Ep 71: My Freelance AI Only Job Interview - A Frustrating Glimpse Into a Future I Hope We Avoid
I'm a huge advocate for AI in freelance work, but I recently went through an entirely AI-driven job interview that left me frustrated and concerned about where hiring is headed. I applied for an Education Instructor role that perfectly matched my experience, completed a 45-minute AI interview that felt awkwardly performative (why is a program asking how I'm doing?), and then was hit with a second surprise interview where the AI latched onto the word "personable" and started grilling me about BLE-adjacent areas—Bluetooth Low Energy technology, IoT connectivity, and asset tracking—topics that had absolutely nothing to do with the education role I applied for. When I politely explained the mismatch, the AI couldn't course-correct, wouldn't let me contact a human, and just kept plowing ahead with irrelevant technical questions I couldn't answer, ultimately rejecting me with feedback saying I should have demonstrated stronger BLE expertise for a job that never required it. While I understand AI's value as an initial screening tool, using it as the sole decision-maker with zero human oversight is problematic—it can't handle context, can't adapt when things go wrong, provides useless feedback based on algorithmic errors, and feels dehumanizing when you're reduced to a data point with no recourse when the system fails. I hope this doesn't become the norm, and I'm curious if other freelancers have experienced similar AI-only interviews and whether there's ever an option to escalate to an actual human when things go sideways.