Video conferencing is a preferred method to phone interviews
The responses to this week’s question: “What would you prefer - a video conference or a telephone interview?”, left us scratching our head a little. Really almost all of you – a whopping 88% - said you would rather have a video conference instead of just a phone interview. Our original guess was that, with some of the technical limitations, you would rather have a phone interview. That hypothesis was definitely blown out of the water!
It did get us thinking about the advantages of seeing who you are talking to, but also some potential pitfalls. Here are a few quick tips for a successful visual – if not live in person – interview for both participants.
1. Plan ahead – make sure you test your volume levels, lighting, and your distance from the camera in a practice round with friends or family.
2. What you wear still matters – maybe not a full blown suit and tie, but a clean and neat appearance go a long way.
3. Location – as in real estate location matters. Messy desk, high traffic area, bad background can all impact your interview session.
4. Slow down – you probably have a simple camera set up so you’ll need to work with what you’ve got. Slowing down both your body movements and your talking cadence can help minimize jittery video feeds.
5. Eye contact – you aren’t speaking with someone in person, but you will be looking at them. Talk directly to the camera and it will give the impression you are speaking directly to the other person.
What about you? What tips do you have to share?
3 Comments
Your tips for video conferencing interviews said:
Last week we asked whether you prefer a video or phone interview and you suprised us with your responses. Times they are a changin'. This week, since you seemed to indicated that video interviewes were your top choice, we asked you to share your top tips
Saira Sohail said:
I think the reason most of the people responded for video conference instead of just a phone interview is that most of the responded were frequent internet users so for them video conference isn't something very new.
thais said:
I've never had video conference interview, but I think that you can't be conected in msn or other things, because it will distract you. You nedd to turn off all the things and just open the video.
I think people prefer the video, because it takes the more real interview. Phone is a bit impersonal.