Remote job interviews: scary or easy?
More and more job interviews are now being conducted online. This network provides free calls to anywhere in the world. Companies looking for employees or recruiters have also been quick to take advantage of the remote job interviews. Today, with the disappearance of national borders, more and more job interviews are being organised online: a computer camera is used to communicate with people who are abroad or in another city and cannot actually attend the interview. It is true that many people are still apprehensive about this form of recruitment because they do not know what to expect, but once you have been to a Skype job interview, you will see how easy it is. Of course, online recruitment can only be successful if the applicant knows some of the most important rules of the interview.
Distance is no barrier
Online job interviews are not new in most of the world. For some time now, recruiters have been interviewing job applicants via Skype. When a candidate lives in another city, country or even continent, or is simply away at the time, online interviews are often the only way for employers or recruiters to talk to a potential employee, and for the latter to have a chance to get the job they want. Today’s modern world offers advanced technologies that make it easy to get in touch, no matter where you are.
Saves money but eliminates some information
Company managers or specialised labour market experts who have tried online recruitment at least once know that it saves time and, in some cases, money. A Skype call can be made at any time, so there is no need to coordinate meeting times in a busy schedule, no need to travel to or book special rooms and no need to take on the extra hassle of a real-life job interview. However, virtual recruitment has its drawbacks. When talking to an applicant online, it can be difficult to see their body language on a computer screen. As psychologists have noted, non-verbal language very often betrays a person’s fears, doubts and lies. Unfortunately, technology is still not able to convey this perfectly, which makes this method somewhat risky for employers or special recruitment organisations.
The most important rules for remote job interviews
Of course, once the recruitment process has been arranged via Skype, both the applicant and the interviewer should take care of the technology. The computer should not stutter or shut down and the internet should be fast. Both parties must check that the computer’s camera and microphone are working, otherwise it will be impossible to communicate and understand each other. The environment of such a conversation is just as important, so experts recommend choosing a quiet space where people will not be distracted by extraneous noises or third parties. As in any recruitment interview, the candidate should look neat, speak clearly, be diplomatic and polite. A very small but crucial aspect is the Skype username: before the interview, the applicant must check that the person behind the screen can read his/her full name or a hard-to-understand, meaningless pseudonym.
So, Skype, the modern way of organising and conducting job interviews, has been growing rapidly in popularity lately. Given certain nuances, such recruitments are not scary. On the contrary, they save time and give you the chance to apply for positions even thousands of kilometres away.
