Hey, guys. Welcome to the podcast. My guest today is Laura Wilson who is the principal consultant at Biostrategies Consulting and former director of MSLs at Genentech. And we discussed some ideas on how to prepare for a video interview. So this is really important and relevant information right now. I hope you guys enjoy it. Welcome to MSL talk with Tom Caravella, a podcast specifically designed for MSLs and all things field medical. Hey, Laura. How are you doing today? Thanks for joining me.
I'm good. Thank you very much for having me. Awesome. So I'm really excited that you agreed to join me on the podcast because I know you have a great story to tell. You have a lot of experience, and you came up with the idea of of, you know, talking about video interviewing, which is such an important topic right now, obviously. So I think a lot of people are gonna benefit from this.
But before we get into that, let's just if you could introduce yourself, tell us what you're you know, what you have going on right now and, where you came from prior to that, and I think that'd be great. Okay. Thanks again, Tom, for having me. My name is Laura Wilson, and I'm a physician by training. And, currently, I am just starting a consulting business of my own. The name of it is bio strategies consulting. I just opened for business this week.
And I have a couple of clients that I'm working with. So that's really exciting. And prior to that, I don't wanna give away my age, but prior to that, I have spent a lot of years in the MSL role as well as a medical director in both clinical development as well as medical affairs. And for the last 6 years, I was, a director for a very large MSL team. And so I've been on both sides of the I'm being interviewed process or I am interviewing others.
And so I wanted to share some of the tips that I've been that I've picked up over time because, I know there's a lot of people going through interviews right now, and I just thought it would be an opportunity to share some tips. Yeah. Perfect timing. This is absolutely the perfect time for this. Congratulations on launching your business and best of luck. I'm sure you're gonna do great things. And obviously so you've hired and interviewed and built teams.
So now that we're in this situation with COVID, I think you'd be the per person to talk to about this. What's your feeling on video interviewing? Obviously, all video all interviews right now are virtual. So do you think that this is here to stay or do you think that this is gonna be a temporary thing? I'm just curious. Well, I think, you know, video interviews are becoming more common in the workplace due to a variety of factors, COVID being one of them currently. Right?
But right now, research is showing that many organizations have already begun to utilize this practice and the numbers seem to be climbing. Many companies are using it as we've mentioned, right now out of necessity. However, I believe we've learned that it's very effective and it's probably here to stay in some form or another. Be it screening, you know, the initial screening of candidates before you bring in sort of your final group, for face to face interviews.
Currently, you wouldn't do that right now. But once we get back to a more normal work schedule, I think that the video interviewing is here to stay being used possibly as a screening tool. It gives the hiring managers and recruiting, managers really a low cost advantage and also a global reach, to evaluate candidates. And it also expedites the interviewing process.
I think as well as, you know, it helps with manager scheduling availability because they don't have to account for the the travel times as well as candidate scheduling availability. Because often, if you're flying someplace to meet a candidate to interview them, to get the managers out of the office and other people to come interview as well as the candidate, there's a lot of coordination. And there there seems to be less problem finding times when people are able to meet virtually.
I think they do video interviews do require building skills that involves sort of managing your technology that some of us are just now getting more familiar with. As well as presenting in front of a camera. So we'll go through some tips on that. Yeah. Well, I I agree wholeheartedly.
I think that we've all realized that there's tremendous benefits to the video interviewing, process and how it it totally expedites and eliminates the logistical issues of having to fly people in and that sort of thing. So I think it's proven to be effective. I agree with you. I I think it's here to stay, but I don't think it's going to replace the live interview. Right. I think that once travel bans and restrictions are lifted, I think companies are gonna go back to the live interview.
That's my feeling. I think but I do think that there is going to be a place for the video interview. So I think it's really important, that people get used to it, and perfect it. So let's talk about that. So someone has an interview coming up. How you know, what tips, what advice do you have for them to start to prepare? Well, really, one of the first things I'd ask for people to remember is that this is an interview, and so you wanna treat it as such.
The interview process may be very similar to an in person interview, but there are certain things that are different. So let's go through what's very similar. Right? The objectives are certainly the same. The interviewer's objective is to either screen or interview the candidate for employment. And it's just as important for the interviewee to be sure that the company and the people that they're talking to on the team are a good fit. Are they somebody that you want to work with long term?
So that piece really hasn't changed. The interviewer checking out the candidate as well as the interviewee being sure it's a good fit. I think I would also recommend preparing yourself as if you were meeting your prospective employer in person. So that includes learning everything you can about the role before you go in for the interview, as well as learn about the company ahead of time.
So some suggestions for this include go to all of the companies have a very nice website and I would highly recommend that candidates do their research ahead of time. Go to the the sites, and look at what is their mission, what are the goals, what products do they have, specifically the area that the candidate is interviewing in, but maybe also what area other areas, are of interest to that company.
In addition, usually there's a button with a drop down tab that says investor relations, And you can get a lot of information out of that and sometimes even listen to a recent investor call so that you know even what key opinion leaders are thinking of the programs that that company is running. So you have a really good understanding of the company before you show up for the interview. Company before you show up for the interview.
Great. You know, I I'll tell you, not to jump in, but I totally agree. I mean, I love the first thing you said. This is an interview. You know, just because it's a video and it's virtual, it should be approached the exact same way. So preparation part of it probably is more important because in a video interview, everything's magnified. So you really wanna come across the right way in everything that you do. You don't wanna really miss any pieces to really nail it.
So preparation, by all means, is key. I love that's great advice to start, but I know you probably have a lot of other tips. And so as we look at the interviewee getting ready, like, what other tips would you have for somebody that's preparing? Well, as you said and I started with, I would say first and foremost, remember this is an interview. And I would say also it's important to dress appropriately and get settled at your desk and be prepared ahead of the time.
You don't wanna be rushing in and straightening things and looking for various things on your desk. So, I would say, get yourself settled, glass of water in case you start coughing or whatever next to you so that you're ready to go. And then I would say, much like you have already said, prepare just as much as if this was going to be a face to face interview. Because in some ways it is. Right? You're looking directly into the camera. You're talking to the person at the other end.
So, I would say prepare just as much. Even though you are the expert on your own experience, people shouldn't think they can wing this. And so, go in very prepared. Have your 2 minute opener ready to go. You know, that includes why are you interested in the company? Why are you excited about the company? Why are you excited about that position? But be ready to answer those types of questions.
Know your resume well and have a copy of it in front of you just in case your interviewer picks off something that, you know, was a little bit buried in the resume and you have to think, oh, yeah. I really, 6 years ago that did happen. So you wanna have that information there. Have some good examples ready out of your, out of your resume. And I would say read and understand the job description, you know, really very well before you show up.
Prepare your answers to questions that you think you will be asked. So once you feel like you're really prepared, then I would say it's time to adopt the mindset of what questions do you have for my answers? Because every question is not just a question, it is another opportunity to get your key messages out to that interviewer. And the question, tell me the 3 skills that you have mastered that will make you the perfect fit for this position, is likely not to come up.
But that is the answer you need to make sure that they hear during the interview. So have your questions. The next thing I would say is have your questions for the interviewer written down as well. I have run into more than one situation when I say, so, do you have any questions for me? And they say, no. Scared. It's scared. So I would say, one really good question that I think, is is a good one to ask is if I was offered this position, what is the first thing you would need me to do?
Because that really gets some good information from the person that is interviewing you. And then I would also say, remember to synchronize your body language to your message and your and your nonverbal signals. So if you're excited, you wanna you wanna hear that in your voice. And, definitely practice focusing on the person you're talking to by doing some practice interviewing.
So, you know, when you're in watching TV and the newscaster is looking directly at the camera, they are looking directly at you and speaking to you. And so when you're in an interview situation, you really do wanna be looking directly at that camera and answering the question. And if it's a panel, the somebody that who's asked you the question, you look you start your answer by looking directly at that person.
Maybe look at the person to their left and to their right while you're continuing to answer. And finish your answer by looking directly again at the person that's asked you the question. So you wanna be sure that there's good eye contact. And, of course, be authentic. We can tell if you're faking it. Yeah. Those are great tips. Jeez. You covered a lot of ground. You know, it's all it's all great advice. I think the only thing that I would add, is you definitely wanna test out your technology.
You'd mentioned practice, and practice is so important in all video inter in all video interviews itself, but in video interviews, it's even more important. Because if the technology is not working or if you can't get it to work, it becomes very frustrating for the employer. So I would let's just say for argument say, you know that it's going to be Skype or it's going to be Zoom or, Teams or whatever. I would figure out a way to test that in some way, shape, or form.
You can go on to these websites and open up an account. There's a lot of free there's free accounts that you can do that with. Most people have used all these technologies and especially now, you know, when people are doing virtual happy hours on Zoom. So, not that that's my advice to practice, but that's another way to at least be comfortable in front of the camera.
But I think that that's really important so that you know that from a technical standpoint, your camera's gonna be working and you're gonna be in good shape as you go into the interview. So, as as far as, you know, just staying on the theme of preparation, what do you suggest that people should wear? Like, what how how do they pick out outfits? What's appropriate for a video interview? Yeah. First, I wanna reiterate what you say. I totally agree with you that it's important for them to practice.
And I know it's kinda weird to be talking a little bit about what should you wear for a video interview, but it is something to really keep an eye on and I'll tell you why. So I think people need to be sure they're avoiding dangling earrings and bracelets because some accessories really can wrestle and you can't hear it as much as they can hear it on the other side. So I would say be mindful of your accessories, because they can be easily picked up by microphones or fans in the background.
You don't want some things that, other people can hear. Other things to consider about wearing is avoid busy patterns. I'll go back to the newscasters. We've all seen somebody who wears a little tiny polka dots on a tie or little tiny polka dots on a shirt and that it looks as if the polka dots are moving and and sort of psychedelic in a way. And that's because small patterns cause the camera to blur.
So I think, really, it's best to avoid busy patterns and kinda your best bet is to wear tailored classic, you know, standard plain colors so that you don't run the risk of a camera blurring in and out while you're trying to talk and the interviewer focusing on something other than what you want them focusing on. Yeah. I'll I'll tell you. Look. I you I really can't stress how important this piece of advice is.
I know from experience in the last few months of doing all these video interviews that there are people that have lost the job because of the way they were dressed. I know that that sounds crazy, but I have had so many hiring managers that have commented that they were so disappointed in the way a person dressed that they didn't feel like they could take the candidate seriously enough. Actually, I had one comment. Hiring manager said he looked like he just came in from mowing the lawn.
So if if you come into an interview with a golf shirt on, well, you're giving the impression that you're overly relaxed, not probably not taking it seriously enough, and it just it doesn't show the right you're not putting your best foot forward. You should be in a suit and tie the same way that you would be, if you're going to a live interview. And same thing for women, obviously.
So your tips of, you know, making sure that you don't wear anything that's distracting, but you also wanna make sure that you have the basics down and you're wearing what you would typically wear on an interview. So Yeah. I think it's pretty nice. I completely agree with you and I think head to toe as well. Just on the off chance that for some reason, you've got a dog that's barking and you need to get up and shoo them out of the room. You don't want people to see your pajama bottoms. Right?
If you've got on a nice jacket up top, but pajama bottoms on below. So I think that's so say, pants are optional, but, you know, you might wanna put them on for the interview just in case. Right. Right. We actually we had an interview recently where and the woman interviewing, she didn't know that her kids were in the background holding up a sign that said, hi.
So as she's interviewing, she's talking she's in the middle of a panel interview and there's, you know, video whole thing, and the whole panel can see that there's her kids are in the background. So, you know, I think it's important to, to to be aware of of how you stage things. But let I don't wanna cut you off because you were on a roll. What what else? I know there's other stuff, that, you know, I'm sure other tips that that you can share. What else would we want people to know?
Well, as we've sort of alluded to, right, it's eliminate distractions including inside and outside noise. I have a very barky dog. So if the doorbell were to ring, it would set off the dog alarm. So, if I were to be interviewing, I would be sure that somebody had taken the dog out. Some people have cats that like to join in with the conversation and meow along. So I think it's important to eliminate any type of distraction that may come up during the video interview.
Again, we've all seen the the news reporter whose kids I love that. Again, right? I love it. Don't think it's great. You've got kids. You totally understand how that could happen, But you wanna try to avoid that if possible. So you're avoiding any, distractions. I would also say check the lighting and background of the room that you're sitting in. If you are sitting in front of a window and the window is behind you and is very bright, it can leave them unable to see you.
So I would I would be sure that that's, you're in the right type of light setting. And, again, this gets back to what we were talking about earlier, practicing. So take a look at what you look like on the Zoom camera. Be sure that they're seeing sort of your head and the beginning of your neck, not just you're too slouched down in the chair and they only see your nose and your forehead or vice versa or you're too high.
So, it's important to take into consideration to prepare your environment, your chair height and where you're sitting. You don't wanna be too close or too far away. Turn off your cell phone and the instant message on your computer because you don't want them hearing ping, ping every time a message comes in during the interview. And the better option is for the camera to be pointing slightly down rather than up and under your chin.
You know, the interviewers don't wanna be looking up your nose the entire interview. So, I think it's important to be mindful of those types of things. Yeah. I'll tell you. I, that camera low looking up is not a good look. It you know? Because you're looking up you see in a lot of situations, you're, like, literally looking up someone's nose, or it's just distorting their face. So I'm I'm a firm believer.
Again, I I don't wanna be redundant, but in testing out, you know, really making sure that you know what you're what you look like, you know what the environment looks like, you tested out the lighting, and even make sure you test out the lighting at like, if you're using natural light and the windows are open, you wanna test that at the time of day that you're going to be interviewing.
So for example, I when I do my podcast, I always do it, you know, obviously, we're we do we're doing this via Zoom. And there are times when if I'm doing it at the like, at the late in the day, the sun is beaming right into my face. So at any point in time, if I wanna use the video, I have to make sure that, I'm mindful of that piece of it and close the blinds or whatever.
But it all it all goes back to what you're saying as far as when you stage the environment and eliminate, kids and dogs will kill the the the video interview and they have. So I think it's really important to to put your best foot forward, let everybody know in the house, you know, or maybe have your spouse take the kids and the dog out during that time and just really make it so that that's not a distraction. I always say turn your apps off, not just your phone, but on your computer.
Just shut Outlook down, everything down so that there's nothing popping up. So, now what about after so after the video interview, or, you know, how do you end it and then do you send a thank you? What's your feeling on that piece of it? I would say absolutely yes. Send a thank you note to everyone that was on the interview panel. And I would recommend that you send that thank you note within 24 hours. You know, and it's fair game to ask for people's email address.
Probably you've already gotten that from the I wouldn't do it during the interview, but you you can get it from the person that set up the interview for you. Usually that's an administrative assistant or it might actually be the interviewer. And I would get their email address and aim for within 24 hours, for a thank you note. I would really remember to mention something specific that you and the interviewer talked about.
Often these teams that are interviewing you are close teams and they might say, hey. I got a really great thank you note from so and so and forward it to one of their other people. And if all of your thank you notes are pretty much copy paste, it's not as strong as if you mentioned something specific that you talked about with a specific interviewer. And then, of course, reiterate why you're excited about the position in your thank you note. Yeah. I would yeah.
I I'm I'm a big, big thank you note guy. I recommend thank you notes for any and all interview scenarios, whether it's live or phone or video or anything. Mhmm. I think there's no downside to it. I guess the only downside is if you like, that's really good advice if if you send a thank you that's too long or has mistakes in it and it wasn't spell checked or if you're sending the exact same note to all the panel because they do check it and it does come up.
So I would be mindful of, you know, the length of the thank you and how you're you're presenting it, but I think it's an absolute mandatory. Did I did we miss anything? Well, one thing I would just add about the thank you notes that I have been asked about. So just to clarify, I think email thank you notes in this day and age, you know, even 3 years ago, I think email thank you notes are completely fine.
Mhmm. Anymore, it may take a very long time for a handwritten thank you note to make it to the interviewer. And oftentimes, you know, they have mail drop boxes and who knows when they get around to picking it up. So I think an email thank you note is your best bet. Agreed. Good advice. What else? Any anything we missed? I would say the only other I'm gonna go back and talk about maybe how you might consider answering a question.
And one of the things that I think is really important to keep in mind is to frame your answer. So for each question that you get asked, I would say it's important to frame, your answer so that your audience understands where it is you're heading.
For example, if if you wanna talk about I'd like to share with you an example of a really challenging situation that demonstrates my 2 key skills of listening and empathy, then people are listening for 2 examples and they know I'm not gonna ramble on with 5. So I think it's important to frame for your interviewer sort of where you're heading if you can do that. Yeah. That's great advice. Customers.
We don't really connect the dots, so that's kind of the interview interviewee's job to do that during the interviewer. And that's great advice for any interview. And to add just kinda some final thoughts. You know, going back to what I said before, everything that you do on a video interview is magnified. You know, keep in mind that the people that you're interviewing with, your potential employers, the first time that you'll actually meet will be in the future.
You're not gonna meet them physically until sometime down the road, more than likely. So this video interview really has to carry a lot of weight. So the attention to detail is really, really important. So every and I'm not gonna go through everything. Everything that you just said today, Laura, which I greatly appreciate, this is really valuable information, I think it's really important.
I think that people should take all of these steps very seriously, and I think that it should be above and beyond type of process from a preparation standpoint, from an execution standpoint, and even after the interview like we were talking about. So you were great. I I really appreciate this very valuable advice. So what's next for you? I know you started this new business and, you have clients already set up and projects going. I do. It's kind of exciting. So I started a consulting business.
I've, had an opportunity to think about what I wanted to do next. And as I mentioned, I've been an MSL, I've been an MSL director, and I've been a medical affairs, medical monitor on both clinical, clinical affairs as well as clinical development. And so I did decide to start a consulting company. I did not realize how much paperwork would be involved with starting your own corporation, but that's been great and a learning experience.
And, I just started with clients this week, so it's been really exciting. That's awesome. So Well Thank you very much for having it. This was really fun and I hope people have learned something that helps them in the interviewing process. Well, thank you. I appreciate all your valuable advice and I know everybody listening does as well. And I guess we all collectively will wish you luck in your in your new ventures and everything you have going on, and we look forward to, seeing how that goes.
And, you know, we'll we'll definitely, hopefully, have you back on at some point. But thanks so much for joining me. This was awesome. Okay. Great. That sounds great. Thanks very much. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the show. And if you enjoyed it, please subscribe so that you don't miss an episode in the future and feel free to leave a rating or a review or a comment. Thanks again. And we look forward to seeing you soon.