Video interview

Away With The Fairies

These seem to be very common lately. Where is the best place to go for an interview.

I tidied my room, but there's still stuff in the background but can't move things and not happy with the way things look.

My housemate works from home and works in the living room.

I don't know if a library will let me in and even if they do, there might be people talking.

How are people dealing with these types of interviews and where is the best place.

ronivek

You could be interrupted at any time if you're in a public place trying to do an interview. Just do them from home where you're comfortable; if the mess bothers you that much you could drape a sheet or something or just pick an angle that doesn't show it.

whampiri

Mr.S wrote: »

Your room will be perfectly fine, don't worry about having things in the background, as long as it's tidy and presentable, you'll be fine. Interviewer will be understanding. Main thing is having somewhere quiet where you can focus and not be interrupted.

If using a laptop, prop it up a bit so the webcam is eye level versus pointing up at your chin. When speaking, look at the camera not the person on the screen.

Do a few practise video calls with someone to ensure everything is working, microphone etc.

Best trick I've heard is to stick googly eyes directly above the camera. This will draw your eyes to the lens. I.e. the interviewer, and not the screen.

Staplor

Stick on your camera and try a few angles, i did one by my phone, I had it angled the way I wanted, propped up on books etc, you can play this to your advantage.

If the background is messy, clean it, tidy it, and enjoy interviewing while wearing tracksuit pants!!!!

GalwayGrrrrrl

Do it in your room. Do your best to move everything messy behind the camera so your background looks as neat as possible. If you go into Zoom you can do a meeting with just yourself so you can play around with camera angles to show a nice tidy section. I did a meeting with someone who had a huge Monsoon shopping bag on top of their wardrobe and I spent half the meeting wondering what was in the bag! It would have taken a few seconds for them to move it to make a clean backdrop.
Get a lamp to make sure you have good lighting on your face - Lidl have desk lamps at the moment for less than 20 Euro.
Use books or boxes to bring the phone or laptop to eye level.
Good luck with your interview.

Away With The Fairies

Thanks for the tips. I practiced with different angles and found something I'm happy with.

Vestiapx

Microsoft teams address this brilliantly, do other formats not?

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/14/21220559/microsoft-teams-how-to-background-change-image-home-office

OMM 0000

Wear a full suit. Don't just wear the upper half. There's a psychological weirdness when you're doing a video call and your langer is dangling below your laptop.

messrs

I did one a while ago, pre covid, it was with HR and he was based off site so wanted to do a video interview so i just sat in my car to do it. But sit wherever you feel comfortable. Best of luck with it

Everyone is WFH these days, nobody is going to be surprised by you doing the interview in your bedroom.

A few months ago I had a video interview while abroad, there was a blackout so I missed it entirely at the scheduled time, then when I got it rescheduled my wife kept closing the door of the room I was doing it from which would stop the wifi signal so got cut off a bunch of times, ended up having to relocate to a different room during the interview and then my video cut off so all I had for the rest was audio. Still got offered the job!

Fr Tod Umptious

Mr.S wrote: »

That would strike me as weird, if someone used a virtual background.

The blurred background is a great idea.
I use it for all my video calls theses days