So yeah. Life went haywire for much of 2020. And yet while we’ve been dealing with mandatory lockdowns, learning to make sourdough, and finding the best mask for trips to the grocery store and socially distanced walks, we’ve also had to deal with some more mundane adjustments.
Like Zoom everything.
Whether you were furloughed, laid off, or just looking for a change, you may have to contend with Zoom job interviews now. And no, going on camera isn’t just like doing an in-person interview! As we’ve all discovered, Zoom (and Skype, Teams, BlueJeans, Google Meet, and every other video platform out there) has its own quirks to deal with.
So how do you impress at your next Zoom job interview? Glad you asked!
1. Make Sure You Have a Stable, Fast Internet Connection
This one should go without saying…but I’ll say it anyway: Make sure your internet is up to snuff! With many offices switching to remote work for the foreseeable future, hiring managers want to know that your home office setup can keep up.
So your Zoom call makes not only a professional but also a technical first impression. Having your internet stutter or cut out, or having a connection that can’t support smooth audio and video, will make recruiters and interviewers think twice about your technical ability to perform the day-to-day tasks of the job while remote.
Action Step: Place a test call to a friend the day of your interview to make sure everything is set up and running smooth. If your home internet chooses that day to conk out, consider using your phone as a hotspot if you have a good data plan.
2. Keep Your Laptop Connected
Just like making sure your connection is stable, making sure your device is charged and ready to go is key! Nothing like having your laptop battery run out just as the interviewer is getting to the good stuff…
Action Step: Keep your laptop or tablet on its charger during your call instead of relying on battery power. If you’re using bluetooth headphones, make sure they’re fully charged and that the connection is stable.
3. Have a Professional Environment Set Up
No, that virtual background of the Enterprise bridge isn’t going to cut it for your interview – unless, of course, you’re looking to become the next helmsman (if you are, can we be friends?)
In fact, ditch the virtual backgrounds altogether for an interview – too much chance something will go haywire, like having your arm “vanish” or part of your head dissolve into green-screen sparkles. It’s not a good look!
Instead, opt for a clear, uncluttered background in a calm area. Again, you want to show the interviewer that you have a professional, peaceful home work environment – somewhere you can focus on the job when it’s work time, even when you’re working from home.
You don’t have to have a stark white background, or a curated workspace that belongs on Instagram, but now’s the time to stash all your junk under the desk or in another room, or to hang a curtain over all the fanart on the wall and fake it as a “window”.
Oh, and now’s also the time to lock the dang door. No cats, partners, or kids allowed in the room while you’re interviewing.
Don’t have a door to lock? Boot everyone else out of the apartment on a nice long socially distanced walk, or at least impress on them the importance of letting you get this call done uninterrupted. It shouldn’t take more than an hour….they can hang on that long, right?
Consider bribery if needed.
Action Steps: Go through your home workspace with your video software up and running. Look at yourself through the interviewer’s eyes and clear away anything that might be distracting or unprofessional. You can add the fun stuff back later, after you’re hired and learn the work culture and what’s appropriate.
Check the lighting and your computer webcam angle to make sure you’re showing up clearly and there aren’t any weird bright or dim spots.
Tell anyone you live with (including the dog) that you need some quiet time during the interview.
4. Get Dressed
We’ll go over Zoom attire choices in another post, but the basics for any interview apply to Zoom video job interviews: wear something appropriate for your profession. Creative types, obviously, can get away with a bolder pattern or more relaxed cut than someone interviewing to be an M&A attorney.
And maybe actually put on pants – no, the interviewer probably won’t see what you’re wearing (or not) below chest-level, but psychologically? You’ll feel more professional, put-together, and on top of your game if you wear a full outfit.
Think of it as prepping for battle. You’re putting on all the armor and gear that you’d wear to go out and be a superhero. Give yourself the psychological boost of wearing the full kit, not just going halvsies.
Action Step: Check your outfit on camera to make sure that you’re getting enough contrast between your skin, the lighting, the background, etc. No, clothes shouldn’t define who gets a job, but if you’re totally washed out or you look like a head floating on a sea of black thanks to the dark background and dark turtleneck, your interviewer might be distracted from your skills and experience. Not optimal!
5. Check Your Angles
Time to be vain! Making a great first impression does involve that visual check – humans are visual creatures, after all, and we’re all so desperate for human contact right now that yes, we’re drawn to looking at each other even more than we might normally be.
You don’t have to learn to do a cut-crease and supermodel levels of contour for a Zoom interview, but you should also probably not look like a Worm Person.
Thankfully, this is easier than you’d think. Just like with so many of these tips, practice is the key! Do a dress rehearsal with a friend or just check your setup in advance to make sure you’ve found a flattering way to angle the webcam.
Action Step: Find Your Angle on your work computer setup. Play with the tilt of the screen, how far you sit from the camera, the lighting, etc. until you find an angle you’re happy with.
The most universally flattering angle is with the camera level with your eyes or slightly higher, sitting fairly close to the camera. Try not to have the camera below your eye level looking up – almost no one looks good like that.
6. Log In Early…But Not Too Early
Normally, you show up to an interview 15-30 minutes before your scheduled time, to get through any paperwork, make sure you’ve found the right place, and just give yourself a good padding of time for the inevitable screwups.
With a remote job interview, you still want to “arrive” early … but not super-early! Your interviewer may have a block of candidates lined up and entering the room early might compromise the end of a previous interview or otherwise derail the procedure.
They also need time to prep! Your interviewer is getting themselves settled and ready in the 15 minutes before your scheduled time. Let them do that – the more comfortable they feel, the better they’ll feel about talking to you.
Action Step: Log in about 5 minutes before your scheduled meeting time. That’s enough to address any technical issues, but not so much that you throw off timing.
7. Interact Naturally – Or as Naturally as You Can
Okay, so let’s just admit it: Zoom calls friggin’ suck. They’re awkward AF and it feels really weird to be chatting with someone with your own head in a tiny little window in the corner.
But with WFH being at least a component of the New Job Normal, we’re all having to get used to it – and demonstrating that you aren’t flustered by a video call setup leaves a great impression on hiring managers.
I mean, if you can roll with the punches now, you’re probably going to function pretty okay when something goes wrong on the job, you know?
Action Step: Make eye contact with the camera (adjusting to look at your interviewer as much as possible) and keep your posture relaxed. Try not to hunch your shoulders, lean too far back or forward in your chair, and keep your chin tilted up slightly.
Breathe! Your interviewer is human, too, and you’ve got this. Time to make conversation and answer questions. You’ve been putting up with virtual pub quizzes for weeks – you can easily answer a couple questions that aren’t about who invented the parking meter.
8. Smile!
Smiling helps to relax both you and your interviewer. You don’t have to go all “horrifying many-toothed manic grin of someone in self-quarantine with no human interaction for the last 4 months” on it.
In fact, please don’t.
But a natural, upbeat smile every so often will bring a human level to a weird interaction and help you and your interviewer engage smoothly.
Action Step: Does what it says on the tin. Just smile a couple times! Relax. You’ve got this.
9. Follow Up
We’ll dig into the best ways to follow up after a virtual job interview later on, but just keep in mind that you need to! Just like sending a thank you after an in-person job interview, you need to follow up with the hiring manager and/or interviewer after a Zoom interview, too.
Action Step: Put the follow-up on your calendar at the same time you add the interview itself. Add a notification. That way, you won’t forget when life crashes back in, the cat demands to be petted immediately, and your roommate tells you that they accidentally set the freezer on fire while you were on your call.
You know, the usual.
So. Have you had any remote job interviews recently? How are they going? Share your tips, tricks, and struggles in the comments!
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