[2023 Graduates] Virtual interviews are a good fit for hiring engineers

My name is Fujisawa, and I'm in charge of public relations and recruitment, and I've finally had to have my wisdom teeth removed

In March 2022, we conducted what we called virtual interviews

The interview involves a conversation between avatars, regardless of educational background, age, or gender

I have written the details in a previous blog post, so if you are interested, I would be happy if you could read it

[2023 Graduates] Would you like to apply for a "Virtual Interview"?

I will write about what I noticed after actually participating in a virtual interview

The quality of the avatar makes a big difference in the impression

First of all, the best part of this virtual interview is that you have a conversation with another avatar

Beyond prepared a blonde, short-haired avatar named "Beyond-chan," and the students were free to prepare their own avatars

As expected, each person's hairstyle, eye color, clothing, background, and whether or not they used a voice changer were all different, and each person also used different avatar creation tools

Most of the people had prepared avatars just for this virtual interview, so I was very grateful at that point, but I was particularly impressed by those who had spent a lot of time preparing, such as those who had put a lot of meaning into their avatars and background images, or who had studied the tools from scratch to create their avatars

Those who prepared their avatars well were those who were truly looking forward to the virtual interview, so the quality of their avatars became a benchmark for evaluating their creativity and their level of interest in working at Beyond

You can hear about what they have studied so far without any filters

Until now, I would dig deeper into what a person has studied by looking at their school, faculty, and department, but in this virtual interview, the only information available was their avatar and nickname, so I was able to ask about their studies without any filters. I think this is the most important factor in hiring people regardless of their educational background

Those who actually passed the virtual interview submitted their resumes before the final interview, and we learned their real names and schools for the first time. I believe that the success of this project was due to the fact that we were able to select candidates based solely on the information shared during the virtual interview

Both the interviewer and the student were able to have a relaxed conversation

Several people said, "I was able to talk more relaxedly than in a normal interview," and we realized that having conversations between avatars is a very good fit for interviews

I imagine it's quite difficult to promote yourself online while wearing a suit, but conversations between avatars can only take place online, and I felt that by not revealing your face, name, age, gender, or educational background, you can reveal your true self

In fact, when I was in charge of Beyond-chan, I was a little nervous at first, but after about 15 minutes I was able to have a normal conversation. I no longer felt uncomfortable even though the other person was an avatar, and once I got into the "zone" of the virtual interview, I felt like I was more talkative than usual

Until now, I have said that I don't place much importance on academic background

In my previous blog, I wrote that Beyond had not placed much emphasis on academic background in its selection process until now, but when it came to actually conducting virtual interviews internally, there were times when they asked for personal information, such as whether the person was in the humanities or sciences, male or female, etc. (Even if they asked, they would not know the correct answer.)

It was only when I thought back to that time that I realized, "Oh, I was concerned about things like educational background and gender."

Of course, educational background is necessary information when judging what kind of studies a person has made and how much they have studied, but I had assumed that it wasn't very important, so this virtual interview made me realize that I had been unconsciously filtering it out

The people who entered were all excellent

The best thing about the virtual interview only the most talented people applied .

To be honest, I thought there might be some people who were just messing around, but there wasn't a single one like that. Everyone there submitted a proper application form, prepared an avatar, and was able to speak well during the interview

We are even considering internally that if we have such talented people, it might be a good idea to try hiring mid-career employees

In any case, it is no exaggeration to say that this virtual interview was a great success

Virtual interviews are a good fit for engineering recruitment

So that's it for the summary of "What I noticed after doing a virtual interview."

This event was also covered by various media outlets,

Once again, thank you very much to everyone who participated in the unusual selection process of a virtual interview

Beyond will continue to work on new recruitment methods, so we hope you will continue to support us

Now, I'm Fujisawa, in charge of public relations and recruitment.