What Mercor's AI interviews may never notice
BlackTechLogy: Is artificial intelligence programmed to recognize soft skills from job seekers?
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This post has also been updated since its original publication date on September 17, 2025.
For a little over two years, I kept constant tabs on the condominium collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people in 2021. I don't know if I would have been as interested in this story had I not been my condo board's president at the time and found out that we had a building violation on our own deck. That violation (related to rust on some brackets) stopped us from being able to stain and seal the deck until the brackets were replaced.
Deck safety (and working with city inspectors) became my top priority to investigate. I was so into it that this topic became a vetting question for real estate writers when I was the Editor in Chief of a Realtor and landlord magazine. I was determined to find writers who enjoyed writing about building safety. People write about investing in real estate to make money all the time, but I don't see nearly enough content about whether the building that landlords or real estate investors buy is physically safe.
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The job interview that proved resumes aren’t the final factor
I remember one interview with a woman who applied for the real estate writing job. I asked every applicant to do a five-minute mock interview with me about this Florida building collapse for two reasons: to gauge their interest in out-of-state news and to see how interested they really were in real estate. No matter how great the cover letter and resume were, this mock interview always told me far more about what it would be like to work with each writer.
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During the aforementioned interview, I asked the applicant to go ahead and talk to me as a condo board member tasked with building safety. However, the kind of questions she asked me made it very clear that she didn’t know a thing about this building collapse. In fact, I wasn’t quite sure if she even knew it happened in Florida at all — or cared. At one point, I stopped the mock interview and asked if she was familiar with the story.
Her response, “Nope, just winging it.”
I paused, unsure what to say at this blunt response.
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I assume everyone has had a not-so-great job interview before, including me. Still, minus one awkward interaction, I never went into the job interview acting like I was doing the hiring manager a favor by showing up. Even if I didn’t end up wanting the job after hearing more about it, I still went into the interview trying to be as positive and knowledgeable as I could. But can AI pick up on temperament?
AI may be convenient but it’s also a bit chaotic
When I applied for a few jobs on Mercor’s site and DataAnnotation’s site, I thought this would be a win-win. I could focus on whether I actually enjoyed the work and answer virtual questions without trying to read the hiring manager’s face the entire time. I wouldn’t have to worry about Calendly scheduling, multi-person and multi-day interviews, or same-day cancellations. Win win! And maybe the applicant I was talking to would’ve felt the same way.