Video interviews are becoming an increasingly popular method for employers to engage in face-to-face conversation with potential hires. Video interviews are becoming increasingly popular, as it offers a similar level of face-to-face communication that an in-person interview does, but can be conducted at a distance, and can save the employer a whole chunk of change in contrast to flying potential hires out. While there are a lot of benefits to video interviews for businesses, the unfortunate fact of the matter is, these interviews can be awkward at best for the potential hire. Don’t stress though, we’ve listed a collection of tips and tricks for improving your ability to converse over the camera!

Don’t slack off

A simple method for mentally preparing for a live-video interview is to do so as if it was an in-person interview. What this means is that you’re going to need to dress accordingly for the position, do your hair, brush your teeth; all the standard go-to’s to instill the confidence in the interviewer that you are the right person for the job.

Clean up your area

Make sure that the room you’re conducting the interview in, is well lit and relatively clean. Everybody knows that first impressions can mean a lot (and even more so when it comes to a job interview), so you want to ensure that not only can the interviewer clearly see you, but that there is not a pile of dirty laundry sitting behind you.

Pick a professional account name

If you are connecting through Skype, make sure your account name is professional in nature, and if not, seriously consider creating a new account just for this interview. Odds are you’ll be starting at a disadvantage if the interview notices your account name ADAM_LEVINE_FAN_88. Save yourself some stress and just create a new account.

Eyes up here

Maintain a healthy amount of eye-contact throughout the course of the interview, similar to if you were engaged in an actual in-person interview. The one trick here is that making eye-contact with the interviewer on your computer screen often sets your eye-line lower than normal; so to compensate for this, move the screen with their face as close to your webcam as possible. This will allow for a more natural, confident appearance on your end.

Keep it calm and collected

Do your best to cut back on fidgeting with anything on your desk, or rocking back and forth in your computer chair. Just because you’re conducting this interview in the comfort of your own home, doesn’t mean that the interviewer is going to cut you any more breaks than they normally would for such behaviour. To help fight this behaviour, ensure that the area around you is tidy, and clear of any potential objects to fiddle with while interviewing.

Loud and clear

Take a few deep breaths and sit upright! Just like when you’re interviewing in-person, your body language says a lot about your confidence and can improve the quality of your voice, so take extra time to focus on improving your posture when talking during your video-call. Another simple fix to make sure that you’re heard loud and clear is to wear a headset while interviewing. These can range from higher-end Bluetooth enabled models, to the headphones that come with your phone. Wearing them ensures that there is no feedback during the call and that the headset’s microphone is close enough to your mouth to pick up everything that you’re saying.

That’s it! Have you had a live-video interview before? What did you do to best prepare? Let us know in the comments below, and we will be sure to include them in any future articles. Then again, maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves and you have yet to score that big video interview. No worries! Head on over to our job posting board to find the listing that’s right for you. Your next incredible creative career awaits!