One-Way Interview Guide: What You Need to Know

What Constitutes a One-Way Video Interview?

Asynchronous or one-way interviews are hiring tools mostly used for preliminary candidate screening. They've got multiple names and are also called pre-recorded interviews, on-demand or video CVs (though they're not exactly this).

During a one-way interview the candidates answer the questions they see appear on the screen - they record responses to these questions, after recording they'll submit the answers to the employer.

The “interviewer” creating the interview gets all the one way video interview responses and reviews the submissions to decide if they want to schedule a live interview.

Advantages for Employers

1. No Scheduling, faster hiring cycle
   The candidates can attempt these one way interviews according to their availability. In a synchronous or live interview the recruiter can only interact with one candidate at a time. A company can receive 20+ completed one-way interviews at once depending on the number of the job applicants.
   The recruiter also has to schedule multiple rounds for the candidate to meet the complete team, hiring managers, etc. Ideally a candidate's asynchronous application can be passed on to anyone for the first impressions - which can be followed up with a live interview if the candidate is good. One way interviews give candidates the flexibility to interview whenever they're the most prepared and it reflects well on the employer brand.
   Applicants often take days to get back with confirmation for interview timings so one way interviews could really help in getting the pre-screening done conveniently.

2. Bigger Candidate Pool & better candidate management
   Recruiters make better hiring decisions with a bigger and better talent pool. The candidates who complete one way interviews are high-intent, willing to put the time and effort by answering questions that'd help the recruiter in making a good choice.
   “Hiring for attitude training for skill” - is easier to practice with one way video interviews. Seeing your applicants talk definitely helps in gauging the right attitude for work.
   Candidates who fill a form to apply with a rather outdated/ not related resume need filtering and a lot of narrowing down to get to the best ones.

3. Improved recruiter efficiency
   All one way video interview responses sent on Vesume are displayed on a structured and well defined UI. Multiple hiring managers could be added as collaborative evaluators or even just observers. So you don't have to keep sending the video interview responses/notes to another hiring manager for multiple candidates every time. So in conclusion for the advantages -

• With one way interviews recruiters spend no time scheduling interviews in the candidate pre-screening stages
• They get a bigger and better talent pool to work with
• They can easily collaborate with other hiring managers on the evaluation of one way video interviews.

Stages of a One-Way Video Interview

1. The Practice Round

Candidates are most familiar with synchronised or live interviews - where they do have a recruiter to talk to. However, in cases synchronous interviews can't be implemented effectively such as in high-volume, high-turnover, entry-level or frontline hiring roles; one way video interviews make a lot of sense. For candidates who experience a one way video interview for the first time, they can take a practice interview before they attempt the actual one. This helps them get used to the flow and order of things- the type of questions, the timer, question retries (if allowed). This is at the beginning of every one way video interview Vesume does. To experience a practice interview right now you can visit here.

2. The Interview

The candidate can take the actual one way interview whenever it's most convenient for him. The link would have explained previously that if they drop off during the interview they cannot continue again. Retrying a question is allowed but attempting the interview all over again is not. Once the candidates have understood all the rules they can start with the actual interview. Again, synchronized interviews would be more personal and have other advantages but we are talking of cases where recruiters hire in high volumes. So they need a hiring tool which would optimize the manual hiring process.

One-Way Interview Questions and Answers

1. How would you describe yourself and your work experience?
   This could be the classic opener. A candidate knows his own journey, how does he talk about it? They should ideally mention things & experience relevant to the role they’re applying for, this also highlights their attention to detail.
2. What thing/things are you extremely good at?
   It’s important that the candidate backs these with concrete examples. How do they have good communication skills? Serving 100+ customers in a customer-facing job over a year explains the claim.
3. If everything goes as you planned, where do you see yourself in 5 years?
   This’ll tell you their long-term vision and ambition. Does their career trajectory align with the growth and values of the company? If not, it's not just bad for your company but also the candidate- they’ll be forced to adjust to values they might not believe in.
4. What motivates you to work for us?
   This separates the genuine interested candidates from the rest. A thoughtful response here suggests a good fit.

Additional video interview questions:

• "Can you describe one personal accomplishment you are particularly proud of, what made it a success?"
• "What’s your first reaction to urgent deadlines and high-pressure situations?"
• “How would you rate yourself on teamwork and collaboration?"
• "How have you handled constructive criticism in the past?"
• "Describe a task or project when you had to learn new skills to complete it."

Can One-Way Interviews be Interactive?

One way interviews will be only used in the initial stages for candidate pre-screening. Synchronous communication has to happen at some point for a successful hire.

When they are used here’s how we make them more interactive:

• Vesume Intro (which we are actively building) gives recruiters a chance to include a brief video introduction of themselves, the company and the role before the candidate attempts the one way interview. Here's what Intro would look like:

• Including “What questions do you have for us” at the end gives the candidate a chance to present his questions about the role. Which can be answered right after the video interview evaluation is complete.

How do candidates perceive one way video interviews?

1. Comfort vs Intimidation
   Do candidates feel more at ease or intimidated by one way interviews? Our product trials and recruiter feedback have shown that the candidates are more comfortable when they’re aware of the process. How can recruiters help candidates prepare for one-way interviews? Providing detailed instructions and expectations: When you send an interview invitation with Vesume- we outline that this is an asynchronous interview and guide candidates to take a practice interview before they start with the actual one. We’ve heard back of a good interview experience from candidates very new to asynchronous interviews.

2. Feedback Opportunity
   Is post-interview feedback crucial? 72% of candidates expect feedback post-interview, even if brief (Forbes). This adds to the credibility of the employer’s brand and of course gives the candidate a much needed feedback. We're working on this and this’ll be inbuilt into Vesume's one way interview flow.