It is important that you feel comfortable and confident in preparation for your Video Interview. The Tips and Tricks below are Best Practices for your space set up and content creation.
Camera
Type
- Computer
- Tends to produce highest video quality.
- A more visually stable experience for your audience.
- Smartphone
- Do NOT use the Safari browser, it tends to produce to low quality/choppy content.
- Avoid walking around unless to show off your office or work station.
- Position yourself in the middle of the phone screen.
Position
- Position your camera so that it approximately level with your face This can be done by using a laptop stand or stacking books with your laptop on top.
Lighting
Type
- Natural light will ensure that you look your best and are able to record high quality video.
- Warm light from an artificial source is a good alternative. These bulbs are typically labeled as “soft white” or some variation of “warm” light/white.
- Avoid ‘cold’ lights that are described as daylight, cool-white, or bright-white.
Position
- The best position for your light is directly in front of you. This can be accomplished by sitting in front of a window or placing a lamp in front of and slightly above your head.
- Avoid recording in a dark room, with the only light source in front of you.
- Some backlight is good.
- Assuming you are in a room with some level of ambient lighting, it is best to avoid the the brightest light shining on you from your back or side.
Attire
- What you wear is a signal to candidates of what is appropriate on your team or in your company.
- Dress as you would for any type of external meeting at your company.
Background
- Turn off TV and ceiling fan.
- No video has ever been rejected because it included a dog.
Content
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Concise
- What candidates want to hear from you is an understanding of what matters most to you. The best responses focus on a single idea and include a story that brings it to life. If you are going over 1 minute, your response is probably too long.
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Candid
- Were you nervous about anything before joining? How does the team and the company deal with adversity? Candidates know that no job is perfect and talking about how the team works deals with challenges can be a real confidence builder for candidates who may be on the fence about interviewing.
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Authentic
- Don’t expect or plan for perfection. An imperfect video makes you seem more relatable and human; we believe that is a good thing. Don’t feel like you need to rehearse a speech. We aren’t going to use every video; we’ll just pick from your best! If you find yourself pressing re-record more than a few times, you are probably overthinking it.