Even before COVID-19, video interviews were a common hiring tool to screen candidates, as reported in the February FirstGen Ahead Newsletter. Now, remote interviews are the answer for minimizing the risk of exposure to the virus. Here are key tips you need to know:
1. Eliminate distractions you can control. Find the quietest space possible and let others in your house know ahead of time that you are interviewing.
2. Signal professionalism with your dress and posture. Approach a video interview the same way as you would a face-to-face interview by following the organization’s dress code.
3. Test your Wi-Fi connection beforehand. You can video chat with a friend to see if your connection is fast enough.
4. Face natural light or move a light behind your laptop facing you. Bad lighting makes it hard to get the kind of visual feedback you’d normally get in a conversation. When you practice your video chat with a friend, ask your friend how you look.
5. Look at the camera for regular eye contact. Arrange your equipment so that it’s not hard to look directly at the camera. Set up your laptop so it mostly frames your head and shoulders; you don’t want to look far away.
As always, have questions ready that you want to ask the interviewer.
