Case Studies Tech Bootcamp Cuts Interview Time in Half with Video Interviewing, and Candidates Love It

The Challenge 

Coding bootcamps provide students with an opportunity to learn software engineering skills and start a rewarding career in technology. One leading provider of software engineering bootcamps offers both beginner- and intermediate-level programs to adults from all educational and career backgrounds who are looking to make a career switch.  

The ultimate challenge for the company’s admissions team is to ensure that every student who is accepted into the program has the potential to succeed, both in their ability to handle the rigorous coursework and to be successful in their future careers. The admissions team prides itself on setting every student up for success in the program, which is why each step in the admissions process is so critical.  

With the start of COVID, the team noticed that the graduation rate started to fall. According to their head of enrollment, the team immediately jumped into gear to review “the student journey, tip to tail, and evaluate our admissions process to see what changes were warranted, so that we were preparing students on day one to be successful in the program.” 

In addition to the graduation rate, the company also saw a need to improve their efficiency and speed when reviewing applicants. The bootcamps were experiencing a rapid increase in the number of applicants due to the rise in remote work brought on by COVID. Around the same time, the company launched their brand-new beginner program and needed a way to evaluate candidates on their raw potential to succeed in software engineering.  

For the new beginner bootcamp, the company was conducting admissions interviews live through Zoom, and they were encountering a few hiccups.  

At the peak, a team of just four admissions staff were handling 250 interviews a month. For the team, “it was an extraordinary amount of work.” While the amount of applicants was exciting, they said, “it was not scalable and not sustainable… we had other challenges with that format as well… There were Zoom errors. Having two interviews at the same time on a Zoom account presented some challenges, just some technical issues, staffing issues.”  

And for the staff, “if they didn’t grade in the moment, they’d be spending time grading afterwards. They’d forget to grade it because they were so busy with all of these interviews. And then students were waiting on admissions decisions for longer than we’re comfortable with.”  

Sometimes the inefficiencies in the interview process even caused some candidates to miss their interview deadline, which delayed their start dates or led to some candidates choosing to walk away from the process entirely.  

Ultimately, the admissions team was looking for a better way to accomplish two very important goals: 

The Solution 

The company worked with Criteria to incorporate video interviews and assessments into the admissions process for their two core bootcamps. The first bootcamp is an intermediate program, which requires candidates to have some prior coding knowledge. The second is a newer beginner program, which they launched in 2022. Each program has unique needs when it comes to the admissions process. 

The Video Interviews: 

To improve the efficiency of the admissions process for the new beginner program, the company started using Criteria’s Video Interviewing tool, which provides a seamless platform for delivering asynchronous, pre-recorded interviews. Candidates are able to complete the interview on any device with a web camera, allowing them to fit it into their own schedule. Staff members can review and grade the interviews in a fraction of the time.  

The Results 

After incorporating both the video interviews and the assessment into the admissions process, the company has seen dramatic results across their desired goals.  

50% Reduction in Time Spent Interviewing 

For the new beginner program, the admissions interview provides incredibly valuable information to help the admissions team determine if a candidate is likely to succeed or not. But when they first launched the new program, they were conducting every interview over Zoom, and were struggling to manage the sheer volume of candidates. Each live Zoom interview would take a staff member about 20 minutes, followed by additional time spent grading the interview. 

With Video Interviewing by Criteria, each pre-recorded interview takes about 7-10 minutes for the staff to review and grade. The team’s head of enrollment estimates that this has resulted in a 50% reduction in staff hours. “It’s been really efficient for our staff as well. So just overall a really positive experience.” 

For the intermediate program, the CCAT has helped to increase graduation rates by 16%. In 2021, COVID had driven the graduate rate down to around 77-78%. Three years later in 2024, the addition of the CCAT has helped the company bring that number up to an impressive 90.1%.  

This improvement in the graduation rate is so core to the company’s mission to set each and every student up for success, and to honor the time and investment that a student makes when they choose to join one of their bootcamps. “We have a responsibility to make sure that someone who is joining our program is fit to join and be successful… so the gates that we have to confirm that they’ll be successful are very important,” the head of enrollment says. “Having the CCAT has been a very nice peace of mind because of all the data behind it.” 

52% Increase in Application-to-Interview Completion Rates 

The admissions team pays close attention to every stage of the admissions process, including the application-to-interview completion rate. When comparing the previous live Zoom interview process with the new pre-recorded video interview process, they found that they were able to improve that metric by 52%, from 29% with live interviews to 44% with video interviews. At the same time, they were able to maintain the same interview pass rate. 

In other words, after candidates submit their applications, more of them are moving forward to schedule and complete their interviews. What this suggests is that the process has become a lot more seamless for candidates to move through the application process, enabling them to get started on their education faster, with fewer delays or deterrents.  

Interview Format	App to Interview Complete	Interview Pass Rate
Live (Zoom)	29%	94%
Video Interview	44%	94%

According to the head of enrollment, “we want to make sure that we’re high touch and we’re speaking to candidates, supporting them through the process, and leveraging technology so that people don’t have to rely on us to get through the admissions process. So video interviewing has been really critical in the success of that.” 

“Passing the CCAT, applying for the program, taking the video interview – it’s seamless. You can do it in a day, and it doesn’t stop individuals from joining their desired cohort, or losing people because it’s too long to wait.” 

A Better Candidate Experience 

In so many ways, Video Interviewing has improved the admissions process for candidates as well.  

One benefit is that pre-recorded interviews enable candidates to complete the interview at their convenience. “A lot of people taking our programs are still working at the time they’re going through the admissions process,” their head of enrollment adds. “We work with a lot of parents who are busy and need to do things in the evening.” 

As for the experience itself, they say the feedback is “overwhelmingly positive.” At the end of the interview, candidates have the opportunity to provide feedback about the admissions process, and many candidates shared glowing feedback about the video interviews. Below are a few examples:   

To summarize, the company incorporated a comprehensive set of decision-making tools into their admissions process, and ultimately achieved huge gains on the metrics that matter to them: higher graduation rates, greater efficiency, and happier candidates.