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Aethel

For hiring teams

Interview skilled trades and facilities candidates with one link

Send a skilled trades or facilities candidate one link. An AI interviewer asks about their real work, and you decide from the quoted scores.

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Hiring for skilled trades and facilities

What makes this hard to screen

Trade skills show on the job, but you need to decide who gets a trial day. Resumes are short, and many good technicians do not write about their work. What you want to know is whether they find the real cause and keep safety steps every time.

Roles this field covers: electrician, plumber, HVAC technician, maintenance technician, facilities manager, carpenter, custodian, auto mechanic.

Listen for these in a transcript

  • Finds the real cause before fixing, and explains how they tracked it down.
  • Follows codes and safety steps such as lockout every time, and checks the finished work.
  • Keeps clear job notes and explains problems and costs to customers honestly.

Warning signs

  • Swaps parts until something works without finding the cause.
  • Skips lockout, permits or other safety steps.
  • Hides a mistake, or cannot say how they checked the job was done right.

How it works

How to interview with a link

  1. Step 1: Create a link for the role

    Choose Skilled trades and facilities, the level, and a specialty such as electrician or plumber.

  2. Step 2: Send it to your candidates

    Share it wherever you already find skilled trades and facilities candidates.

  3. Step 3: Candidates interview on their own time

    It takes about 15 minutes, and they know the interviewer is an AI.

  4. Step 4: Review and decide

    Mark each one Advance, Not a fit, or Undecided.

The interview

What the interviewer covers

It follows up on each answer and picks the skilled trades and facilities topics that fit the role.

  • A breakdown or repair where the cause was hard to find
  • A safety step they took when it would have been faster to skip it
  • A job that did not go to plan and how they fixed it
  • Explaining a problem and its cost to a customer or manager
  • Deciding which work orders to do first
  • Training or working with a newer coworker or apprentice
  • A time they had to redo work and what they learned

What the scoring looks for

Strong work: the candidate finds the real cause before fixing, follows codes and safety steps such as lockout every time, checks the finished work, keeps clear job notes, and explains problems and costs to customers honestly.

Warning signs: the candidate swaps parts until something works without finding the cause, skips lockout, permits or other safety steps, hides a mistake, or cannot say how they checked the job was done right. The scoring AI is told that an area showing one scores below 60.

Your questions

Sample must-ask questions

Up to three per link. The interviewer is told to ask each one as written, and every result shows whether it was asked word for word, asked in other words, or not asked. Examples:

  1. Tell me about a repair where the cause was hard to find. What did you check first?
  2. Walk me through the safety steps you take before working on live equipment.
  3. Describe a time you had to explain an unexpected cost to a customer.

Starter templates

Starter roles

Start a link from one of these and edit anything.

  • Electrician

    Focus: Installing and repairing wiring, following code and permits, safety on live circuits, working with other trades

  • Facilities manager

    Focus: Building maintenance plans, vendors and contractors, safety inspections, budgets and work order priorities

  • HVAC technician

    Focus: Diagnosing heating and cooling systems, repairs and installs, explaining costs to customers, service records

  • Maintenance technician

    Focus: Troubleshooting equipment, preventive maintenance, safety and lockout, work orders

Results

What you see for each candidate

  • The full transcript

    Every answer, in order.

  • “Not enough evidence”

    Shown instead of a guess, never as a low score.

  • Your decision and private notes

    Only your team sees them.

The four scored areas

Each out of 100, with quotes.

Troubleshooting (finding causes, fixing them)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes a specific repair, breakdown or job problem: what they checked, how they found the cause, what they fixed, and how they confirmed it worked.
Safety and quality of work (codes, safety steps, tools, inspections)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes how they do the work safely and to standard: codes, permits, lockout or other safety steps, the right tools and materials, inspections, and checking the finished job.
Communication (customers, work orders, handoffs)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes explaining work to customers, supervisors or coworkers: what is wrong, what it will take, work orders, job notes, or a handoff to the next crew. Answers that respond to the question asked, in a clear order, with a concrete example, also count, but only up to 80 on their own. Grammar, word choice and fluency are never judged.
Crew teamwork (crews, supervisors, other trades)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes working with crews, supervisors, other trades, customers or building staff, including training an apprentice or handling a disagreement. Saying "we" is not, by itself, collaboration evidence.

Aethel never scores faces, voices or accents, and does not verify degrees, licenses or work history. How Aethel uses AI

FAQ

Questions hiring teams ask

Does Aethel check trade licenses?

No. Aethel does not check trade licenses or certifications. Look them up yourself with the state or local body that issues them.

Does it test hands-on skill?

No. Nobody touches a tool. It hears how a technician thinks through a breakdown and a safety call, which can help you pick who to bring in for a practical test.

Can candidates talk instead of type?

Yes. They can speak every answer, and no camera is needed.

See also the questions companies ask and the pricing page.

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