How to prepare for an AI interview

1. Find out how the interview works. If the tool has a guide for candidates, read it before the day: how long the interview takes, whether you can type, what is scored, and who sees the results. If a company sent the link and something is unclear, ask the company.
2. Pick three real cases from your work. Choose three things you handled yourself: a problem you solved, a hard call you made, and a time you explained something to someone or worked it out with others. Recent cases are easier to tell in detail.
3. Write five short notes for each case. Where and when it happened, and how big it was. What your own part was. Why you did it that way, and what else you considered. What happened, with a number if you can. Who confirmed it, or what changed afterwards.
4. Practice each case out loud. Tell each case start to finish without reading your notes, then tell it again in fewer words. Saying it aloud shows where you skip the why or the result.
5. Try the free practice room. Answer your field's practice questions on screen in the Aethel practice room. It is text only, needs no account, and saves nothing.
6. Check your tech the day before. Use a current browser on a steady connection, find a quiet place, and decide whether you will speak or type. A camera is not required.
7. Choose what you need before you start. On the consent screen, just before the interview, choose any accommodation you need, such as more time per answer or typing only.
8. Answer one case at a time. Listen to the question, pick the case that fits it, and tell it in order: the situation, what you did and why, and the result. Say "I" for your own part.

AI interview tools differ from one to the next. These habits make your answers easier to follow, whichever tool a company uses:

• Prepare stories, not slogans. A case you lived through is easier to follow, and harder to misread, than a list of strengths.
• Answer the question that was asked. If you are not sure what it means, ask for it again in other words.
• Keep to one case per answer. Mixing two stories makes it hard to tell what you did in either.
• Leave out names and private details of patients, clients, children, customers and employers. Say "a resident" or "a regular customer" instead. The story works just as well.
• Speak at your normal pace. A pause to think is fine.
• Find out what the tool records before you start, and ask for an accommodation early if you need one.

Your cases carry the interview, so choose them with care. Good cases have three things in common: you can say where and when it happened and how big it was, you can explain why you acted as you did, and you know how it turned out. They do not need to be dramatic. An ordinary shift, repair, class or month-end told clearly gives a scorer more to work with than an impressive project told vaguely.

Here is one case written as the five notes from step 3:

Notice that every note is something you can say in one or two sentences. If a note is hard to write, that case may be hard to tell, so try another. If your work is not measured in numbers, count what you can, or name who confirmed the result.

In an Aethel interview, those notes line up with what is rated: the situation, your reasoning, and the result. How AI interviews are scored explains each rating, and what a strong interview answer sounds like shows weaker and stronger versions of made-up answers.

Reading notes in your head is not the same as saying them. Tell each case out loud, to a friend or on your own, and after each try ask yourself:

• Did I say where it was and how big it was, early on?
• Did I say what I did, not only what the team did?
• Did I say why, and what else I considered?
• Did I end with what happened, with a number or with who confirmed it?
• Did I leave out names and anything private?

Then try the free Aethel practice. Pick your role and level, type your answers, and get a quick check of each one against the published scoring rules. It is text only, it needs no account, and nothing you type is saved. Practice questions for a few fields:

• Practice questions for healthcare support and caregiving, and what the interview covers in healthcare support and caregiving
• Practice questions for retail, food and hospitality, and what the interview covers in retail, food and hospitality
• Practice questions for skilled trades and facilities, and what the interview covers in skilled trades and facilities
• Practice questions for administration and office support, and what the interview covers in administration and office support
• Practice questions for education and training, and what the interview covers in education and training
• Practice questions for software engineering, and what the interview covers in software engineering

Every field is on the list of fields Aethel interviews for.

• A current browser on a laptop or desktop is easiest. Phones work too.
• If you plan to speak, allow microphone access when your browser asks, and use headphones to avoid echo if you can.
• The camera is optional. If you turn it on, it only shows you a preview of yourself, and it is never sent or recorded.
• Close other apps that use your microphone, such as video calls, so they do not hold on to it.
• Pick a quiet place where you will not be interrupted for the length of the interview.

The full list, including which browsers to use, is in the tech check in the interview guide.

You can always type instead of speaking. Just before an Aethel interview starts, the consent screen also lets you choose these, without asking anyone:

• More time per answer
• More time overall
• Type only, no microphone
• Larger captions

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 another format? Ask Aethel for a different accommodation before you start. You do not need to share a diagnosis.

You can take the interview in English or Spanish. To take it in Spanish, choose "Interview in Spanish" on the consent screen, just before the interview starts. An AI translates each Spanish answer into English before the step that rates it. The quotes behind your scores stay in your own words. Your written feedback is in Spanish. The rest of the results page, the debrief and the voice practice are in English for now. The free text practice is also in Spanish. Spanish scoring has not been in a fairness test yet.

Connections drop. Here is what happens in an Aethel interview when one does:

• 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.
• 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.

Still stuck? Email support@aethel.pro with the time it happened and what you saw. The interview guide has more on what to do if something goes wrong.

• Look over your notes for each case just before you start.
• The interviewer is an AI. It is usually shown on video as a realistic avatar named Nelly, and it tells you it is an AI. Talk to it the way you would explain your work to a new coworker.
• Follow-up questions build on what you said, so expect to be asked for more detail about a case you told.
• If you go blank, say so and take a moment. You can ask for the question again, or in simpler words. The interviewer never suggests an answer.
• A score needs at least 3 full answers, so stay for the whole conversation. Ending sooner means no score, which is not a low score.
• You see your results first, with the quotes behind each score. You can retake the interview 3 times and choose which attempt represents you, except that an interview through a company's link is taken once. Companies never see how many attempts you took.

• How AI interviews are scored

  How the Aethel AI interview scores answers: what counts as evidence, the three ratings, the fixed scale, the caps, and what is never scored.

• What a strong interview answer sounds like

  Made-up before and after examples of interview answers that show how to name a specific case, explain your reasoning, and give a measured result.

• How the AI interview works: the full interview guide

  What to expect on the day, the tech check, accommodations, and what happens after.