When you cannot shake someone’s hand to introduce yourself, how do you still make a good impression? What do these changes mean for you? It means now is a great time to strengthen your interview and communication skills to better help sell yourself for the role you want. Take this as a great opportunity to become more aware of how you present yourself, both on and off camera. Remote office work is becoming increasingly popular and therefore so is remote interviewing and onboarding.
Here are a few tips to help you adjust.
- Make sure your equipment is behaving itself. Be sure to install any needed software and test the link the day before. Installing new software or updating it to the latest version always takes longer than you think. Do not put yourself in a stressful situation when you are probably already stressed and nervous. Make sure the link to your virtual meeting works so that you can notify the appropriate people ahead of time if there are any issues. Dreaded internet connectivity issues? Have a suggestion for how to improve it for you and the interviewer.
- Have a backup plan and offer to switch to another platform/software to continue or offer to switch to a phone interview. Either way, be adaptable so you can keep rocking the interview. We had a professional set up for an interview, and when their software didn’t work, they were able to suggest a backup plan and the interviewer was impressed with her ability to think on her feet and utilize technology so well.
- Make eye contact and maintain it throughout the interview. Show how confident you are in yourself and your ability to do a great job in the role and keep everyone engaged.
- Show up early to the virtual meeting! Much like showing up 10-15 minutes early for an in-person interview, be the first to log in to your virtual platform and wait for them to start the interview.
- Be aware of your movements on and off camera. Do not twirl your hair, fix your makeup in the camera, shake your legs or feet. They can see your movements. This is a great chance to identify some nervous habits you may have that you did not know you did.
- Smile! It shows confidence, makes everyone feel more at ease and helps reiterate your desire for the role.
- Enunciate. Seriously. Believe it or not, the sound quality is not nearly as great as your camera pixels might be. Be clear in what you are saying and do not speak too quickly.
- Dress up! Yes, you still must dress like you want the part. Put on that tie, jacket, dress, sweater. Whatever you would normally wear to a professional in-person interview. The upside to interviewing remotely? You do not have to take off your fuzzy bunny slippers and wear the uncomfortable shoes. That is the win-win!
- Remove any potential distractions. Turn off email notifications on the computer, put your phone on silent, put the dog somewhere you cannot hear them bark and make sure the kids aren’t able to barge into the room.
