How a Virtual Job Tryout works
HireVue describes the Virtual Job Tryout as an assessment that immerses candidates in job-related tasks and gives them a hands-on preview of the role. It includes a realistic job preview, which HireVue says lets candidates self-select out if the job is not for them. HireVue has more than 40 job-specific tryouts for entry-level to manager roles, in industries such as banking, healthcare and manufacturing.
Because each tryout is built for a job, its content depends on the role. The tryouts came to HireVue with Modern Hire: HR Dive reported in May 2023 that HireVue had announced it was acquiring Modern Hire, whose products included Virtual Job Tryout role-based assessments. HireVue’s customer-care case study describes a tryout Modern Hire built that tested customer service, multitasking and situational judgement.
A worked example: AT&T’s published guides
AT&T is one of the few employers that publishes guides to its tryouts. Its careers site lists six: Call Center, Customer Service Rep, Retail Sales Consultant, Business Sales, Field Sales Representative / In Home Expert, and Premise-Wire Technician. The call centre and retail guides describe four sections each:
- Scenarios: for each situation, choose the response you would be most likely and least likely to give, from four. No skipping and no reviewing earlier answers.
- A job task. In the call centre version you listen to calls, check what each caller says against the records, and alert a supervisor when the team’s satisfaction rating drops below 90%; you can replay the audio, and this is the only timed section. In the retail version you check shelf labels against product information and mark each one Match or Error.
- Background: questions about your work experience. You can go back to the previous question only.
- Work style: pairs of statements, choosing the one that describes you better.
What the employer receives
HireVue says hiring teams receive a candidate fit profile that rates you on the competencies important to the job and on how likely you are to perform and stay in the role, along with your strengths, areas for development, and recommended follow-up questions for later interviews. It does not publish how individual answers are weighted.
AT&T’s guides add practical detail: take the tryout in one sitting on a PC, Mac, tablet or phone, set aside 25 to 50 minutes depending on the role, answer the questions about yourself candidly and without over-thinking, and expect to wait six months before a retake if you do not qualify. They also say there are no specific materials to study.
How our practice version works
Ours is one representative tryout for a customer-operations role, in six sections: situational scenarios where you mark the most and least effective of four responses, and both must be right to score; questions answered from reference tables; reading customer messages and saying what the customer feels; background questions; an unannounced recall section about those customer messages; and paired work-style statements. The background and work-style sections are not scored. There is no countdown, though we record how long you take, and there is no Back button or skip.
It is not a copy of your tryout. AT&T’s published versions have four sections and ask for the response you are most and least likely to give, not the most and least effective. Our emotion and recall sections follow preparation-site accounts of other tryouts rather than any HireVue or employer source, and where a real tryout plays audio we print the words. Use it to practise the format, then read your own employer’s guide if it publishes one.