If you feel like job interviews have become a completely different game lately, you’re not wrong. The hiring process in 2025 looks and feels different for everyone – job seekers, hiring teams, even the recruiters in between.

Here’s what’s driving the change, why it matters, and how both sides can adapt.

1. Asynchronous Video Interviews Are the New Normal

The scheduling back-and-forth? That’s disappearing. Candidates are increasingly being asked to record video answers to preset questions, while hiring teams watch and score them at their convenience.

• This approach can cut time-to-hire by up to 50%, reduce recruiting costs by around 30%, and still score well on candidate satisfaction.
• Around 40% of organisations now use video-first screening as a standard step.

Efficient? Yes. A little strange to get used to? Also yes.

2. Skills-Based Challenges Are Replacing CVs

It’s becoming less about what’s written on a résumé and more about what you can actually do in practice.

• In the UK, 77% of employers say they prioritise skills tests over academic credentials.
• Skills-first hiring not only reduces hiring errors, it’s also more inclusive – helping to surface talent that traditional CV filters might overlook.
• 72% of hiring managers now say they value skills assessments more than reviewing a CV.

Think less “here’s my work history” and more “watch me solve your problem in real time”.

3. Personality, Aptitude and Soft Skills Testing

As AI-generated CVs flood the market, companies are doubling down on assessments that reveal how people think, adapt, and collaborate.

• 76% of companies now use personality, aptitude or culture-fit assessments – a big jump from just a few years ago.

Hard skills get you noticed. Soft skills get you hired.

4. AI’s Role in Fairer Interviews

Used well, AI can help reduce bias in early-stage interviews. Some systems claim to cut sentiment bias by 41%, making shortlisting more objective.

But candidates have mixed feelings about being interviewed by algorithms, as articles like When Your Interviewer Isn’t Even Human make clear. Transparency and empathy remain essential if the process is to stay human.

Tips for Job Seekers

• Prepare like you’re on camera
  Good lighting, quiet space, and clear, concise answers matter more than ever.
• Embrace skills tests
  Treat them as a stage to showcase your strengths – not just another hoop to jump through.
• Highlight soft skills
  Examples of problem-solving, adaptability, and teamwork will land well with human and AI reviewers.
• Don’t rely on automation alone
  If a process feels cold or unclear, lean on your network for insight.

Why Employers Should Care Too

The “new interview” isn’t just about efficiency. Done right, it:

• Respects candidates’ time
• Enhances employer brand
• Surfaces talent that might be overlooked in a traditional CV stack

But strip away too much human interaction and you risk alienating the very people you want to hire.

Final Thought:
The 2025 interview process blends video, testing, and AI in ways that can feel unfamiliar. For candidates, it’s about preparation and adaptability. For employers, it’s about using the tools without losing the humanity.

Let’s cut to the chase. Salary transparency isn’t a nice-to-have anymore. It’s fast becoming a talent magnet, a reputational boost, and a way to cut hiring friction. And yes, it works whether you’re searching for a job or trying to fill one.

Why it matters for everyone

The data is stacking up:

• Nearly three in four candidates in late 2024 were more likely to apply if the salary was shown in the job ad (Employee Benefits)
• Ads with salary ranges attract 44% more applicants (Recruitics)
• In the UK, 71% of job ads now list salaries, up from 48% in 2019 – the highest share in Europe (Reuters)
• 58% of Gen Z won’t even apply without an estimated salary listed (New York Post)
• AI tools are increasingly being used to benchmark pay more transparently – 22% of firms already use them, with more planning to follow (Business Insider)

What it means on both sides of the desk

For job seekers

You’re tired of vague “competitive salary” lines that rarely deliver. Transparency means you waste less time, you know where you stand sooner, and you feel respected from the outset.

For employers

This isn’t just about compliance. Transparent salaries make your brand stronger, bring in more qualified applicants, and cut the risk of awkward last-minute negotiations.

As one recruiter put it:

“Increasingly, it is a social issue. Advertising a salary range can build trust and demonstrate openness and a commitment to equality.” (Employee Benefits)

The bigger picture

1. Fairness and trust
   Pay transparency helps close wage gaps, particularly for women and underrepresented groups (NFP, arXiv, Wikipedia)
2. Better candidate experience
   Clear pay information reduces drop-outs and avoids late-stage surprises (TALiNT Partners, Recruitics)
3. Regulatory pressure
   New York, California, Colorado, and parts of Europe already require pay ranges in ads (Advanced RPO, Reuters, New York Post)
4. Cultural shifts
   Gen Z sees missing pay info as a red flag (New York Post)

What you can do about it

For employers

• Embed clear salary bands in your ads
• Audit internal equity before you publish ranges
• Train hiring managers to talk openly about pay from the first conversation
• Use AI tools for pay benchmarking, but keep human oversight (Business Insider, TALiNT Partners)

For job seekers

• Prioritise roles that publish pay ranges
• Use sites like Indeed and Glassdoor to check typical ranges
• Ask about pay early. If the answer is vague or evasive, consider what that says about the employer

The takeaway

Salary transparency is becoming a baseline expectation. It’s a sign of trust, a time-saver, and a competitive advantage. The sooner both sides of the hiring table embrace it, the better the experience will be for everyone.

If you’ve been watching the hiring world lately, you’ve probably noticed something. Recruitment is quietly morphing into marketing.
The companies winning the best talent aren’t always the ones offering the biggest salaries. They’re the ones telling a compelling internal story. The ones showing, not just saying, what it’s like to work there.

And the impact is real – on both hiring success and the bottom line.

Why Employer Branding Actually Matters

Here’s what the data says:

• 75 % of job seekers check out a company’s brand before they even apply
• 72 % of hiring leaders say employer branding significantly impacts their ability to hire
  (worldmetrics.org)
• A strong employer brand can mean 43 % lower cost per hire and 50 % more qualified applicants
  (gitnux.org, worldmetrics.org)
• Half of candidates say they’d refuse a job with a bad reputation, even with higher pay
  (gitnux.org)

So whether you’re hiring or job-hunting, the “brand” is part of the decision now.

What’s Shaping Employer Branding in 2025

1. Authenticity Over Polish

Candidates – especially Gen Z – can smell manufactured marketing a mile off.
They want real stories, real faces, even the occasional “oops” moment.

64 % trust employee voices over polished HR copy – that’s easy to spot and comes across unnatural.
(blog.talentech.com)

2. Employee Experience is Everything

It’s not just about perks anymore. No-one cares about the pool table or free fruit anymore.
Wellbeing, hybrid work, and meaningful development opportunities are what stand out now. Make them mean something and embed them into the culture to make yourself stand out.
(pitchdrive.com, careerbee.io)

3. Digital, But Human

Yes, TikTok clips, VR tours, and AI-driven career pages are everywhere.
But the goal hasn’t changed: help people feel what it’s like to work with you. There’s so much noise out there and samey language used by companies – and please avoid the ‘family’ cliche. No-one buys it, and there were too many instances of companies who claimed this throwing people to the wolves to chase profit a couple of years ago.
(cloudhire.ai, thetalentgames.com)

4. Purpose, Not Just Pay

Candidates look at your stance on sustainability, social issues, and ethics.
If they don’t like what they see, they’ll move on – no matter the salary. As they’re looking for a place to have their cake and eat it. Otherwise, what’s the point of having cake?
(pitchdrive.com, linkedin.com)

How to Build a Brand That Works

• Define your EVP – your Employer Value Proposition is your workplace’s story
  (linkedin.com)
• Feature your people – real employee testimonials, day-in-the-life videos, honest quotes
  (blog.talentech.com)
• Be consistent across channels – your external image should match your internal reality
  (cloudhire.ai)
• Show your values in action – actions speak louder than career-site promises
  (careerbee.io)
• Measure and adapt – track engagement, hires, reviews, sentiment, then refine
  (cloudhire.ai)

Why This Matters Now

A strong employer brand is no longer “nice to have”.
It can attract better applicants, shorten hiring timelines, lower costs and reduce turnover.

If you’re hiring, this is your competitive edge.
If you’re a job seeker, a well-built employer brand helps you choose companies where you can truly thrive.

The companies that get this right will be the ones still attracting top talent when everyone else is wondering why their roles aren’t getting filled.

Ghosting, AI, Adapting and Resilience

Let’s be honest. Looking for a job in 2025 feels… different. Not just harder, or more competitive – though it can be that too – but fundamentally more weird.

AI’s in the mix now. Remote roles are (saying they’re) everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time. Job ads disappear mid-application. And after firing off twenty tailored applications, you might still hear nothing but silence.

If you’re feeling frustrated, you’re not alone. I’ve spoken with a lot of others who are too – including people with 10, 20 years of experience behind them. It’s not just the grads or the career changers. This market is humbling everyone.

So I wanted to put together something real. A breakdown of what we’re up against right now – and what’s actually helping people get through it.

What’s Making Job Hunting So Rough Right Now

1. The AI screening wall
   Before your CV ever reaches a person, it’s likely being scanned by an algorithm. At the end of 2024 this wasn’t a thing. It was all human eyes.
   
   But companies are updating their recruitment platforms, injecting new AI tooling which does profess to accurately screen and filter ‘better and more intelligently than ever before’.
   
   These systems sort, score, and sometimes reject applications before a recruiter even sees them. You might be the perfect fit – but if your CV doesn’t speak “machine”, it might never land.
   
   Want to know what these systems actually look for? Here’s a solid explainer from JobScan on how applicant tracking systems (ATS) work.
   
   
2. Skills inflation
   It’s not just that roles are asking for more. It’s that they’re asking for different things. Prompt engineering. GenAI tools. Hybrid management. Suddenly, skills you didn’t even need last year are now marked as “essential”.
   
   The World Economic Forum predicts over 40% of core skills will shift by 2027. That’s… soon.
   
   
3. The Ghosting problem
   You can spend days crafting the perfect application. Still – nothing. No email. No call. No closure. Companies are overwhelmed with applicants, and many just don’t have the bandwidth to reply anymore.
   
   It’s not personal. But yet, it feels personal.
   
   AI tooling in this area will look to reduce the ghosting, but will also increase the auto-rejections. So your trade off with silence could be a rise in frustration from trying to get past the machines.

What’s Actually Helping (Even If You’ve Been Around the Block)

1. Write for the robots first, humans second
   Harsh? Maybe. But real. Tools like Rezi and JobScan help optimise your CV for ATS filters. Even if you’re a senior leader, this isn’t beneath you – it’s smart positioning.
   
   Pro tip: Use keywords straight from the job description. Not synonyms. Not fluff. Copy-paste the phrasing they used.
   
   
2. Build your AI muscle
   You don’t need to become an AI engineer. But knowing how to use tools like ChatGPT, Notion AI, or even Midjourney can give you an edge. Employers want to see you’re adaptable, not perfect.
   
   LinkedIn Learning has a free AI essentials course that’s actually worth the time.
   
   You’re going to find AI based questions creeping into interviews now for roles which aren’t even AI based. Companies are using the tooling on a daily basis for basic stuff too. So they’re going to want to see you’re conversant at some level. E.g. have you used Co-pilot to come up with a day plan? Or quick hack create a health and safety questionnaire for an event?
   
   
3. Treat networking like problem-solving, not schmoozing
   If “networking” makes you cringe, think of it as information-gathering. Reach out to people to learn, not just to get something. Ask for ten minutes to pick someone’s brain about what’s changing in their company or industry.
   
   A good question: “If you were in my shoes, knowing what you know now, how would you approach this market?”
   
   
4. Be findable, not just polished
   Update your LinkedIn headline. Make your bio clear, not clever. Add “Open to Work” – yes, even if you’re unsure. Use keywords you want to be found for.
   
   Also, try this: Google yourself. What did you find? Was it a drunken picture in Ibiza? Or an award for being a top performer in your field? Maybe it was a ton of thought leadership advice within your vertical market? If you were a hiring manager, would you want to talk to that person?
   
   
5. Mental health isn’t a ‘nice to have’
   This one doesn’t get said enough. Job searching messes with your sense of worth. And if you’re already tired, burnt out, or unsure, it can feel like rejection is confirming your worst fears.
   So be intentional about support. Talk to a friend, coach or therapist. Use something like Mind or BetterHelp. Take breaks without guilt. It doesn’t mean you’re slacking. It means you’re human.

If You’re Feeling Stuck, Try This

• Pick one role you’d genuinely want. Reverse-engineer your CV and cover letter just for that.
• Ask ChatGPT, Grok or whatever your preferred platform is to simulate an interview for it. Then do it again with follow-ups.
• Email or message someone who works in that company. Not to pitch yourself, but to ask what the hiring process actually looks like.
• Take a breather. Go outside. Move your body. Reset.
None of this guarantees success. But it stacks the odds back in your favour.

Final Thought: You’re Not Broken, The System Is Just… Shifting

If you’re job hunting right now, you’re not behind. You’re adapting in real time to a system that’s still learning how to work with humans. That’s not easy.

But you’re not alone in it. And with the right mix of smart tools, honest reflection, and a bit of support – you’ll find your way through.

If this helped, pass it on. Someone else out there probably needs to hear it too.

A Fork in the Recruitment Road

The AI wave isn’t just cresting. It’s cutting straight through the centre of recruitment. We’re not talking about a little efficiency here and there – this is foundational change. From how candidates are screened to how interviews are run, AI is rewriting the playbook in real time.

And the ripple effects? They’re not just operational. They’re economic, strategic, and human.

Job Seekers: Learning to Dance with the Algorithm

For job seekers, the rules have shifted. AI now screens your CV, reads your cover letter, and might even be hosting your next interview via video (ref: Joy AI) – all before a human ever gets involved. In Australia, speech recognition errors in AI-based hiring tools can reach 22 percent for non-native speakers, raising serious concerns about fairness and bias. (news.com.au)

In the UK, entry-level roles have dropped by nearly a third in the past two years. Graduates are stepping into a job market that expects AI fluency just to stay visible, yet education isn’t evolving fast enough to keep pace with changing labour market requirements. (theguardian.com)

It’s no longer enough to polish a CV. You need to understand prompt engineering, AI etiquette, and how to showcase human qualities that don’t show up in an algorithmic scan.

In addition, we’re not far off the prospect of the application process finally evolving from a CV based process, which has existed since Leonardo da Vinci first created one back in 1482.

However, the evolution has the potential to remove important human interaction points which build engagement between job seeker and future employer. As AI recruitment tools also provide data banks of historic competency question responses candidates can play back to standardised questions on things like leadership, change management, performance step-change, etc.

Saving job seekers the need to repeat responses, and instead just submit their saved and pre-scored highlight reel in response to questions pre-determined between what the AI tool suggested based on the job spec, and hiring manager approved.

In-House Talent Teams: Scaling Faster, But at What Cost?

Across industries, talent teams are shifting from manual processes to fully AI-managed pipelines. That includes sourcing, screening, shortlisting and interviewing – at a scale that was unthinkable just a few years ago.

Companies like Unilever have processed 250,000 applications in weeks, saving 50,000 hours and cutting hiring time from four months to four weeks. (en.wikipedia.org)

But as McKinsey points out, while nearly all businesses are experimenting with AI, only around 1 percent consider themselves truly “AI mature.” (mckinsey.com) Which is unsurprising, because the ecosystem is evolving a such a pace.

The tech is fast. The challenge is leadership – how to scale ethically and strategically without losing sight of the human impact.

Recruitment Agencies: Shrinking Batting Averages, Evolving Value Propositions

As more companies bring AI hiring tools in-house, agency recruiters are feeling the squeeze. If a company can assess 5,000 candidates in 24 hours with its own AI, why outsource?

That said, not all doors are closing. There’s a growing opportunity to help smaller firms and startups navigate this landscape. Agencies that pivot toward education, tooling advice, or fairness audits may end up thriving – not just surviving.

A big challenge in practice for AI in recruitment has been diversity. There’s been numerous examples of early adopters having to go back to the drawing board because their automation tooling has demonstrated a significant bias against hiring women (Amazon), or Workday’s recent ruling for a class action to move forward because of alleged AI discrimination against over-40’s.

So, handing over the keys and letting it run at scale, could remain a recipe for further legal challenges until these kinks in the systems are worked out.

But one thing’s for sure, clients no longer need CV shufflers. They need strategic partners who understand how to compete in an AI-driven labour market.

The Bigger Economic Picture: Productivity Gains, Demand Risks

Here’s the contradiction business leaders can’t ignore. AI improves hiring speed, reduces cost, and increases consistency. But it also threatens to shrink consumer demand if implemented too aggressively.

Goldman Sachs estimates that 300 million full-time jobs globally are at risk of automation. (en.wikipedia.org) The World Economic Forum expects a net loss of 14 million jobs by 2030 when you factor in gains versus losses. (weforum.org)

If people lose jobs faster than we retrain or create new ones, we create a vacuum – not just of employment, but of spending. And when consumers stop spending, even the most efficient businesses find themselves without a market.

A Call for Humane Automation

AI isn’t just changing jobs. It’s changing the structure of entire industries. The New York Post recently reported predictions of a 15-year period of social disruption as AI continues to roll out without sufficient support systems. (nypost.com)

The takeaway? We need a hybrid mindset. Automate where it makes sense. But reinvest those savings into people – retraining, mobility programmes, and AI literacy. McKinsey and other researchers have shown that AI increases demand for resilience, digital skills, and ethical reasoning – the very things humans still do best. (arxiv.org)

Final Thought: Build the Future, Don’t Burn the Foundation

This isn’t just a story about better hiring systems. It’s a story about what kind of labour market we want to build – and who gets to participate in it.

AI will help companies move faster, hire smarter and reduce cost. But if we forget to design for sustainability, we risk building systems that are lean but lifeless.

The question for leaders isn’t “How do we use AI?” It’s “How do we grow our organisations without shrinking the world around them?”

Because no matter how efficient you get, if your customers are out of work – your business is out of runway.