4.1 Introduction

While seeking employment is necessary for survival in today’s society, the process can be overwhelming. The lengthy, anxiety filled process, and the emotional response to rejection that come with it can seriously hinder and deter individuals from pursuing further employment opportunities. This negative feedback can lead to unhealthy anxiety, which in turn can lead to becoming another factor in being long-term unemployed. Traditional interview training sessions have shown much success in preparing for employment interviews, increasing their popularity on college campuses. Our research aims at finding out how effective Virtual Reality (VR) systems can be for mock interview training and the attitudes and opinions of the participants in terms of motivation to use VR for mock interview training.

4.2 Virtual Reality Training Literature Review

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has led to challenges for veterans trying to obtain competitive employment, especially pertaining to the interview portion of employment search process. In their study Smith, Ginger, Wright, Wright, Humm, Olsen, Fleming measured the effectiveness of virtual reality employment interviews for veterans (ages 18-65) who suffer from PTSD [1]. The participants of their study were United States veterans suffering from PTSD who were unemployed. These participants received up to ten hours of Virtual Reality Job Interviews Training (VR-JIT) session. The participants were required to complete pretest and post-test self-reports. They found positive correlations between the use of VR exercises and increased scores of these veterans measured by the resource experts. This positive correlation was most prevalent between the baseline neurocognition and advanced social cognition, meaning that the VR exercises were successful in improving veterans’ communication skills. These findings support their hypotheses concerning the effectiveness of VR-JIT among veterans suffering from PTSD, supporting its use with this demographic.

In their study of 2014, Smith et al. used laboratory-training sessions involving VR-JIT to assess the usability factor of the software to observe if mock interview scores increased over time. The researchers found that the participants who utilized VR-JIT demonstrated larger improvement in job interviewing skills when compared to the control group [2]. This was determined after the individuals using the VR-JIT software underwent 10 hours of training using the simulator. The individuals who used the VR-JIT software also experienced an increase in the amount of time spent conducting themselves during a mock interviewing.

Aysina, Maksimenko, and Nikiforov developed the Job Interview Simulation Training (JIST), software that would systematically improve the job interviewing process for long-term unemployed individuals [3]. They aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of JIST in preparing long-term unemployed individuals for potential job interviews. JIST consisted of five sessions of simulated job interviews. The authors found in their study that participants rated JIST as an easy to use tool. They also found that JIST helped improve individual’s communication skills when compared to the control group. Additionally, participants indicated an increase in confidence on their self-reports after utilizing JIST. While the authors felt confident in the effectiveness of their software, they believe that further research is required to see the true effectiveness of JIST software. Their work also concludes that there is a need to test JIST with different demographics.

4.3 Methodology

Our study investigates the use of VR mock interview training. Our hypotheses are that mock interview training in VR will lower interview anxiety, and that their attitude and opinion towards using mock interview training in VR as a positive addition to preparing for interviews and will want to continue using it in the future to prepare for interviews:

1. H1₀: Participants will not indicate a change in anxiety on their post-test self-report than on their pretest self-report.
2. H1_A: After concluding the virtual reality mock interview session, participants will indicate having lower anxiety on their post-test self-report than indicated on the pretest self-report.
3. H2₀: Participants will indicate on their post-test self-report that they would not utilize virtual reality mock interview training tools for future interview preparation.
4. H2_A: Participants will indicate on their post-test self-report that they would utilize virtual reality mock interview training tools for future interview preparation.

4.3.1 Participants

The participants of this study were ten students (four male, six female), between the ages of 19 and 24 (mean 22). This study required participants to use the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality (VR) Head Mounted Display (HMD), see Figure 4.1.

Participants were informed that use of the Oculus Rift Consumer Version 1 (CV1) may cause side effects such as: eye strain, dizziness, disorientation, vertigo, nausea, and discomfort. Participants were asked to notify the researcher if they experienced any of the mentioned symptoms, or any additional symptoms. Due to the use of the Oculus Rift for this study, participants who required eye glasses were excluded from participation of this study. While it is possible to wear glasses while using the Oculus Rift CV1, it can be uncomfortable.

4.3.2 Materials

The multi-user VR software application High Fidelity was used as virtual interview space for the mock interviews. High Fidelity is a VR application where users can immerse themselves in a self-created environment. See Figure 4.2 for an impression of two users engaged in a conversation in a virtual space.

Together, the Oculus Rift and High Fidelity application were used to provided participants with the virtual environment for the interview setting. The CV1 Xbox like controller was used for participants to navigate through the virtual environment, but to do the task the need to navigate was minimal. Headphones were used to improve the participant’s virtual experience, effectively fully immersing the user into the experience by providing the audio from the virtual world and to block outside noise while the interviewer (researcher) asked the participant interview questions (see Figure 4.3).

A microphone was used to support the dialog between the participant and interviewer (researcher). The software application Qualtrics was utilized to collect demographics, pretest self-report responses, and post-test responses from the participants. The use of Qualtrics was very helpful because it provided digital data collection, decreasing potential transcribing errors.

4.4 Results

A paired-samples t-test was conducted to compare participants self-reported anxiety prior to the VR mock interview and after the VR mock interview. There was a significant difference in the scores for participants self-reported anxiety prior-to (M = 2.8, SD = 2.348) and post-to (M = 1.40, SD = 1.897) the VR mock interview; t(9) = 3.096, p = 0.013, see Table 4.1.

These results reject the first null hypothesis (H1₀), demonstrating a change in anxiety prior-to and post-to the VR mock interview.

On the post-test self-report, participants were asked if they believe the virtual reality interview training session would be a useful tool to prepare for a real job interview. This was used to investigate the second hypothesis (H2). Of the ten participants, 50% indicated ”definitely yes“, 20% indicted ”probably yes“, and 30% indicating ”might or might not“, see Figure 4.4.

Participants were also asked if they would continue to use VR interview training as a method to prepare for real job interviews. 70% of participants indicated ”probably yes” and ”definitely yes”, 30% indicated ”probably not”, see Figure 4.5.

4.5 Disscussion

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of VR mock interview training in decreasing interview-anxiety in college students. Additionally, we wanted to know about the participants’ perceived usefulness of VR mock interview training, and participants self-reported likeliness of continuing to use VR mock interview training as a method to prepare for real job interviews.

The results from the paired-samples t-test support the researchers first hypothesis (H1), further supporting the use of VR interview training as an effective tool for decreasing interview-anxiety and increasing interview preparedness. These findings are in agreement with the work of Aysina et al. and Smith et al. regarding the effectiveness of VR interview training, but with a different demographic (college students), adding to the overall effectiveness of VR interview training across various demographics. The second hypothesis (H2) was also supported by participants responses to questions twelve and thirteen. The results obtained from this study demonstrate an interest by college students in utilizing VR mock interview training to prepare for future interviews. These findings could be used at universities by students, faculty, and staff, to advocate for VR interview training programs.

Limitations of this Study: The biggest limitation of this study was that most of the participants had never experienced virtual reality technologies. The novelty of using this technology could have caused participants to provide better ratings on their post-test self-report. Additionally, the use of this software could have caused the participants to feel anxious and uncomfortable. Due to the recent interest in multi-user VR applications, the VR software available is still in a beta phase, and not developed specifically for the purpose of conducting interview training sessions. The experience of practicing for an interview in VR can be made more realistic by creating a VR interview room that looks like a typical interview room in the real world, to assess whether transfer of the learned skill will be more likely.

4.6 Conclusions

The results of this study support previous research investigating the effectiveness of VR interview training. While these findings support the claims that VR interview training is an effective tool, the limitations should be considered. Future research is needed investigating effectiveness of VR interview training on a population that has had prior experience to virtual reality technologies, thus eliminating novelty as a possible confounding variable. However, these results should be used to advocate for VR interview training sessions on college campuses and with long-term unemployed individuals, as these trainings assist individuals practice for real interviews. College graduates face an extremely competitive job search after completion of their degrees. The long-term unemployed population are also face an extremely competitive job market. The long-term unemployed are another, highly vulnerable population, that will benefit from extra training to help them enter the extremely competitive job market. These technologies can aid students and the long-term unemployed in better preparing for potential interviews, thus giving them an advantage. Additionally, these trainings have shown effectiveness in various demographics, demonstrating a need to also advocate for these training in additional agencies, such as the government. With high unemployment, VR interview training sessions could benefit many in preparing to re-enter the workforce. Advances in virtual reality technologies have allowed for great growth in various sectors, such as medical, educational, and commercial. By investigating these technologies for other domains, we can provide quantitative data to help advocate for further investments in these technologies. The complete report of the research described above can be found in [4].

REFERENCES

1. Smith, M.J., Boteler Humm, L, Fleming, M.F., Jordan, N., Wright, M.A., Ginger, E.J., Wright, K., Olsen, D., and Belle, M.D. (2015). Virtual reality job interview training for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of vocational rehabilitation, 42(3), 271-279. https://doi.org/10.3233/jvr-150748

2. Smith, M. J., Ginger, E. J., Wright, M., Wright, K., Humm, L. B., Olsen, D., & Fleming, M. F. (2014). Virtual reality job interview training for individuals with psychiatric disabilities. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 202(9), 659-667. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000187.

3. Aysina, R.M., Maksimenko, Zh. A., & Nikiforov, M.V. (2016). Feasibility and Efficacy of Job Interview Simulation Training for Long-Term Unemployed Individuals. Psychology Journal, 14(1), 41-60. Retrieved May 11, 2017, from www.psychnology.org.

4. Garcia, J. (2017). HCI Master’s Research Project II Report: Evaluation: Using Virtual Reality for Mock Interview Training, SUNY VR First Lab, State University of New York, NY, USA.