Companies Are Replacing Job Interviews With Something Better in 2025
Traditional job interviews are losing relevance. In 2025, companies are already shifting toward new hiring methods like Work Trial that reveal real candidate performance.
In 2025, the job market feels more frustrating than ever for both companies and candidates. Layoffs aside, even in sectors that are hiring, the process itself has become exhausting. Job seekers apply to hundreds of positions and often hear nothing back. Employers are overwhelmed with AI-polished resumes and increasingly rely on automation to sift through applicants. The result is a process that feels less human and less effective with every passing month.
AI is now everywhere in hiring. Candidates use tools like ChatGPT or Claude to prepare applications and rehearse interview answers. Employers use AI to screen resumes, schedule assessments, and even run first-round interviews. While these tools bring speed, they also make it harder to know whether someone will truly thrive in the role.
At the center of this broken process is the traditional job interview. What used to be the main way companies hired people has turned into rehearsed performances where both sides say what they think the other wants to hear. Companies are realizing that if interviews no longer predict real success, it's time to replace them with something better. That "something" is the work trial.
Research has also shown that traditional interviews are poor predictors of job performance. A large meta-analysis of selection methods found that work sample tests are among the strongest predictors of future success, while interviews lag far behind. Even structured interviews, which follow a set list of questions, perform better than casual conversations but still leave too much to chance.
Harvard’s People Lab points out another flaw: candidates who are quieter, anxious in social settings, or non-native speakers often underperform in interviews even though they excel in real work. The format tends to reward confidence and polish over execution.
Companies are starting to respond. Anthropic now permits applicants to use Claude for interview preparation, Google is moving some emphasis back to in-person rounds, and startups are piloting AI-driven interview agents. Meta is testing AI-assisted coding interviews where candidates can use AI tools during assessments to better reflect real-world developer workflows.
At the same time, more companies are turning to work trials, where candidates complete real tasks as part of the hiring process. This approach shows how people actually work instead of how well they can rehearse.
What Work Trials Look Like
A work trial is not unpaid labor. It's a short, paid project that mirrors the responsibilities of the role.
For example, candidates might:
Complete a 7-14 day project with defined deliverables
Shadow a team and participate in real scenarios such as customer calls or product planning
Be compensated fairly for their time
The goal is to give employers and candidates a clear window into how work will actually look. Employers see performance under realistic conditions, while candidates discover whether the role and culture are a good fit.
This approach is not theoretical. Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, is famous for using work trials to hire across its global remote workforce. Linear, a project management company, brings candidates in for multi-day paid trials to see if they're true builders with sound judgment, a process that has helped the company scale while keeping its culture intact.
PostHog, a product analytics company, also uses trials. As CEO James Hawkins explains, trials reveal quickly whether someone can handle the reality of the job: "It's frequently surprising how someone performs relative to what we thought in interviews about their skills."
These companies show that work trials are not a fringe experiment. They're a practical system already being used by some of the most successful modern organizations.
What CEOs and Hiring Managers Are Saying about Work Trials
We surveyed 20 CEOs, founders, and hiring managers from a range of industries to evaluate how work trials perform in practice. Nearly 95% reported that work trials provided clearer insights into candidates than traditional interviews.
Chase McKee
Founder & CEO, Rocket Alumni Solutions - Wall of Fame
As someone who's hired across investment banking and now scaled a tech company to $3M+ ARR, work trials have been absolutely critical for our sales and customer success roles at Rocket Alumni Solutions.
We do 3-day paid trials where candidates actually run live demos with real school prospects. One candidate crushed the technical interview but froze completely when a principal asked tough budget questions during their trial demo. Another seemed nervous in interviews but absolutely shined during trials, later becoming our top closer with that 30% demo-to-sale conversion rate I mentioned.
The game-changer is seeing how people handle real donor relationship dynamics - something you can't simulate in interviews. When we started doing trials for client success roles, our team cohesion improved dramatically because we could see who actually thrived in our , relationship-heavy environment.
Our trial-hired employees have stayed 60% longer than traditional hires, and more importantly, they've driven our 80% YoY growth because they already understood our culture and client needs from day one.
Yes, we run paid work trials, and they help when they are short, scoped, and tied to the real job. For movers, we do a four-hour shadow on an actual route with a crew lead. We score arrival time, lift technique, damage prevention, and customer rapport. No unpaid tests, no replacing a full shift with trial labor. We cap the trial at one crew, pay hourly, cover insurance, and end with a five-minute debrief on what went well and what to improve. The first thing I check is whether the task maps to a day one duty and has a clear pass bar, like zero safety flags, fewer than ten rework minutes, and clean paperwork. Trials cut false positives and early attrition because attitude, stamina, and care for people show up fast in the field. If a role is office-based, we swap to a 60-minute paid scenario on scheduling, quotes, and conflict handling so we are testing judgment, not free labor.
Yes, I've used work trials extensively throughout my 23 years running G&M Craftsman Cabinets. They're absolutely critical in our industry because craftsmanship skills can't be faked in a real workshop environment.
We do half-day trials where candidates work alongside our existing team on actual client projects. One apprentice we hired had minimal formal training but during her trial, she showed incredible attention to detail and natural problem-solving when fitting a complex corner joint. Les English, who's been with us 26 years, immediately spotted her potential--something that would never show up in a traditional interview.
The trial also reveals cultural fit, which matters enormously in a small family business. We had one highly qualified candidate who clearly knew his craft but kept criticizing our established processes and dismissing input from senior craftsmen. His technical skills were solid, but he would have destroyed our collaborative workshop culture.
I structure trials around real client deadlines with actual quality standards at stake. This shows me how candidates handle pressure, whether they ask questions when unsure, and if they respect our three-generation legacy of craftsmanship. Paper qualifications mean nothing if someone can't deliver when a client's kitchen renovation timeline depends on it.
I'm a supporter of work trials because they show me more than a resume or even a polished interview ever could. I've used them in my hiring process, and they've been eye-opening. Two candidates might both complete the same task successfully, but the way they get there tells me everything about how they think. Some will chase speed, others will obsess over details, and some will pull in collaboration where others work solo. Those differences reveal whether someone fits the DNA of my team, which in the end is what makes a hire last.
As someone who built ChiroHer from scratch and has hired across clinical and administrative roles, work trials are absolutely game-changing for healthcare positions. You simply cannot assess how someone will handle real patient scenarios through interviews alone.
I learned this the hard way when I hired a front desk coordinator who interviewed beautifully but completely froze during her first week when a pregnant patient called in distress about back pain at 2am. Now I run paid 4-hour trials where candidates handle actual patient scheduling, insurance calls, and observe treatment sessions. The difference in performance prediction is night and day.
My most successful hire was actually someone who seemed nervous in interviews but absolutely excelled during her trial day - she intuitively knew how to calm an anxious prenatal patient and seamlessly coordinated with our Webster Technique appointments. That candidate is now my lead coordinator and has the highest patient satisfaction scores on our team.
For any healthcare practice, make trials include real patient interactions with supervision. The investment of a few hundred dollars in trial wages has saved me thousands in turnover costs and protected our clinic's reputation with expecting mothers who need that extra level of care.
The pattern across industries is clear: work trials reveal performance, problem-solving approaches, and cultural fit in ways that no interview can match. These aren't just feel-good stories, they're backed by real business results like better retention, faster growth, and stronger team dynamics.
How to Run Work Trials the Right Way
Work trials are only effective when designed fairly and with purpose. Companies that use them successfully recommend:
1) Pay candidates fairly -Treat trials as real work, not free labor. Compensation should reflect the time and effort required.
2) Keep them short and relevant - Focus on tasks a new hire would face in their first week. Most effective trials last 7-14 days maximum.
3) Use rubrics for evaluation - Score collaboration, problem-solving, communication, and execution using objective criteria.
4) Give feedback to all candidates - Even those not hired should gain value from the experience.
5) Start small - Pilot trials in a few roles, then expand gradually based on what you learn.
Since trials take more setup than interviews, many companies now use tools like Work Trial AI to design structured projects, track candidate progress, and evaluate results fairly. The key is treating work trials as mutual evaluation periods, not one-sided tests.
The Bottom Line
Work trials are helping companies hire better. Businesses that use them see stronger teams and higher retention because they focus on real work, not rehearsed answers in an interview.
Trials can last a few days or up to two weeks, depending on the role. They are always paid and based on actual job tasks, which makes evaluation fair for both sides.
This shift makes hiring less about guessing and more about knowing. The companies that adopt work trials now are already finding better employees, while those that stick with traditional interviews risk falling behind.
Upgrade your resume!
Create a hireable resume with just one click and stand out to recruiters.
.avif "Kaivan Dave")
