HireVue Games or HireVue Interview? Which One You Have Been Sent
One HireVue invitation can mean a set of games, a Virtual Job Tryout, a coding challenge, a recorded video interview, or several of them in one sitting. How to tell which, and what to practise for each.
Most people preparing for a HireVue assessment prepare for the wrong one. The name is far better known for the recorded video interview, so that is what candidates rehearse, and then the link opens on a list of games with play icons next to them. HireVue sells four separate products through one platform and one invitation email, and the email frequently names more than one of them.
HireVue sells four different things
All four arrive from the same place and can appear in the same message, which is precisely why the name on its own tells you almost nothing.
Reading the invitation
The invitation usually does name the product, just not prominently. These are the phrases worth searching the email for.
Why it is often both
The two are not alternatives and preparing for only one is the common mistake. HireVue's own assessment science white paper describes its example graduate assessment as six interview questions and three short game challenges, in one sitting, measuring eight competencies. The whole thing is usually between seven and twenty minutes, and HireVue tells candidates to set aside about thirty.
So if the email mentions a video interview, that does not rule out games, and if it mentions games, that does not rule out a video interview. The practical answer is to open the link early, read the section introduction screen, which states how many games are in the section and what they measure, and then close it and prepare properly. Your progress is saved if your connection drops, and the games can be paused at any time.
It no longer reads your face
This is the most persistent wrong belief about HireVue and it makes people perform worse on the video stage, because they spend it managing their expression instead of answering the question.
HireVue removed facial analysis from its video screening. The public announcement came in January 2021, and HireVue has said the feature was actually discontinued in March 2020 after its own research found that visual analysis no longer added value to the assessments. There is no version of the current product that scores your face.
What to practise for each
/games/hirevue covers the assessment side: simulations of all eleven games on the real level-ladder mechanic, a representative Virtual Job Tryout with its six sections including the delayed recall trap, and a CodeVue-style coding challenge with marked test cases.
/interview covers the recorded interview: the same one-way format, a preparation window, recording to camera, and feedback on clarity, structure and delivery. That page also covers Willo, Spark Hire and Talview, which run the same format under different branding.
If your invitation names both, do both. They are marked separately and, on HireVue's own account, passing the automated screen is what gets your video in front of a recruiter at all.