#interview tips 2015

How Will You Look In The Interview

Decide what attire you are going to wear for the video interview. The safest bet is to wear a coat and a tie, or just shirt and a tie. The tie may not be necessary incase the shirt one is wearing is a formal one. Usually one can do without a tie if wearing dark colored shirts.

Females can wear a coat or a smart shirt. Make sure the dress does not seem too tight or too slack. Top Tip#: We highly suggest wearing a maroon colored shirt or top as most interviewers we come across don’t wear maroon. So one is likely to more stand out in the interview and hence be remembered by the HR manager.  Also, a category of business attire called 'Business Casuals' also goes well for video interviews. Infact we recommend using business casual over a full professional suite since it sends a subliminal message of your personality traits to the HR manager that you are professional friendly and approachable.

Try the dresses and suits a couple days before the interview. And finally go after your gut feeling on how you should present yourself to the company.

Here is an article by Tarleton State University on how to dress to impress! 

 Essentials On The Table

Keep the following list of things on your table for the interview:

Extra Pens

Watch

A Copy Of Your Resume

Tissue/Handkerchief (Can Go In Pocket)

Water Bottle

A Small Notebook

Practice/Mock Interview

if you are feeling nervous before the interview then why not practice first. Call your friend or family over Skype/Google Hangout. Give a mock interview. Send them a list of questions that you think the interviewer is likely to ask. Also send them your resume. Answer the questions as if you are giving a live interview. Towards the end of the session ask them for lots of feedback.

Another method is to record the skype interview and transcribe the video. After transcribing the video you will receive the video transcript. You can take a printout of this and review what you have said and how you said it. Note: Tell your transcriber to send you a verbatim transcript instead of a general transcript.

Intermittent feedback also can be very useful as you can correct yourself multiple times during the course of the interview.

Background

Backgrounds can be made to look interesting. An interesting example of an excellent background is books. So lots of books, memorabilia, trophies, etc shown in the background can look interesting to the HR manager. You never

Noise Free Room: If you are giving the interview from your room then there are certain things you should do. There should be no echoing when one is speaking. If there is one can open the windows slightly. The doors should be closed. The voices from the other rooms should not leak into the interview room. Outside traffic noise should not enter the room.

Check Your Internet Connection

If you present in the developed regions of the world such as Canada, Australia, USA and the United Kingdom then it's most likely that you will need not worry about the speed of your net connection. However in developing nations internet speed is still a concern as broadband is yet to penetrate into a lot of regions. So ask your provider if you can buy some high speed bandwidth on demand for a day or two. 

Interview Equipment

There are 2 peripherals that one would need to arrange.

Microphone: Laptops have inbuilt microphones in them. So one need not purchase a extra microphone. If for some reason the inbuilt microphone is not working then make use of the webcam microphone. The third option is you can buy one of the several microphones available on Wallmart, CVC, B&H Photo, Target stores etc.  

Webcam: Webcam is probably one of the most important devices that you will need for the interview. Invest in a excellent USB webcam. The webcam should have an inbuilt voice recorder, should be able to record 720p or higher video frames. There are several excellent webcam companies out there but our favorite is Logitech and Microsoft. If one is on a budget then we recommend you go through this article which lists out the best webcams available in the market for under $50.

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