How to do a job interview on Zoom: Tips for success

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is Skype job interviews. So I'm

going to give you some tips and advice that I know about... I work on Skype, I'm always

on Skype because that's how I teach on Skype so this is everything I know from my experience

of working on Skype. And I can compare how it was at the beginning... All the time when

there was like a technical problem and something went wrong, so I can share all that experience

with you to make your Skype job interview go more smoothly. Not just the technical aspect,

but some other things you need to consider for your Skype job interview.

So let's start with the basics of having a job interview on Skype. The reason you're

probably having a job interview on Skype in the first place is possibly because you're

being interviewed for a job in a different country. So when it comes to that, there's

something really, really important you need to consider and that's the time zone. Okay?

Because you need to make sure that you're appoint-... At the time of your appointment,

you're going to be there at the right time because it's really, really important to get

that first impression right by being there when you say that you're going to be there.

So you can easily find out online what time zone somebody is in in a different country.

One thing I want to mention: if you're dealing with the UK, a lot of people assume that they

know what time it is there. "Oh, they use GMT." Well, we do use GMT which means "Greenwich

Mean Time", but the time... The time will change. In the summer, it goes forward and

then we go into British Summer Time. So you need to watch out for that. Sometimes people

just presume they know what time it is in the UK and actually get it wrong by one hour,

so you need to check that out.

Before your call, here's some just general good practice for you. Swap your Skype IDs

before because if your appointment is at 2:00pm and then you suddenly realize: "Oh, I don't

have the Skype ID. I better email them." This is all time consuming stuff, it's a time consuming

waste of time. Swap your Skype ID. But if this is your Skype ID, I recommend you get

a different one for your Skype job interviews; it's not going to look very professional.

You will also want to confirm before your appointment whether this is going to be a

webcam call. In my experience on Skype, it really depends. I often work with programmers,

and software engineers, and animators and these... These generally guys, I've never

actually had women doing those jobs, although I'm sure they're out there, I'm just saying

I've never had a woman who does those jobs. These guys don't use webcam, they never use

webcams. And I've asked them: "When you have job interviews, do you use webcams?" And they're

like: "No, we don't." So it probably depends on what area you're hoping to work in. But

in some industries, it's not necessarily expected to use the webcam. But a good idea will be

to just confirm that before: will it be a webcam call? Because if it is a webcam call,

you've got some extra considerations that you need to get right.

So let's just imagine it is a webcam call. You need to think more about not just your

presentation of yourself and how your face and your hair looks, you need to consider

what's behind you. Okay? Because, generally, people will take a Skype call at home. So

you need to consider what's in your background. Is it your bedroom? Do you want them to see

your bedroom? Or do you maybe want to go to a different part of the house where the background

is more neutral and not so personal? So you definitely don't want any mess in the background

or any like strange objects in the background, or whatever because people notice on Skype.

One of my Skype students-if you're watching this, you know who you are-had a giant cigarette

packet in the background. And we had many... We had many appointments and it wasn't usually

there, just one day it appeared. And then I was like: "Hey, what's that giant cigarette

packet?" And he was: "You can see that." He was really embarrassed. He had a party the

night before and some reason, there's a giant cigarette packet in his house. So if you have

your Skype job interview, you want to make sure that you don't have embarrassing objects

lying around.

But location means more than just the visual aspect of where you are. You really need to

consider the sound aspect. Another thing I used to do a while ago, I used to do hangouts

just for people to come and speak English to me. But one of the reasons I stopped doing

it was that the average person's house is just a really noisy place. Someone's watching

the TV really loudly, there's some kids running around, even just people talking. And when

you're trying to do a Skype call, it's not... Let's just say it's unpleasant to have all

that extra background noise going on. So if you can manage it... No, I'm going to say:

you really need to make it so that where you're going to have your interview as a Skype call,

you need... It needs to be quiet. You need to ask your relatives to go out, you need

to ask whoever it is to turn the TV off because you can hear it on the other side in Skype

and it just... It's not going to give a good serious impression of you.

Let's talk about the connection. I've noticed really big improvements in the internet connections

around the world in the last couple of years. Connection isn't so much of an issue now.

But you can... You can optimize your connection by using an Ethernet cable. So getting a cable

that goes straight into your router will make your internet faster, and also, it will mean

that you're the person who gets... Or most of the internet. If other people are using

it as well, you are the one who gets as much internet as they need.

When you're... When you're on a Skype call, especially if it's a webcam call, make sure

that you're not downloading stuff. If you've got other people in your house who might be

gaming at the same time online or streaming, you could ask them before: "Do you mind like

just not doing it for the next 30 minutes while I'm doing my interview?" I'm sure they

won't mind for that short amount... Short amount of time.

Also to do with your connection, iPads are not as good for Skype because they don't...

The connection they receive is capped so you won't get a Skype call that's as good quality

on an iPad as you will on a PC or a laptop. Similarly, you could do your Skype job interview

on... Using an app for Skype on a mobile, but I've never... I find the connection is

unreliable and you would be better served and you would have a better result if you

decide for that call which is important for me: "I'm going to use my laptop."

And this is good practice as well. When you're doing a Skype call or you're talking to someone,

close the other chat windows because they can hear if you're getting notifications on

Facebook or sometimes other chat programs as well, so that's not going to look professional

if you are sort of following what's going on at chat... In chat at the same time.

So, yeah, moving on from the basics to some more technical stuff. I'm going to explain

a little bit more about using Skype and how you can optimize your call. So, in the Skype

settings, they have a place where you can go and check your audio. It's in the options

and it's audio options. In there, you can do a free... It's called a free Skype test

call. And you can check that your audio microphone, your headset or your webcam is picking up

audio from you. So you go there, you check it, and then you do the test call, and then

you say something and then you can hear yourself back. You should do that before your call

so that you know if there is a technical problem, it's not you. So if you get on your call and

the other person is like: "I can't hear you." You know that you've just checked, so then

you can just politely put in the chat box: "I think my sound's working because I just

checked it using the test call option on Skype, but I'll check it again." You know, you know

it's not you, but you're just kind of saying to the other person: "I think it's you." Yeah,

that's really important to check your sound because you get a lot of dead time in a call

if the sound's not working. And when you're nervous in an interview situation, it can...

It's this kind of small problem that can take you out of your positive, happy interview

place. So check your sound.

Before, you could also call a friend if you want just to make sure that your webcam is

okay. You can get their opinion. "Does my webcam..? Does my webcam look okay? Do I sound

okay?" Because sometimes, people have their microphones up too loud and you can hear them

breathing and like mouth action, and sometimes "puh-puh" on the microphone. So you want to

make sure that your volume of your mic's not too sensitive.

The best advice I can give you for improving the quality of any call on Skype is to invest

in a headset. So headsets, you can get ones with the microphone extending to the front.

You don't need to spend that much money and it will dramatically improve the quality of

your call. So I strongly advise you to do that.

As a less good, but better option, you can use earphones with... I think they often come

with iPhones and things like that, you can use those earphones with the microphone here.

That can be okay. It's better than the general surround sound coming from your laptop or

something like that.

And also, another technical thing just for you to know. When you Skype and you've got

your job interview, you might be tempted to put the busy status on Skype, it's a big...

It's a big red... Looks like that. It's this big red circle. "Busy. I'm busy. Don't talk

to me." You can do that, but if you do busy, the other person can't call you. So perhaps

in the job interview situation, I would expect for them to be calling you so you've got a

problem there. So I don't advise you to put yourself to busy. If your friends and stuff

start trying to chat with you while you're taking your call, you can just ignore them.

The other person can't hear that.

Let's talk now about the quality of your voice. Something that used to be true for me, believe

it or not considering I work on Skype all the time now, is I truly used to be like a

freak on the phone. I used to be really nervous on the phone. I hated talking on the phone.

I was really uncomfortable. My voice was really shaky. I got over that just through doing

it. Just I didn't like being like that, so I was like: "Right, I'm going to talk on the

phone. I'm going to get over this." The other person can hear nerves in your voice and it's

not unusual to be nervous in a job interview. But what I'm talking about is some people

are nervous because they're like: "On Skype, never been on Skype before." Or: "This is

weird."

So I think you need to pay attention as well to what I'm going to call centring yourself.

Just be calm before that call. Do something that makes you feel relaxed. Stop preparing...

Maybe do this: stop preparing for your interview the whole morning before. Spend some time

relaxing because it's better that you seem composed and calm, rather than: "I know everything,

I know everything", but sounding very nervous.

Let's talk now about just some general tips that I think can improve your interview performance.

Get used to using Skype because if you've never used it before... I know it probably

sounds easy. "Well, what can be that hard? You just sit in front of your computer and

talk." Well, that might be the case, but I'm always speaking to people who've never used

it before and they make... They make lots of excuses: "Oh, I don't know Skype." And...

Or they don't know where the chat box is and you try to give them instructions, and they

can't really follow what you're saying. So just get familiar with how it works, and that

way, you're not going to seem like a real technical like newb or something, newbie;

doesn't know what they're doing.

You could practice your interview of your friend. Ask your friend to ask you questions

on Skype. Got some police going by. You could ask your friend to do some questions with

you so that you have experience then of doing a job interview on Skype.

You could record yourself. Get used to wearing your headset. If you... If you've not used

your headset before, that might make you feel uncomfortable, talking with someone with this

like pressure on your ears.

But generally, just prepare as usual. You will be asked the same kind of questions.

The main difference on Skype is you're not going to have to shake their hand, there won't

be any physical contact that you need to do. But similiy-, similarly, simily-, similarly

on Skype, you do need to worry about your presentation; that's the way... That's the

way you look if you're using a webcam. So you might want to stand in your Skype job

interview. Some people like to... Like to stand on Skype.

You need to think about what you're going to wear. So if you're in your house-right?-are

you going to wear a formal, formal suit for your Skype call? I don't know. It depends

on what kind of job you're wearing. I would say that maybe a formal business attire is

a little bit much for just sitting in your house taking the call. But again, it depends

what job you're applying for. So something to consider.

If the camera is not going to see below your face, obviously you don't need to worry about

it so much. But I would say a better angle is one that's a little bit further away from

your face and gets the shoulder in... Shoulders in as well. And again, another aspect because

this is an online thing and not a real life thing - your profile pic is also part of your

presentation, so you could change that before you swap IDs if you don't think that your

profile pic represents you really well. You can chan-... If you get a standalone webcam,

you can change the position; there are lots of different positions you can do. But sometimes

camera right in front of your face feels a bit confrontational because when you watch

the other person, it's like you're staring into each other's eyes and you don't do that

in real life, so you... I generally do a little bit to the side, still looking at them. If

I want to look at them, I can turn and look in the webcam, but it's less confrontational

for the whole time.

So this is everything I know about Skype job interviews, all the basics, the technical

stuff going from my experience, a lot of my time on Skype. I'm sure it will be useful

for you. But just remember the main thing is about: you can give your best when you

feel relaxed, so just make that part of your preparation. It's not only just about the

words that you use, it's about how you feel in a job interview.

If you did like this, please do subscribe to my channel. I've got stuff like this. I've

also got learning English stuff. I've got two channels as well, my engVid and my personal

channel because I've got two YouTube channels, so I want you to check them both our and subscribe.

Go over to the engVid website to find out a little more about this lesson. And until

you see me again, goodbye. Okay? I'm going to go and get on Skype. See you later.