Volkswagen-backed startup Scout Motors broke cover just a few months ago, and at this week’s CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada, they hold the honor of being one of the only American automakers with a presence at the show. That’s not the only thing that stands out about Scout being here, though. In a sea […]
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The start of the year is usually one of the busiest times for hiring as many companies have finalized their new budgets.
If you're brushing up on your interview skills right about now, BI spoke with several current and former recruiters for the traits they say always make a good first impression.
Here are the green flags they like to see in job candidates:
"Self-reflection, accountability, and confidence in themselves and their work," are green flags to Lauren Monroe, who leads the creative practice group at Aquent, a staffing agency for creative, marketing, and design roles.
A personalized touch also helps. Monroe recalls one candidate who "studied the job description and prepared success stories and examples for every responsibility" to share in the interview. As the cherry on top, the candidate "created a fun animation using the company's logo and added it to their email signature" in their thank-you note.
Tessa White, a former head HR chief, is the CEO of The Job Doctor and author of "The Unspoken Truths for Career Success."
"When a candidate comes in and is clear on how they can help the company, and why they are a fit, it's refreshing," she says. "I often tell people, if you don't know what your value proposition is, I guarantee you the company won't know."
Kyle Samuels, who leads executive search agency Creative Talent Endeavors after 20 years in senior-level executive recruiting, looks for candidates with "a history of coaching and mentoring others" because this shows they "want the organization as a whole to operate at a high level."
Amri Celeste, a recruitment manager and interview coach, watches for applicants who show passion and enthusiasm for the job.
"When a candidate is particularly enthusiastic or excited about a role, the hiring manager will often be enthusiastic and excited about the candidate," she says. "It's one of the most common pieces of positive feedback I receive from managers about candidates."
Having prepared "clear examples of any achievements and duties mentioned on a résumé" ticks off another box on the candidate checklist, she adds.
Marissa Morrison, VP of people at ZipRecruiter, says well-thought-out questions reflect "interest, enthusiasm, and a deeper understanding of the position."
"For example, asking about how they'd be expected to use AI or a certain new technology in the role in a job interview can be a way to demonstrate that you're up to date with current trends and willing to embrace new technologies to creatively solve problems, drive value, and support your work," she says.
"Having a positive attitude, showing enthusiasm for the role, and being engaged during your interview can help set you apart from the competition," Amy Garefis, chief people officer at ZipRecruiter. "In my experience, it is often the tiebreaker for me between candidates with similar skills or professional experience."
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has strong words for the former board members who abruptly fired him late last November. “[A]ll those people that I feel, like, really f—ed me and f—ed the company were gone, and now I had to clean up their mess,” he told Bloomberg in a wide-ranging interview. Just over a year […]
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If you're not hearing back after applying for jobs, you may need to make some changes to your résumé, interview prep, or search strategy.
A cooler labor market means it could be harder to find a job now than a couple of years ago. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows there were 1.1 job openings per unemployed person this past October, the latest month with data, compared to 1.3 job openings per unemployed person a year earlier.
Stacie Haller, the chief career advisor with ResumeBuilder.com, said she thinks "people aren't necessarily as prepared when they enter a job search today" because they may think the job market is the same as it was many years ago.
But for job seekers who are struggling, there are ways you can try to improve your odds. Below are some things that you may want to change if you aren't landing a job.
One issue could be you're sending out a bunch of résumés, including for jobs you don't even want or for jobs where you don't have the desired experience. Haller suggested having most of what an employer is looking for before applying to the role.
"I would prefer people to not send out 800 résumés just throwing spaghetti against the wall," Haller said. "That's when you hear from people, 'It's a horrible market, and I can't get a job.'"
Gabrielle Davis, a career trends expert at Indeed, told Business Insider people should first consider the things that matter to them in a job beyond a paycheck, such as the benefits and whether it's remote, instead of first applying to many roles.
"I think that when job seekers function from maybe a place of slight panic, they don't do that because they feel like, 'I just have to move fast because the market's moving fast. I have to get all the stuff in, and I'm just going to see what sticks,'" Davis said. "And that's not always really fruitful for them. So I think that it's better to take a much more intentional approach to the actual job search."
OK, so you have decided to send out fewer résumés that are more focused on gigs you want. Now, don't wait too long to actually apply.
Haller said job seekers should reply to a job posting within 24 hours "to at least have a shot to be in the mix."
Haller said people come to her and say, "'Oh, I saw a job posting that I'm interested in.' And they take days, if not a week, to reply."
She added, "By the time they send their résumé out, that company's probably on final interviews."
Six seconds. That's how long Haller said job seekers have "to capture somebody's attention by your résumé or by your profile."
Formatting could be important to consider when putting together a résumé in hopes of successfully landing work.
"You need to know how to create and format a résumé that works in today's job search process," Haller said, adding this "means the formatting should be cleaned, standardized, and easy to read."
Leanne Getz, vice president of tech staffing firm Experis's delivery channels, said the résumé should also be similar to things noted on a candidate's online profile, like on LinkedIn. She also said résumés should be accurate and be in their own words.
"We're seeing candidates utilizing certain AI tools to generate the résumé, and it's fine to use it to help guide or give you suggestions, but you want to be careful about having something like ChatGPT design your whole résumé," Getz said. "It's easy for recruiters to pick up on that. It doesn't seem authentic."
There's more that can be done than uploading a résumé to a job application. Haller said job seekers may want to see who they can contact at the company beforehand.
Haller said, "The last thing you want to do is dump your résumé into" an applicant tracking system "if you have another way to make contact inside that company."
Getz noted people could consider who they may know at the place they're hoping to get a job when they are applying.
"It is often about the network and who you know, but it also is sometimes just a game of numbers," Getz said. "There are so many applicants. You have to just keep applying, be consistent, be persistent, be patient."
If you get the good news that an employer is interested in interviewing you, it's probably best to prepare for the interview with some research.
Haller said people should know the company's mission, why they even want to work for the employer, and prepare questions to ask during the interview.
"I've interviewed people as a hiring manager with people who have no idea what the company does or why they're even interested in a job," Haller said. "That's a waste of everybody's time."
Some helpful hints of what to say during the interview are in the job posting itself.
"The job posting tells you exactly what they're looking for," Haller said. "That's where your prep starts. So if you know what they're looking for, you want to prepare as many examples that you can about what they might ask in reference to what they're looking for in the person they hire."
Getz also talked about being prepared and other basics of interviewing. Getz said to make "sure that you're dressed professional, that you've prepared, that you've done your research on the company that you're interviewing with, that you have strong questions to ask, that you're prepared to answer behavioral style questions."
Don't do an interview from a car and eliminate any background noise, Getz also advised. Getz emphasized the basics of doing an interview because "it could be one of those minor, little things that knock you out of consideration that could have been overcome by simply being prepared, dressed for the interview."
Davis suggested preparing a few main points that you want to reiterate in every interview round. "If you're speaking to maybe two or three people at a company, just because you've spoken to the same people at one company doesn't always mean that they are sharing exactly what you've spoken about to their colleagues," Davis said.
She added those main points can help show your prep, and she said, "Any sign of preparedness to an employer means, OK, this person is showing up. They're here. They're taking it seriously."
Davis said a handwritten thank-you note could be good if you did an in-person interview. Even if it was not an in-person interview, Davis said sending a simple thank-you note on the same day could be good.
Davis said the note should thank the person for their time and include something personal from the interview to show you were listening.
"I think that really goes a long way," Davis said. "And after that, it's kind out of your hands, so waiting to hear back from the recruiter or hiring manager and then going from there."
Getz said "to be cautious about how often you're following up" because you're not the only job candidate a hiring manager is talking to. She said people don't want to overdo their reach out, and it should be professional.
How long did it take you to find a job, or how long have you been unemployed? Reach out to this reporter to share your experience at [email protected].
Brian Bills
Emily Schildt is a millennial, but if you peeked into her pantry, you could easily mistake her for Gen Z.
Bank of America reported Gen Z customers spent more at premium grocery stores than any other generation in 2024. Younger consumers are more likely to buy luxury grocery items as they become priced out of more expensive purchases, like a house or designer handbag.
Schildt, 37, gets the hype. The self-proclaimed "peanut butter connoisseur" currently has two spreads on rotation in her Brooklyn home: One Trick Pony Nuts, a peanut butter made of Argentine peanuts and Patagonian sea salt, and Pistakio's pistachio spread. Together the two jars retail at over $25.
Schildt, the CEO of Pop Up Grocer, is accustomed to the price of luxury condiments. She launched the boutique grocery store in 2019 to spotlight the newest modern food and beverage brands.
Brian Bills
The brand's first brick-and-store opened last year in the West Village. TikTokers dubbed Pop Up Grocer as New York City's answer to Erewhon — an upscale market chain in Los Angeles known as a celebrity hotspot and for pricing essentials like milk for $20.
Schildt was working as marketer for small food companies and saw firsthand how difficult it was for her clients to succeed at large retailers.
"You can obviously have a great product and a wonderful story to tell, but ultimately, it was really difficult, if not impossible, to find a shelf on which to sell your product," Schildt said.
That realization led her to launch Pop Up Grocer in 2019. Schildt told Business Insider, "I started as a single pop-up store here in New York and it was just 10 days long and it was really successful. So we went on to do nine more of those." Pop up Grocer raised a $3 million seed round in 2021.
Now, the company has evolved into a permanent store. Schildt said the store, which opened in 2023, has been successful "in terms of year-over-year growth."
"We have been fortunate to operate every unit since our start profitably," she said, adding "I'm very proud and excited about that."
"Now we are putting plans in place and making inroads to open a second store," she said.
The last four years haven't been without challenges.
First, there was the not-so-small hurdle of launching Pop Up Grocer during a worldwide pandemic. "It was wild," Schildt said, adding that she felt it has had a lasting impact on consumers.
People might be more "flush with cash" nowadays, she said, but "they're being very reserved about how they're spending it."
However, one demographic isn't afraid of splurging on pantry products: Gen Z. BI previously reported that Gen Zers are spending more on expensive snacks, food, and beverages than ever.
Schildt echoed this, telling BI the generation has redefined groceries as "a more accessible luxury product."
Brian Bills
"A $20 Hailey Bieber smoothie from Erewhon might give you some clout among your peers and social audience," she said. Similarly, at Pop Up Grocer, some of the most expensive snacks have the highest sales in revenue.
A $20 Coconut Cult yogurt is small potatoes compared to a luxury handbag, but it still gives you a feeling of indulgence, Schildt said.
Like many CEOs, Schildt does some of her best problem-solving and ideating on the shop floor.
"I learned that I didn't really know my customers at all until, you know, I sat in our café for a week and watched how people use the store, what they're buying, and how they interact with our team."
It's a strategy that Schildt used long before she opened the first Pop Up Grocer store.
When asked about the Erewhon comparisons, Schildt said, "Erewhon is my Mecca," adding, "I went many times as a point of inspiration for starting my business. To go in there and to find camel milk as a concept was really sort of inspiring."
In the aisles of Erewhon, Schildt asked herself: "If I'm using the store in this way for discovery and inspiration, why isn't there a store that is created specifically for that purpose?"
Brian Bill
Enter Pop Up Grocer.
"Ultimately, our goal is to be the Sephora, if you will, of food and beverage, of grocery," she said, "a place for discovering new brands and new products, for prioritizing, as a company, new brands and underrepresented and under-resourced founders across the US."
Aspirational grocery shopping is a promising market for Schildt to bet her success on. Erewhon made an estimated profit of $171 million last year and told Bloomberg it averages four times the annual revenue per square foot of other groceries. Bayley & Sage, a luxury independent grocery store in London, saw a 29% increase in revenue last year, according to the Financial Times.
Schildt wouldn't say where she plans to open the next Pop Up Grocer, though Los Angeles, a hub for the rich and famous of America, does seem like a logical next step.
If Pop up Grocer does head west, Erewhon should brace for some friendly competition, which Schildt said is necessary to grow the category.
"The more the merrier," she added.
Icelandair
Icelandair has received its first-ever Airbus aircraft, breaking from its all-Boeing fleet for the first time in its nearly 90-year history.
The new A321neoLR planes, which can travel up to nine hours nonstop, were delivered in Reykjavik on December 3. By 2027, the 7 new planes will replace Icelandair's aging fleet of Boeing 757s.
Icelandair CEO Bogi Nils Bogason told Business Insider that the A321LR is the "best replacement" for the inefficient 757s as it is 30% more fuel efficient per seat with a similar capacity.
Airbus
He also said the Airbus order has nothing to do with Boeing's ongoing production issues.
"We ran a campaign between Boeing and Airbus in 2022 and finalized that in early 2023 with Airbus," he said, meaning the deal was signed before the Alaska Airlines 737 Max blowout in January.
The 757 has been the backbone of Icelandair's operation since 1990, connecting Iceland to North America and mainland Europe. Its smaller size makes it cheaper to fly compared to widebody planes while still providing sufficient capacity to be profitable.
But Boeing never built a replacement for the 757, which was discontinued in 2004. This gave Airbus an opportunity to seize the transatlantic narrow-body market with its long-range A321neo family.
Plenty of other Boeing planes will remain in Icelandair's fleet. It currently flies 21 Boeing 737 Max aircraft, which it ordered in 2012 before the A321LR or A321XLR were available.
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Cirium data shows nearly 22,000 Max flights scheduled for 2024 across cities in Europe and the US. At least 23,000 Max flights are scheduled for 2025, including new routes to Nashville and Istanbul.
"We are operating, on our scale, a very big Boeing fleet into the future, so Boeing continues to be a very important partner of Icelandair," Bogason said.
Icelandair also flies a small fleet of Boeing 767s on routes where it can carry a lot of cargo alongside passengers. Bogason said these will continue to fly for the "near future."
Icelandair's first passenger A321LR flight took off Tuesday, flying from Reykjavik to Stockholm, with later flights scheduled to Copenhagen.
Cirium data shows that the A321LR will expand to 15 more European cities through 2025, like Rome, Helsinki, Munich, and Zurich. In North America, the jet will fly up to eight hours nonstop to cities including Seattle, Toronto, and Portland, Oregon.
None of these are new Icelandair routes and are already served with Boeing jets, but the A321LR will slowly phase out the 757 or fly alongside the Max to these cities, per Cirium.
Icelandair's A321LR plane has 187 seats in two cabins: 165 in economy and 22 in "Saga Premium."
Saga resembles premium economy, featuring large reclining seats with privacy wings, a legrest and footrest, and a 16-inch television screen. The 2×2 cabin does not have lie-flat seats as seen on the A321LR planes flown by JetBlue Airways or Ireland's Aer Lingus long-haul.
Icelandair
Bogason said this is due to most of its flights being shorter because they stop in Iceland rather than fully crossing the Atlantic.
He acknowledged that flights to cities like Seattle could take eight hours, but equipping and operating planes with different premium cabins would be too complicated and costly.
"We use the same planes in North America and Europe, but many of the European flights are short, so lie flat would not be in a very high demand there," Bogason said. "There is definitely revenue potential, but we believe we have the right product for our business model and for the locations that that we are in."
Icelandair
Bogason added that the shorter flight times may negate the need for lie-flat business class, but it helps Icelandair earn business from competitor airlines. This is thanks to its stopover program, which allows travelers to stay in Iceland for a few days before connecting beyond Reykjavik.
Bogason said this helps convince travelers to choose one-stop Icelandair over the nonstop transatlantic options.
Icelandair also has 13 A321XLRs on order — an even longer-ranged Airbus narrowbody variant — that will also act as replacements, but the first is not expected to be delivered until 2029.
Bogason said the A321XLR will allow Icelandair to fly even further and open new routes.
"We could fly the new narrowbody into California, into Texas, and into the East from Iceland," he said. "This creates a lot of opportunities for the development of our network and our business model."
More than a dozen global airlines, including American Airlines, Spanish flag carrier Iberia, Hungary's Wizz Air, and United Airlines, have placed more than 550 orders for the new A321XLR.
Taylor Rains/Business Insider
Similar to Icelandair, United is planning to use the extra-long-haul jet as a replacement for a 757 and launch new nonstop flights to destinations like West Africa and Northern Italy.
Thanks to its extra fuel tank, the A321XLR can fly 800 miles further than the A321LR and open new routes previously unreachable with narrowbodies or unprofitable with widebodies.
Bogason did not reveal any details about Icelandair's expected A321XLR cabin, but the jet is versatile. American and United, for example, are equipping the plane with lie-flat business class.
Budget carrier Wizz Air will only offer a no-frills economy cabin on its A321XLRs, which its CEO says passengers will just have to "suffer" through for a cheap long-haul ticket.
If OpenAI has its way, the next online course you take might have a chatbot component. Speaking at a fireside on Monday hosted by Coeus Collective, Siya Raj Purohit, a member of OpenAI’s go-to-market team for education, said that OpenAI might explore ways to let e-learning instructors create custom “GPTs” that tie into online curriculums. […]
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Chirs Burnett for BI; Lauren Harris
It's no secret that artists yearn for creative freedom, and in recent years, musicians like Raye, Tinashe, Laufey, and Little Simz have opted to release their music independently instead of via the traditional major-label system.
But that creative freedom comes at a price — literally.
In Business Insider's new feature, "Want to make money as a pop star? Dream on," singers, songwriters, managers, and music lawyers explain why making money as an independent artist is especially tough, particularly for those who are early in their careers.
Thanks to streaming services and social media, it seems easier than ever to become a star. Artists no longer need distribution deals to upload their music online, or expensive marketing campaigns to get noticed on TikTok.
"You've got this democratization of the music business where there's not the same barrier for entry," said Donald Passman, a veteran music lawyer who is the author of the music-industry bible "All You Need to Know About the Music Business." "The problem is that everybody's got that access."
About 100,000 new tracks are uploaded to Spotify every day, per Passman. "So how do you break through the noise? That essentially is what the labels have become," he explained.
Labels typically offer artists advances as a signing incentive, which they expect to recoup over time. They'll also often front the cost of recording an album — a key benefit for any artist who wants to work with high-quality producers and sound engineers.
"If you want to be a worldwide superstar, so far, nobody's really done it without a label," Passman said. "People can get along pretty far down the path, but they don't really do it without a label."
Derek White/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Muni Long, a Grammy-winning R&B singer and songwriter who's also written hits for artists such as Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, and Fifth Harmony, recently broke down these expenses for Apple Music 1's Nadeska Alexis.
By her back-of-the-napkin estimation, which included studio costs ($1,200 per 12-hour block, plus a session engineer at $75 to $100 an hour), mixing and mastering (anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000 a song), and paying for beats (anywhere from $5,000 to $40,000), the baseline cost to record a full-length album like her 2022 breakthrough, "Public Displays of Affection: The Album" would be about $300,000.
"That eliminates 75% of the people who are aspiring," Long said. "I didn't realize how much money that it takes to actually be an artist."
Long's estimates align with Passman's; he said it can "easily" cost $250,000 to record an album, especially for pop and hip-hop artists, who tend to collaborate with larger teams.
That price tag is a key reason many artists still opt for a record contract, even if it means signing away their masters (the original sound recordings of their songs) or agreeing to a lopsided division of royalties. Getting cash up-front gives the artist freedom to make music without worrying about the often astronomical price tag — at least not right away.
Rachel Chinouriri, a 26-year-old singer-songwriter from London, told me that signing to Parlophone/Atlas Artists in the UK was the only way she could afford to make music her full-time job. The contract offered a supportive team and a financial safety net. Otherwise, she would've had to write songs on the side while fueling her income with another gig — not an uncommon practice for independent artists.
"My manager was just like, 'Here are the amount of costs you'll need,' and I'm someone who is paying rent and can't live at home with my family," she explained. They both agreed the indie route wasn't feasible.
While creating her debut album, "What a Devastating Turn of Events," Chinouriri was able to execute her vision on her label's dime, instead of fronting the money herself.
"I've never had to sit and think, 'How much has this studio session cost?' When I did my album, I don't even know how much the producers got paid — it just was done," Chinouriri says. Her plan is to build a following and recoup over time; she notes she's still being loaned money from her label and is not yet in the black.
"I don't know how I'd be able to do all of this and then have to think of the cost," Chinouriri adds. "I don't know how Raye does it, I don't know how Tinashe does it. It's such a mission."
While Raye and Tinashe are independent artists, neither began their careers that way, splitting from Polydor and RCA respectively after negative experiences.
By the time they severed ties with their major labels, both had already built loyal audiences, networks of collaborators, and teams they could rely on when the purse strings tightened. And even that doesn't necessarily mean they're bringing in a profit.
In June, Raye told me she was "breaking even," while Simonne Solitro, Tinashe's longtime manager, said they've had to figure out how to make songs and music videos on a "microbudget."
"Every single dollar that you make needs to funnel back into your project," Solitro said. "You essentially become a startup business."
KAPFHAMMER; Chris Burnett for BI
Raye is a multi-platinum singer and three-time Grammy nominee who has worked with Beyoncé and opened for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour. And yet, as of this summer, she said her music career still isn't making her money.
In Business Insider's new feature, "Want to make money as a pop star? Dream on," Raye opened up about balancing the books as an independent artist and sacrificing profit to serve her artistic vision.
"There's ways to make quick cash and there's ways to make a profit. And trust me when I tell you, I'm not taking those ways," Raye told me in June following a performance at the Conrad hotel in downtown Manhattan.
It was the latest stop in a series of mini-concerts across the globe, including Amsterdam, London, and Berlin, to promote her newest single, "Genesis." The price to organize and execute these shows — from travel expenses to lighting design and hiring a full band — was far from cheap, Raye said, but ultimately worth the investment.
"We're breaking even and it's beautiful," she said.
"I'm putting out a piece of music that I'm really proud of," she added, "with the roll-out plan that I wanted."
Raye, 27, was born Rachel Keen in London to a Ghanaian-Swiss mother and an English father. In 2014, she signed a four-album record deal with Polydor, who were impressed by the buzz surrounding her self-released EP, "Welcome to the Winter."
Seven years, four more EPs, and hundreds of thousands of streams later, Raye publicly accused Polydor of keeping her debut album suspended in limbo. She begged the label to take her off the shelf, saying she'd already tried everything else. "I switched genres, I worked seven days a week, ask anyone in the music game, they know," she wrote on X.
The following month, Raye announced that she'd been freed from her contract. In 2023, she released her first full-length LP as an independent artist, "My 21st Century Blues," which landed at No. 3 on BI's list of the year's best albums.
Earlier this year, Raye took home six Brit Awards, setting a record for the most wins in a single night. She's nominated for songwriter of the year, non-classical at the 2025 Grammys, and will also compete against stars like Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter for best new artist. (She was also nominated for best engineered album, non-classical for her work as a producer on Lucky Daye's "Algorithm.")
Jeff Spicer/WireImage
In the music industry, working outside the major-label system can yield more creative control. For Raye, it has ushered in a new era of critical acclaim and commercial success.
But there are downsides, too, namely the lack of financial backing. Labels typically offer an advance as a signing incentive, though the actual dollar amount varies widely. They also tend to cover the up-front costs of recording and promoting an album — studio sessions, producers, sound engineers, photographers, stylists, and radio campaigns, to name a few — which can total $250,000 or more for pop and hip-hop artists, according to Donald Passman, a veteran music lawyer who is the author of the music-industry bible "All You Need to Know About the Music Business."
These days, touring is especially expensive, as costs for everything from bus rentals to hotel rooms to hiring a lighting technician or manning a merchandise table have ballooned.
"You're getting paid X to do Coachella, and then you spend double the amount that you got paid to do the show on the show itself, because you want to do a great show," Raye explained. "And you have to pay musicians, and the singers, and everyone what they deserve."
To find any level of success in the industry, Raye said she needs to be as much a businesswoman as she is a creative force.
Still, even when faced with the cold, hard numbers, she said that losing money is preferable to cutting corners.
"It upsets me to do a half-assed gig or to do a half-hearted thing," Raye said. "If I was in this to make money, I wouldn't even be releasing the kind of music that I am."
EY
EY, a Big Four accounting and consulting firm, is turning to technology to improve its recruiting process — in part by allowing job candidates to warm up with an AI interviewer before getting face-to-face with a real person.
Company leaders who work on recruiting and metaverse experiences told Business Insider the AI interviewer was aimed at providing a better — and potentially less stressful — hiring process.
A link to the AI-powered avatar, called eVe, is sent out to candidates as soon as they are selected to advance to the interview stage. eVe can answer questions about the company and help candidates prepare for their interview with a real person, according to Francesca Jones, an early careers leader at EY.
The AI avatar, which appears on the screen as a real person would during a video chat, can be spoken to directly and offers verbal answers back within moments, mimicking an actual conversation. It can also be used with text like other chatbots.
eVe can walk candidates through what the EY hiring process is like and help with case study preparation. It can also answer follow-up questions and give detailed responses about how benefits like healthcare and retirement plans work at the company. eVe can be used at any point in the process, so candidates can revisit it when weighing whether or not to accept a job offer.
EY started offering eVe to job candidates in early October, so they are still waiting to get a fuller picture of how it is being used. However, eVe went through months of internal user testing with hundreds of interns, which gave a glimpse into how early-career professionals in particular would use the tool.
"I was amazed by the types of questions they asked and how much time they actually spent with it," Domhnaill Hernon, global lead of EY's Metaverse Lab, told Business Insider. He suspected the younger generation might spend two to three minutes with eVe and then move on, but they were regularly spending 15 to 20 minutes engaging with it conversationally, asking questions and follow-ups.
One intern who spent 25 minutes talking to eVe went into extreme detail evaluating EY's compensation benefits, particularly comparing the company's pension plan to its 401K offering. Others asked the sort of questions that many early-career professionals want to know ahead of interviews but might be afraid to ask, like what to wear.
EY
Though it is powered by an OpenAI GPT-4 large language model, eVe's knowledge base comes entirely from EY content, so the AI avatar is basing all of its responses on information that is specific to the company, rather than generic answers pulled from the internet.
Jones said that beyond enhancing the recruiting process, the avatar also signals to candidates that the company is ahead of the game from a technology standpoint.
EY, like other major consulting firms, has focused heavily on AI. The company announced last year it had invested $1.4 billion on the technology and created its own large language model.
It's also not the only company to incorporate AI into the hiring process, with so-called AI interviewers becoming more common in the generative AI boom. Companies and recruiters are also using AI to sort through resumes and cover letters.
Apriora, a startup founded last year, provides companies with an AI interviewer called Alex, who can conduct early-stage interviews. The AI interviewer asks questions chosen by the company and can ask the candidate follow-up questions in real time. The startup raised $2.8 million in seed funding and graduated from startup-incubator Y Combinator.
Hernon said they worked with behavioral scientists, neuroscientists, and learning leaders inside and outside of EY to understand psychological safety, with the aim of reducing the "social threat" felt by the user as much as possible. In other words, they wanted eVe to feel less intimidating than a real person might, encouraging the user to ask questions that they otherwise might be too embarrassed to ask.
With that in mind, the team chose to make eVe look human-like, but not like it was pretending to be human, so the avatar is not photorealistic.
"You've removed that human social threat, but yet at the same time it feels human enough that they want to spend time interacting with it," he said.
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