3 Tips For The Best Remote Interview You’ve Ever Had
The kitchen table, a hastily cleared corner of the living room, or for the lucky ones, a spare bedroom where we could set up a desk and second screen (the unlucky ones got an ironing board). We all made do during the pandemic when it came to working from home.
Now though, as remote and hybrid working become the norm, and companies have cottoned on to the ease and speed of tools such as Teams, Google Meet and Zoom, it’s likely that some or all of a new hiring process will happen remotely. There are some really big benefits to this: you don’t have to get dressed up from the waist down, you won’t have to spend time and money getting to the company’s HQ and you can literally log on seconds before the interview time.
But there are a few new things to consider too, if this is your first job hunt post-pandemic.
1 Control your connection
Wonky WiFi that cuts in and out won’t, well, cut it. Pre-interview, check the signal strength in the location in which you’ll do your interview – do this by Googling “Internet speed test.” If it’s weak, you can add a WiFi repeater to boost it, or keeping doors open can help as a closed door will typically block the signal. Don’t forget to ask anyone else sharing your WiFi to avoid Netflix and other bandwidth-heavy services for the duration of your call.
2 Location, location, location
Lighting, background, your own appearance: they all come into play here. A badly-lit room will make it hard for your interviewer to pick up on your facial expressions and cues. Aim to be lit from the front, and if you can’t sit in front of a window – natural light is always best – then try to light yourself with something like a bright, diffuse ring light.
Your background should also be as free of distracting clutter as possible – pick a virtual background if necessary. When it comes to what you wear, simple and non-distracting is best. It’s crucial too that you don’t place yourself too far from the camera – eye contact is still really important, even in virtual environments.
3 Keep calm and carry on
Slight delays, the fear of talking over the other person: lots of things about remote interviews can lead to a less than flowing conversation. But don’t be afraid to do the things you’d normally do in real life: smile, use gestures, nod and use body language. Have your CV handy and a couple of PostIts with project or work examples you’d like to share – stick one over the area your face will be during the call if you often find you look at yourself during video calls. That way, you’ll give all your attention to the interviewer.
Ready to apply for new roles now? We have three jobs below worth checking out as well as plenty more on the Morning Wire Job Board.
Senior Manager, Information Security (IGA), Indeed
The Role: As Senior Manager of Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) within Identity and Access Management (IAM), you will provide leadership, mentorship, and technical direction and you will hire and develop the individuals needed to reduce risks and become a leading security organisation.
The Responsibilities: As the EMEA regional lead for all IAM services, you’ll set the strategy and direction for identity and access governance.
The Requirements: Demonstrated experience delivering security solutions in a tech company with eight or more years’ experience in the information security field.
Discover more about the Senior Manager of Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) role and find other open roles at Indeed here.
QA Engineer – Verifications, Experian
The Role: Experian is launching Experian Verifications in the UK. As a QA Engineer in the verifications team you will have a passion for creating well designed, robust, reusable automated testing infrastructure for finding holes in code and flaws in user journeys.
The Responsibilities: You will perform automation/manual quality assurance and testing on various applications that are central to the verifications business and engage in adopting test strategy to ensure high-quality output and involve in evolving QA processes. Plus, you’ll design test scripts, test data, and execute test cases for complex technical and business solutions.
The Requirements: You should have extensive experience in test management and automation tools (JIRA, Zephyr, Selenium, SpecFlow, Postman, REST APIs) and at least three years’ experience in UIs and APIs automated test creation.
More on the QA Engineer – Verifications role is available as are additional roles at Experian.
Scrum Master, Dyson
The Role: Dyson’s NPI Software Team (NST) is a highly technical, creative and collaborative team made up of App, Cloud and Embedded Engineers. The Scrum Master will leverage Agile methods to enable teams to deliver effectively.
The Responsibilities: You’ll be a Scrum Master for one or two teams in NST and will coach teams on Agile knowledge and practices either in groups or individually. Plus, you’ll facilitate the ceremonies for the team, bringing focus to the discussion.
The Requirements: You will have a solid understanding of the agile principles and behaviours, and you’ll have experience with the Atlassian tool suite (JIRA, Confluence).
Apply for the Scrum Master role here and look for more openings at Dyson too.