Earlier this year, a recruiter from a sports media company invited Chapman University sophomore CJ Smith to a virtual interview for an internship. She was excited, but soon realized the first-round chat wouldn’t be with the recruiter. Instead, Smith was instructed to record a 3-minute video for each of the eight questions provided on a platform called Spark Hire.
“I knew I wasn’t talking to a human, but I honestly didn’t really expect the screen to just be a front-facing camera of myself,” she said. “That was super uncomfortable. In a virtual interview with another person on the other side of the screen, at least you can be charming and see if you’re making a good first impression.”
Smith is one of many young reporters to experience alternative job interview formats, including one-way video interviews, video resumes and reciting answers to an AI chatbot. In recent years, incorporating artificial intelligence into the job application process has become the norm. According to the World Economic Forum, 88% of companies use AI to initially screen job candidates. Nearly two-thirds of applicants also use AI while applying to jobs, according to a 2025 report from the recruitment firm Career Group Companies
Lili Foggle, the director of the Interview Institute at the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches and founder of Impressive Interviewing, said that companies have been using AI to look through resumes since the 1990s, but in the current competitive job market, candidates are also using AI to mass send applications to open roles and companies are using AI to interview candidates, which she called the “AI recruiting doom loop.”
“There’s been this tsunami happening around AI being used in applications and companies then using AI to deal with the flood of AI-generated applications,” she said.
I spoke with journalists and career coaches about their best practices and tips for how to tackle these nontraditional job interviews, which are becoming more common.
Keep your energy up for one-way video submissions
In her video submissions, Smith found it unsettling to make eye contact with herself while monologuing her interview answers. This is called a feedback void, according to Foggle.
“We’re not used to being in conversations where we’re not getting some kind of visual cue or verbal cue, like a smile and affirmation that we’re on the right track,” said Foggle, who has taught classes on preparing for AI-assessed interviews. “That complete lack of feedback can really throw some people for a loop.”
Arianny Mercedes, a workplace strategist at Revamped who formerly worked in talent acquisition at American Express and Accenture, recommends that students and young job seekers practice for these types of interviews to make sure their enthusiasm for the role comes through.
“Even when it’s just you and your screen, your energy matters,” she said. “A lot of young professionals think, ‘Oh, you know, it’s just prerecorded, so let me answer on the spot.’ That actually causes more damage than good, because often you only have two chances to practice and record your answers. Be proactive by prepping.”
If candidates do have notes, Foggle warns not to glance at them too often. A company may be using AI to evaluate the videos, and a lot of eye movement could be flagged as cheating or using AI to answer questions. Many videos on TikTok have gone viral showing either job seekers using AI during interviews or recruiters checking if candidates are cheating by sharing their desktop screen or showing the room around them.
“It’s OK if you glance at bullet points, but I wouldn’t write out sentences and put them behind the camera, because the AI will see that you’re reading,” Foggle said. “Put a sticker near the camera so that you remember to make eye contact and a picture of somebody who is like a mentor that you want to impress.”
Be positive and use keywords with AI chatbots
Earlier this year, longtime broadcast journalist and Palomar College journalism instructor LaMonica Peters applied for a few marketing jobs and landed some interviews, but they were with AI chatbots. For one, Peters spoke with an AI-created avatar, and in another, she talked to a chatbox, which transcribed her answers. “I’m used to talking to a camera, but for a job interview, it felt slightly awkward,” she said. “I do think I was able to pull it off, but I’d prefer to talk to a person..”
AI interview chatbots, like Maya, are being used to screen job candidates and will parse an interviewee’s answers much like how it would read a resume — looking for keywords, concepts and phrases.
“The AI in an interview is looking for those key concepts that match up with the job description, but it’s also looking at like lexical choices,” Foggle said. “It’s looking at positive framing versus negative framing. Like if you’re trashing your former employer, that’s going to score lower. There’s hundreds of different signals that the AI gets.”
She recommends always giving the chatbot more than a “yes” or “no” answer and use keywords emphasizing your fit for the role.
“You want to give it more content so it can assess your answers and make sure you get through the filter, so you can get to the actual human that might actually hire you,” Foggle said. “Hiring processes are being automated, but it’s still a human right now that makes the hiring decisions.”
Consider a framework for your answers
A few years ago, I went through a multilevel interview process at Amazon’s now-defunct podcasting studio, Wondery. Though the job was a creative podcasting producing role, recruiters required me to use a popular tech interviewing technique called the STAR method. When asked situational questions, interviewees need to structure their answers to describe the situation, task, the action taken and the result.
“A lot of people across Talent Acquisition use the STAR method during our initial calls with a candidate,” said NBCUniversal talent acquisition director Scott Williams. “Ultimately, the question we want the answer to is: What did you do and what was the outcome? That’s always been my advice for a resume too. We know the general responsibilities someone has in a role. What did you accomplish?”
AI interviews favor the STAR method as well. “AI loves structure and clarity, so it loves a STAR scenario,” Foggle said, noting other frameworks such CAR (context, action, result) and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) also exist.
Though it may feel restrictive, using a framework for your answers can help candidates tell a complete story with appropriate context while responding to situational and behavioral questions. ECPI University adjunct professor Logan Call advises against overdescribing each part of the method and only using a sentence or two.
“What they want to see is how you approach the situation, what happened, and then the results are a very helpful reminder at the end, because it’s very easy to just kind of trail off after you finish the story,” said Call, who is also a certified professional resume writer and career coach.
Understand how AI will evaluate you
For the most part, AI’s role in the job interview process doesn’t stop at the chatbot or video platform. After completing the virtual interview, the AI will evaluate the candidate and come up with composite scores, rating integrity and communication, for recruiters and hiring managers to see. Foggle said the company will input what it’s looking for in its interviewees and the AI will highlight those qualities.
“It might give a report or summary,” she said. “That score that may not necessarily correlate exactly to what the employer has asked for, whether that’s company fit, communication or team leadership.”
It’s unclear what parts and how much of the process recruiters will evaluate — whether they will watch the entire recorded interview, just highlighted clips chosen by the AI or read the transcript. Foggle also points out that AI can also have biases, especially when it comes to nonnative English speakers.
“Hiring teams are seeing these things before they ever see the candidate,” Foggle said. “We know the first impressions get formed fast, and people rarely come off of that first impression or change their minds. And now those first impressions are being created by these systems.”
