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New SA software platform adds video spin to job interviews

Simnikiwe Mzekandaba
By Simnikiwe Mzekandaba, IT in government editor
Johannesburg, 24 Nov 2021
Jesse Bosch, CEO and co-founder of interviewME.
Jesse Bosch, CEO and co-founder of interviewME.

The past 18 months resulted in a total overhaul of many of life’s daily activities, including the way of doing business and recruitment processes.

This is why local tech start-up interviewME developed a video-driven, digital solution to change the way job interviews are done, says CEO and co-founder Jesse Bosch.

Bosch tells ITWeb that interviewME is a one-way video interviewing software platform that allows companies and managers to interview candidates without having to conduct the interview in person.

“COVID-19 has really been a massive boost when it comes to the adoption of video; most interviews are already being done over platforms such as Zoom and Teams,” he says. “We have taken it one step further by almost making interviews an on-demand service, which we call ‘video interview as a service’.”

Based on personal experience, Bosch admits he missed so many good candidates because he judged them on what he thought was a poor CV.

He believes interviewME gives candidates the opportunity to put their best foot forward when applying for a specific role, and companies get to see the true person behind the CV.

“We forget there are real people behind the CV simply wishing for an opportunity to get that first interview to showcase what they are all about upfront in the application stage of the role. However, candidates often don’t get that chance.”

Co-founded by Bosch, director Nivi Grogor and CIO Devin Ribiero, interviewME officially went live to the public on 1 October.

The video-interviewing platform aims to reduce the time spent on interviews, but also allow companies to interview six times more candidates in the same amount of time it would take to normally do one interview, explains Bosch.

“I’ve been in managing director and sales director roles at various companies. When looking for staff, we would put out a job post and receive hundreds if not thousands of CVs that all looked very similar. I spent hours screening CVs trying to identify something that pops out at me. We would then spend countless hours in back-to-back interviews.

“I was convinced that there was another way to get to know the person behind the CV without having to meet them in person. One-way interviews are incredibly popular in the US and EU; however, there was no company offering this as a solution in Africa.

“Our platform is not designed to replace the entire current interview process but rather help companies identify who they actually want to spend time with interviewing.”

A video illustration of how companies can view candidate interviews in their own time.
A video illustration of how companies can view candidate interviews in their own time.

In terms of how it works, companies have the ability to create interviews via the platform. It will then generate a unique web link that can be included in their job posts or adverts, or can be sent via e-mail invitations to candidates.

“Our platform is designed to help corporates and recruitment agencies, as we have unique features for both.

“We have seen though that companies that have high volumes of candidates applying for roles mainly benefit from our platform, or where hiring of candidates that have little-to-no work experience, where soft skills are really the main deciding factors for these companies.

“For example, the hiring of graduates; graduates in most cases don’t have an incredibly standout CV. So, by introducing a video element, candidates are not purely judged on their CV, as the hiring companies can test these candidates based on custom interview questions that will give these hiring companies a good indication of what these candidates are all about.”

Interested companies are offered a 14-day free trial period, to test it out and put it through its paces. “We offer various month-to-month subscriptions, [and] pricing starts at R1 800 per month for our smallest offering.”

Looking to future developments, Bosch says there is a lot in the pipeline, including artificial intelligence, assessment tools/games, background checks and applicant tracking system integrations.

“We have a team of epic developers onboard and the ideas are insanely cool,” he concludes.

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