Internet / Online

Recruiting in Other Worlds: Are You Prepared For Virtual Interviews?

Earlier today, I received a comment on a previous post about jobs and CVs.  LJ asked an interesting question:

“I wonder what advice you would give someone facing a virtual interview?”

Virtual interviews are a recent development to recruitment.  They’ve been used more as a taste of the future, but the results have resulted in possible job offers.  Some people are already out there, developing their virtual interview skills.  After you graduate, who’s to say you will be more likely to undergo interviews over the Internet?

And should you treat these virtual interviews any different to a phone interview or a face-to-face one?

In some ways you’ll have to.  In other ways it’s much like any other interview.  You certainly shouldn’t take it less seriously.

photo by pathfinderlinden

Here are 10 tips to help give you a fighting chance at a virtual interview…because you won’t get a Second Life at this one:

1. Remember it’s an interview – Chances are you’re applying for a job in the real world, so be yourself.  You’ll be meeting face-to-face soon if they like you here.  No point playing some big shot if you hate that kind of exposure in real life…

2. Concentrate on the facts – This is a virtual interview.  Interviewers are unlikely to be checking out your personality.  They want to know what you’ve achieved.  They want to hear stories about what has brought you here today.  They’re looking for a demonstrable ability to perform well, write succinctly, and give clear examples.

3. Don’t try and show off – You might know some impressive tricks in the virtual world.  They won’t be impressive halfway through an interview.  Leave the tricks for your friends unless it’s part of the interview process.

4. Remain courteous – You wouldn’t rush away from an interview the moment the final question had been answered, so be sure to make an impression from the moment you’re visible to the moment you’re shaking virtual hands after a successful meeting.  If the interviewer can still see you, make sure your behaviour is impeccable.

5. Keep the interviewer informed – If you aren’t sure about an answer, ask the virtual interviewer for a little time to compose yourself.  If you need clarification on a question, don’t be afraid to ask for it.  If your virtual self is just sitting there doing nothing for a couple of minutes without explanation, it won’t look too good.

6. If you’d feel stupid doing it in the real world, it’ll be stupid to do in a virtual interview – It might seem clever while looking at the screen, but always ask yourself, “Would I dare to do this if I was sitting in the interview myself?”

7. Prepare yourself in the real world – Performing a virtual interview at your computer, in your pajamas, 30 minutes after crawling out of bed, is a bad idea.  Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.  Get yourself dressed and looking smart.  It will boost your positivity and help you play your virtual part a lot better.

8. Do your homework – A virtual interview will be no less difficult than a face-to-face interview.  You still need to prepare and be ready for any questions thrown at you.  If an interviewer asks you, “Is a Jaffa Cake a cake or a biscuit?” it’s no good ignoring the question, or simply laughing.  By all means, react to the general atmosphere if it’s light hearted, but don’t overdo it.  Oh, and a Jaffa Cake is definitely a biscuit, because I’d feel very greedy if I was eating 12 cakes in 10 minutes…

9. Showcase your online talent, if applicable to the job – In a normal interview, you can give the recruiter your web address.  In a virtual interview, you can send the link over at the right time and all view it within an interactive discussion.

10. Tell the truth – Both recruiters and interviewees have championed previous virtual interviews because of the honesty involved.  There’s a tendency to get to the point and give a more confident reply to a question.  So if you think a virtual interview gives more chance to fib, you might be doing yourself out of a job.

——-

It might be early days, but have any of you already taken part in a virtual interview?  Would you give any other advice regarding interviews (real world, or otherwise!)?

E-Book Readers – The Future or a Damp Squib?

There’s been a lot of hype about Amazon’s new e-book reader, the Kindle.

Amazon Kindle

There are already many sites talking about the device (and that’s just a random selection), so I’ll let you read up on it elsewhere if you don’t know about it already.  But I was wondering just how practical something like this would be for the student population in the UK.

For many years, I was excited by the possibilities of having a device the size of a book that held many electronic books.  Certain devices suggested the future was just around the corner, but nothing gained momentum.  If I wasn’t particularly bothered by what was happening, I can’t imagine how bored the uninterested people were!

Recently, a number of news stories have been whipping up as much frenzy as they could about e-book devices and electronic ink.  The frenzy didn’t whip up much to be honest, but it was obvious that both gadget and book lovers alike were keeping their eyes open for something that stopped them in their tracks.  Maybe the future was arriving, albeit slowly.

And finally, succeeding in creating more column inches than all the previous e-book offerings put together (he said totally unscientifically and with no proof whatsoever…), the Amazon Kindle comes along to save the world and stop the relentless destruction of trees for entertainment purposes.

At this point, I realised something surprising.

I still wasn’t excited.

Not one ounce of me craved one of these devices.  It just didn’t seem right any more.

I considered why I’d had such a sudden change of heart.  Yet deep down, I had to be honest with myself and say that I never had been that excited about the prospect of an e-book reader.  It was something I thought I should be interested in.

Don’t get me wrong.  My ambivalence wasn’t due to the love of hard copy.  I didn’t crave the smell of paper from a new book purchase.  It had nothing to do with books in that way.

It was more to do with the ease of reading anything I want from a computer anyway.

And I don’t think that’s missing the point.  If I wanted to read electronic text on the train or bus, I’d use a laptop.  And while on holiday, I don’t expect to be reading several hundred books.  If anything, I’ll read one or maybe two.  Not exactly a big deal when you consider packing an e-reader would be about the size of a book anyway.  And holidays for many people are about getting away from technology.  Going a bit old-school!

With an e-reader, would any changes occur to student life?  Well, I can’t imagine this device would help browsing through a textbook or flicking through several tomes to grab some quick ideas.  And so what if you can do a text search within the e-book?  It just doesn’t fit in with study.  Well, not mine anyway.

Maybe I’m being too harsh and not embracing the possibilities.  But the more I think about it now, the more I believe I was misguided in my thoughts a few years back at uni.

I don’t buy many newspapers and magazines any more, because I read them on the web.  That includes subscriptions, so I’m not just scouting for freebies either.  Despite enjoying the reading of electronic material, as opposed to the printed word, I’d still rather do so from a computer screen rather than a small, handheld screen.  And if I want to search some text books, I hope that I have access to them as PDF documents.  It’s not generally the case, but I don’t usually need to search many text books anyway.  It’s never the way I’ve liked to study.

Maybe that’s it.  Perhaps I just study and read differently to some others who would adore the Amazon Kindle.  Or maybe we’re all in the same boat.  How do you feel about e-book readers?

And what would you like to see on a customised e-reader to suit your lifestyle?  Would ANYTHING win you over?

Am I just being a spoilsport, or do you agree with me?