Preparing for a Video Interview Description  

The increase of job-finding and career-building tools available to professionals today has made applying for a job thousands of miles away as easy as clicking a button. There are too many websites and apps to count.

If you’re growing bored with your job or the city where you are working, all you need to do is upload your resume, research the job you want (and the town where you’d like to live), and you’ll be presented with dozens (maybe hundreds) of new career opportunities—just like that!

Easy, right? Well, yes…but also, not quite. While global job boards giving greater visibility to jobs across the world, they’ve also introduced new challenges for job seekers and employers alike.

For one, the higher visibility means a larger applicant pool, aka, more competition. You may have greater access to finding your ideal job in your perfect city, but so does everyone else. A position that might generally have 100 applicants may very well now receive 1,000+

If you do get a callback, it’s likely that the interviewing process could deviate from what you’re used to. To support the number of qualified applicants and the varying distances they’re applying from, companies will often handle part or all of the interview process through video chat.

Depending on the job, the distance and the company, this could require hours of video conversations. Professionals need to be ready for this unique communication environment, as there are essential differences from the phone and in-person interview settings.

What Makes a Video Interview Unique? 

In many ways, a video interview is just like a standard interview. Several of the same methods and rules apply. For example, keeping eye contact throughout the conversation and not chewing gum are aspects of appropriate interviewing behavior that will remain the same in a video interviewing setup.

However, when interviewing over the video, there won’t be the opportunity to shake hands with the interviewer, making “firm handshake” rule obsolete. In the absence of a standard greeting, what replaces it?

It’s questions such as these that surround the video interviewing concept. As video interviewing advances to become more standard, it’s worth thinking about the proper ways to conduct yourself while in one.

Above, we’ve collected four simple rules for a strong video interview.

At some point in your business career, you may encounter a video interview. Whether you’re leading the interview or being interviewed, it’s essential to handle yourself appropriately. Our list can help you begin navigating these conversations.