E-mail Interview - feeling disadvantaged

[TsunamiSurfer]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic..

I applied for a job, and received an invitation to interview.

On the day of the interview the potential employer rescheduled from an in person interview to an e-mail interview due to unforeseen circumstances.

id never heard of an e-mail interview but basically they e-mailed me the interview questions at 1pm and I had 1.5 hours to complete.

in one way this was a positive but in another…. I had trouble with google docs which impacted on my time, I had to copy and paste things into a word document and start again so I wound up having to go over the 1.5 hours by 20 mins which I did explain was due to technical difficulties with google docs.

mega annoyingly I noticed the odd typo and extra word after submission - in spite having spell checked.

it was 5 pages of interview and then personal screening questions.

they said in their e-mail that this interview method wouldn’t disadvantage me but aside from not being put on the spot in person I feel as though it has, I wouldn’t have run out of time in a real interview and I wouldn’t have added in extra words.

its a job I have experience of and its minimum wage (I mention this as it felt like I was applying for a job with a much higher pay grade) but has been the most bizarre interview experience….

especially given communication is 80% body language.

my answers were good and I wouldn’t really change them but I don’t think I’m getting the job am I?

the thing is I type bloody fast too so god knows how a slower typer would’ve got on

what are your own thoughts and experiences?

id never even heard of an e-mail interview up until this point.

That's so true but that's their process because they don't give a shite. They've shown it from the very start. Just move on and know no decent employer would recruit in this fashion. For all they know you didn't even complete those documents?!
Anyway, forget about it mate. You deserve better! X

For me, an interview is a two way process. This email situation is all one sided. I'm not interested in a company who can't even be bothered to put forward their own side in the interview process. They think it's all about them. That's a hard pass.

They just want to run the answers through chat Gpt to tell them who to hire.

That’s exactly what it felt like!

Thank you so much, I think I’ve written it off either way - so frustrating though as I’d be bloody good at the job and they’ve lost a decent potential employee

Yeah, you’re so right and I’m leaning more and more towards this - hard pass!

I did wonder about that - the times we live in!!

They don't deserve you! You'd be bloody good at a similar job at a place that gives a flip! X

Surely people will just use AI! How odd

Surely the point of an interview is for you to decide if you like them/the role is a good fit too?
How can you decide if you want to work there if you don't have a chance to meet them and ask questions?

Many years ago I was in a coffee bar and became aware there was a job interview happening at the next table. At least the 2 people had met up and a few people said to the interviewer that his candidate deserved a job .Not to meet up is most strange.

I would assume that anyone with dyslexia would disclose it and have extra time to complete the questions in the same way they would have extra time in exams.

I would anticipate that the next stage would be an in person second interview/meet the team event

They're the type of uncaring employer who would kick any Neurodiversity into the long grass. As far as they're concerned they wouldn't want anyone who they perceive as causing them any extra work and they're happy to break the law for it.

We used to do a written assessment / exam style thing. Followed by an interview. However we have moved away from this because essentially people were just using AI to answer the questions. It didn’t really tell us anything. I am surprised someone is moving from interview to written for those reasons. Good luck and I’m sorry about the last minute changes.

A role I am applying for has said they’ll have a similar thing.

They’ll email a question and then we’ll have a set amount of time to answer it.

I think it’s stupid as people can just google the answers.
At least do it in person.

A lot of employees are doing similar to be more inclusive apparently as some people need processing time/being able to see it.

I think they’ll care more about your answers than running out of time etc and your answer many be better on paper than it would have been in person, so I wouldn’t worry too much.

Where did you get this information about this employer from? I didn't see any mention of who they were.

Sounds like a scam!!!!

Did all the communication come from google mail or was it a genuine business address?

My guess is that nobody will ever read your answers. Your answers will go through an AI agent who will pick one or two people to be interviewed. AI will favour answers written by AI, so it will probably end up picking the least capable applicants.

AI has brought a new ineffective layer of utter drudgery to the job hunt.