Three Romanian entrepreneurs have launched interviewsUp.com, a new platform "designed to bring structure and clarity to job interviews." Founded by Beatrice Galațanu, Mihaela Roșu, and Elvis Apostol, the startup aims to improve hiring quality by offering structured, skill-based interviews that emphasize essential soft skills.

As artificial intelligence automates more tasks, the founders believe that soft skills make the real difference in recruitment. Despite significant investments in hiring, many job interviews remain unstructured, often focusing primarily on technical competencies while overlooking critical abilities such as critical thinking, adaptability, and continuous learning, the founders say. 

The new platform offers a comprehensive library of soft skills, assessment criteria, thousands of expert-validated interview questions customized by seniority level and job role, and an integrated AI tool to enhance hiring accuracy. 

"In a rapidly evolving recruitment industry, digital solutions like interviewsUp provide companies with a competitive edge by streamlining interviews and reducing hiring mistakes, which can cost up to 30% of an employee's annual salary, according to Harvard Business Review," reads the press release.

Beatrice Galațanu, co-founder & CEO of interviewsUp, emphasized the platform's role in improving collaboration between HR professionals and hiring managers. 

"We created interviewsUp to support HR professionals and hiring managers in collaborating more easily and evaluating candidates' fit with the role and organizational culture as objectively as possible, by asking relevant and well-directed questions in interviews. Because we know that when interviews are objective and relevant, both employer branding and the candidate experience improve," she said.

Elvis Apostol, co-founder & CTO, highlighted the importance of soft skills in hiring: "As a hiring manager, your priority is often to find candidates with the right technical skills. However, soft skills - critical for team integration and cultural alignment - are frequently overlooked. interviewsUp provides a digital solution for a more structured and effective hiring process."

Meanwhile, Mihaela Roșu, co-founder & CMO, pointed to a major gap in recruitment practices. "Our research shows that job interviews, especially with potential managers, have the greatest impact on candidate experience. While soft skills are as important as technical abilities, only 41% of companies worldwide have a structured process for assessing them, according to LinkedIn. interviewsUp fills this gap with an intuitive digital platform backed by HR and business expertise."

Beatrice Galațanu has over 16 years of expertise in HR and entrepreneurship. She coordinates My HR Lab, a training and consulting company.

With over 20 years of experience in developing software solutions used by tens of millions of people, Elvis Apostol has built his career at the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship. Co-founder of MavenHut, he has extensive expertise in developing and scaling digital products by managing technical teams.

Mihaela Roșu has over 20 years of experience in business research, analysis, forecasting, marketing, and communications, with the past seven years focusing on HR consulting, digital marketing, and business development.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: the company; credit: Adrian Vizireanu Elastic Studio)