Hiring and interview terms, defined clearly.

An AI interview is a structured hiring conversation conducted by software that asks role-relevant questions, processes a candidate's spoken or typed answers, an…

An interview engine is software that conducts a structured interview itself — deciding what to ask next, adapting to a candidate's answers, scoring responses, a…

Asynchronous interviewing is a hiring format where candidates complete a structured interview on their own schedule — without a live interviewer on the call — w…

Structured interviewing is an interview method where every candidate for the same role answers the same job-relevant questions and is evaluated against predefin…

An interview scorecard is a structured evaluation form where interviewers record scores and notes for each job-relevant question against predefined criteria — s…

Candidate screening is the early stage of hiring where applicants are evaluated against job requirements to decide who advances — using resume review, assessmen…

Time to hire is the number of days from when a candidate enters the hiring process — often application or first screen — until they accept a job offer, measurin…

Cost per hire is the total internal and external recruiting expense incurred to make hires in a given period, divided by the number of hires in that period — th…

Interview integrity is the set of practices and technologies used to verify that a candidate's interview answers are their own, given honestly and without unaut…

Adverse impact ratio compares the selection rate of one demographic group to another after a hiring step — commonly using the four-fifths (80%) rule — to detect…

EEOC hiring compliance refers to following U.S. federal equal employment opportunity rules enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — prohibiting…

NYC Local Law 144 is a New York City law requiring employers and employment agencies that use automated employment decision tools (AEDTs) on candidates or emplo…

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) is India's central law governing how organizations collect, use, store, and transfer personal data — i…

Voice AI latency is the elapsed time between when a user finishes speaking and when an AI voice system begins its response — encompassing speech detection, tran…

ASR word error rate (WER) is the percentage of words incorrectly recognized by an automatic speech recognition system — combining substitutions, deletions, and …

An interview rubric is a scoring guide that defines what each rating level means for a specific competency or question — giving interviewers or automated system…

An AI recruiter is hiring software that automates parts of the recruiting workflow — such as sourcing candidates, personalised outreach, resume screening, chat-…

Phone screen automation is the use of software — often AI-led voice interviews or structured async calls — to conduct first-round recruiter phone screens at sca…

Bulk hiring is the practice of recruiting a large number of employees for the same or similar roles within a compressed timeframe — typical in BPO seat fills, f…

Multilingual interviews are structured hiring conversations offered in more than one language — allowing candidates to speak or respond in a language they are f…

An AI interviewer is software that runs structured hiring conversations — asking role-relevant questions, probing incomplete answers, and scoring responses agai…

A video interview is any hiring conversation where the candidate appears on camera — whether live with interviewers, one-way recorded responses to preset prompt…

Competency-based interviewing is a structured method where interviewers ask candidates to demonstrate specific job competencies — such as customer de-escalation…

The STAR method is a framework for structuring behavioural interview answers: Situation (context), Task (your responsibility), Action (what you specifically did…

A behavioral interview asks candidates to describe specific past work situations — typically with prompts like 'tell me about a time when' — so interviewers can…

A technical interview assesses job-specific skills — writing code, debugging systems, applying clinical protocols, or solving domain problems — through live exe…

A system design interview evaluates how a candidate architects scalable, reliable software systems — discussing requirements, trade-offs, bottlenecks, and failu…

Interviewer bias is systematic distortion in hiring judgments — favouring candidates who resemble the interviewer, overweighting first impressions, or scoring o…

Predictive validity measures how well a hiring method — such as a structured interview, work sample, or cognitive test — forecasts actual on-the-job performance…

Skills-based hiring selects candidates based on demonstrated capabilities and job-relevant competencies — assessed through structured interviews, work samples, …

Evidence-based hiring applies selection methods backed by research on predictive validity and fairness — structured interviews, work samples, calibrated rubrics…

High-volume hiring is recruiting that fills many similar roles in a short window — contact centers, retail stores, warehouse peaks, seasonal campaigns — where m…

Campus hiring recruits graduating students from colleges and universities — often through placement cells, career fairs, and bulk application drives — using str…

Candidate ghosting is when one party stops communicating during hiring — applicants disappearing after interviews or ignoring offers, or employers leaving candi…

Time to fill measures the calendar days from requisition approval — or job posting — to candidate offer acceptance, capturing how long a seat stays open during …

Quality of hire measures how well new employees perform after joining — through ramp speed, manager performance ratings, retention at ninety or one hundred eigh…

Structured hiring standardises the entire selection process for a role — from job analysis and interview questions through rubrics, scorecards, and decision rul…

Job analysis in hiring identifies the tasks, knowledge, and competencies that distinguish strong performers in a specific role — forming the foundation for stru…

Indian English ASR is automatic speech recognition optimised for Indian English accents, regional pronunciation patterns, and common Hindi-English code-mixing —…

Turn-taking in voice AI is how conversational systems detect when a speaker has finished talking — through endpoint detection, pause thresholds, and barge-in ha…

A take-home assignment is work a candidate completes outside a live interview — coding exercises, case studies, or design tasks — to demonstrate job skills asyn…

The halo effect in hiring occurs when one positive trait — a prestigious degree, confident delivery, or an impressive first answer — causes interviewers to rate…

The contrast effect in hiring is when an interviewer's ratings depend on who they interviewed immediately before — a mediocre candidate after a weak one looks s…

False positive rate in hiring measures how often a screening step advances candidates who later underperform or fail in the role — the 'bad hire' error. Every t…

Barge-in in voice AI is the ability for a user to interrupt the system while it is speaking — stopping playback and capturing the user's speech — so conversatio…

Word error rate (WER) is the standard metric for automatic speech recognition accuracy — calculated as the percentage of words incorrectly inserted, deleted, or…

Offer accept rate is the percentage of job offers extended that candidates accept — calculated as accepted offers divided by total offers made. It reflects comp…

Skills inference in hiring is the process of deriving competency assessments from candidate evidence — spoken answers, work samples, or assessment responses — u…

Knowledge graph hiring uses a structured graph — nodes for skills, roles, tools, and competencies connected by relationships — to map candidate evidence from in…

An evidence-cited score is an interview rating where each competency mark is linked to specific candidate evidence — a quoted answer span, observed behaviour, o…

A structured phone screen is a first-round candidate conversation where every applicant hears the same core questions scored against a predefined rubric — unlik…

AI interview practice is candidate-facing rehearsal — answering structured questions to an AI interviewer or chatbot and receiving feedback on timing, clarity, …

A mock interview is a practice hiring conversation — with a peer, career coach, mentor, or AI tool — that simulates real employer questions without affecting hi…

An interview API is a programmatic interface — REST or webhook endpoints — that lets applicant tracking systems and custom HR tools create interview sessions, s…

A WhatsApp interview is a structured hiring screen delivered through WhatsApp — text prompts, voice notes, or linked async flows — so candidates complete first-…

A voice interview is a hiring screen where candidates answer questions by speaking — over phone, VoIP, or an AI-led async session — without video. Employers use…

An async video interview — also called one-way or on-demand video interview — presents structured questions that candidates answer by recording video on their o…

A panel interview is a hiring conversation where the candidate faces multiple interviewers simultaneously — typically three to five stakeholders from HR, hiring…

Scoring calibration in hiring is a training exercise where interviewers independently score the same recorded answers or live scenarios, then discuss discrepanc…

An adverse action notice is a formal communication employers send when a hiring decision not to hire — or to rescind an offer — is based in whole or in part on …