This Job Seeker's Stand Against One-way Interviews Is Oh-So-Relatable

A Reddit post about a woman’s experience with a one-way interview has sparked discussion on the platform. The woman, who is currently employed but exploring other job opportunities, shared her encounter with a company that asked her for a one-way interview, where candidates record themselves answering interview questions.

In her post, she expressed her reluctance to participate in such interviews, calling them “dehumanising”. She also questioned if this practice is becoming more common in the job market. She shared a screenshot of her response to the company, which has resonated with many Reddit users.

“Would love to hear what people’s thoughts are on this. Maybe my expectations are too high. I also wonder if this is going to be (or already is) a common thing,” the woman wrote.

Take a look at it here:

The post has garnered various responses from the community. Some users find the concept of one-way interviews strange and expressed support for the woman’s decision. They hope that her response will encourage the company to reconsider this interview format.

“I’ve only heard of these here on Reddit and find them super weird. I love your response, and I hope it resonates with this firm enough for them to do away with this sort of an ‘interview’,” posted a Reddit user.

Others see one-way interviews as a manipulative tactic used by companies. They believe that such interviews undermine the employees.

“I think that’s a pretty common manipulation tactic to convince the employees that their voice is less significant than the company leaders and make sure that their employees are going to obey and wouldn’t think for themselves,” added another.

Some users speculated that the company’s insistence on one-way interviews may indicate a lack of qualified applicants or a general aversion to this type of interview. “Did you get a response? I think your email was perfect,” asked a person.

To this, the original poster replied, “Thanks, I appreciate that. This was the response: ‘I’m sorry, but due to the sheer volume of applications we’ve received, that’s just not feasible for us unless you’re willing to follow the instructions. If you’re not, then unfortunately it’s not going to work out.”

She also added that the odd thing about it is, that the company reached out to her again a week after sending the initial request. The company wanted to clarify something about the salary and asked her again to do this one-way interview, which made her think they either didn’t have that many qualified applicants or that no one wanted to do interviews at all.

Some Reddit users view one-way interviews as a lazy and potentially ineffective interviewing method. “It’s lazy interviewing. They likely screen the worst candidates this way, but it’s lazy, so a red flag,” read another comment read.