The advent of text message job interviews has already started picking up speed, especially in certain industries.
Having a job interview by text probably wouldn’t have been imagined when texting started picking up popularity. However, the idea has been turning into a reality recently. Some companies and institutions now regularly reach out to job applicants by text message, and then just conduct their interviews via text. If you’re applying for one of these positions, it’s quite likely that you’ll never meet the person who interviewed you in person.
Texting has generally become the go-to form of communication in today’s world. This is especially true of the youngest generations, which often communicate by text alone as calling without texting first becomes an emergency option for many. According to the Pew Research Center, adults are also increasingly using text messages, as 72% did in 2010, compared with 65% in 2009. If you do a quick Google search on “text or call?” you’ll quickly find many etiquette guides for different situations. Given this, it’s actually a surprise texting for job interviews didn’t start happening earlier.
Aman Brar, CEO of text-based interviewing platform Jobvite claims that his company’s platform is used to hire pilots, nurses, and manufacturing workers. While many professions are definitely keeping the hiring process old school, you can expect to hear about more text job interviews in the near future.