How to prepare for your online job interview

Do you have a job interview?

Is it in English?

Yeah, it's a pretty nervous time.

What are they going to ask you?

What are you going to say?

What are you going to wear?

Oh my god.

I got your drink covered.

Have just a nice little mug of tequila.

Some people say that it's bad to drink liquids during a job interview.

Yeah, it's kind of a bad idea, but it's coffee.

It's early in the morning, Russian time, your time.

So, let's go through some job interview fun times.

Because of the current situation, we have been granted job interviews online instead

of having to actually go to the physical office and wear shoes and pants and leave your house

and go for a proper job interview.

So now, most interviews are done on Skype, or Zoom, or Google Hangouts, or whatever the

hossels are.

Maybe you've got your own software from a big company to download, and you're pretty

damn nervous about it because, oh my god, it's your first English online job interview.

Let me help you.

Ronnie's here to help you.

So, I've done these before.

Kind of cool.

I quite like job interviews, I think they're fun.

And if you take that, oh, this is going to be a great time hanging out with some people

online, you might just get through this.

So, the first thing that we have to look at is cultural differences.

Some people are very, very direct, and they don't have a lot of time to interview 100

people, so they want to get right to your job interview questions, and they don't have

time for what we call "small talk".

Small talk means a little bit of banter, a little bit of chit-chat before the meeting.

"But I wasn't prepared for this, I had my job interview questions ready."

What are you going to do?

Get prepared.

They might ask you, "So, you're calling me from Colorado.

How's the weather?"

"Oh, I have no idea, I didn't even look out the window, it's nice."

Yeah, it's nice, okay.

So, you want to be able to talk about strange things.

Most people ask you about the weather, "How are you?"

You don't want to...

"Oh, I'm really, really stressed about my job interview, I'm really..."

"No, no, no, no.

How are you?"

"Yeah, I'm well.

I'm good.

I'm good."

Okay.

Be careful also about these things.

How much small talk should you talk about?

Are they going to ask you many, many, many, many questions about the weather and your

personal life, or are they going to get right to the job interview?

So, most people in North America, they're going to ask you a few questions just to get

you warmed up, see how you are.

Be prepared for this.

Think about having a chat with your neighbour in the elevator.

Very uncomfortable situation, but you do get through it, and you just answer their questions

as best you can.

You have to be careful.

We have topics in English that are very, very discriminatory and illegal to ask people about.

These involve age, how old are you, race, and gender, gender orientation.

So, if you find that someone's asking you these questions or the conversation might

be going that way, you need to stop it.

So, you can just say things like, "Let's move on to your question."

And this helps the person who's interviewing you go, "Okay, let's ask the question now."

You can give them little clues that you're ready enough for the small talk, and you're

on to the interview.

I want you to be very careful of your location.

The beautiful backgrounds that are available through different apps, they can look a bit

stupid.

If you're having a job interview and you're out in middle... in outer space, like, "Whoa,

hey, welcome to my job interview."

No.

Try to go professional, blur, or nothing.

But be careful of the brightness, because if you have a window behind you, it's going

to make your face seem really, really dark, they won't be able to see your eyes, they

won't be able to see your smile, and it could really deter your chances of getting a job.

So, brightness is a problem, or something you should watch out for.

I've said this before, but clean up your area.

It's just the background.

You don't have to clean everything.

They're not going to be, like, looking at your floor, under the bed.

They just want to see that whatever's behind you is a little clean.

Clear things off your desk.

Whatever's behind you, just have a look and go, "Whoa, better get that monkey out of the

way there."

Okay.

No monkeys.

They don't, for some reason, like monkeys in job interviews.

I think it's kind of one of these things, but I don't know.

Make sure that it's quiet.

There's nothing I hate more than background noise.

When I'm teaching people online in private lessons, if there is somebody's family having

a party, it's very distracting for me to teach people.

The other...

You may be oblivious to it because you've got your headphones on, but a microphone nowadays

and the headphones picks up every single noise, so if there's kids screaming in the background,

there's horns honking, honk, honk outside, be very careful.

Try and get it as quiet as possible.

Close the doors.

Close the windows.

Close everything.

Isolate yourself.

Soundproof room, get some egg cartons, hammer those up, you'll be safe.

Your screen name is important, but let's get to the software part of it.

What are you using?

Zoom?

Skype?

Google Hangouts?

Meetup.com?

Is that even a thing?

Make sure that they're installed on your computer, or if they give you special software, make

sure the link works, because people make mistakes.

Maybe you're already like, "The link doesn't work, oh!"

So you lose points with the company because you haven't tested your software before.

Test your microphone.

Check, check, one, two.

Hello?

Hello?

Is this on?

Camera.

Sometimes when I'm teaching people, I can only see the tops of their eyes, or I get

their nose.

Sometimes I get the ceiling, like, "Oh, hello, ceiling.

I hope your English is getting better."

Make sure that you can actually see all of your face, how much of the rest of your body

you want to show.

It's up to you.

If you've got a nice hairy chest, you want to stick that out, do it.

It's up to you.

Your choice.

So, please, full face, don't mouth, you just don't want somebody's eyes.

Oh yeah, it was a great interview.

Don't know if they have a mouth, but you could wear a mask if you wanted.

Profile picture.

If you're on Skype or Zoom, make sure your profile picture is not you in a bikini, unless

you're auditioning for a bikini job, which I don't think needs an online interview.

But make sure that your profile picture is a little bit appropriate.

If you find that you don't really have a good profile picture, grab a picture of a flower,

stick it on there, that's what I have.

Or just your dog, people love dogs, just grab a random dog, take a picture of it, stick

it on your...

"Oh, is this your dog?

Oh god, why do they ask me about my dog in my small talk, and I don't have a dog?"

"Yes, it's my dog."

"Oh, great.

Now you're having a dog."

So, be careful.

You can't really actually have a dog, but to say you borrowed it from your owner, the

next door owner, to take a picture of it.

Be careful of your profile picture.

Your screen name, capitalize it.

So, your name's Bobby Joe.

"Hi, Bobby Joe.

You watching?

Cool."

Make sure it's capitalized, that means big letters.

Also, if your screen name is something from gaming, like Arse Eater 42, you might want

to change that one.

Use your real name, your...

A real name that's yours.

Capitalize it, make sure it's clean.

Don't put "Phil McCracken", that's funny, but people might get offended by it.

Ooh, do you have internet?

Okay.

Are you calling me from a Starbucks cafe and the wifi connection sometimes isn't too good?

Yeah.

You better check that.

Starbucks is a really good place to have bad internet connections, so I recommend reliable

wifi.

It's so important.

You don't want to be halfway through the interview and all of a sudden, you have no internet

connection.

That's funny for you, wifi system of Starbucks, but oh man, not for the interview.

You have to watch your personal appearance.

For some reason, when you smile all the time and a lot, people think that they're a wonderful,

happy person.

Keep the smile as long as you can, okay?

Something that happens after the job interview is you try and turn your camera off, come

on, turn it off, turn it off, but you...

Maybe you get an angry face going, wait until the person on the other end has turned off

the camera, keep smiling as long as you can.

It's like a smile contest, okay?

In between them asking you questions, smile.

It works, I promise you.

We all get jobs.

Did you eat broccoli for lunch?

Mm-hmm.

You got something stuck in your teeth there.

That's not cool.

The person's going to be like, "Oh, god, ew, I don't want something there."

Maybe you had egg.

Maybe it was a morning interview, you got some egg there.

If I turn on my camera and I'm interviewing you and you say, "Oh", I would be a little

bit repulsed by your runny egg on your chin or other stuff that could be there.

So, make sure your face is clean, brush your teeth, comb your hair, but don't do it during

the job interview.

I've seen this.

Leave your hair alone, okay?

If you think that your hair looks bad, don't touch it during the job interview, okay?

You're not there to be in a beauty contest.

Don't touch your hair.

Don't adjust your hair, don't lick or act your eyeballs.

It doesn't matter.

If you think your hair doesn't look good, don't touch it, okay?

Don't take it out, walk it around, comb it, wear a nice top.

You don't have to wear shoes.

It doesn't matter.

They're not going to look at your feet.

And for the next part of the interview, could we please see your toes?

Well, of course, I have no shoes on.

Pants, ah, option.

Probably they're not going to ask you to stand up, depending on what kind of job interview

you're doing.

You might want to wear pants, depending on how cold it is.

You could wear nice pants, you could wear track pants, it's your call.

Sometimes people, they get really dressed up, they put on nice pants, nice shoes, nice

socks.

You don't have to wear socks, either.

It just makes some people feel better about themselves.

For me, I'm just like, "Ah, damn, I'm so glad I don't have to wear socks and shoes.

I have pants on, congratulations, I made it out of bed."

So, definitely wear a nice top.

Very important, that's what they see.

They might not even see the top, but wear one.

There's some things that they might ask you that you're not prepared for, but because

you watched this video, you are now.

Pay expectation.

So, they say things like, "So, how much are you expecting to get paid for this job?"

Or, "How much would you like us to pay you for this job?"

"Well, a lot, obviously, a million dollars an hour, how's that?"

"Well, that's a terrible answer."

They're going to ask you this, so it's up to you if you want to take what they kind

of offer on the online, or if you want to try and bargain with them.

I always recommend you ask for more, because companies always like to lowball people.

That means give you less than you're worth, so just try.

"Well, you know, your ad says 45 an hour, but because of my skills and my experience,

you know, 50 sounds fair to me."

And oh, they love that word, "Oh, that does sound fair, good word, oh, excellent word."

You're going to have technical problems, because you're doing this online, and this happens

to me.

The internet will lag.

Lag means that the time just stops, and maybe you're frozen like this, oh, you hope you

are.

You hope you're not frozen, like, in a weird position, but it'll go really, really slow.

And you'll be talking, but they can't hear you, or they will ask you a question, but

you didn't hear the question, but you see their lips move, and you go, "Oh my god, what

did they ask me?"

There's glitches.

Glitches are things like it stops, and it starts, it stops, it starts, and that's frustrating.

I find when this happens, hang up, call again, five times, that works.

Be careful of your device.

Sometimes a laptop isn't as good as a cell phone, I don't know why.

Your tablet, test out different things.

Test your software, see what's better for you, what's a clearer picture.

Which one makes you look more beautiful, accentuates the chest hairs, get that one, that one's

the best one.

You are going to have to ask them questions, because they're going to say, "Do you have

any questions for us?"

"Oh god, no, no, you ask me the questions, that's how an interview goes."

But you always got one prepared that says, "Well, yes, I do actually."

What's your company feeling about social networking these days?

You can ask them some question like that, and they'll be like, "Uh, yeah, that's good.

Okay, next."

Because it doesn't matter.

Don't stop or freeze if you make a mistake.

If you're speaking in the interview, and English isn't your first language, and you're nervous,

and you realize that you've made a mistake, a grammatical mistake, we was, "Oh, no, it's

we were, what am I going to do?"

Keep on talking, it's okay, it's okay.

If you make a vocabulary mistake, let's say you used a noun instead of a verb, it's okay.

Keep on going, because they're not testing you on your English ability, unless you're

doing an IELTS test, they're testing you on your ability to work.

So of course, we make mistakes.

The interviewer's going to make mistakes, I make mistakes, I've probably made 10 mistakes

when I'm talking to you.

So if you actually make a grammatical or vocabulary mistake, it's okay.

Don't stop, don't freeze.

You can apologize, "Oh, sorry, that was the wrong word, ha ha."

Make a joke about it if you want, English isn't my first language, sorry, but don't

ever freeze and don't ever give up, okay, because if you give up, you're never going

to get the job.

Sometimes they ask you questions that you don't know the answer to, so you can say to

them, "Can we skip that question and come back to it later?"

This gives you thinking time, and probably they will forget what question they were to

ask you, unless they're on the ball, but it's okay to ask them, "Oh, you know what, I don't

really understand that question, could you rephrase it for me because English isn't my

first language."

Hey, as long as you communicate to the people, you're going to do well.

If you just stop and go, "I don't know", it makes you look stupid.

You don't want to look stupid, but you can tell them, "Hey, this is my second, third,

fourth, first interview in English.

I don't understand your question, can you rephrase it for me?"

And if they don't, you don't want to work for them.

Things that aren't really cool is if you say words wrong, and this is because maybe they

have a different meaning of what you intended to say, so you have to be very careful with

your pronunciation, and it's a killer because you know the word, but you say it wrong and

it can lead to some embarrassing situations.

Make sure you practice what you're going to say.

There's typical job interview questions, look them up, there's videos on them, and practice.

Practice, practice, practice.

What am I going to say for this?

Okay.

Practice your pronunciation.

If there's words that you hate, find another word, don't say that word.

"Oh, I really, really hate this word, pronunciation."

I'm going to say, "Oh, how to speak properly."

So, there's ways around it.

What else do we have here?

Politics.

Yeah, don't talk about those, okay?

Nobody cares about what your political views are, nobody wants to hear them, nobody cares

who you're voting for, nobody cares about your politics.

Do not talk about them.

Religion, very private thing, stay out of it.

Even if you think the person has an interesting comment about our religion, stay out of it

back.

Oh, oh, I'm sorry, can we skip that question?

Yes, you can.

As I said before, age, race, and gender, get far away from those as you can.

If you find that you're falling into one of those traps, just go, "Okay, next question."

Awesome.

You're going to be nervous.

Of course you're going to be nervous.

Probably the person interviewing you is a little nervous.

Yeah, they are.

Okay, because they're like, "Oh my god, I got to do their job interview."

And they're all professional, but they're a little nervous too, okay?

You turn on the camera, you look stunning, you've brushed your teeth, your hair's perfect,

and like, "What a glorious person I get to interview."

Maybe they're getting a little nervous too, but practice.

As I said before, practice what you're going to say.

Practice with someone online as well.

Maybe call up your friend, "Hey, Bobbi, can you help me?

I got a job interview.

Can you ask me questions?"

"Cool.

Thanks."

Okay?

You can call me.

You can ask me.

Breathing exercises.

Some people get really nervous, and then, okay, so relax, try and breathe.

Always breathe.

Don't stop breathing, okay?

You're going to die, but try and control your breathing, relax.

Ronnie's personal favorite, take a shot of booze.

Uh-huh.

Yep.

Just before the interview, down a shot of tequila.

A shot means one ounce, you can have two.

Booze means alcohol, okay?

So, just before the interview, oh, you're super nervous, have a glass of wine.

Don't do it during the interview.

They'll think you're an alcoholic.

That's what you got your cup for.

Put the wine in the coffee cup, okay?

Anything that helps you relax.

Smoke a fatty and relax.

In Canada, smoking a fatty is perfectly legal, so if marijuana calms you down, oh, hey, smoke

a big fatty.

Put in some eye drops.

Have your job interview.

Hey, but don't talk about it.

They'll be like, "Oh, I just smoked a big fat joint, sorry, I don't remember your question.

What was it?"

You're going to lose the job interview.

Just maybe half, half a fatty.

Maybe a smallie, yeah?

Smoke a little smallie.

Go to your job interview, pass it.

Wonderful.

Eat some cookies.

Yeah.

Okay.

So, if you need help with job interviews or speaking, I have private lessons online, englishwithronnie.com.

Check it out.

I can help you.

Job interviews, resume services, anything you need to improve your life and get a better

job, Ronnie's there for you.

All right.

Good luck.

See you next time.