6 Simple Tips To Shine On A Video Interview

iStockphoto.com | Antonio_Diaz

Video conferencing is the old thing that is new again. According to Transparency Market Research, global video conferencing will be valued at $8.9 billion by 2025 with an annual growth rate of 8.3%. It’s big business, and with social distancing as the order of the day, it will continue to boom.

In late March of this year, PC Magazine wrote, “To stay healthy in 2020, telecommuting and regular work-from-home arrangements are pretty much a must for most people”, and released its list of Top 10 video conferencing apps (in alphabetical order):

1.     BlueJeans Meetings

2.     Click Meeting

3.     GoTo Meeting

4.     Intermedia AnyMeeting

5.     JoinMe

6.     Microsoft Teams (formerly Skype)

7.     Ring Central

8.     WebEx (Cisco)

9.     Zoho Meeting

10.  Zoom

While a decline in video conferencing use is to be expected when the labor market reaches some kind of predictable equilibrium, by then it will already be a permanent part of many job descriptions, including recruitment and hiring. The increase in video interviewing happening right now is likely to continue until it is as much a part of the hiring process as the phone screen. 

From the list above, the brand that most likely stands out is Zoom. Zoom was already a billion dollar success story before the pandemic. Now, in four months, Zoom has become synonymous with the new era of video conferencing. If you’re part of a remote video interview, it will most likely be on Zoom.

To fully leverage the opportunities afforded to the job seeker by Zoom, and the other platforms, here are some simple tips to shine during video conferencing interviews:

1.     Show off in your visual presentation.

Any job interview done via Zoom is both an interview and a screen test. Here’s how to sparkle.

• Choose a private and quiet location.

• Choose a clean background. Zoom allows you to choose a background and it’s now an online cottage industry. If you Google “Zoom backgrounds” all of your prayers will be answered, but save the “Pulp Fiction” background for the virtual happy hour with your friends. For an interview, choose a neutral clean background so that nothing distracts from the star of the show – you.

• Be well dressed and look sharp. Solid colors. No white or black.

• Avoid glasses if you don’t need them (glare) and hats (they’ll hide your beautiful face).

• Hollywood magic is mostly hair and makeup.

• Command the virtual space by keeping the frame tight on you.

• Do not lean in or back.

2.     Show off your interview skills.

Keep the rules for a good interview in mind, but the Zoom version.

• Be cognizant of the technology to remain in view and with proper posture.

• Do not sit too close to the screen or your face will be distorted.

• Maintain clear audio.

• Position yourself so you are eye level with the camera. If you are on a laptop that means elevating the laptop to eye level while the screen is at a ninety-degree angle. Nobody wants to see up your nose.

• Connect with your audience and show your passion, but keep in mind you are doing it through a camera at the top of your laptop and the interviewer(s) can’t see your view. Play to the camera, not the box, or boxes, with the other person/people in them.

• Make eye contact. Speak clearly.

• Do not look “off-screen”.

3.     Show off your portfolio.

Zoom allows you to share your screen.

• If you are in a creative field and have a digital portfolio ready to go, you can walk people through the best examples of your work.

• More than just sharing, this is an opportunity to make a full visual presentation that tells the professional story you want to tell.

• If you put together a presentation that includes content from your portfolio in advance, it can be a versatile tool during an interview. You may use it in response to an interview question, to make a strong opening, or a big splash at the end.

4.     Show off your skills.

Maybe you’re not a “creative”, and you work in analytics, or finance, or a similar field that does not revolve around dazzling visual presentations.

• In this case, the ability to share your screen may be even more advantageous.

• You can share an Excel spreadsheet, budget documents, metrics, screenshots, etc. – anything that is material to the role and will strengthen the impact you make during the interview.

5.     Show you know your stuff.

“White board interviews” intended to test a candidate’s critical thinking and knowledge while competing for a job opening can be very challenging. For example, IT professionals are often given a complex technical problem and asked to demonstrate how it can be solved with the most minimal impact on business operations. One dry erase marker and a blank white board stand before him or her and a job offer, thus the name.

On a Zoom call, the white board is replaced by anything and everything you have access to on your computer. This gives you an advantage.

• While you can’t predict what you will be asked during an interview, if you master Zoom’s presentation features you will be a more effective communicator during a remote interview.

• If you are proactive and prepare in advance, you can drive the action of the interview, even a “white board interview” during which you are expected to produce an answer in real time for all to see. Get comfortable in Visio and other apps that help you illustrate a business or technical concept.

• Take the time to master the video conferencing technology so you can master your interview.

6.     Show that you have great manners.

When things wrap up, use the Chat feature to send a quick thank you message to all the participants of the interview.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercareerstrategies.com.

Career Planning And Job Hunting In The Rapidly Evolving Job Market

iStockphoto.com | nito100

Knowing the current employment landscape is an important first step when launching a job search. Over the last few months, the job market has changed in a fast and monumental way. Even for employment professionals, it’s difficult to keep up.

We all know that millions of jobs have been lost in only two months, but the good news is that many employers are hiring. Three categories have emerged:

1.     Jobs that have always existed, but are now considered “essential” and there is a subsequent surge in demand. For example, grocery store workers, warehouse workers, delivery drivers, allied health, and so forth.

2.     Jobs that have always existed, but the roles have realigned to meet current demands. For example, there have always been lab technicians, but now many have been refocused  to handle Covid-19 testing, anti-body testing, and vaccine trials. And many more are needed.

3.     Jobs that didn’t exist before, but will now become a semi-permanent part of our labor market, such as Contact Tracers.

LinkedIn publishes a running list of companies that are surge hiring due to Covid-19, called “Here’s Who’s Hiring Right Now”. If you are searching for any type of work, you may wish to check this list daily. The companies listed vary, but some are specific companies that found themselves positioned to succeed because of Covid-19. For example, grocery store workers are considered “essential,” but Instacart workers are part of the “gig-economy” and its hiring surge is directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here are industries that may continue to grow because of the nature of what they are and the services provided, as opposed to simply a short-term increase in demand.

Healthcare - The world needs doctors and nurses. It also needs EMTs, researchers, lab clinicians, ER specialists, and the list goes on and on. No other event in our history has shined a light so bright on our medical community, and our emergency response capabilities will be examined, improved, and institutionalized.

Manufacturers of Hand Sanitizers, Disinfectants, & Facemasks – supply chain issues have hampered a ramp up in these products and some surges are temporary (for example, distilleries are cranking out hand sanitizer and giving it away to hospitals). But once manufacturing stabilizes there will be a sustained surge in these types of products in both consumer and B2B sectors. That can already be seen with facemasks. A month ago, getting any type of mask was all but impossible, but now face coverings are mass produced. The list of items is evolving.

Video Conferencing Service Providers – if you haven’t been on a Zoom call yet, then you are not living during this pandemic. The domino effect has been immediate. Google is already trying to catch up to Zoom. Before, Google’s video conferencing service was a paid Premium feature nobody wanted and Covid-19 left Google holding Zoom’s bag. Now Google is offering the service for free. And what about Skype? And House Party? And Facetime? Let the video conferencing wars begin! Overall, video conferencing looks to potentially be a boom that doesn’t end. Working from home (and schooling from home) looks like it might be more prevalent than before even after the pandemic subsides. Tech providers like these need programmers, support professionals, marketers, and salespeople.

Education – it’s a brave new world. From kindergarten to graduate school, our educational institutions are transforming. Already there appears to be a surge in available education jobs (see the LinkedIn list) as schools manage the reality of online education and the college campus experience must be reimagined.

Architecture/Design – Talk is emerging that once everyone accepts the fact that then new normal is not going to be the way it use to be, and that deep transformational changes will have to occur before everyone feels safe (with or without a vaccine or medicinal), sweeping investments will be made in redesigning the public and private spaces we all take for granted to account for public health. These include offices, residences, restaurants, and bars. Perhaps even airplanes.

Pandemic Professions

One thing is certain. Nothing will get back to any semblance of normal, including the labor market, until we can contain the health care crisis in a way that doesn’t put our collective health at risk. To that end, there is a new surge industry that is on the cusp of an epic surge in hiring. Since there is no official name to this category, we’ll call them “Pandemic Professions.”

Covid-19 Testers – Testing, testing, testing! We hear that mantra everywhere. Think of the supply chain, and the chain of people required to develop, manufacture, and distribute Covid-19 tests. That’s Chain One. Chain Two is the Testers, who administer the tests and testing sites. Chain Three is the lab that completes the test and provides the results. All three stages of Covid-19 testing need personnel.

The Covid-19 testing community also needs volunteers. Lots of them. For example, in Los Angeles county, the largest in the nation, the Los Angeles Fire Department was conducting tests until CORE, a non-profit started by actor Sean Penn after Haiti’s last major earthquake, offered to do them so that first responders were freed up to focus on what they do best. The hand-off was so successful that CORE has now expanded its testing to New Orleans, Atlanta, Detroit, and North Carolina, with additional locations opening up soon. CORE, along with other non-profits (like José Andrés World Central Kitchen) will need volunteers and new hires for at least the next year.

While volunteering for Covid-19 related causes may not address immediate financial needs, it does 1) get you out of the house, 2) expand your potential network to find paid work, 3) teaches you a new skill (always be training!), and, most importantly, will help your friends and neighbors in a critical way. If you’re comfortable with the risk, it may be worthwhile.

Contact Tracers – Somebody tests positive for Covid-19. Now what? This is the moment when a Contact Tracer is brought in to determine who the infected individual has been in contact with while they were contagious, track them down, and have them self-quarantine to contain the spread before it becomes an outbreak. Contact Tracers will be needed in every nook and cranny of America, from coast to coast. Wherever you live, contact tracers will be hired, it’s just a matter of who and when.

State and local governments are now launching initiatives to hire and train Contact Tracers. For example, New York City is current hiring 1,000 tracers at a salary of $57,000 per year, plus benefits. According to Business Insider, “Bipartisan health experts recommended Congress spend $12 billion to hire an additional 180,000 contract tracing workers over the next 18 months.”

In contrast, thousands of existing California government workers who may have lost their jobs have been re-assigned as Contact Tracers, so each state is managing the critical necessity for Contact Tracers in different ways. Check to see if your state or local government is hiring Contact Tracers.

Finally, private businesses have begun to hire their own Contact Tracers to help them re-open and stay open. Right now it’s a trickle, but soon many companies will have a Contact Tracer, or a team of Contract Tracers, on their payroll who are in charge of rapid response within their organizations. If a company wants their employees to show up, they will want Contact Tracers.

Contact Tracers, whether employed by the public or private sector, are going to be around a while. Even if a successful and safe vaccine went into production tomorrow, Contact Tracers would be needed to contain the virus until worldwide demand is met.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercareerstrategies.com.

Should I Accept A Counter-Offer (Hint: Think Long And Hard)

iStockphoto.com | Kritchanut

Sometimes you just know it’s time to leave a job. You grind through the complex machinations of a job search and emerge victorious with a written job offer from a new company that’s sweet as a pot of honey.

You feel great as you walk into your manager’s office and tender your resignation, but the reaction you get is unsettling. Faced with an unexpected staff shortage, recruiting and acclimating a new employee, and impending questions about his or her ability to retain talent, your manager suddenly seems like an aggrieved party.

Later, your current manager calls you into his or her office. You expect an informal exit interview but instead you get an official written counter-offer with a new title, expanded responsibilities, supervisory authority, and a 5% compensation increase over whatever the other company offered you. Now you’re not so sure you want to go.

It’s human nature to stick with the familiar especially when the familiar just became a lot more lucrative, but the conundrum of the counter-offer is simple to solve – don’t do it. While some counter-offers are legitimate attempts to reward you, and may lead to a positive change in your work circumstances, the motives behind your company’s newfound desire to keep you are most likely dubious at best.

When considering a counter-offer it is imperative to consider the following:

1.     If you accept an offer with a new employer and the change your mind, you will burn a bridge and your professional reputation may suffer.

2.     If you felt your employer valued your contributions and was committed to your overall professional development, you might not have wanted to leave in the first place.

3.     Did your company need a resignation letter to compel it to offer you a promotion and a raise?

4.     Your skills are needed and replacing you impacts immediate corporate goals.

5.     Incentives to stay may be an unspoken trap. Once you accept a counter-offer, you’re branded as a malcontent and, even with the seductive deal points that coaxed you back, your future with the company flat lines.

6.     If you accept a counter-offer, there is a very real possibility your company will conduct a confidential search to replace you and you will be sucker punched with a pink slip in due order. Please revisit #1.

7.     Be cautious before interpreting the increase as a reevaluation of your value or worth to the company. Your company knows you are unhappy, but it has calculated that it is less expensive to retain you by throwing more money your way than replace you.

8.     Your raise might not be as big as it seems. Promotions are all fun and games until Uncle Sam takes his share. You might now in a higher tax bracket and your actual increase in take home pay is much smaller than you expected.

9.     Regardless of your raise and new parking spot, the reasons for your discontent that led you to seek new opportunities will remain the same.

10.  Your relationship with your manager just got a bit more difficult. Even though it was not your intent to trigger a counter-offer, you put him or her in a difficult position and resulted in the company spending money to keep you. Some managers may perceive this as a semi-public condemnation of their leadership skills, and be cautious in dealing with you.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercareerstrategies.com.