Solutions
Give your interviewers someone to practise on
Interviewing is usually learned on the job. With the AI playing the candidate, interviewers can practise as often as they like before facing a real one.
The problem
There is no way to train an interviewer except on the job
Training an interviewer means either sitting in on someone else’s interviews or going back over your own. Both depend on a real interview, and you cannot bring in a candidate just to practise on: if it goes badly, it costs them their time and you your reputation. So interviewers learn by trial and error on real candidates.
- You cannot bring in a candidate just to practise on
- Sitting in on someone else’s interview never lets you ask the questions yourself
- How deeply interviewers probe varies from person to person
- The worst interviews are the ones least likely to be reviewed
01
Build the candidates
Several personas, set up in advance
02
Send the practice URL
The interviewer picks which candidate to face
03
Roleplay
The interviewer asks; the AI answers as the candidate
04
Feedback generated
Question by question, straight away
05
The real interview
Led by the interviewer
The three shaded steps can be repeated as often as you like. Deciding what to work on and facing a real candidate remain the interviewer’s job.
Solution
Keep the candidate the same, so each run can be compared with the last
The AI candidate is built from a background and a set of motivations, and then stays fixed. If you set up several, the interviewer picks which one to face; facing the same one twice lets them see for themselves what changed. When the session ends, feedback arrives straight away, quoting what was actually said.
- The candidate is built once and stays the same, so sessions can be repeated
- Several personas, chosen at the start of each session
- Feedback goes to the interviewer, straight away
- No one else’s time is used, so mistakes cost nothing
- Before practice, the AI can talk through the job details or how the interview runs
Roleplay result (excerpt)
Overall 58 / 100
Depth of “why”10 / 20
The reason for changing jobs was probed, but the real one never surfaced
Talk-time balance8 / 10
The candidate had room to speak, though you spoke a little too much
Worth working on next
The reason for changing jobs was not probed deeply enough
The candidate said “Well, part of it was that it looked difficult to do where I am now.”
What came next “I see. Could you tell me about what you do at the moment?”
A question that would have worked “In what situations, specifically, did you feel that?”
Related pages
More detail, by topic
Gaps between interviewers come not only from how much they practise but from how they read the criteria.
Same answer, different score: when interviewers read the criteria differently →
Use gaps between human and AI scores to find where readings split, and fix them.
Set the criteria first and reduce variation between interviewers.
Frequently asked questions
Will the AI just give you what you want to hear?
That depends on how the candidate is built. A candidate who answers everything straight away is no use as practice, and in a real interview little comes out until there is some rapport. Holding back until rapport is built, or not yet being sure what they want, can be written into the persona. We work with you to decide how difficult to make the candidate while keeping the session useful as practice.
How do we set up the candidates?
Each candidate is built from a background, a set of motivations and what they are looking for. You can build them yourself or with our help, and we agree with you how much of the work we take on. If you set up several, the interviewer chooses which one to face and can read that candidate’s profile before the session starts. You can also build a persona from a real interview record, as long as names and other identifying details are removed first.
Do you look at expression and tone of voice?
For now, feedback covers only what was said. We would like to cover expression and tone as well, and customers ask for them often. Because we keep non-verbal signals out of evaluation in hiring itself (in line with the EU AI Act, which bans emotion recognition in the workplace in most cases), we are working out how they should be handled in practice sessions.
Where can they practise?
A browser is all they need. It works on desktop, smartphone and tablet, with no app to install. Where speaking out loud is awkward, they can answer by typing instead.
Who should start with it?
Your busiest interviewers, and those about to start interviewing. Try it with a few of them first to check the steps and how long it takes, then roll it out more widely.
Who can see the feedback?
By default, only the person who practised. You can also give access to other named individuals.
How much does it cost?
Pricing works differently here than for hiring interviews: it is based on the number of people practising and how often they do it. Tell us the rough scale and we will put a quote together.
Show us how you train your interviewers today
We will show you where AI roleplay fits. Free, about 30 minutes.