AI job interview: kindergarten applicant withdraws her application

Vietnamese-Australian writer and journalist Giselle O-Nghiem Nguyen withdrew her application for a job at a kindergarten after her interview was conducted not by a person but by an AI assistant. She told the Guardian about it. It was her first experience of dealing with artificial intelligence instead of a recruiter.

Nguyen is training to be a teacher and, after her first year, decided to find a job at a kindergarten run by a non-profit organisation. She had heard about AI interviews and their drawbacks, from demoralisation to the risk of discrimination, but she still was not prepared. “My initial excitement at making the shortlist faded quickly when I learned that an AI assistant would be interviewing me,” she said.

“A voice without a body”

She dressed carefully, tidied her room and started the video call. “A disembodied voice greeted me by name. It was strange to see only myself on the screen in a small window, with no living person on the other side.” She had been told in writing beforehand that she could pause and think before answering a question. When she did so, she was immediately dropped from the interview and had to try again.

At the end, the AI asked whether she had any questions. She did, but the assistant gave a stock reply, repeating what was already stated in the job posting, and advised her to ask the manager for clarification. “It felt a little ironic,” Nguyen said.

No reply ever came

The organisation promised to review the video and let her know its decision. Nguyen found out what others in the field thought: many could not believe that staff for childcare were being sought with the help of AI. “It is very demeaning to be interrogated by an AI in an interview for the most human profession I know,” she admitted.

Feeling humiliated, she decided to withdraw her application and even sent the organisation an email explaining why. More than a month later, she still has not received a reply.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz