How interviews work

1. Sign up and confirm your email address.
2. Read what the interview collects and give your consent. You can stop at any time.
3. The AI interviewer asks about your real work: projects you have done, decisions you made, and problems you solved. Follow-up questions build on what you said.
4. Answer each question by speaking or typing.
5. When you finish, you see your results first: scores, a short summary, and the quotes from your answers behind each score.

The interviewer is an AI, not a person. Read how Aethel uses AI for what it scores and what it never looks at.

• Use a current version of Chrome, Edge, or Safari. A laptop or desktop is easiest, and a phone works too.
• Use a steady internet connection.
• If you want to speak your answers, allow microphone access when your browser asks. The camera is optional and only shows you a preview of yourself. It is never sent or recorded.
• Find a quiet place. Headphones help avoid echo.

The interview is a live video call with the AI interviewer, run by LiveKit. If you speak, your voice goes through LiveKit to Deepgram, which turns it into text. The interviewer's voice is made by Cartesia. Aethel keeps the written transcript, not the audio. See the companies we use.

Want to get comfortable first? Try a practice interview: sample questions for your field, on screen. It is text only, it does not need an account, and nothing is saved.

• Use real examples from your own work. Any field works: software, design, law, medicine, finance, science, teaching, writing, and more.
• Be specific. What was the situation, what did you do, and what happened? Numbers and concrete details help.
• Say what you did yourself, not only what the team did.
• Take a moment to think before you answer. That is fine: the interviewer waits through pauses, and you can press Done answering when you finish.
• If you do not know something, say so, and explain how you would find out.
• Your answers are scored on what you say, not on how you look or sound.
• A score needs at least 3 full answers. Short replies such as "Yes" or "I'm ready" do not count. If you press Complete interview before that, you are asked first. Finishing then means no score, which is not a low score, and it does not use a retake.

You can always type your answers instead of speaking. Before you start, the consent screen also lets you choose:

• More time per answer. When you pause, the interviewer waits twice as long before it replies: up to 10 seconds instead of 5 in the middle of a sentence. It checks in after 90 seconds of silence instead of 45. Pressing Done answering, or sending a typed answer, still ends your answer at once.
• More time overall. The interviewer starts wrapping up at about 16 minutes instead of 13, so you have more time for the same questions. The interview still ends by 20 minutes, the longest our video interviewer can run today.
• Type only, no microphone. You type every answer. The page never turns on your microphone, and the interviewer does not listen for sound. You still hear the interviewer and see every question as text.
• Larger captions. Shows the interviewer's words in bigger text under the video. You can also turn this on or off during the interview.

Your choice is saved with your interview record. Companies do not see it, it is not part of your results or scores, and the interviewer never mentions it.

Need something else, such as breaks or a different format? Ask for a different accommodation before you start, or email support@aethel.pro. We reply within 2 business days. Replies come from Aethel's AI support assistant. If a company sent you the interview link, you can also ask that company directly. You do not need to share a diagnosis.

Our accessibility page lists what works with a keyboard, screen reader, zoom, and reduced motion today, and what does not work well yet.

• If the video freezes or your connection drops, the interview tries to reconnect on its own. If it cannot, press Try again on the interview screen to continue the same interview. Refreshing the page works too: within an hour of starting, the page offers to continue your interview where you left off. Your answers so far are saved either way.
• Each question and answer is saved on our server as you go, so when you continue, the AI interviewer welcomes you back and picks up where you were. The time limit counts the time you already used.
• Your results then show that you reconnected and how long you were away. If you took the interview through a company's link, that company sees the same facts. They are not part of your scores.
• You can start up to 8 new interviews a day. Continuing an interview you already started does not count toward that.
• If the live video room cannot start and you take the backup interview instead, its button is called Retry.
• After a refresh, where a new interview is allowed, you can choose to start over from the first question instead, which does not use a retake.
• You can continue an interview in the same browser tab within an hour of starting it. If you close the tab, that interview cannot be continued: you start a new one from the first question, which does not use a retake.
• An interview that stops before it is scored does not use one of your retakes.

If something still goes wrong, email support@aethel.pro with the time it happened and what you saw.

• You see your results first. Each score shows the quotes from your answers it is based on. Areas your answers did not cover are marked "not enough evidence" instead of getting a low score.
• To see what results look like, open a sample result. The candidate in it is made up.
• A company sees your results only when you took the interview through that company's link. It sees that interview only, never your other attempts or how many you took.
• Other people see them only if you send them a share link or turn on your Find experts profile. You can turn either off at any time.
• You can retake the interview up to 3 times from your results page. Your earlier results stay: each one is an attempt you keep, and you choose which attempt represents you. If a technical problem cut an interview short, your results page offers a free retake that does not count toward the 3. If it does not, ask for a review. An interview taken through a company's link is taken once.
• Every interview you finish stays in your list of attempts for 24 months, unless you delete it. You choose which attempt represents you: your newest one, unless you pick another. That attempt is the one on your Find experts profile, in new share links and PDF verification codes, and the one you can share at a company's link with "Use my recent interview". Companies never see how many attempts you took.
• Think a result is wrong? Choose "Ask for a review" on your results page, or email support@aethel.pro. We reply within 2 business days. Replies come from Aethel's AI support assistant.
• We keep a written transcript, not video or audio. Read our Privacy Policy for how long we keep it and how to delete it.