Virtual interview tips for candidates

Due to current chaos and covid situation things are changing around us for example : Food business, travel & leisure and shopping experience has changed , so is the hiring/interview process. Year 2020 has seen lot of changes so far in past few months, every business/ company is looking forward and making changes in the current processes to survive in the market. Usage of video enabled platforms like Zoom,Google Duo, Skype has gone up and it has become important part in our life, be it daily calls with team or calls with clients we rely on these virtual meeting platforms. They will continue to be part of our life and this process is not going away any sooner and will become new trend.Seeing recent changes in the hiring process i thought of writing about current changes in the interview process and what do students/candidates need to keep in mind.

Here are few tips/suggestions for students/candidates who are going to be part of the virtual interview process

1. Understand the difference: The first step is to understand the difference between both type of hiring processes and how can it affect or impact entire interview process or result. In face to face interviews the personal touch is there,interviewer will meet & greet you, Interviewer will allow time to give you answer and understand the facial expressions and will keep a check on your body language.This is more personalized process, while on the other hand reading the expression and understanding it becomes slightly difficult. Candidate/student need to know that they have to be very clear about what they say during interview and provide more details & data to interviewer to make their point.
2. Dress Properly : We all get lazy sometime and look for escape or a quick solution. If not all of you but i do sometime :-) However we need to understand that getting dressed for interview is as important as preparing for interview. Students/candidates need to keep in mind that interview process is very important and getting well dressed is part of it. Do not think that because it is a virtual interview, getting properly dressed will not play any role. as mentioned it plays an important role and would give you confidence if you get dressed in formals and complete the process
3. Keep the background clear: In video/virtual interviews it is important that you pay attention to your surrounding. If possible setup a chair and table for your interview. Avoid taking up the call/interview in your bed. You need to keep in mind the background has to be clear, there should not be anyone in the background and creating the disturbance for the interviewer. This happens when people are working from home and not everyone has the perfect setup or workstation ready at home however you can find a place where you can make your own setup for your interview process. Do not ignore the small details.
4. Network & Connectivity Check/ Test call : To avoid any kind of trouble during the process it is important to test the signals, network connectivity. You can do some test call with your friends to check the connectivity & sound. Do it some time before the actual interview time.
5. Body language : As this is not the face to face round body language and your posture play an important role, you have to be very careful to engage the interviewer and make sure that he/she listens to you.Use your hands, facial expressions while talking and ask questions to interviewer every time you feel or notice that he/she is not engaged in the conversation.

These are few things you need to keep in mind along with other things like: Read about company before interview, go through the JD, ask questions about company and your career path, Be energetic during entire process, talk about current situation and build the conversation, you can ask about how the interviewer/ other person is coping up with the situation.