Video interview TIPS
Video interviews within AEC
The popularity of the video platforms has exploded over the last few months in AEC because of remote working. AEC has quickly adopted video platforms for site surveys, video conferencing, webinars and job interviewing.
Now that the world has come to terms with Covid-19, and construction has been given the go ahead by many governments to go back to work, this means that construction companies will be looking to hire again.
1) Get Familiar With The Set Up
There are lots of different video interviewing platforms out there, so you could be asked to use a video platform you have not used before. Don’t wait till the last second before your job interview to download it.
Also, check your audio and mic. Bad audio is often worse than bad video. Interviewers would rather hear you perfectly with a few hiccups in the video feed, rather than the reverse.
Lastly, make sure the angle the interviewer is seeing you from is a flattering one, where they can clearly see a head shot of you from the front.
Top Tip - Check the Wifi and if you have friends or family members on it, it's good to get them off the internet before your interview.
2) Be expressive
It’s easy to become more robotic in a video interview as you’re behind a screen and that’s what we're used to but try keeping your expressions pleasant, engaged and smile. Not only will it help convey a sense of confidence to your interviewer, but it’s been scientifically proven that smiling can help relax you, which is a positive thing during an interview.
Also, try to maintain eye contact with the camera as much as possible. By looking straight at the camera, it gives the illusion that you are making eye contact with the interviewer. This is much better, however tempting, to watch what your interviewer is doing, or even yourself on the monitor instead, doing so will result in your interviewer seeing nothing but you looking off to the side.
3) Check Your Environment
Doing the video interview at home has its benefits, but make sure your background is still professional, make sure your background isn’t too messy, has too many distractions, or is hideously ugly etc and yes this does include your dog walking by or barking.
Secondly make sure the lighting is top notch, which means no direct sunlight on the camera or in the basement with dodgy lamp. Not being able to see you can be extremely distracting to the interviewer.
4) Take It Seriously
Although you lose the personal and body language element of the interview which can help, you can gain a sense of comfort behind a screen, which can have a positive effect on your interview.
It’s a family environment (most likely your own home) but you need to treat your video interview as if it was in person. So does this mean wearing a shirt, yes, does this mean not wear pyjama bottoms? We’ll leave that up to you but probably yes, wear trousers.
5) Use A “Cheatsheet”
The beauty of a video interview is that the video interview only captures where the camera points. Create a cheat sheet and carefully place it below the camera’s view, so you can reference it if you get lost or want to remind yourself of questions you wanted to ask the interviewer.
Bonus tip- Use A Professional Profile Name
Be sure that your video profile name is professional, simply use your actual name. The reason I bring this up is that many people are using their video accounts for professional and personal use during Covid-19 and my friend had a bad experience of using an unprofessional name on a companywide video call. I’ve never laughed so much when I was told the story, but she signed into the meeting using her quiz name from the night before, ‘Spacec***’.
I hope these tips help you out. I’m sure you will all agree with us that more and more job interviews within construction are going to be done on platforms on video platforms. So best prepare and treat video interviews as sacredly as you would a face to face interview.
