Resume and cover letter reviews aren't the only parts of the hiring process companies are opting to automate today: Add self-recorded interviews to the mix.

While some companies continue to stick exclusively with traditional interviews in person, over the phone or on a video call, others increasingly use one-way platforms on which job seekers record themselves responding to a series of prompts before they reach the live interview round, according to Gorick Ng, a Harvard University career advisor and creator of the "How To Say It" flashcard series for professional communication. A few common platforms include HireVue, Spark Hire and InterviewStream.

Some firms use pre-taped interviews to fast-forward through a roster of candidates, while others take it a step further and use artificial intelligence to transcribe and score an applicant's answers, Ng says. 

"The challenge with an AI interview is that you have one shot at an answer, and it's not a conversation," he says.

Here's how to give a self-recorded interview your best shot.

Prepare your outfit and background

You may not be speaking directly to a human during your interview, but that doesn't mean your appearance won't matter, Ng says.

Make sure your dress, sound quality, lighting, visual background and internet connection are all in order, as they can be assessed as indicators of your professionalism.

Look directly into the camera

Maintaining eye contact with your computer's camera may feel less important without someone on the other end in the moment. Don't be too sure, Ng says: "When in doubt, look at your webcam, not your screen."

Looking directly at the camera will make a stronger first impression on playback, he says. It also signals to a reviewer that you are not reading off a script, which may be a particular concern for some companies paranoid about job applicants using AI text-generator ChatGPT for real-time interview assistance, Ng adds.

A giveaway tell for reviewers is if someone's "eyes are moving left or right like they're reading from a teleprompter," he explains.

Get to the point

Unlike during a conversational interview, which features back-and-forth dialogue, your responses in a recorded evaluation take the form of a "monologue," Ng says. You may only have a minute to answer a question, so your monologue has to be as concise and substantive as possible.

Put yourself in the shoes of the reviewer, whether a machine or human, says Ng: If you're not prepared and succinct, the transcript of your remarks will appear a "rambling mess."

The good news, he says, is that you can expect any filmed job interview to touch on standard behavioral questions asked in a conventional one — an introduction, where you see yourself in the future, why you're interested in the organization and role, and recounting a specific situation such as when you demonstrated leadership or disagreed with a manager.

The same rules for nailing a question in a conventional interview apply even when you're not speaking to a person, Ng says. He recommends using the STAR method, an interviewing technique that involves describing the situation, task, action and result to structure your anecdotal response.

Since these taped interviews happen at the earliest stage of the interview process, "the glass-half-full way of looking at this automation trend is that you're actually getting a lot more practice in something that people would otherwise have to put themselves in a super high-stakes interview to be able to practice for real," Ng says.

Want to land your dream job? Take CNBC's online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers really look for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.