Reply With QuoteI've done them, yes.
Do yourself a favour and make sure you have a good background, the camera is at around eye level and you are not backlit.
Hi all
Moving back up North this summer after 18 months down south for family reasons, so am currently seeking gainful employment as a design engineer.
Was hoping to get back in to my old company, but having replaced me when i left, they don't currently have the workload to justify taking me back on unfortunately.
Started looking elsewhere and saw an agency ad on Friday for what i thought was a place not too far away, doing a similar role to now/previous, automotive components, but a different type of product. I know someone that works there in sales, so messaged them if they could confirm if the ad was for them and replied yesterday saying yes, send me your CV and i'll pass it on.
Within 2hrs i had an email from the company asking me to login and take a video interview, they provided a web link and asked i complete it in the next 48hrs, so need to do it tonight.
Anyone done one of these before? What are they like? How does it work? email says 'powered by shineinterview.com' if that means anything to anyone. More nervous about this than a normal interview for some reason. would a glass of red before hand help you think?
Cheers
Brighty
Last edited by Brighty; 13th June 2017 at 15:13.
I've done them, yes.
Do yourself a favour and make sure you have a good background, the camera is at around eye level and you are not backlit.
Whilst the technologies are all very good and often just work I'd not take anything for granted. A few suggestions
1. Register for a demo on the interview website and make sure that you have all the right plugins etc and that they work. Presuming that it's web-based rather than a video conferencing app so decide on which browser to use, get it working and stick with it.
2. I suggest that you use an ethernet cable straight into your router rather than WiFi; it removes an additional variable and wifi doesn't support full duplex sound.
3. Use an external HD webcam rather than the one in your laptop; I wouldn't suggest using a phone or tablet if you can avoid it.
4. Picture is all very well but good sound quality is the key to a successful video conference. Consider using an external speaker/microphone or a headset. (If using a DECT headset make sure the sound quality is set to wideband or equivalent).
5. Make sure nobody else in the house is using Iplayer or Bittorrent during the call. It's also worth confirming the upload speed of your ADSL as this will have an effect on the quality of the call. If it doesn't support 1mb then consider moving to somewhere that does.
6. Good points about camera position and lighting above. Apparently light blue is a good colour.
Hope this helps.
Last edited by Carlton-Browne; 13th June 2017 at 15:28. Reason: e not a
Carlton-Browne's advice is good. My daughter had one of these and hated it. It sounds the same as yours, i.e. you in front of your PC camera, at the other end no humans, probably written questions flashed up on the screen. She found it a nightmare because she got flustered by one or two daft 'interview' questions and that threw her for the rest of it, as she wasn't allowed to pause or ask for a clarification. So I'd say be as prepared as you can, as if it was an exam rather than a chat about a job, and definitely have a look at the website as CB suggest in advance.
Thanks for the tips so far gents, will try to get it as good as i can, but has to be done tonight as i only have 48hrs from yesterday afternoon to do it. Laptop camera and mic will have to suffice as i have no external ones and will be pushed to get one bought and setup before tonight. Our wifi is pretty good, 37mb down, 10mb up, so no issue there, but good call on the ethernet cable.
Wife is off to work at 9pm tonight so will have the house to myself once the kids are asleep, just hope one of them (6 & 4) don't trundle down stairs half way through and give it the 'daddy i need a poo' line, i'm sure some poor soul has had that. Looking at the shineinterview.com website, it says there's a practice question first, that you can review to get your lighting/sound etc sorted, then its a max of 10 questions with a max of 2 minute response to each. Just hope they're proper engineer job questions and not waffley HR nonsense
Edit
Just had a look and currys have a Logitech C270 720p HD webcam for just £20, might pick one up on my way home tonight and see if i can get it running before wife goes to work, must be better than the one built in to my laptop right?
Last edited by Brighty; 13th June 2017 at 12:39.
I had a video interview last year, when I first heard that I'd be taking part in one I initially thought that it would be me at one end and an interviewer at the other! It was, of course, automated...
I remember having a practice question and being able to watch that back so that I could check that the picture and sound quality was OK, after that I think it was either 8 or 10 very generic questions (What are you doing now? What can you bring to the role? The kind of questions that could be asked in just about any interview) that I had between 30-60 secs each to answer. I used my tablet, didn't have any issues in using it and I got through to the next stage in the application process so I must have done something right!
The way I remember it was that each question would show up on the screen for 10sec (I think, might have been longer) in order for a response to be prepared, once that 10sec had passed I had 30-60sec, indicated by a countdown timer on the screen, to answer each question. The most off-putting thing for me was that, when answering each question, my eyes kept flitting between the timer, watching myself on the screen and remembering to look at the lens so that whoever reviewed the interview felt that I was actually talking to them. Once the timer is up that's it, on 3 occasions I was caught mid-sentence without answering the question in full and there's no chance of revisiting or reviewing a question either. One positive was that I was able to pause between each individual question, if I thought I'd fluffed a response I had time to compose myself before I started the next one.
When reviewing your practice question make sure that you're framed properly, your face is lit and your voice clear, and that there's nothing distracting in the background.
Good luck!
Last edited by CardShark; 13th June 2017 at 13:38.
^Good advice above.
Only thing I would add is not to waffle. Time is short.
Leave spaces in your monologue to allow them to guide you to the answer they want - as you're not F2F you won't pick up on body language in the same way.
And don't waffle.
Did I mention waffling?
Naked from the waist down ;)
It's just a matter of time...
Good advice above.
I did one of these very recently.
It was fairly brief, (half a dozen questions, 1 minute per answer), but the platform it was hosted on allowed the answer to be re-recorded if you didn't like your attempt.
When happy, there was a "submit" button that uploaded the video to the backend infrastructure.
I would suggest wearing business appropriate clothing in view of the camera - I did mine in a shirt/tie/suit jacket and as per Omegamanics comment was wearing my gardening shorts on the bottom half.
Lighting/background should also be good and non distracting - you should be the focus of attention, not the washing drying on the clothes rack in the corner or the butt plug on the bookshelf behind you :)
Rich
Sorry Brighty, I didn't realise you'd started your broadcast already.Originally Posted by r1ch
I'd suggest removing all sex toys from your bookcase if you're unsure.
I'll be sure to keep the gimp behind his locked door
^
Beat me to it...
I don't think he's time to move house before the interview!
It's perhaps a bit OTT in any case.
Wow, it's been that long?
The least said about that awfull web interview the better, needless to say i didn't get the job.
But after 6 months of looking, a couple of close calls and 4 months of 260 mile each way trips to be with the the family each weekend as they moved up in August, i finally got myself a job up north. Medical Wednesday, offer and contract Thursday, handed in notice yesterday, finish Jan 19th, start Jan 22nd.
Merry Christmas
Brighty
Last edited by Brighty; 23rd December 2017 at 22:18.
Congratulations!
All's well that ends well.
Where's Up North?
Sent from my [device_name] using TZ-UK mobile app
Well done!
Hope it all goes well
It's just a matter of time...
Not far from you, Darlo
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