[HN Gopher] Real interview recordings to help job seekers
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Real interview recordings to help job seekers
I'm exploring an idea for a platform that will allow job
interviewees (esp. techies) to share their interview recordings to
help others prepare for similar interviews. I believe this will be
extremely valuable for job seekers who are looking to improve their
interview skills and gain insights into what employers are really
looking for. However, I'm aware that privacy and anonymity is a
big concern and I want to make sure that interviewees feel safe and
comfortable sharing their recordings. So, I've put a lot of thought
into how we can ensure anonymity while still providing valuable
insights to job seekers. Here's what I'm thinking so far: - All
videos will be completely anonymized before being shared on the
platform. This includes blurring out faces, changing voices (if
requested), and removing any identifying information such as
company names and any personal info. - All videos will be
thoroughly reviewed before being published to ensure that they meet
strict standards for anonymity and content. As a means to reward
them, interviewees can also choose to receive compensation for
their video through a system similar to Buy Me A Coffee where
viewers tip them if they found it helpful. I would really
appreciate any feedback on this. Do you think this would be
valuable for job seekers? And do you have any concerns or
suggestions? Let me know what y'all think!
Author : oshinubijoshua
Score : 28 points
Date : 2023-04-29 18:36 UTC (4 hours ago)
| neilv wrote:
| I wonder how many trillions of dollars of lost productivity we've
| incurred by trying to improve our _interview skills_ for
| brogrammer jobs.
| xboxnolifes wrote:
| I think about this a lot. It makes sense, on an individual
| level, to optimize your ability to interview, so that you can
| maximize your own results. However, it's crazy to me how
| frequently companies urge potential applicants to improve their
| own ability to interview. If a company is aware that they are
| missing out on good applicants due to how they conduct
| interviews, they should _improve their interview process_.
|
| I don't see how wanting the applicant pool to improve
| _interview skills_ is beneficial for anyone involved. It just
| leads toward reducing the signal to noise ratio of the
| interviewing process, leading to increased time wasted sifting
| through the noise.
| iamnafets wrote:
| Similar in magnitude to the lost productivity of people
| optimizing for appearances rather than results at work. All
| prep is basically an arbitrage between the hard work of
| actually becoming better and the often easier work of
| preparation.
|
| The ideal system would minimize this arbitrage, both for the
| sake of employers and candidates alike.
| frontman1988 wrote:
| Companies don't allow that. people won't risk their jobs to earn
| a few bucks
| oshinubijoshua wrote:
| But the videos are completely anonymized... So no one who know
| who recorded who, or what do you think?
| hgsgm wrote:
| Remove the audio and video of the people involved, keep the
| rest. Not very useful.
| Our_Benefactors wrote:
| This is a bad idea for so many reasons. For starters, you're
| not going to be able to use any video where the interviewer
| is in a two-party consent state, and good luck determining
| where an interviewer is currently located with 100%
| confidence.
| kingkongjaffa wrote:
| Yep there's 0 incentive to allow this by the actual decision
| makers (companies) to open themselves up to sending potentially
| law-suite leading footage to a 3rd party.
| oshinubijoshua wrote:
| Completely valid point, but what if we invest so much in
| anonymizing the recordings, so that it is not possible to
| identify the companies or jobseekers involved?
| kmoser wrote:
| Good luck with that. Programmers are good at de-anonymizing
| data, and video of people having a conversation is ripe for
| being de-anonymized.
| wodenokoto wrote:
| Why is interview.io not good enough?
| esafak wrote:
| Companies won't want to do this beyond releasing a token video or
| two because interviewees would use them to prepare narrowly _to_
| the exam, memorizing the questions, and fail on the job.
|
| There are interview training companies like interviewing.io that
| pair you up with employees from the desired companies for mock
| interviews. This is pretty close to what you propose to do.
|
| Finally I think this is a bad business opportunity because people
| will only use your product once every few years.
| chronic4703 wrote:
| > Finally I think this is a bad business opportunity because
| people will only use your product once every few years.
|
| Yet realtors and car salesmen are doing fine.
| oshinubijoshua wrote:
| I understand your perspective and thanks for mentioning
| interviewing.io. Totally appreciate it! While mock interviews
| with employees from the desired company can be valuable, our
| platform offers an additional layer of insights through real
| interview recordings.
|
| With real recordings, job seekers get an authentic glimpse into
| actual interview experiences, observing real interactions and
| learning from both successful and unsuccessful outcomes.
|
| By providing an authentic glimpse into the interview process,
| our platform offers job seekers a firsthand experience of what
| interviews for a specific role are truly like. This practical
| and realistic understanding can significantly enhance their
| confidence and improve their interview skills.
|
| While the value may vary depending on individual preferences, I
| believe that real recordings can complement mock interviews,
| providing unique insights and learnings for job seekers.
|
| *And about it being a bad business opportunity since people
| would only use it once in a few years, I totally get that and
| if I pull this off by any chance, that's definitely one of the
| first things I'd have to look into.
| snyp wrote:
| Value of this vs having mock interviews with someone who
| works/worked at said company and has interviewed candidates is
| very very minimal. There isn't much incentive here whether the
| interview is anonymized or not.
|
| You would be better off providing a service where candidates can
| simply talk to people who have successfully gone through the
| interview process for similar roles recently or vice versa.
| oshinubijoshua wrote:
| I understand your perspective and thanks for joining this
| discussion.
|
| You're totally right! Mock interviews with people who have
| direct experience with the company can certainly provide tons
| of significant value. However, this platform aims to offer a
| new/unique approach by providing also real interview
| recordings.
|
| These recordings provide an authentic glimpse into real/actual
| interview experiences, allowing job seekers to observe real
| interactions, understand the dynamics and how these
| conversations are typically held for that particular role, and
| learn from both successful and unsuccessful outcomes.
|
| About your service suggestion, what if this comes as an added
| feature to this real interview recordings platform? Thoughts?
| stmw wrote:
| This exists, take a look at https://interviewing.io/ replays.
| Beldin wrote:
| One thing you haven't mentioned yet: what is the value over
| existing online sources of interview assistance/training?
|
| That might help with tailoring the advice.
| oshinubijoshua wrote:
| Our platform stands out by providing real interview recordings,
| giving users authentic insights into real interview processes.
| Unlike other online sources that provide mock / made-up
| interview scenarios, we allow you learn from actual interviews
| conducted by real companies / candidates.
|
| This provides job seekers with a more practical and realistic
| understanding of what to expect during interviews. By observing
| real interviews, users can gain confidence and learn how to
| answer questions effectively.
|
| While training and assistance have their value, witnessing live
| interviews can be an added value when prepping for success.
|
| Overall, it gives this humane touch and feeling that you're not
| in it alone, and seeing people fail/pass just gives
| significantly more insights into what to avoid/do.
| mlhpdx wrote:
| As a hiring manager I want to advise folks this kind of offer can
| be counter productive.
|
| When being better prepared for an interview results in being more
| of a group and less of an individual it plays into a) getting
| stereotyped, b) being lost in the noise. I acknowledge that there
| are places so systematic this idea might beget "better" results
| (is working at such a place really better in a real sense?).
| However the clear majority of hiring managers I know care a lot
| about their teams and use great care in adding to them.
|
| Personally, I have always prized complementary experiences and
| skills (incrementally improving the team) to formulaic
| qualifications -- in other words, differences. Being a "highly
| prepared" candidate probably deducts from my likelihood of hiring
| someone. I don't have to look far to see people I've hired have
| been successful (including here as YC founders).
|
| I'm sure this kind of idea has its place, but I would try to be
| as balanced with the presentation of it as possible, and clear on
| where it works and where it doesn't, with the best interests of
| candidates (and hiring organizations) in mind.
| kypro wrote:
| If you can pull it off it might have some value to people just
| getting into the job market, but I suspect watching someone else
| get interviewed for a different role at a different company would
| have much less value than just prepping for your own interview in
| a more traditional way.
|
| As an example, when I go into an interview I generally try to get
| a sense for what the company does and what I am likely to be
| doing day to day. This allows me to tailor responses in a way
| that explains how I can be of use to the company, and allows me
| to prep for questions I might be asked about the technical
| requirements of the role.
|
| Watching a some random dude interview for another job, in another
| industry, with different requirements just wouldn't be very
| helpful to me, and it may actually be a determent if I believe
| everything that worked in his interview will work in mine. If it
| was an interview for the same company, for the same role, and I
| knew the guy got hired then it would probably be somewhat useful,
| but otherwise interviews are just too different to really have
| any transferable learnings.
|
| The other thing I'd say on this is that interviews in my
| experience are largely about personality. I work as a contractor
| so I generally do interviews once or twice a year and I know an
| interview has gone well not because I've managed to answer all
| the technical questions, but if I simply connect with the
| interviewer. In fact I've had interviewers cut the technical
| questions short on me a few times simply because they liked how I
| presented and had a good feel about me. And I've seen this on the
| other side of the fence too... I know people who have not gotten
| roles or have even lost their jobs because those making decisions
| just didn't like them on a personal level.
|
| This personality aspect of interviews is extremely hard to
| optimise for because you don't know what people are looking for.
| Going into interviews I try to guess based on what I know about
| the company and who is interviewing me (age, techy, position at
| company) what type of person they might be looking for. A non-
| techy at financial company for example might expect you to dress
| professionally and speak proper, where as a techy at a startup
| might actually be more inclined to hire you if you're wearing a
| hoodie and act slightly more casual. But this needs to be done in
| a way that's congruent with your baseline personality because
| people can sense when you're putting on an act.
|
| The point I'm trying to make is that it would be a mistake to
| extrapolate about what works for a different people in different
| interviews.
|
| Just my thoughts anyway. I think a website about interview
| hacking with some video clips as demonstrations would be a better
| idea personally. I'd probably even take a look at that myself.
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