Photoexcited hot carriers in metals can be injected into adjacent semiconductors to collect sub-bandgap photons. In the current work, we experimentally demonstrate that transition metal nitrides and transition metal carbides can act as metals and generate hot electrons by optical illumination similar to metals. Since transition metal nitrides and carbides have broad absorption in the visible spectrum, they have the potential to be used for photocatalytic and photovoltaic applications to harvest solar energy. © 2018 IEEE.