Last week, Julia shared a great article on Twitter by Stephen Winzenburg about “How Skype is Changing the Interview Process” and now that we’ve been using the online service for about a year to conduct admissions interviews here at Ivey, I wanted to chime in with my thoughts and share some tips for putting your best face forward.
To give a bit of background, after a candidate has submitted an application to Ivey it goes through an initial review. If we feel that the candidate has a strong profile and would potentially be a good fit for the Ivey MBA Program we invite them to interview so that we can learn more about their background and their reasons for pursuing the degree. Historically, the Admissions Team would conduct in-person interviews with candidates whenever possible and telephone interviews for the remainder of candidates; about a year ago, we made the move to replace telephone interviews with Skype whenever possible.
The primary motivation behind making the move to Skype is that we believe people better present themselves when they can physically see the person they are talking to and take cues from body language, reaction, etc. just like they would in an in-person interview. Additionally, like Winzenburg mentions in his article, seeing a person gives the sense that you actually know them a little better than if you were just speaking to a voice over the phone, and I think this benefits both interviewer and interviewee to create a higher level of comfort and more open dialogue.
The comfort can come with a bit of awkwardness though, but luckily most of the awkwardness can be mitigated by doing a bit of prep pre-interview. A few key things to remember if you are interviewing over Skype:
Test that your webcam and microphone work at least a day before the interview in case you need to troubleshoot (or make a trip to an electronics store!)
Do a trial run and adjust lighting so that you’re not in a shadow on camera
Pay close attention to your surroundings – clear away anything in the background that may be distracting to your interviewer; although you no longer notice the Pink Floyd poster on the wall behind your desk, the interviewer might not recognize the artwork and be distracted trying to figure out what the heck it is!
Give family members / roommates the heads up that you’ll be doing a Skype interview so that they don’t accidentally walk in and disrupt you
Turn off your cell phone and close all programs on your desktop that can make noise (i.e. MSN Messenger and Outlook)
Finally, when the time comes and to do the interview, treat the conversation like you were meeting with the interviewer in person: dress professionally, make eye contact and don’t be too fidgety. And don’t worry if there are minor technical glitches – they happen to all of us!
Happy Skyping!