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Virtual Interview Tips To Land You The Job During The COVID-19 Pandemic

This article is more than 3 years old.

With roughly 22 million Americans filing for unemployment as of April 16, 2020, the job hunt has become key for a whole new group of individuals. While many businesses have shut down or put a hold on hiring, there are still a handful of industries and companies who are on hiring sprees. The kicker is, interviews are now taking place online.

Virtual interviews grant employers access to an entirely broadened bracket of people to hire, as it speeds up the interview process and saves everyone time.  For those on the job hunt, the idea of a virtual interview can be daunting, as it robs you the opportunity to dazzle someone in person. Virtual interviews present their own unique challenges, from using new technology, to managing software settings or reflecting enthusiasm for a role through the computer screen. Nonetheless, it can be to your advantage, giving you the opportunity to apply for positions that otherwise may not have taken the time and investment to fly you out for an in-person interview.  

Being able to show up the right way for your virtual interview matters more than ever.  Here are five tips to help you ace your virtual interview.

1. Establish a professional setting.

I am not talking about those virtual settings on conference platforms (though it is pretty fun that Zoom allows you to create a sleek, fake apartment behind you!), I mean the environment of your actual home. I recently had a new client reach out for help after doing a slew of online interviews, resulting in no job offers. When I asked him to show me his set up, he walked into the laundry room and sat down on a stool. Immediately, I knew his problem wasn’t necessarily his skillset, it was the way he was presenting himself… and the echo interviewers probably struggled with from the acoustics of that room.

Choosing the right location for your interview comes down to finding a space that is peaceful, quiet and distraction-free. You want to avoid anything that may distract the interviewer, or you, from the conversation. If you live in an apartment complex or share a wall with neighbors who might play music or talk loudly, reach out to them a day in advance. Let them know you have an interview at the specified time and ask that they be conscious of their volume during this time.  A little forethought goes a long way.

A quiet office or desk area is ideal, but if you don’t have that setup, consider sitting at your kitchen table or an area with a simple background that won’t detract from the focal point of the interview: you. This may mean you have to move some furniture or set aside the collage of photos from your recent bachelorette trip pinned to the wall.

2. Optimize your lighting.

When an interview unfolds, the last thing you want is for your face to be covered by a shadow or blinded by light streaming through your window.  Use several lights to fully illuminate your face and avoid unpredictable shadows.  Opt for a few different lights to properly illuminate yourself.  There are a few easy to purchase, and affordable options to help you out:

  • Lumecube: Offers lighting devices you can hook up directly to your phone or laptop to give you a natural glow and illuminate your face.
  • Spectrum: Carries a “Video Conferencing Kit” with two lights to brighten from two angles, no one has a bad angle with this set up.
  • Webcam Light Stand: A product that clips onto any surface, including a laptop or desk and holds small ring lights to move and adjust based on the natural lighting you already have.  

Placement is also everything, so position your computer on an elevated surface as opposed to your lap.  If you have papers or other notes by your side this helps keep the interview focused on your face, not what is around you.  Not to mention, interviewers don’t want to spend 30 minutes with a view of your nostrils, looking like a character in the Blair Witch Project movie.

3. Check your internet connection.

Frozen screens and dropped calls are the quickest way to lose out on an interview opportunity.  It may feel like the internet connection is out of your control, but there are steps you can take to ensure you have the best connection possible.  Plug your computer directly into a wired internet connection for better stability, as the ethernet cable sends the signal directly to your computer rather than via over-the-air transmission. Before the interview begins, disconnect any other devices from your internet and cancel all other windows on your laptop. The average home has 11 devices connected to the internet at a given time stressing the bandwidth of your internet speed. If you have a phone, iPad, Alexa or anything else that is competing for the internet connection, turn it off. Also consider testing your internet speed at Measurement Lab or SpeedCheck to see whether you could use a little more support.

If you have a few virtual interviews lined up over the coming weeks, give your internet provider a call and see if you can upgrade your internet speed and capacity for the month.  You may have to pay extra, but that single month of improved internet connection could be what helps ensure you have flawless interviews and a secure job offer in the long term.

4. Do a test run.

Once you have everything set up, do a test run with a friend, family member or career coach like myself. Most conferencing services have a free version you can download, so hop online and have someone give you a call.  This way, you can practice familiarizing yourself with the unique features of the platform and make sure all plug-ins and downloads are installed before the big day. There’s no interview time suck much worse than your interviewer needing to give you a tutorial on how to use their technology.

Use this as a time to garner feedback about everything you set up: lighting, camera angle, sound, and location.  If possible, hit the record feature of the test run so that you can go back and watch it for yourself.  We all have nervous ticks that show up, especially on camera, and seeing them for yourself will help.  

One very important thing to notice is where you are looking… Ask yourself: Are you looking at yourself, away from the camera or watching the other person? The truth is, memory, impressions, and eye contact are all closely linked. A joint study between the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Stirling studied video calls and found that participants who held eye contact through the camera increased the group’s ability to remember what they said. Trick yourself into looking at the camera. Consider taping something with eyes just above your camera lens to make sure you look through the camera, not down at yourself.  

5. Dress correctly.

A virtual interview should be approached in the same manner as an in-person interview, follow the same dress-code standards you would to walk onto the corporate campus. Research shows that how you dress actually impacts how you think, as it increases abstract thinking and gives you a broader perspective.  Putting on that suit or pair of slacks may actually be generating more creativity during the interview.

Business attire has taken on a whole new meaning in recent years and certain industries and locations across the country have very different definitions of what they consider “appropriate”. Since you may be applying for a job in a location across the country, do some research on the corporate culture and dress code before the virtual interview to understand what they consider the norm. An admin assistant job at a tech firm in California may have an entirely different dress code than an admin assistant at a tech firm in Chicago. Err on the side of being overdressed.  And do so from head to toe, you never know if you will have to stand up and adjust your camera or grab a sample of work you want to share on-screen. Your donut pajamas are not a good look for this (though I would love to see them!). 

This may all feel foreign to you right now, but practice, practice and practice some more.  It may feel tedious, but if you want to land a job in a competitive market, you have to expect the tedium. 

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