Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Salil and Kiran Pande, Co-Founders of VMock (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Go down one level and explain more about the technology. 

Salil Pande: What we have done is essentially provide feedback on your resume. For feedback from someone qualified today, they would have to spend boatloads of time with you. There is an assumed knowledge that they should have about what’s a good resume and what’s a good role that is fit for you. Then they should be articulate in giving you concise, objective, and actionable feedback.

You may have leadership skills embedded all over your resume but not in the first five bullets. Leadership is the number one quality that is required for the role. We can articulate that without thinking if you’re an experienced person. However, when you’re talking about an algorithm that has to be trained, being able to understand the various rules and how a profile matches, that’s different.

All with a very simple eye. We don’t try to eliminate someone; we try to develop someone. VMock provides feedback till the time someone is getting into the zone where they feel comfortable about themselves. 

Sramana Mitra: It’s still very 30,000 foot level. I want to understand AI. Talk to me about how you do what you do in applying AI.

Salil Pande: For example, interviews are essentially what you’re communicating verbally and non-verbally. Both aspects need to get captured. People talk about body language. What is body language? Do you have the clarity of communication? Is your pitch too high or too low? Do you try to modularize? All of these are captured when you’re sitting down with someone physically or virtually.

Similarly, are you communicating too many negatives like, “I hate my job.” We bring all of this and you are able to provide a holistic feedback to a candidate. That’s when the candidate can take and iterate on that feedback. That’s what VMock Elevator Pitch does. It allows you to record a pitch for two minutes or so. In less than 15 to 20 seconds, you get a comprehensive view. You can then work on that and reword your pitch. Over a period of time, you are able to succinctly answer the questions. 

Sramana Mitra: One of the pieces of what you’re doing is coaching people to build an elevator pitch. 

Salil Pande: Absolutely.

Sramana Mitra: Algorithmically, what is doable in AI is constraint-based systems. Where do you place your constraints in making elevator pitch coaching viable?

Kiran Pande: To a very large extent, our technology is purpose-built. It’s providing feedback on a resume. We are definitely going to be parsing the resume. We’re going to be using natural language processing and building models around understanding what the text is. It’s the same story with the elevator pitch. What’s happening is many companies are using these automated video assessments to filter candidates.

In that space, if you flip that around and you’re not really looking at the shortlisting aspect of it but you’re looking at the preparatory aspect of it, then there are going to be certain parameters that the person can actually influence and work on. That’s where we focus. We focus on what can you influence. Even if you look at fit in the job, you may not have certain skills. In that case, there’s a developmental path on building those skills. We’re not playing in that.

We can guide you in terms of the ways you can build those skills, but we are not going to do any simulations that are either going to assess your skills or build a skill. We will definitely assess based on what you have communicated. What’s the understanding of a human or an automated system from the information you’re sharing? Our point of view is very purpose-built. In the sense of training the algorithm or perfecting them, that’s where we focus. 

Sramana Mitra: It’s not limited to elevator pitch. You work on the entire interview process, right?

Kiran Pande: Yes. The first offering is squarely focused on elevator pitch. 

Sramana Mitra: The rest of it is not out there yet.

Kiran Pande: The rest of it is under work-in-process. The initial offering is really just about the first question that gets asked when you meet somebody. Of course, there are multiple types of interviews. We are not working end-to-end in terms of the interviewing process. It’s more about that interview where you’re going to communicate and less about the interviews where you’re going through simulations or assessments.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Salil and Kiran Pande, Co-Founders of VMock
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