you. They may also want to see if you are able to do this kind of work.

11. AnonymousApril 24,2023 at 3:10PM UTC

    I'm the OP. I understand video presentations, I understand Zoom calls, but to require a video first? That's problematic.

12. AnonymousApril 24,2023 at 4:49PM UTC

    I would do a video but not of yourself or your face. You could read aloud your cover note and show the company logo or something from their website, or video your linkedin page while reading it. If they reject you its fine but I would still do it to see how they react.

13. Julie EApril 24,2023 at 5:19PM UTC

    That would be a hard pass for me. Unless you’re interviewing for an on-camera PR or journalism position I don’t see a need for a video other than a discrimination tool. My guess is they’re looking for young, perky people only.

14. AnonymousApril 24,2023 at 7:04PM UTC

    Personally I find it’s another way to weed out “people we don’t like the look of.” Usually ageist.

15. AnonymousApril 24,2023 at 7:08PM UTC

    I’d like to know why these aren’t getting reported. I think if enough people were to crab about them and report, they’d stop. They might as well come out and say they’re discriminating. There is literally no reason to do this.

16. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition SpecialistApril 26,2023 at 7:46PM UTC

    Report them to who, exactly? And report them for what, specifically?

17. AnonymousApril 27,2023 at 10:14PM UTC

    Wherever you report racist, ageist, ableist hiring practices.

18. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition SpecialistApril 27,2023 at 11:16PM UTC

    So I am clearly on record as being strongly against types of interviews - from both sides of the equation.

    As a candidate - they are a hard no from me and I will not do them. As a recruiter, I have advised a hiring manager against using them and got him to change his process.

    Just because something MAY be used in a biased way does not mean that it actually is being used that way. There are things like facts that must be in evidence to prove that it is being used in that way.

    Companies have a right to set their interview processes as they see fit as long as they are complying with the law. I don't see anywhere where the OP said the company was doing anything illegal.

19. AnonymousApril 28,2023 at 9:07PM UTC

    Ok I understand that but why would they need to SEE someone in a screening interview.

20. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition SpecialistApril 28,2023 at 9:57PM UTC

    Sometimes it's as simple as a company that sells that type of service has sold it to the company the candidate is applying to. They sold them on it will speed up your recruitment process, it's the newest technology, all kinds of bs.

    The ATS at my current company has that capability and out of all the hiring managers that I have worked with, and I have have a different hiring manager on almost every requisition I work on, only one wanted to use the one way video function.

    One of the first things he wanted me to find out when I took over his position from another recruiter was why a candidate and dropped out of the process and didn't do the one way video interview. I had to explain to him that candidates hate doing them. It took some convincing but he came around.

    If companies want to discriminate against a candidate, they'll eventually either meet them on video or face to face so I don't really see it as a tool for that. Although it certainly does have the potential to be used in a discriminatory way, like I said, they'll eventually see the candidate anyway.

    On principle, I hate the not talking to a person part of it. It's very disconcerting to talk to a blank screen. If you want to interview me, talk to me. It just further adds to the frustration candidates have with the recruitment process being impersonal.

    Something some people forget is that recruiters get their jobs just like everyone else. We go through the exact same process. Get ghosted just like everyone else. In this most recent round of layoffs, recruiters are getting massacred - they're many times the first to go, with entire teams being laid off.

    So we get it.

21. AnonymousApril 24,2023 at 11:02PM UTC

    I did the video interview thing and had doubts about it the whole time. It was for a company that said personality was more important to them than actual job skills (really??), and I had some other hoops to jump through. Then I had a Zoom interview with their HR manager who asked questions that I thought were kind of uncomfortable about how I'd handle interpersonal situations at work. It made me think they had previous experience addressing those situations and wanted to see how I'd have handled them. I ended up not getting the job because my personality "wasn't a fit for their culture." But I was wondering if it may have been ageism, since I was older than their HR manager. The whole process was annoying because it was time-consuming and uncompensated.

22. AnonymousApril 24,2023 at 11:42PM UTC

    I agree, this is an ageist, racist request from the company. Stay away.

23. Deb AllenApril 25,2023 at 1:20AM UTC

    Honestly this is the newest short cut that every Applicant Tracking System now builds into their sales pitch. It is a short cut for shorter staffed Talent Acquisition teams. Large companies are going this direction lt is not likely to be the last time you see such a request. And very few people read cover letters, you should not put all your stock in those.

24. Kimberly McApril 26,2023 at 4:07PM UTC

    This is creepy. I hope we aren’t going to this instead of a cover letter.