Megan Riksen (00:19):

[Inaudible] hello and welcome to the Work Like a Laker podcast. I Megan Riksen and today my cohost is grace. Hi Grace. How's it going today?

Grace Pushman (00:30):

It is going well. I'm excited for this topic. I love interviewing,

Megan Riksen (00:34):

I don't know if anybody's ever said that before,

Grace Pushman (00:40):

I should say I love talking about interviewing, but maybe not actually helping others with interviewing. Would that be more accurate?

Megan Riksen (00:47):

So, yes, our topic today is virtual interviews. And as we're all adapting to our new normal during this pandemic, an area that's definitely changed as interviewing in person interviews are just not all that common anymore. And you really, you can get a lot done and really I think communicate a lot through virtual interviews, whether that is an actual video interview or a phone call. So we thought that would be kind of a good topic to address today.

Grace Pushman (01:18):

Yeah. And I think sometimes, you know, I think when you think virtual interviews, there's, it takes away some anxiety because you don't have to go in, you don't have to worry about, am I wearing too much perfume? You don't have to worry about from those things. Am I shaking? You know, I'm out of nerves, but I think there are some complications that you still do need to consider that wouldn't be there otherwise. So we're going to talk about those today, right?

Megan Riksen (01:41):

So we've got some things that we want you to kind of be thinking about in preparation for a virtual interview. So should we jump right in? Yeah.

Grace Pushman (01:51):

All right. Thanks. Our first tip for you to think about is to think about your location. So it's not just where you're going to actually set up as far as in your house or at the career center. We'll talk about that in a minute, but also what's in your background. So thinking about if you are doing it, let's say you're doing it at home. Think about where's your computer going to be placed. And what is in your background? Is there a pile of books behind you? Is there a, some dirty clothes line on the floor, like make sure that your space is clean and looks professional. And that might mean that you're going to rearrange some furniture in a way that doesn't actually make sense for your living space, but does make sense for your background. And that's okay. So sometimes you're going to have to move some stuff. But think about what's in the background and think about also location of your laptop and camera. So these are things I think a lot of people don't realize is that the angle of your camera, the height of it does matter. So some, some small tips to think about would be, want your face to be in the frame of the video. You want your eyes to be about two thirds from the bottom. So, you know, sometimes I, a lot of people like I, I zoom with my grandma and I see just for forehead, you know, you want to avoid that. And I think

Megan Riksen (03:08):

Like the dreaded double chin, right? Like if it's coming really from below you that,

Grace Pushman (03:15):

So, and one way to prevent that too, is to think about, you know, you want the camera to be about arms length away from you. So it shouldn't be super. Yeah, don't have it be super close. I think that's another mistake. Cause a lot of people have a camera too close to them. So, you know, your arms should barely be able to touch the computer when you reach out in front of you. And also like if you're at a table or a desk, most likely you will need to prop it up on a box or something or some books because that's often going to be too low and you're going to get that double chin effect or something where it's not quite at eye level for the people who will be looking at your screen. I know that for me. When I, when I'm working from home, I literally sit on the floor and have my computer on this cardboard box full of yarn. And my background is just my bookshelf because no one else, no one can tell that I

Megan Riksen (04:08):

Zoomed with you so many times. And I did not know you were sitting on the floor. Yeah, that's incredible.

Grace Pushman (04:13):

It looks professional. Cause you just see my books in the background. No one needs to know that I'm sitting on the floor and that there's like a blanket, you know, two feet away from me and all that. You just do the background. So just be aware of the location. And one thing I did allude to in the beginning is that we do have rooms at the career center that you can reserve to do interviews. So if you don't have a space in your home, that can sometimes be an option, just keep in mind. It's only when the person has open. So as long as we are open call us and we can figure out a way for you to come in and interview here so that you have a space.

Megan Riksen (04:48):

Yeah. And that's especially important if you live with a bunch of people, if you live with a noisy dog, all those sorts of things that can also affect an interview that I know for me, it just, it stresses me out. If I know there's a chance that there's going to be noise, right. Even if the noise doesn't actually happen, if my kid doesn't actually yell in the background, it's the anticipation of it maybe happening that is not going to allow me to focus 100% on the interview in front of

Grace Pushman (05:22):

Totally. Well, one small thing too for phone interviews is that if nothing else, you can go in your car, like go park somewhere, quiet and go in your car. You can't do that on the video interview. But

Megan Riksen (05:33):

Unfortunately, unless you had some amazing like backdrop, you could like, put behind you. Awesome. Good. Okay. So number two is, is pretty related to location, but it's, it's kinda, it's kinda the setup, right? So consider your lighting. Uthis is important because you want the people interviewing you to be able to see your face and see your facial expressions, not kind of a blurred outline. So the biggest tip is, you know, whatever, wherever you're positioning yourself within a room, if there is a window face the window, so that the light is streaming onto your face, you do not want to be back lit with your back to the window because then your face is completely shadowed. Uand I think that's really important in an interview. They've chosen to do a video interview over a phone call. So they want to be able to see your face and your expressions and some of your body language. So,uI think that's pretty important to ensure that the lighting is there and you can always just, you know, move a random lamp from your house in front of your face as well. Again, kind of all the rules go out the window of like actual interior design. And you're only focused on what, what is the effect that's happening for that person on the screen?

Grace Pushman (06:45):

Yes. And I even think sometimes too, like if you're a lot of people, their primary lighting would be overhead. So like the light at the, you know, on the ceiling and if that's the case, like Megan said, best case you want that natural light streaming from, in front of you. But if you can't do that, then I would turn off the overhead and put your lamps around and put something in front of your face for sure. All right. Tip number three is to practice. So it seems obvious, but I think a lot of people don't think to do that because we are all getting, I think very well versed in using these technologies. But a lot of employers will use different methods of doing a virtual interview. So for example, you might have a zoom interview. You might have a Skype one, you might have Google, Google Hangouts. I forget the exact term, but I don't know video conferencing or there's probably other ones that I haven't heard of before. So even if you, even if you've used it before, I would suggest the night before or the morning of if you have time to have a friend or family member call you on that and just practice because not only will that make sure your technology is running smoothly, but then also you can have them double check. Is there anything goofy in my background, you know, is my lighting okay? Sound, you know, do I sound all right? And you might even have some headphones that you could put those in and see what sounds better to the person who you're practicing with that. So that I think is probably the biggest tip is just to practice and have someone give you something back and we can, we can be those people at the career center who can make an appointment right now. We're not even talking about the ins and outs of what questions to prep for which we could make an appointment with us. We can go over that as well as give you feedback on your setup. So

Megan Riksen (08:37):

That's another thing that I think will help to just reduce anxiety level. If you feel confident in your technology setup. That's great. Good. All right. So number four is be aware of what you're wearing. Even though this is a virtual interview, you still want to dress to impress. It still is a professional interview where there's an expectation that you're not wearing a sweatshirt, right. So I really would apply very similar dress code to an interview over video, to an interview that's in person. I would just go ahead and do the full on, get up. So if that's a suit or a jacket whatever you would plan to wear for an in person interview, I would apply those same rules to virtual. Grace and I were even chatting as we were preparing for this podcast that you might think, Oh, I can wear sweatpants on the bottom. Um but we'd encourage you to just go with the full thing because in the case that something happens, you need to stand up and shut the door, or you need to plug in your computer cause you forgot to do that. Right. you would, you wouldn't want to necessarily be showing off the fancy sweatpants on the actual interview. So that's kinda just another, another thing to probably consider. And I think it helps just with your mindset as well. Like, you know, you put on the interview attire, you, you kind of are in that mindset. You're ready to go. And I think that that helps and it'll help in what you're communicating to that future.

Grace Pushman (10:18):

Yeah, definitely. I do have a story about that where I had a virtual interview and they called me a half hour early. And so, and I don't know if it was a mistake. I don't know. I still don't know what happened with that. But basically they called me a half hour earlier than I expected. And I had half of my hair curls and I had on Jean shorts and I had on the blouse, I was planning on wearing. So I just, as they were, as, as the phone was ringing, I threw on my jacket over the blouse and I put my hair up in a bun. And so I did it in like five seconds. They didn't even have to call me twice. Like I, and I, and it was a video. And like I said, I did the full interview with my head half curled up in a bar and Jean shorts on, but they didn't know that. But like I do like that as a, how I would have wanted to do that interview and my heart was racing. I was nervous that I could have been. So I think one tip I want to add with that is be ready about a half hour early, just in case you never know

Megan Riksen (11:17):

In case be sitting there. Ready. Yeah. Yeah.

Grace Pushman (11:22):

And then our final tip is just to address some that are specific to the phone because that is slightly different than doing a video interview. And some things just to keep in mind with that is when you're talking on the phone, make sure you're smiling when you're talking. I mean, you don't have to smile throughout the whole thing, but smile as though you would, if you were face to face with them, because you can hear smiles through a voice, it exceeds a certain energy. So these smiling be energetic. And then also think about the fact that you want to be either sitting a formal chair or slouched in y.

New Speaker (11:59):

Our bed, wearing pajamas. You know, I would say that just go all out. Like maybe you don't need to wear the full suit, but like posture treat it, I think would be my biggest advice. Absolutely. And just while we're talking phone interviews, one other thing that I think is important, both for phone and, and for video is try not to talk over the person who's interviewing you or the people who are interviewing you, especially on the phone. I know I have a tendency to want to fill in any dead air and he sorted of what probably feels like a little bit of awkward silence, but lean into that a little bit. It's okay to have a little bit of room to breathe. They might be, you know, the person interviewing, you might be taking notes on what you just said. Don't feel like you have to keep giving a response because they aren't giving you an immediate kind of verbal cue to let you know that they're taking notes or something like that. Yeah, it is tougher.

Megan Riksen (13:15):

Definitely the video helps with that, for sure. But even on the video, you know, there's sometimes internet connection and there's a couple of second legs, so yeah, just try to chill, which is hard. So those are our tips for today. Hopefully that, that gives you a little bit of guidance as you're preparing for a virtual or phone interview. If you're interested in just hearing more of our tips on interviewing in general, preparing for your interview questions that might be asked how to respond to questions. There's, there's a couple of ways that we'd recommend you get that information. First is our episode four of the work Laker podcast is entitled all about interviewing. So that would be a really good one to go and listen to. We have an advisor chat, four of us kind of chatting about the whole process. So check that one out. And then of course you can talk with your career advisor in the career center as well to either do a simulated interview or just kinda chat through what other sort of things you might need to be preparing for and looking out for when it comes to interviewing. So I think we covered a lot in a little bit of time. Anything else, grace that I'm missing here?

Grace Pushman (14:41):

No, thanks for giving me the opportunity.

Megan Riksen (14:46):

Absolutely. Well, maybe we'll have to do a followup sometime just to give you the opportunity to talking about it. I would love that. Awesome. Well, thank you everyone. Have a great day.