Virtual Interview Tips by Kristin Jekielek

by Kristin Jekielek·368 views·Updated Jan 11, 2021

Learn the Top 3 Tips for Virtual Interviews (plus a BONUS application tip) –––––––––– Do you want your resume to make you look like the experienced rockstar you are? Do you want to have recruiters contact you with jobs you actually want, via LinkedIn? (Secretly, so your employer won't know you're looking.) Do you want a full video training for video applications and virtual interviews? Are you ready to end the online job hunt and land interviews, by avoiding the common application pitfalls? Just connect with me on LinkedIn, and send a message with the word "Prezi". https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjekielek https://simplevideo.training

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated

hi and welcome.
Today we're going to cover three of my best virtual
interview tips.
These apply whenever you are interviewing over video.
So my name is Kristen Joklik, and I'm founder of
simple video dot training.
You can type that into any browser, and I'll take
you to my website, where you can see that I
do just that.
I give simple video trainings on how to look more
professional on camera wherever you are virtually.
So let's dive in thes top three tips have to
do with.
First of all, what's aware this is the number one
question I get about being on video for interviews.
Number two is your virtual presence.
How do you have that professional presence?
That executive presence?
Whenever you're interviewing virtually and three, we're gonna talk about
your home office.
There's actually one key thing that recruiters and HR personnel
are looking for in your home office whenever you are
interviewing virtually all right, so let's dive in first off,
what to wear.
People actually get kind of concerned about this.
When they get worried, they start doing research.
They see things like don't wear prince and you need
a full face of makeup.
Well, I tell you what, those tips don't apply whenever
we're at home on our laptops on zoom.
All right, Whenever you're just at your desk, you're close
enough to your laptop that whatever you normally wear and
however you normally style your makeup or your hair is
going to be completely fine for your virtual interview.
You don't need to do anything extra.
Just show up as you normally would at an important
day at work, right?
They say.
Dress for the job that you want.
You do want to show up to the interview with
that extra level of polished.
But don't feel like you have thio developing your makeup
routine. Or do you do your hair a new way
or by any special clothing for this?
Okay, whatever is in your wardrobe is going to work
with a couple caveats, and I'll get to those in
a second.
So first off, I want to address the no prince
role that you'll hear about for video.
This absolutely applies for certain video circumstances, but let me
show you.
I got some samples here, so here we have a
men's blazer with a print, and it is just a
really subtle.
I'm not even sure we call this like.
It's not a check, but, you know, even if it's
a little bit blurry on video, this would just blend
into one color.
But you can see like you could move this around
the patterns, not causing any distractions.
The patterns, not looking funny things is a completely wonderful
pattern. Toe wear on video.
If you have a jacket like this and wearing a
blazer is appropriate for your role in your interview, go
ahead and wear it.
Another example.
This is a bold, beautiful print right here.
There's nothing wrong with wearing this if it's already in
your wardrobe and something that people could expect you to
wear on a normal day at work.
Okay, the colors show up.
They're not distracting.
They're not looking bad.
There's nothing wrong with wearing this print.
The one thing I will caution against, though, is that
sometimes white can be very hard toe light on video.
So if you don't have really great lighting on your
video, I would avoid wearing white because otherwise and come
off a little dingy.
Instead, opt for any color, even a pastel one over
white However, if your wardrobe is on Lee White shirts,
go for it.
No one's gonna count any points against you for that.
Alright, One more pattern.
A really graphic, bright, bold print.
I want to do include this one because it does
have a lot of detail in the print, and people
will say that Don't use anything without a detail in
the print.
Don't use small prints.
It's completely fine and acceptable toe wear.
Print like this if that's what you would normally wear
toe work.
All right now, the big caveat.
Don't wear black.
The thing about black is that you know when I
have, this is far away from the camera as I
am. You actually lose all of the texture in black,
and that's because black doesn't reflect light.
It absorbs it all, so you lose any detail that's
in the short.
You just kind of look like a weird a Morphosis
blob when you wear black on screen.
And it's not just because I matched my background right
now, you know, unless your wardrobe is Onley black clothing,
I would I would avoid black in the interview or
go for something that's more textured or has a little
bit of shine to it to help differentiate your clothing
s so they can see a little bit more of
youths goes for men and women.
I do recommend avoiding black on camera, even though it's
great in person.
All right, so another little tip about what's aware on
video is where what makes you feel good?
Where would put you in the right mental space gives
you the right energy to show up for this interview,
so you're gonna crush it.
What that might mean is it might mean, you know,
the traditional zoom wardrobe of business on top pajamas on
bottom. Totally fine.
But for those interviews, some people are going to feel
a little more in the zone when they're wearing suit
pants on bottom or when they're really wearing their high
heels on their feet, even if they're not visible in
the camera.
Some people get that extra little bit of mojo from
wearing the full out foot head to toe while at
home. If that's you go for it could not encourage
that marks.
It's all about showing up your best on Zoom, not
just presentation wise, but with your energy and your personality
and your professionalism and your expertise.
All right, let's move on to item number two here,
which is your virtual presence.
This is how you look professional on video.
Now, the set up I have right here is a
little over the top for the standard interview.
But there are a few key things I'm doing that
you're going toe.
Want to steal?
Now, most people, whenever they get on Zoom, they're going
to sit there with a laptop underneath them.
And you're gonna be kind of looking up from from
down below, which is a very unnatural, you know, scenario
for people.
Normally for all sitting at a table, it's more of
like an idea.
I situation.
So you do want to get yourself in a place
where you're looking directly into your camera at I level.
Another thing to do for your virtual presence is to
make sure that you're calm and relaxed and you're able
to express your confidence.
Virtually now, most people are able to crush it with
their presence in person.
But on camera people could be a little bit lacking
because we're used to being in the room with people
and a lot of us feed off of that energy.
We get into a different headspace whenever we're in a
room with other people.
And when they're just on that little screen and we
have, like ourselves, showing up on zooming, we can't stop
staring at ourselves.
We could get distracted, and it's just harder to get
in that space.
So just really try to remember the last time you
were in a room with people that got you really
lit up and you had that presence that you're going
for, like spend a few minutes before your interview, like
just sitting there like mentally remembering that experience, remembering how
it felt in your body, remembering what your body did.
Maybe you stood up straight, or maybe your shoulders went
back and down.
Maybe you held your head a little bit higher.
How did you speak?
All right, get back into that zone of physical presence
before hopping on that all important video interview to get
you in a great headspace.
All right, moving on to tip number three, your home
office. Now, one thing that I've learned after talking to
a bunch of recruiters and HR personnel who do a
lot of hiring is that in today's world, with everything
gone virtual for all of 2020 they're realizing that by
having interviews virtually they're saving a lot of time and
money. So even if you plan on interviewing in the
future, it's likely going to be remote still okay for
any role because of the time and money savings.
So and well, actually, let me say, in addition to
that, um, we're likely going to be working remotely, more
often, more jobs.
They're going to stay remote, maybe forever.
So whenever you're interviewing recruiters and HR, people are also
secretly evaluating your home office set up.
Do you have a place in your home toe work
where you can stay focused where it's quiet often enough,
where you're able to be super effective while at home?
You know, if during your interview it looks like you're
sitting in your kitchen and they can hear kids running
around and they can hear someone else in the home
you know, yelling for something during that interview, they are
going to question how effective you're going to be working
from home if the position is going to be remote.
So the important thing here is to invest the time
now to figure out where you're going.
Toe work remotely full time.
If you haven't done this already, and even if you
have done it, go ahead and put in a little
bit of extra.
Put a little bit of polish on that home office
space. Make sure it's quiet.
Make sure it's secluded.
Make sure it's set up for efficacy.
And this isn't something that you have to put on
display in your in your interview, but some wall some
part of your home is going to be behind you,
so just make sure that it looks neat and tidy
and not distracting.
Now, if you don't wanna have your home on display
in a video interview or while you're working, you know
the interview is the time to establish that so you
can get screens like this one I have back here.
Um, I have all the links to about this screen
and how I use it and everything on the link
that's actually down below.
In the description of this video, you can go check
out that link, learn about this black background I have.
It's held up by a tripod and a special little
clip. Super easy to use super low profile and afford
you that level of privacy you may want during your
interviews and during your remote work life again.
This backgrounds like this are totally not necessary.
And just having your neat and tidy dedicated home office
space behind you during your interview is going to be,
ah, great way to give recruiters and HR high confidence
that you are set up for success working from home.