Maybe you’ve just applied for an internship or graduate program, or you are thinking of doing so and have heard of these “HireVue” video interviews. I had many questions when I first heard of them, and you might too.They are used by firms including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, UBS, Bank of America, BlackRock and more, and now form a key part of the hiring process.Having done a countless number of them over the past couple of years, I’m going to break down a little about what they are, and what I’ve learned about them.(Note: this is all information I’ve gathered from specifically UK-based roles, I’m unsure how much of this applies to the US or other countries)What is a HireVue/Video Interview?It’s essentially a pre-recorded job interview that you complete in your own time, on your own laptop, answering a set of pre-defined questions. Rather than speaking with a live interviewer, questions will pop up on-screen for you to answer, with your response being recorded using your webcam.Yes, you talk at your computer screen in 1-2 minute chunks, while sitting in your bedroom. Feels odd, right?As unnatural as it might feel, a large majority of the large investment banks now include a video interview as part of the initial hiring process, particularly on university-targeted programmes. It also serves as one of the earliest and easiest (for the bank) filters to weed out candidates, so it is important that you ace it!HireVue specifically is the name of one of the most commonly used video interview providers by banks. There are others (such as Sonru etc.), however, they all function similarly.Why are they used?They are a low-resource and low-cost method for a firm to quickly gather responses from thousands of candidates and filter down the candidate pool quickly. It saves wasting time during 1st round interviews, and the results are often used in conjunction with psychometric test results to decide who to progress to the interview stage.How is it judged, if there is no human being involved?It isn’t entirely removed from human judgement. The hiring managers at each firm typically review all of the video interviews manually, which means you can forget your worries about a computer misunderstanding your voice.However, some companies turn on HireVue’s AI-based scoring system. This also analyses your facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice and other data from the video stream, which is all used to issue you with an overall “score”. Although not used exclusively to make decisions, hiring managers can see this score, and thus it is additionally important to conduct yourself as you would in a real interview.It’s therefore important first and foremost to act naturally, as you would in a real interview, even if the whole process seems unnatural.What should I wear?The interview is still viewed by a member of the recruiting team, so it is important to still wear smart business attire, as you would for any ordinary interview.What might be I asked?Quite frankly, anything. I’ve had questions ranging from “Talk about something that’s happening in the markets currently” to “What is 144 divided by 90?”. In general, though, it’ll be broad motivational and behavioural questions and ones that test your basic finance, markets and current affairs knowledge.Expect questions such as:“Why us (this company)/why does this role interest you?”“Name a time you’ve worked in a team”“What is your proudest non-academic achievement?”“What industry or product would you invest in, and why?”.This is by no means an extensive list, so prepare for them as you would a standard first-round interview.Should I prepare answers?Many companies use identical questions for all candidates, which you might be able to figure out ahead of time. Preparing answers word-for-word/in script form though is definitely not advisable. It comes off as unnatural in the video, and obvious that you are reading from a script, which will be picked up on.Instead, I’d suggest making a few bullet points and conducting research (about the firm and current affairs) beforehand, so you are poised well to answer said questions but do so in a natural and “flowy” way. The last thing you want to do is to be caught reading answers from your laptop screen!My Personal TipsThe key is to remain calm and unflustered, and treat it like an actual interview.I’d definitely avoid making detailed notes to read from to keep the responses conversation-like and as natural as possible.Dress smart, and ideally have good lighting, a good webcam, a plain background and no background noise.If you have a friend who applied to the same role, it is useful to find out the questions they were asked. However, don’t count on this! I did this once (for Bank of America), and found out the hard way that they serve each candidate a different set of questions, even for the same program. This got me flustered, as I was relying on my carefully curated pre-prepared answers, and ultimately led to a pretty bad HireVue.And finally, make notes of the questions you were asked. They might be the same next year if you happen to be applying again, or you might be able to help a friend out!Feel free to reply if you have any questions, or DM me privately if preferred.This is all based on my personal experiences, but it would be great to hear other people’s tips and tricks for approaching these!I hope that was useful, and good luck!