(Without your interviewer getting a glimpse at the four zebra print bras strewn across your bed )
Kids, times they are a changing. Where there were once restaurants there are now food trucks, and where there were once face-to-face interviews, you can now smile widely and brightly at your viewer through a laptop screen. Listen, we get it. We get that it may be tough to morph into a truly professional state of mind if you are sitting in the comfort of your own home and not an over enthusiastically air conditioned office, but the reality is that we shouldn’t be too hard on this new interview process. After all, Skype interviews are widely expanding our scope. Say you want a job in California, and you’re all the way in New Jersey. You think you’re going to hash out hundreds of dollars for some roundtrip airfare and a forty-minute interview? You’re unemployed. You’re unemployed and you may not even get the job you’re interviewing for. And then your bank account is down to two hundred dollars again and you’re grandparents won’t be giving you money for a while because there are no major holidays and then what are you doing to do?
With Skype, you can be anywhere in the world for as long as you need to be there and the best part? It’s free. For those of you that don’t have a Skype account, it’s a complete breeze to sign up for, which you probably should as soon as you finish reading this article. (Or now’s good too. We don’t mind.) Especially in the past few years, it has been shown that more and more companies are using Skype interviews as a way to save money, and that they have an overall better effect then phone interviews. For one, a face can actually be attuned to a voice, which, for both the interviewer and the interviewee is actually a lot more important than it sounds. After all, conversation comes easier when facial expressions are involved. We can read each other better. We can mesh. If you find yourself preparing for a looming Skype interview, here are a few essential tips to ease your worried minds.
1. Do not look ugly.
Not that you ever really look ugly (hung-over Saturday mornings aside), but webcams are hardly the most flattering of mirrors. They wash your skin tone out, make you look more tired then you actually do, and are very good at highlighting any blemishes on your face. To avoid all this, you must play around with the webcam prior to your interview. Try stacking it on top of some textbooks for a different angle, or see how it looks when you point a desk lamp towards you. A good idea is to have a Skype test with a friend or family member before the actual interview, so that they can give you feedback on how everything looks.
2. Check your surroundings (and check them WELL).
The best place for a Skype interview is probably not your bedroom, where there hangs a vintage Eminem poster in which he is totally buff except for a dynamite stick covering his _________, and it is probably not your bathroom (great acoustics though) or your kitchen. The most ideal place for the interview is a quiet, subtle room in your house or apartment where there are minimal wall hangings. Once you have your laptop set to its optimum position, make sure you survey everything that is in the vicinity of the screen. Clean up any bras, sandwiches, or Sex and the City DVD cases that may be lying around. Prior to the actual interview, make sure everyone who you live with knows to stay quiet and not intrude in the room where you are sitting. They should also limit their singing, dishwashing, aerobics, and flirtations.
3. Look where you are supposed to look.
None of us are strangers to video chatting. That means all of us know exactly how hard it is to look at the tiny green dot at the top of your laptop (…the camera, folks) instead of tiny box at the corner of our screen where are reflections live. A Skype interview is not any less real than a face-to-face interview. Eye contact is still extremely important, and being on a computer just makes it that more challenging. You can do it! Fight the urge to give into your narcissistic tendencies! You know what you look like! You just tripled checked yourself in the mirror! And don’t you dare have any other tabs open during the interview.
4. Be prepared for technological glitches.
The possibilities for technological glitches are endless. Either party’s internet could suddenly go out, Skype might be malfunctioning, the interviewers may have misspelled your username and things can get quite confusing quite quickly. Honestly, relax. You have to be cool, calm, and collected. You have to have the ability to laugh it off. These things happen, and, in most cases, it’s no one’s fault. Once everything gets settled down, you want to be mentally prepared for the interview. Don’t let possible glitches tarnish your professional exterior and overall awesomeness. You got this.