A one-way video interview can be a daunting process, but it doesn’t need to be! We’ve put together a few of our top tips and tricks to help know how to do a one-way video interview.
In every field – from football to flower-arranging – there are those who excel and those… Well, there’s the first, rather minuscule group and then there’s everyone else. The rest. The unmarked, and unremembered.
What separates the ‘heroes’ from the ‘hardly known’ is intelligence, effort and insight.
We can’t help you with the first, but we’d very much like to give you some advice on the second two. Because they are important. Especially when it comes to securing the job of your dreams.
Why us? We’re the guys who invented, crafted and perfected Wamly. We’re not ‘another video calling thingy but an entire online interviewing solution, and it is making the (recently traditional) Zoom interviews obsolete. We’re changing the game – and new games require new skills. Wamly is coming to a job application near you, very soon. Best have your game face on!
Ok, so let us take a look at this new playing field, by telling you a bit about Wamly. Wamly is software that allows interviewers to set tasks and questions, that you need to answer, facilitated by the technology. This is then uploaded to the interviewer (that term has little meaning now – let’s go with ‘recruiter’) who can watch it, share it, comment on it and delete it whenever they feel like it.
No more in-person interviewing. No more ‘feeling the recruiter out’ with a few jokes to gauge their reactions. No more ‘I get better as I go on’. Wamly is really designed to help recruiters make better decisions through a process that suits them, which puts the onus of even higher performance on the interviewee, lest their application is skipped over in favour of someone else.
How To Do a One-Way Video Interview: Top Tips From Wamly
(Obviously, many of the basics still apply: being presentable, confident, well-groomed and even a little rehearsed are still really important. So, put some pants on, Patricia!)
- Check your gear: A good camera makes the subject look good. Don’t use that potato phone or 2003 Dell your cousin lent you. The grainy, gloomy footage will impact the recruiter’s overall impression of you. And make sure it works!
- Tell subtle stories: What’s around you says a lot about what’s inside you, which you can use to your advantage! Some books that relate to your field, displayed clearly behind you? A portrait of Einstein? Is a Mont Blanc pen popping out of your pocket? These all tell parts of your story without you having to say a word. (At the very least, please clean up old coffee cups, and chip packets and ask your mom to finish vacuuming later. These are all things we’ve seen.)
- ‘Lights!’ before ‘Camera!’: “Bad lighting makes silhouettes of us all!” said someone famous once (probably). And it is true. The difference between a smile and a grimace, or a beautiful profile and a bouncy fourth chin is often in the way the subject is lit. So take a few minutes to make sure that you don’t have bright windows behind you, that the light above isn’t casting your face into shadow and that you look like the professional, beautiful human being you are
- Warm-up: The Wamly software will allow you to do a test question and practice. Use this opportunity! Some of the best CEOs and speakers in the world do this religiously, and it pays off. The more comfortable you are, the more confident you will come across. Try and guess what the interviewer may ask, and then prepare to answer those questions.
Most of all, be yourself. This can be easier said than done, sure, but at the end of the day, know that you are someone worthy of a great job, and an amazing future. So, take a breath, get excited, get out there and give ‘em a heck, kid! We believe in you!