How to nail your online job interview.
By Ruwan Posted Date: July 15, 2022
Your job vacancy might say it is on-site, hybrid or remote. But whichever it is, chances are high that your interview process will be fully online. Since the days of the COVD-19 pandemic and sometimes even earlier than that, the online interview process has been a thing out there, especially if your interviewer is far from your territory. Throughout the years, many have said that attending the interview online for their desired job vacancy is easier than attending it physically. This is true, but there is some trickery you might want to keep in mind to nail the online job interview like a charm.
The Setup.
When you attend a job vacancy interview physically, you will ideally be in a nice office room furnished and decorated decently that provides both you and the interviewers a professional vibe. But when it comes to a virtual, online job interview, you're not in that luxury to be in such a place (unless you own or have access to such a good-looking space of course). Therefore, you might want to focus on the setup in which you are going to appear, in your job interview.
Focus on the background. Try to keep your background light-coloured and as plain as possible. This adds a professional vibe to your job interview which will help the interviewer to enhance their opinion of you as a professional. One thing to keep in mind and should avoid always is, "Do not use virtual backgrounds". Never use them! Whatever program you use to attend your online interview, it must be offering you several options on the virtual background and some might even look a bit nice on a glace. But trust us! This never works! It will only add up a very artificial and weird look to your background which might distract your interviewer and even cause them to lose the professional vibe you try so hard to maintain with them during the interview.
The other thing to focus on in your interview setup is the lighting. In a virtual online job interview, the most ideal lighting setup for you to go with is a mild light setting. Light up your room with a white or warm white colour that will make your face clearly visible to the camera. Do not use coloured lights at all. It will kill the professional vibe of the interview. And also, make sure to keep the balance of the light between you and your background to a level that highlights yourself, not any other feature in your setup, meaning you should not light up your background too much and definitely not more than the focus light to your face.
Preparation for the Job Interview.
One big advantage of having to face a job vacancy interview online is that you get the opportunity to plan everything beforehand and you have some upper hand in planning how the interview should go as well. You just need to know how to get it right. When you prepare for your job interview, one important thing which you might want to do is keep the software or the program that you will be using to attend the online job interview set up and logged-in in advance. This will avoid any complications you might face during the interview. This way you can also test your microphone, camera, frame and other technical stuff. The other important thing is, to make sure that your internet connection is of sufficient speed and bandwidth available to survive throughout the interview. The last thing you want to experience during your online job vacancy interview is a breaky internet connection.
Practice! Once you are done with your online job vacancy interview setup, you have the opportunity to practice for your interview as much as you want, which you do not get with a physical job interview experience. You can either practise by yourself with some sample questions you think your interviewer might ask, or you can even practice with a friend of yours, making them improvise as the interviewer. Just get before your online job vacancy interview setup you just created and start practising. This will eliminate any confusion or shyness and boost your confidence to face the online job interview perfectly.
Ready to nail your online job interview for that desired job vacancy? Keep these points in mind and prepare well. Don't forget to provide us feedback on these tips and say how they all worked out for you.
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