Interview Kickstart Remote Interview Survival Guide – Part 3
Imagine this. You’re crushing your remote interview. You have the right mindset, the right setup and things are going very well. Next up, the hiring manager, nail this conversation and the job is yours! About halfway in, you notice something off about the hiring manager. She’s frozen on your screen. At first it’s funny, but then you start to think. Can she hear me? Am I frozen on her end? In the confusion, your heart starts to race. You proceed to check your Internet connection. It is blinking and reads “Searching.” You did not anticipate this disaster. What do you do?
To help you prepare for and avoid annoying situations like internet failure, we developed a few tips for you to follow.
Internet
Most remote communication tools need just 2MB of steady bandwidth. So anything more than that should be sufficient. Stability can be achieved to a good extent with a physical ethernet cable. We would recommend that you avoid wifi if possible.
Increased internet traffic or disruptions on either your side or the interviewer’s can negatively affect bandwidth. Expect the internet connection to go down, right when you need it the most. I suggest sharing your phone number with the interviewer prior.
You also want to avoid taking the interview on your company’s VPN connection.
Keep these in mind as well:
- Conserve as much bandwidth as possible by shutting down any non-essential applications.
- Ask roommates or loved ones to not stream movies or games during your interview.
Video Conferencing
Zoom is by far the most popular video conferencing tool and it’s increasingly becoming so due to its simplicity and quality. Be sure you’re familiar with Zoom (we especially recommend their virtual backgrounds). Some companies will continue to use the tools that they feel work best for their company needs. e.g. Google will use Google Hangouts, Amazon will use Chime, Facebook will use BlueJeans.
Being Proactive About Connectivity Issues
To be prepared for any technical difficulties, we advise you to do the following:
- Log in 5 minutes early and provide the interviewer your phone number.
- If the connection or audio is lagging, don’t waste time, switch to phone and continue together via online collaboration tools.
- Set expectations for how you would like to proceed in the event that technical issues occur at the start of, or throughout the interview.
Interviews can be a nerve-racking experience and there is nothing out of the ordinary for having cold-feet. If you are looking for ways to overcome interview anxiety, check out our piece on it here for an in-depth look: https://bit.ly/3cAzzLd.
Stay tuned for the final segment of our four-part series on the best practices heading into remote interviews. Keep yourself updated by following our social media to know right when it goes live!
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