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“Good On Video” Is The New “Good On Paper” With HireHive (YC S10)

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Re: “Good On Video” Is The New “Good On Paper” With HireHive (YC S10)

#11

Post by rdl »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #3
paraschopra wrote: post #2

Does anyone else find the prospect of video résumé a bit frightening? Some people (myself included) are simply not that comfortable in front of a camera.

We did something similar with FacesForce.com and tried a few markets. Video is very tricky. It appears it is best to let users submit a video without being asked, but the issue with this is users do not want to pay. So the HH model will definitely bring in revenue faster. A few people are worried they may be discriminated against if they send a video, but if someone is going to disqualify you based on what they see,…

I think it's a lot easier for one interviewer in a team of a few, going over a big pool of applicants, to reject people for personal/stupid/illegal reasons if he can do so anonymously. Say there are 20 women applying out of 100; if only 5 people are brought in for in-person interviews, and 0 are women, it's a lot easier and less open to potential liability than if 5 candidates include one perfect female candidate and 4 objectively-lesser male candidates, and the female still doesn't get the job.

Re: “Good On Video” Is The New “Good On Paper” With HireHive (YC S10)

#12

Post by Harj »

paraschopra wrote: post #2

Does anyone else find the prospect of video résumé a bit frightening? Some people (myself included) are simply not that comfortable in front of a camera.

i agree the prospect of filming yourself is somewhat uncomfortable but i've been stunned during the YC application review process by just how much a video adds to the application. it's actually, for me, the most important part of the application while reviewing it.

i believe employers will realize this too and once they do, they'll insist on having video as standard in applications. once that happens, uploading videos of yourself will become more commonplace and eventually feel less alien.

Re: “Good On Video” Is The New “Good On Paper” With HireHive (YC S10)

#13

Post by rdl »

nicholasjbs wrote: post #6
paraschopra wrote: post #2

Does anyone else find the prospect of video résumé a bit frightening? Some people (myself included) are simply not that comfortable in front of a camera.

One of our goals is to help people feel more comfortable recording short videos. We don't see HireHive has a "video resume" (i.e. something you agonize over carefully crafting long answers to) so much as a lightweight way to answer questions off-the-cuff. One of the challenges we face is to figure out how to set the tone so people can relax and be themselves. Is there anything that you think would help you feel more…

I think you're right to want people to be off the cuff, and also relaxed. I would personally try to emulate the traditional phone interview, optionally with video -- start off with some chitchat and background on the company to get candidates comfortable, and then ask questions which demand immediate and realtime, unrehearsed responses.

You have the chance of making the process more efficient, especially when there are hundreds or thousands of applicants. Maybe use a video pitch by the interviewer, clip about the company, etc. to set the setting and make the candidate comfortable, and then do instant-response questions with video response.

I might also start the interview with some super-softball questions, to get the user familiar with the system. "What's your name?" isn't really good, but some really easy tech questions or even general knowledge questions might be good.

The main benefits to me in having a bunch of recorded interviews is that I can instantly drop one if the candidate is obviously a reject. It took me a few years of hiring responsibility before I got to the point of "I'm sorry, I have to end this now" if someone is obviously unacceptable 5-10 minutes in. A problem with doing that in real life is that you need to block out the whole interview on your schedule, and it's harder to fit other things back in once that is freed.

Being able to outsource reviewing answers to other people in your organization would also be great -- e.g. sending the database question to your database guys. If you are really interviewing 1k people, you can have your database guy look at 10, grade those, and then have a junior person, based on those, grade any which pattern-match well, and refer the others back to the expert.

I'd still prefer a written or executable test for most technical jobs, at least as my initial screen, and an IM or phone chat, but I could see the value of this for some roles.

Re: “Good On Video” Is The New “Good On Paper” With HireHive (YC S10)

#14

Post by [deleted] »

rdl wrote: post #5

Maybe I'm just paranoid and have low expectations for humanity, but I think the main demand for video interviews would be to do racial/ethnic/attractiveness discrimination on candidates. Early in the process, it would be a lot easier to discard all people of [unfavored group] without any allegations of unfairness.

[deleted]

Re: “Good On Video” Is The New “Good On Paper” With HireHive (YC S10)

#16

Post by kiba »

rdl wrote: post #5

Maybe I'm just paranoid and have low expectations for humanity, but I think the main demand for video interviews would be to do racial/ethnic/attractiveness discrimination on candidates. Early in the process, it would be a lot easier to discard all people of [unfavored group] without any allegations of unfairness.

Bad discrimination will cost the company lot of money. Good discrimination will make the company lot of money.

If a company discriminate based on race, they will get the kind of performance they deserve.

Re: “Good On Video” Is The New “Good On Paper” With HireHive (YC S10)

#17

Post by MichaelGlass »

I wonder how many of these comments are based on experience hiring. The challenge isn't from the applicant's standpoint but from the other end. Certainly video can be used for discrimination. But that is absolutely not the only use case.

Re: “Good On Video” Is The New “Good On Paper” With HireHive (YC S10)

#18

Post by rdl »

kiba wrote: post #16
rdl wrote: post #5

Maybe I'm just paranoid and have low expectations for humanity, but I think the main demand for video interviews would be to do racial/ethnic/attractiveness discrimination on candidates. Early in the process, it would be a lot easier to discard all people of [unfavored group] without any allegations of unfairness.

Bad discrimination will cost the company lot of money. Good discrimination will make the company lot of money. If a company discriminate based on race, they will get the kind of performance they deserve.

Discrimination can be done by employees even if it's not a company-wide policy.

Re: “Good On Video” Is The New “Good On Paper” With HireHive (YC S10)

#20

Post by rdl »

MichaelGlass wrote: post #17

I wonder how many of these comments are based on experience hiring. The challenge isn't from the applicant's standpoint but from the other end. Certainly video can be used for discrimination. But that is absolutely not the only use case.

I have hired for or at 5 companies so far.

I've never used video, and I have hired people based solely on phone conversations, or IRC conversations -- but usually phone/irc followed by an in-person interview.

I can't think of any value of recorded video over realtime chat for anything except "create a video clip for me!" For a sales job involving in-person meetings with clients, a realtime video chat might be a bit better than realtime audio, but the difference is much less than the value of an in-person meeting.

For a developer job, I would consider this totally without value. "IM presence" and "how well can he explain something in words" (voice or text) would be worth vastly more, and "sit next to me and do this task and explain it to me" would be the ultimate test.

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