Today is Data Day: Ziggeo Discovers Recording Time Is Irrelevant in Video Interviewing
We at Ziggeo have recently found no correlation between the length of a pre-recorded interview and its rating among interviewers. The longer interviews received just as many stars as the shorter ones. Apparently, it’s the interview quality, and not the length, that matters.
We have also found that whether an interviewer sets the interview length at one minute or five minutes (or a time in between), candidates consistently tend to use only about 1/2 the allotted time. (See our data chart at the end of this post.)
The lesson here? Interviewers tend to give candidates too much time to answer pre-recorded questions. They should remember that, even given a lot of time, candidates typically will not use it up anyway. Interviewees, for their part, should not feel compelled to “fill up” the allotted time, since others typically do not.
Why do interviewees use up only 1/2 of their time?
It could be that they are risk-averse and figure that this is a good middle ground which makes their interviews appear neither too long nor too short. Candidates might also be thinking that if they can demonstrate an efficient and effective use of their allotted time in interviews, they are exhibiting hallmarks of a really good employee.
But the real point is that, whether you are interviewer or interviewee, you shouldn’t waste your time fretting about too long or too short. According to our research, size doesn’t matter.
Presumably – and perhaps not surprisingly -- it’s the content that counts.
DATA
We compared the maximum recording time with the average recording time actually used by Ziggeo’s candidates. If the maximum recording time is, for example, 1 minute, candidates on average recorded videos of 31 seconds (which is 51% of the maximum recording length). Here is a sample of our data:
Max. Recording Time versus Avg. Actual Recording Time
- 1:00 minute vs. 0:31 minutes (=51% of time allotted)
- 1:30 minutes vs. 0:51 minutes (=57% of time allotted)
- 2:00 minutes vs. 1:04 minutes (=54% of time allotted)
- 3:00 minutes vs. 1:45 minutes (=58% of time allotted)
- 5:00 minutes vs. 2:26 minutes (=49% of time allotted)
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Ziggeo lets you quickly and easily pre-screen candidates by watching their videos. Candidates simply record short videos of themselves for your own private viewing.