Are Virtual Reality Job Interviews the Future?

Your next job interview could take place via a virtual reality (or augmented reality) headset.

Can virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) change how companies recruit and hire technologists?

Imagine a future in which a recruiter virtually shows you around an office, or an interviewer invites you to a “VR meeting space” instead of an interview room. That might sound far-fetched, but it’s already a reality at some firms.

According to CNN, a German railway company and an Israeli technology firm both offer VR office tours to prospective candidates; other companies are using VR for training purposes. “VR allows the employee to see the body language, hear the tone, experience the context of the situation,” Morgan Mercer, founder of Vantage Point, told the network.

Nor is this a new twist: Kentucky Fried Chicken has a VR “escape room” designed to train employees in how to make the company’s signature fried chicken. Unless those employees can show that they can (virtually) inspect, rinse, bread, rack, and pressure-fry a bird, they’re not allowed to leave the virtual room. When confronted by Eater, a company spokesperson claimed the VR experience wasn’t an integral part of the hiring process: “This is intended to be a fun way…