Welcome to the job interview experience and part two of our zoom and video chat interview preparation series Learning the ins and outs the best practices of video interviews is vital because they are here to stay the new industry standard For early, if not Sunday, all job interviews. If you haven't heard me say it before, I am a past executive recruiter, search firm owner, director of talent acquisition, and today the founder of CandidateClub.
com interview training and your host of the job interview experience. But who cares about all that stuff, right? I have a ton of real world experience. I want to help you and tell you everything I know about how to stand out get job offers get your dream job and take some of that stress away at the same time So let's dig back into video interviews most people have a laptop a cell phone or tablet or a And running a video interview takes a lot of battery power.
Make sure your computer or tablet or phone is fully charged and plugged in before your interview. You don't want to get down to 2 percent battery during your interview. Not only do you risk your phone dying and you just quitting halfway through the interview, maybe the recruiter will think you're so confident that you said everything that needs to be said, and you'll just wait for the offer. Maybe.
They'll think that you are a flake or unreliable, but not only do you risk that on top, you will be getting battery, notification battery notifications that will be popping up while you're trying to perform during your interview. And the added stress will not help whatsoever. You can thank me later for thinking of this, charge it up and have it plugged in if possible.
While you're at it, tell me if you thought about this clean off your computer or cell phone camera in case it's dirty with fingerprints. It probably is. I sneeze a lot. So there's always something to clean off. Just I use my T shirt. I breathe on it a little bit. Use my T shirt. You can use Windex. Make sure that's clean. You can look foggier or it can look dirty during your interview. You'll look sharper. The image will be better. It'll look professional.
Next, make sure you have a good internet connection. If your internet has a history of spotty or very slow internet, consider finding another clean and quiet place for your interview. You don't want to have your connection break up or drop off during your interview. It's frustrating for both parties and makes you look unprepared to work remotely. We all want to work remotely. I don't blame you. Maybe the job is for 100 percent in person. That's different.
You still want to get through your internet through your interview without the internet dropping off Find another place if you need to beware of coffee shops or other noisy places that might be your go to for good internet might Be too chaotic and loud You can usually find a private room at a library or a co working space If you don't have any other options, you should wear the same professional outfit You During your video interview as you would for an in person interview.
Don't just wear a professional top with your underwear underneath. Wear professional pants or skirt as well. Outfits including blazers, dress pants, formal shirts, and formal dresses are industry standards. In case you have to move away from the camera unexpectedly, like if your room catches on fire during your interview, you want to make sure you look good top to bottom as you run away. You don't have to wear a suit and tie. It depends on the industry.
A polo shirt might be more appropriate, if you're in tech, wear your hoodie if you really need to. It, use your best judgment on that, but wear something that you would wear for an in person interview. Make sure you look like you, you cared. They're giving you their time. They're not gonna do this.
In you know their pajamas so give them the same courtesy and show off how good you look when you get cleaned up here's something else about doing the interview other programs and apps slow your phone and your computer down videos ads and music can start playing unexpectedly your interviewer might ask you to screen share to show your resume or if you have a portfolio to show work in your portfolio make sure everything on your computer looks clean and organized As if they would in person, so close
all your apps on your phone or your tablet, close everything except your browser and your video chat service. If you're using your computer, it'll run quicker. You'll have much less garbage to sort through if, say, you want to pull up your resume or pull up their website. And if you're going to screen share, don't be a fool. Close that incognito tab too.
You don't want to be late for your video interview because you don't have The program downloaded on your computer, your interviewer will let you know which program to use for your interview. That might be zoom. It might be Google hangouts. It might be Microsoft office or whatever. Make sure you have that program downloaded up to date and that you have the account ready to go. You might think you have all that ready to go, but I've opened zoom plenty of times and they have another update.
For me to go through and that can take a couple minutes and sometimes zoom has to shut down and start back up again and all that so before your interview make sure to log in and do a practice run with a friend or family so that everything works as it should not being prepared for this will look bad for the interview and cause you to appear as a candidate that doesn't pay attention to the details how can somebody be late for something that is at their own house that they've been in all day?
This happens to me with the zoom updates or chrome needs an update before a google chat or google meet interview again Especially like 10 minutes 15 minutes before that interview open everything up try and start a video Even if it's with you're sending yourself a link, whatever run through that all beforehand.
It's super stressful It's happened to me a couple times now Let's talk about how to make your video interview work to your advantage print off your resume the job description You Company information including their about page or Wikipedia better than printing that off is obviously opening them in other tabs I would appreciate if everyone saved some paper and save some money plus printing is always a big pain in the butt Beware that during the video interview, clicking on different tabs might
make some noise at different colored screen webpages will illuminate you via computer screen differently. So say you're on your resume, it's white, but you go to the company website and it's a blue background. Just be aware of all of that, write down the name of the CEO or president and top executives and as much history or important talking points as you can leave this information. If you don't have it up in tabs.
If you don't have it on your computer screen on tabs, leave it slightly off screen and use a highlighter to mark areas. You will need quick access to this will not only help you be more prepared. It will also help you look more prepared and research for your interview at the end of your video interview. You will likely be asked if you have any questions and write down any questions you have before the interview if they come up.
Those questions are answered during your conversation cross them off your list You can also quickly write down additional questions because they might come up the recruiter or manager Whoever you talk to you might bring things up that you want to know about try to keep your list of questions to three to five questions maximum But the number of questions you ask should be like two to three max if this is your first interview Second interview, you can do another two, three, four questions.
You don't want to ask five questions during any interview. You want to spread those out over the process. You can ask about the company vision for the future. What's what has changed in the last six months, what the role will be like during week one and what expectations are month six. Ask how you, how a new candidate, someone that they hire can stand out.
Make life easy as you get into the group of things you can ask what the perks and benefits That you ask what the perks and benefits that the import current employees enjoy are or what the interviewer likes about working at the company That's a common interview question. What do you like about working here? I think it's a little silly be just because it's become a common thing You can ask what type of people what type of attitude?
You It's best with their culture, what type how people get along, what their best employees do that, help some stand out, things like that. Make sure to wait until the end of the interview when you're asked to ask questions. Some candidates get excited and start asking questions in the middle of the interview. This throws off the interviewer's rhythm and doesn't look good. Wait till the end to ask any questions.
Most of all great job working through two episodes worth of video interview prep and Here's the good news These are awesome tips and insight that you won't find anywhere else and your prep for your next interview will last For your entire career not just this next interview You are investing yourself in creating, investing in yourself, in creating a foundation for your entire career of interviews. Talk to everybody again soon. Thank you.