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AI in Recruitment

This is how we use AI in our Recruitment processes

10 July 2025

How We Use AI in Your Trade Me Interview

At Trade Me, we're embracing AI to enhance our recruitment processes, and we understand you might be using it, too. We believe AI can be a powerful tool when used thoughtfully. Our goal is to be transparent with you about what to expect from us and what we expect from you.

Here's how we don't use AI:
  • No AI in Screening: Your CV and initial phone screen are always reviewed by a real person on our dedicated Talent team. We don't use AI for these early stages.
  • No AI for Decision Making: AI doesn't compare notes or make decisions about who is the best fit for a role - that's always a human decision made by our hiring team.

Here's how we do use AI (transparently and with your consent):
  • Interview Transcriptions: During your interview, we may use AI to create a written transcription of our conversation. We'll always let you know this before your interview begins. And you are totally free to let us know if you rather not have us do this.
  • Why we do this: This allows our interviewers to focus on having a great conversation with you and maintain eye contact, rather than spending the whole time writing notes. It also ensures we capture all the important details so we don't miss anything that could help us get to know you better.
  • What happens after your interview: We will delete the transcriptions after we have closed the vacancy you were applying for.
  • Phone Screen Recordings: While we generally don't record phone screens, if we ever do, we'll always disclose this to you beforehand and ask for your consent.

Your Use of AI in the Application Process

We encourage you to use AI to help you prepare effectively for your application and interviews with Trade Me.

Preparation (Encouraged!)

  • Research: Use AI to quickly gather information about our company, values, products, and the team you're applying to.

  • Resume & Cover Letter Refinement: Use AI to help polish your language, check grammar, or suggest ways to articulate your experience more clearly. However, ensure the content accurately reflects your skills, experience, and style—authenticity is key. We also recommend letting another person read your CV and provide feedback.

  • Interview Practice: Use AI to generate common interview questions, practice your answers, or get feedback on your communication style.


Live Interviews (In-Person or Video)We expect live interviews to be an authentic, unassisted conversation with our team. This means not using AI tools to generate real-time answers, prompts, or information during the actual interview. Our interviews are designed to assess your spontaneous problem-solving, interpersonal skills, and how you articulate your thoughts independently.

Take-Home Technical Tests (Tech Roles): We understand that developers frequently use AI in their day-to-day work. Our expectation when you are asked to do a tech test for us is:

  • Ethical Use of AI: If you choose to use AI as a tool to assist your work (e.g., for boilerplate code, syntax suggestions, or debugging), that's acceptable, as it can be part of a modern developer's workflow.

  • Your Craft is Key: We want to see your craft, creativity, and problem-solving approach. The final solution you submit should fundamentally be your own work, demonstrating your ability to design, build, and debug.

  • Be Prepared to Explain: You must be able to fully understand, explain, and justify every part of your solution, including any AI-generated components. We may ask you to walk us through your thought process, the choices you made, and how you arrived at your solution, regardless of the tools used. We also love when candidates reflect on how AI supported (or didn't support) their thinking or workflow.

    If you have any questions about how we use AI or anything else in our recruitment process, please don't hesitate to ask your recruiter.