The most discriminatory, dehumanizing, pedestrian, and apocalyptically hypocritical hiring process I've ever been subjected to, and a horrifyingly disturbing display of the worst kind of decision-making present in so many large corporations. The interview process was basically a short phone screen and then passed on to the HireVue hiring platform for a one-way video interview. I didn't get to the next step. For those who don't know HireVue is an AI powered automated video interview that using machine learning to screen out candidates based on facial expressions, vocal tone, and word choices. It's a fatally flawed piece of software whose core functionality calls back to racist psychological pseudoscience like phrenology and invasive data surveillance to filter out large amounts of resumes for big corporations. It's known to discriminate against neurodivergent people, people of color, and people with disabilities. If HireVue sounds like Gattaca and Minority Report (or really any cyberpunk dystopian movie) that's because it's the same thing, and there's even been a lawsuit and a specific law raised about HireVue and how it's core design is based in biometric data spying. Now I wouldn't be as angry about this because I expect this kind of unethical behavior from big corporations now, but this is Cartoon Network. Their *WHOLE BRAND* is supposedly about being yourself, listening to other people's stories, ending mental illness stigma, and looking beyond appearances to see who a person is on the inside. I've hated the entertainment industry my whole life, and the only reason I even applied to this place is because of Rebecca Sugar, the other creatives they employ, and these messages of inclusion and self-acceptance. But when you use a platform like HireVue that gives you "employability" and emotional intelligence scores simply by your facial expression and vocal tone? You can never truly be yourself, and need to put up a mask and a fake personality just to be given a fair shake for a job. This goes against *EVERYTHING* that this channel or the shows they have claim to believe in for the sake of expedience, broader corporate policy at Warner Bros., and keeping people at arms length. It's also one of the greatest betrayals of my life and of my own personal values. And the sick thing is that *so many* of the other Glassdoor reviews from people at CN actually shill for and defend this ugly bigoted software platform as somehow being effective. It's one of the most chilling displays of toxic positivity I've seen in my life and reminds me of the Church of Scientology, LuLaRoe, or some other cult. Thankfully I'm now at a job that pays way more and gives better benefits that this Research Analyst position ever would. But because of how much the shows that this network have meant to me personally, and what their creatives claim to believe, I can never forget the hurt that going through this hiring process caused me. It truly gave me the determination to never treat coworkers and others this way, or talk out of both sides of my mouth. I refuse to be treated like a criminal like this or be subjected to this type of ugly surveillance for profit, and even before Discovery bought out Warners, this interview process told me everything I needed to know about Cartoon Network and WarnerMedia as employers. I hope no one ever goes through something like this or have their deepest convictions sacrificed on the altar convenience and fear. And prejudiced privatized police state platforms like HireVue need to be made illegal. Absolutely disgusting.
