How to Interview Candidates in the Age of AI: The 20-Minute Achievement Deep Dive
⏱ Reading time: 6 minutes
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I use AI every day.
Like many people, I started by subscribing to different tools for different tasks. One for writing, one for research, one for image generation, one for meeting notes. Before long, I was paying for multiple subscriptions and spending more time switching between tools than actually using them.
What caught my attention about Magai is that it brings many of the leading AI models into one platform. Instead of managing several subscriptions, you can access the tools you need from a single workspace.
If you're using AI regularly for work, it's worth taking a look.
How to Interview Candidates in the Age of AI: The 20-Minute Achievement Deep Dive
Reading time: 6 minutes
🔑 Key Takeaways
- Spot genuine capability, not just polished interview answers.
- Uncover who truly owns their achievements and results.
- Make more confident hiring decisions with deeper candidate insights.
- Reduce the risk of hiring great storytellers instead of top performers.
- Use a simple interview technique to improve hiring quality immediately.
The New Reality of Interviewing
A recent survey found that one in five employees use AI during job interviews. Candidates are using AI to research employers, refine CVs, structure behavioural responses, and rehearse interview answers.
This is not necessarily a problem.
Preparation has always been part of the hiring process. Strong candidates have always researched companies, practised responses, and sought advice from mentors. AI simply makes those activities faster and more accessible.
The challenge for employers is different.
When candidates arrive with highly polished answers, it becomes harder to distinguish between people who genuinely delivered results and those who are skilled at presenting a convincing narrative. Interviews increasingly reward communication and preparation rather than capability.
The goal should not be to catch candidates using AI. The goal should be to uncover genuine experience.
Why Traditional Interviews Are Losing Effectiveness
Many interviews still rely on predictable questions:
- Tell me about a difficult stakeholder.
- Tell me about a challenge you overcame.
- Tell me about a project you're proud of.
The issue is not the questions themselves. The issue is that candidates know they are coming.
By the interview stage, many candidates have practised their responses dozens of times. They have refined examples with recruiters, colleagues, mentors, and increasingly, AI tools.
The result is a familiar pattern:
- The interviewer asks a question.
- The candidate delivers a polished answer.
- Notes are taken.
- The conversation moves on.
What does this actually reveal?
Usually, it shows that the candidate prepared well. It does not necessarily show how deeply they understand the work they claim to have done.
Too many hiring decisions are based on headlines rather than substance. The most effective interviewers spend less time covering multiple examples and more time understanding one example thoroughly.
The 20-Minute Achievement Deep Dive
One of the most effective interview techniques in the AI era is surprisingly simple.
Ask a candidate to describe a project, initiative, or achievement they are most proud of. Then spend 20 minutes exploring that achievement in detail.
Do not rush to the next competency. Stay with the example.
People who genuinely led a project remember:
- Why it started
- What challenges emerged
- What decisions they made
- Who resisted change
- What trade-offs were required
- What they learned along the way
Real experience leaves evidence.
The deeper the discussion goes, the harder it becomes to rely on a rehearsed response. A single achievement can reveal how a candidate:
- Solves problems
- Makes decisions
- Influences stakeholders
- Handles setbacks
- Measures success
- Creates business value
The objective is not breadth. It is depth.
What a Deep Dive Looks Like
Imagine interviewing a Head of People candidate.
You ask:
"Tell me about an HR initiative you're particularly proud of."
The candidate replies:
"I redesigned our onboarding programme and improved new-hire retention by 25%."
Many interviewers would note the result and move on.
A stronger approach is to investigate further:
- What triggered the project?
- What was broken before the change?
- How did you identify the root cause?
- Who resisted the initiative?
- How did you secure buy-in?
- What obstacles emerged?
- What failed during implementation?
- What would you do differently today?
The most revealing questions often include:
- What decision were you personally responsible for?
- What went wrong?
- What trade-offs did you make?
- What lessons did you learn?
After twenty minutes, you gain far more insight into how the candidate thinks, operates, and leads than you would from a series of surface-level examples.
Can They Defend the Achievement?
AI has made candidates exceptionally good at packaging accomplishments.
Many arrive with impressive metrics:
- Reduced turnover by 20%
- Increased engagement by 15%
- Improved productivity by 25%
Metrics sound impressive, but they do not prove ownership.
Strong interviewers dig deeper:
- How was the metric measured?
- What was the baseline?
- Who tracked the data?
- What other factors influenced the outcome?
- Why did the result matter to the business?
Candidates who genuinely delivered the outcome can usually answer these questions comfortably because they lived the experience.
More importantly, they can connect the achievement to broader business goals.
For example, reducing employee turnover is not just an HR metric. It affects recruitment costs, productivity, manager workload, employee engagement, and business performance.
The strongest candidates understand both the project and the commercial problem the project was designed to solve. They connect actions to outcomes and outcomes to business value.
Use Scorecards to Evaluate Evidence
A great interview is only half the process. You also need a consistent way to evaluate what you learn.
This is where structured scorecards become critical.
Without a scorecard, interviewers can be influenced by confidence, charisma, or communication style. With AI helping candidates refine their presentation skills, this risk is even greater.
A scorecard shifts the focus from impressions to evidence.
For example, a Head of HR role might be assessed against:
Competency Weighting
Stakeholder Management 30%
Strategic Thinking 25%
Change Management 20%
Problem Solving 15%
Communication 10%
Instead of writing "strong candidate" or "great communicator," interviewers assess specific evidence against each competency.
The deep dive uncovers evidence. The scorecard ensures that evidence is evaluated consistently and objectively.
Conclusion
AI has transformed how candidates prepare for interviews, but it has not changed what employers need to assess.
The best hiring decisions still depend on understanding how people think, solve problems, influence others, and create business value.
Rather than fighting AI, improve the quality of your interviews. Spend twenty minutes exploring one meaningful achievement, challenge candidates to explain their decisions and results, and use structured scorecards to evaluate evidence objectively.
The organisations that master this approach will make better hiring decisions, regardless of how candidates prepare.
f you're looking to strengthen your hiring process further, explore some of our most popular resources on Perennial HR Asia. Our article Interview Scorecards: The Secret to Smarter Hiring explains how structured evaluations improve hiring consistency and reduce bias. You can also read 7 Steps to Keep Candidates Engaged During the Interview Process or 8 Signs your top talent is about to leave
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