Setting the stage for a successful interview starts with setting clear expectations. Here’s a structure to follow:Start with a warm welcome and introduction
Always begin by introducing the AI Recruiter and explaining the structure of the interview.Example script:
“Hi first_name, I’m Alex, the AI Recruiter for [Company]. Thank you for joining this interview for the position role. I’ll start with a few questions about you and then move on to your experience. At the end, you’ll be able to ask any questions you have. If I don’t have the answer to your question, a member of our team will get back to you. To start, tell me about yourself.”End with an open-ended question
Give the candidate the opportunity to ask any questions. Clearly communicate when they will be able to ask their questions, and set the tone for a transparent conversation.
Keep it concise
Limit the number of questions to a maximum of 10. You can add follow-up questions, but we recommend no more than 1-2 per main question.Monitor estimated duration
Pay attention to the estimated interview duration displayed to candidates when they click on the interview link. This will help manage expectations on both ends. Avoid extending interviews too long.
Candidates will see the estimated duration when they click on the interview link. Keep it under control to avoid fatigue.
Use conditional follow-up questions
For any main question, you can add conditional follow-ups to get deeper insights. Here are some examples:
If the candidate says yes: Ask them to elaborate.
If the candidate says no: How would they approach a situation like that?
If the candidate doesn’t have the required experience: We’ll end the interview here, but thank the candidate for their time.
Personal anecdotes can showcase a candidate’s real-world application of their skills. Encourage them to share!
Set clear expectations for next steps
At the end of the interview, inform the candidate about what happens next. For example, will they receive a notification regarding the decision? Who will reach out to them?Example:
“Thanks for your time, first_name. After the interview, we will review your answers and notify you about next steps. If you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.”
Provide the right context for the candidate
By default, Alex will ask the candidate if they have any questions. However, Alex doesn’t have access to the full job description as it can contain internal information. This is where the context box becomes crucial.You can use the context box to share job-related details you feel comfortable revealing, such as:
Job description (minus sensitive internal info)
Interview process steps
FAQs
Salary or benefits info
Update as needed
As you review interviews, you might notice recurring questions or gaps in information. Come back to the context box regularly and add more information to ensure candidates have all the details they need.
Regularly update this box as you gather feedback from candidates. The more info you provide here, the smoother the process for everyone.
This setting allows you to provide additional context and instructions for the AI recruiter. It’s where you can specify details Alex will use when responding to candidate questions. You can also use this section to control Alex’s tone, ensuring it aligns with the style you want for your interviews.
Provide Detailed Instructions: Be as specific as possible. For example, if you’re interviewing for a React developer role, don’t just ask general questions about their experience. Instead, instruct Alex to “dig into their projects and how they were built,” or “ask about specific challenges they faced when using React.”
Control the Tone: Use this section to adjust Alex’s tone. For example, if you want Alex to be more direct, you can instruct her to “keep responses concise and to the point” or “don’t ask the candidate if they have any questions” to avoid unnecessary conversation. If you want Alex to be conversational, specify that she should “maintain a friendly, approachable tone” or “keep the tone light and engaging.”
When to Use This:
Enable this when you want Alex to provide more tailored responses that go beyond generic questions. It’s also useful when you want to adjust her tone to fit the interview style. This is especially important for roles that require technical depth, specific industry knowledge, or a more formal/informal interview approach.Example Use Case:
For a candidate applying for a backend developer position, you might instruct Alex to focus on the candidate’s experience with cloud infrastructure, asking them to provide examples of how they’ve worked with AWS or Azure. Additionally, if you’re looking for a more formal tone, you can specify that Alex should avoid asking questions like, “Do you have any questions for me?”
What it is:
This setting allows you to provide more detailed evaluation criteria for Alex to use when grading the candidate. It’s your opportunity to specify what you’re looking for in the candidate’s answers and guide the AI recruiter in evaluating key factors.
Contextualize the Grading: If there are specific nuances that are important to consider when grading responses, provide context. For instance, if the role requires technical skills but also demands high emotional intelligence, instruct Alex to focus on both technical proficiency and the candidate’s ability to navigate interpersonal dynamics.
Address One-Off Situations: If there are unique situations where you would want to add or deduct points (such as a candidate showing signs of exceptional leadership or failing to explain an important technical concept), specify those here. For example, you could say, “If the candidate provides a detailed example of a project they led, award X points to their overall score” or “If the candidate cannot explain basic concepts of React, deduct X points for lack of technical knowledge.”
Define Non-Negotiables: This is where you can include any hard disqualifiers that should override the regular scoring. For example, if someone doesn’t have U.S. work authorization, you can specify that “If the candidate does not have U.S. work authorization, their overall score should be no higher than 50.” This ensures that critical criteria are weighted appropriately.
When to Enable:
Enable this when you want a more refined evaluation of candidates, especially for roles that require soft skills like communication, leadership, or cultural fit. It’s also crucial when grading for very specific technical or industry skills that may need additional focus.Example Use Case:
For a leadership position, you could specify that Alex should focus on evaluating the candidate’s ability to handle conflict or lead a team through challenging situations. Additionally, if you have non-negotiable criteria, such as requiring a certain certification or U.S. work authorization, include that in this section to ensure the candidate’s score reflects those requirements.
What it is:
This setting allows candidates to retake the same interview multiple times, but only after they have completed it. If a candidate experiences a technical issue and doesn’t complete the interview, their interview will be considered “paused” rather than “complete.” In this case, the candidate will be able to retake the interview without needing the “Allow Retakes” button to be toggled.
Use for Improvement or Confidence Building: Enable this feature when you want to give candidates who have already completed an interview another chance to retake it. This is particularly helpful when you want the candidate to provide additional or more accurate responses without needing to start the interview from scratch.
When to Enable: Enable this setting for roles where accurate candidate evaluation is critical, and you want candidates with a completed interview to have an opportunity to retake the interview, even if they’ve already submitted their answers once.
When a candidate retakes the interview, they will answer the same questions as before.
Example Use Case:
If a candidate for a technical role completed an interview but didn’t provide satisfactory answers, you can enable this feature to allow them to retake the interview. This way, they can improve their responses for a more accurate evaluation.
What it is:
Control when candidates can schedule their interviews. Since the AI recruiter is available at all times and can conduct multiple interviews simultaneously, this setting allows you to control which days candidates can book their interview slots, ensuring they are completed within your desired time frame.
Control Interview Timing: Use this setting to ensure all interviews are completed within a specific time window, whether it’s within a week or by a certain deadline. By controlling when candidates can schedule, you ensure interviews are completed in a timely manner.
Drive Urgency: Limiting scheduling windows encourages candidates to complete their interviews faster. This is particularly helpful when there’s a tight timeline for filling the role or when you want to expedite the interview process.
When to Enable:
Enable this setting when you want to streamline the scheduling process and ensure interviews are completed within a certain time frame.Example Use Case:
If you’re hiring for a global team and need to fill the role quickly, you can limit the scheduling window to ensure all interviews are completed by a specific date, while still accommodating candidates from different time zones. This helps maintain urgency without sacrificing flexibility.
Best practice is to set a 3-business-day window. This is what we see most often and works well - when the invite is sent, the candidate has 3 days to complete the interview, helping to keep the process moving efficiently.
What it is:
This section allows you to configure the inputs candidates are required to provide when starting an interview, such as LinkedIn URLs, phone numbers, and resumes. You can make these inputs hidden, optional, or required, depending on what data is essential for your interview process.
Streamline Data Collection: If the job requires candidates to have specific credentials or experiences, such as a LinkedIn profile, enable this option to collect that data up front.
Leverage Resume-Generated Questions: If you don’t have an ATS connected, using the resume field is a great way to collect resumes up front. Once the resume is submitted, you can use it to generate custom questions based on the candidate’s experience, which is discussed below. This ensures that your interview is more tailored to the candidate’s background.
When to Enable:
Only enable form inputs for essential information that helps you evaluate candidates before they begin the interview. For example, LinkedIn URLs or phone numbers can be helpful to pre-fill and streamline the process. Additionally, enabling the resume upload ensures that you can generate relevant questions based on their past experiences.Example Use Case:
For a marketing role, enabling the LinkedIn URL field helps you quickly review the candidate’s professional background, ensuring they have the relevant experience. If there’s no ATS, collecting the resume up front and generating questions based on it allows you to dig deeper into their experience, rather than relying solely on the standard set of questions.
The resume, LinkedIn URL, and phone number (if collected) will appear at the top of the score report, making it easy for you to quickly access this information during your review.
What it is:
The system will generate custom questions based on the details in the candidate’s resume. This helps tailor the interview to the candidate’s specific experience.Best Practices:
Ensure Resume Collection: Make sure the candidate has either uploaded a resume as a form input (discussed above) or that an ATS is connected to fetch their resume.
Set the Number of Questions: You can set the number of questions you want to ask based on the candidate’s resume. These questions will be asked after all the questions from the interview guide have been completed.
Update the Duration: The duration of the interview will automatically be updated based on the number of resume-generated questions. This ensures the interview length is accurately reflected.
When to Enable:
Enable this setting when you want to dive deeper into a candidate’s experience and tailor questions based on what’s listed on their resume. It’s especially useful for roles where specific qualifications or experience (such as project management or technical expertise) are key to the hiring decision. It also makes the interview feel more customized, rather than a general screening.Example Use Case:
For a software engineer role, enabling this feature will generate specific questions based on the candidate’s listed experience with programming languages, projects, or tools. For example, if the candidate lists experience with Python, the generated question might be:“We see you have experience with Python. Can you tell me about a project where you used Python to solve a complex problem? What was your approach, and what were the results?”
When an interview is complete, you’ll have access to the score report, which provides an in-depth look at the candidate’s performance. Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll see in the report and how to interpret each section.
At the top of the score report, you’ll see the candidate’s name and the position they interviewed for. This section provides essential context for the review.If you have any form inputs enabled (such as phone number, LinkedIn, resume, or email), these will appear above the candidate’s details. This information is helpful for quickly accessing key details about the candidate, especially if you need to follow up or reference specific information from their application.
Below the candidate’s information, you’ll see all of the tags you created in the interview guide. These tags are based on important qualifications, skills, or experiences that you want to track.
Hover over any tag: If you hover over any tag, you’ll see a portion of the transcript that corresponds to that tag. This is the part of the interview where Alex pulled this information from in order to generate the tag. This helps you connect the tag to the context of the interview.
Next, you’ll find a summary provided by Alex. This section offers Alex’s overall thoughts on the interview, highlighting key insights and performance observations based on the interview questions and grading criteria.
To the right of the summary, you’ll see the overall score, the date the interview was completed, and the cheating risk.
Cheating Risk: If you have advanced cheat detection enabled, you can click on the cheating risk score to access a full cheat analysis, providing more detailed information about any potential issues during the interview.
Below the summary, you’ll find the grading criteria section. This is where you can review the candidate’s scores for each specific grading criterion you defined in the interview guide.
You will see the score for each criterion, along with an explanation of why the candidate received that score. This helps clarify how each answer was evaluated and what factors influenced the overall grade.
Below the grading criteria, you’ll find a question summary. This section includes every question asked during the interview, along with a brief summary of the candidate’s responses.
Click any question or answer: Clicking on any question or answer will redirect you to the video, taking you directly to the timestamp where the candidate was asked that question or provided that answer. This makes it easy to review the candidate’s response in its full context.
Below the video, you’ll find the transcript of the interview. You can scroll through the transcript to read the full text of what was said during the interview.
Click any response in the transcript: Clicking on any part of the transcript will automatically jump to that point in the video, allowing you to quickly access specific sections of the interview.
Lastly, at the end of each interview, the candidate is asked to rate their experience on a scale of 1 to 5 and can provide additional feedback if they choose to.
If the candidate has provided feedback, it will appear here. This section can provide valuable insights into the candidate’s experience, giving you a sense of their engagement and how they perceived the interview process.
Actions You Can Take After Reviewing the Score Report
Once you’ve thoroughly reviewed the score report, there are several actions you can take to move the candidate through your hiring process or to keep track of your review.
At the top of any score report, you’ll see two action buttons:
Green Shortlist Button: Clicking this means you want to move the candidate forward in your hiring process. This will indicate to your team that you’re interested in continuing with the candidate.
Red Reject Button: Clicking this means you will not be moving forward with the candidate.
By default, an email will not be sent to the candidate when you click either of these buttons. If you want the candidate to be notified, set up email notifications in your workflow on the Decision Updated trigger.
If you’re not quite ready to make a decision, you can mark the score report as read. This acts as a visual indicator that you have reviewed the report but haven’t yet made a final decision, helping you easily track which reports you’ve reviewed versus those you haven’t.
Click the ‘Share With’ Button: You can share the report directly with specific people within your organization.
Download the Report: You can download the score report and share it externally.
Create a Public Link: If you need to share the report with people outside your organization, you can create a public link to make the report accessible.
Lastly, you can add internal notes to the score report. These notes are visible to other admins and can help provide context or additional information about your decision-making process. This is especially useful for collaboration and ensuring that everyone involved in the hiring process is aligned.
It’s optional, but it helps Alex generate better, more personalized responses to candidate questions.
Does allowing retakes affect scoring?
No, scores are based on final submissions.
How do I ensure Alex asks follow-up questions?
Use the **^ **button next to a quesion to add specific follow-up instructions for that question.
Can I set a deadline for candidates to schedule their interviews?
Yes, use Calendar Settings to set a scheduling deadline.
How does Alex grade candidates?
Grading is based on grading criteria, which you can customize in the Grading Criteria section. You can prioritize certain grading criteria if they’re more/less important.
Can I control the tone of the interview?
Yes, you can add instructions for Alex in the Interview Instructions section to adjust tone (e.g., formal or casual).
Can I review a candidate’s video interview after it's completed?
Yes, you can watch the video and view the report after the candidate finishes.
How do I access the platform?
You can access Alex at app.alex.com. Bookmark the link for easy access!
Many candidates are new to AI interviews, and some may be unsure about what to expect. As a recruiter, your framing matters. The way you introduce the interview can shape their experience, influence completion rates, and help build trust. Here are some tips to help you communicate with clarity and confidence.
Some candidates assume no one ever looks at their responses. That’s not the case, be upfront about it.Try something like:
“Your answers are reviewed by our team, it’s not just the AI making decisions. This step just helps us move faster without skipping anything important.”
If a candidate seems hesitant, you can acknowledge that it’s a newer format, but still effective.For instance:
“We get that it’s a different format, but it’s designed to make the process easier for everyone involved. You’ll still have a chance to connect with someone on the team if it’s a fit.”
You don’t need a script, but having a few go-to phrases ready can help keep the experience smooth and candidate-friendly. Focus on being clear, transparent, and supportive.
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Responses are generated using AI and may contain mistakes.
