Struggling with Interview Fatigue?
How to avoid it and regain enthusiasm for your job
Yes, interview fatigue is a real thing. Back-to-back interviews are tiring and stressful. If you’re like a lot of recruiters, your calendar likely looks like a stack of bricks, full of digital interviews. Accommodating everyone’s busy schedules can be frustrating. You’re becoming fatigued by asking the same questions over and over again.
Interview Fatigue Is Worrying and Worsening
Interview fatigue is a legitimate problem that can sabotage even the best laid recruitment plans. With so many of us working behind screens, the phenomenon has become even more widespread. It’s extended beyond in-person interviews to include video interviewing, too.
Stanford University published the first peer-reviewed study on ‘Zoom fatigue,’ which examined the psychological consequences of spending hours per day on video platforms.
“While the software has been an essential tool for productivity, learning, and social interaction, something about being on video conferences all day seems particularly exhausting,” says Jeremy Bailenson, communication professor and founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL).
Bailenson does not villainize the technology. He’s ‘thankful’ it has helped his research group stay productive and keeps friends and family connected. He simply offers an explanation into why it can feel so exhausting. He believes the fatigue boils down to four factors:
- Excessive amounts of intense eye contact (ordinarily reserved for close relationships)
- Cognitive load (people need to work harder to send and receive signals)
- Increased self-evaluation from staring at video of oneself
- Constraints on physical mobility
It makes sense why you’re so tired.
The Negative Effects of Interview Fatigue
Turns out interview fatigue can be more damaging than you might think. Employers like to remind candidates about the need to present themselves professionally during a job interview, but that advice extends to interviewers, too. You’re a representative of the organization for which you’re recruiting talent. In many cases, you are people’s first impression of the brand, and you want it to be a positive, memorable one.
Interview fatigue can cause many unwanted side effects, including:
Increased Job Dissatisfaction
The reason many talent acquisition professionals enter the field of recruitment is because they love working with people. They’re enthusiastic about making genuine connections with potential employees. But monotonous question asking can wear on recruiters’ energy levels, making them feel lethargic about their work. You likely want to find your spark again!
Loss of Focus & Memory
When we’re tired, we tend to make more mistakes. Our memory gets hazy. Applicants blur together, and we can’t remember important interview details. This becomes problematic when trying to collaborate with colleagues, especially hiring managers.
Lowered Expectations
If you’re overtired, you might unnecessarily (and usually unconsciously) lower your expectations—in your work and of candidates. This typically derives from a desire to finish your many rounds of interviews quickly so you can extend a job offer. Smart recruiters know speed of hire should never come at a cost of quality. This can result in high turnover. But still, part of you just wants to get it over with already. Overtiredness leads to this kind of bad attitude and reactivity.
An Unfair Candidate Experience
The person you interview at 9:00 a.m. is more likely to have a better experience than the candidate you interview at 4:00 p.m. when you’re running out of steam and keen to call it a day. The interviewees simply don’t get the same level of attention because of interview fatigue. Equal opportunity employers are actively trying to minimize hiring bias, but fatigue can get in the way of this objective. It can negatively influence your decision making and unintentionally create a poor candidate experience.
Lose Top Talent
If you come across as tired, disinterested, or distracted during job interviews (in-person or digital), you risk losing top talent. When interviewees pick up on your lack of enthusiasm, they often start mirroring your lack of interest. They may shorten their interview responses, and become less interested in the position. Your top pick may decide they don’t want the job, even if they’re offered it.
The bottom line is that you don’t want to be fatigued, stressed out, or otherwise in a poor state of mind when hiring. You’ve tried to shift this negative energy, but it feels stuck. Whether you’re recruiting online, in-person, or some combination, how can you achieve a better headspace when there are so many people to interview?
How to Prevent Interview Fatigue
For improved energy levels, you already know you should get enough sleep, take breaks when you need them, and clean up your diet. We’re not suggesting you add daily meditation or a rigorous yoga practice to your schedule either. Although all these things can be very helpful, there’s one action you can take that can overcome interview fatigue ASAP.
The secret? Pre-recorded video interviews.
Pre-recorded video interviews (also called on-demand, one-way, and asynchronous interviews) can help you finally beat the exhaustion that comes from a long day of interviewing.
With pre-recorded interviews, hiring teams and candidates have complete flexibility since interviewers do not need to meet with candidates in real-time. That means zero scheduling conflicts or time zone complications.
Simply upload your interview questions into the software once (either via recorded videos or written questions). Job applicants can record their answers to your questions 24/7. Just press play to watch candidates’ videos whenever works best for you. Consider what times of the day you feel most efficient, and block off those chunks of time of review videos from candidates. Watch the recorded video responses whenever you are most alert!
If you’re tired, you can let yourself be tired and not have to worry about your appearance on camera. You don’t have to worry about lighting, camera angle, what you’re wearing, or making “eye contact” with candidates by looking into the camera lens. There’s no forced smiling, no small talk, and you can take breaks between interviews to refocus.
This approach to recruitment is extremely effective and guarantees that all candidates receive the exact same experience every time, minimizing unwanted bias. Sharing the recorded videos with other hiring stakeholders is as easy as sending them a secure web link. The improved collaboration that comes from implementing a structured pre-recorded video interviewing process presents a clearer, unbiased view of your candidates—so you feel less fatigued and reenergized by your work.
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