With social distancing the biggest in all our lives now, there has been a major focus on technology, remote working and new processes such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams to conduct meetings.
In recruitment this has lead to more interviews conducted by video link than ever before – this has been a great tool to keep recruitment moving.
Although most have gone well and feedback being good, I wanted to take the time to highlight a few points and tips to take from this process in preparing for a video call…
Location, location, location.
Make sure you in a good signal point in your house – this is imperative. The last thing you want is signal to drop when you are in full flow of interview and selling yourself. Also make sure this is a quiet spot – no background noise such as TV’s, family members or pets. Also close any other applications you may have running on your computer and make sure phones are on silent.
Don’t run out of juice.
Battery juice, I mean. It sounds simple, make sure all of the devices being used are charged or plugged in.
What do your surroundings say about you?
Don’t forget the back-drop behind you on the call. Being on a call from your bed doesn’t exactly give off the best vibe. Place yourself at a table where you can sit upright and look professional.
Ditch the isolation comfy clothes.
Be wary of what you wear – you still need to dress appropriately for a video call. It needs to be treated as a normal interview, so up dressed, showered, hair, make up, business suit etc.
Standard note-taking rules apply.
Do your homework as you would with a face-to-face interview – have notes ready, pen and paper to make notes from the call.
Relax and be yourself!
Over the past few weeks, words like ‘Zoom’ have become common-place in everyone’s vocabulary, which means the prospect of a video interview might not be the most natural process for some. It’s important to remember though that it’s just like any other interview, which means it’s still important to be yourself as you won’t be hiding behind a keyboard.
I have had calls which have been interrupted by dogs jumping on beds, phone ringing throughout the call and babies /families video bombing the calls!
But I have also had extremely positive feedback on some where Clients have said that Candidates were so well prepped and ready it was like sitting directly in front of them. And been offered the position on video call alone.
Video calls can be great when handled professionally and treated in the right way. But I think we would all still agree that face to face interaction is the best way and don’t think it will ever be beaten, especially for us as Consultants to get to know our Candidates. None of us Robots!
Recruitment doesn’t have to stop – we are just finding new ways of working which is exciting!
This post was written by Joanne Sizer, Senior Finance Consultant at Recruitment Solutions >
