UKC

My daughter is at uni and now applying for various graduate training schemes and jobs. She is at the stage where umpteen are requiring her to do an online video job interview. This isn't Skype, with a person to interact with, but rather a list of questions flashed up and you have to sit there in front of your laptop and answer them.

She's tried one and found it incredibly hard due to the total lack of any ongoing feedback and the fact that the laptop screen apparently shows you yourself as you answer. She is ruthlessly intelligent, but not a people person and not noted for enjoying blowing her own trumpet, so the prospect of doing a couple more is worrying her considerably. 

Any hints and tips anyone can give? Useful resources anyone can recommend?  

In reply to hms:

Ugh.

Try to find a way to practise would be my only suggestion.  Lash up a camera and feed it to a screen in front of her.  Then get someone she doesn't know to ask questions from outside her field of vision.

Also, put a tiny blob of blutac in the middle of the screen and focus on that as she answers, not on her own face.

In reply to hms:

 

Stick a photo of her favourite pet to the back of the screen and she can talk to that, it should be easier and less stressful.

In reply to hms:

that sounds like a really horrible way to be interviewed!

The university careers service should be able to give advice on how to approach them, as presumably these kind of assessments are fairly widely used by recruiters. 

In reply to hms:

Turn the camera off.  If its not a face to face interview, is there a need for the camera?

 

Sounds like a rotten way to interview people, and really not a great introduction to applying for jobs.

In reply to hms:

I've never done that before but have given lots of presentations in all sorts of environments and interviewed plenty of people and - especially at graduate/straight out of university level - you are mostly looking for someone who is bright and not crippled with nerves. So she needs to get to the point where she can relax with it - I agree with comments above about practise, practise practise.... to the point where it no longer feels weird.

Start easy with her on her own in front of a laptop answering questions she has written onto a power point so she can advance the questions by moving to the next slide (or some other way of imitating the environment). Then steadily make it harder e.g. by doing it with someone she knows in the room then a few people she knows, then try pracitsing in a public place (i once practised for a big presentation by reciting it while walking through streets of amsterdam - i figured if I could get it right there then i could definitely do it on stage). The key is not to leap straight to the harder scenarios before you aree comfortable with the easier ones. 

On talking herself up, same agin - just keep practising. It helps to record yourself (I use the voice memo function on iPhone) and then listen back to it. She will slowly find ways to talk herself up without feeling like its bragging. Everyone is different and finds their own style.

In reply to hms:

many thanks for all the advice - really good stuff here which I will pass on. I have been very struck as she works through the application process for several jobs just how wedded employers are to using new technology, but very obviously without really thinking about it and merely to make things easier for themselves. Lazy, and it risks them missing excellent candidates who maybe aren't quite so mainstream.

In reply to hms:

I’m not clear on the process really; is this a video response to a set of pre-determined questions that is then watched by some humans in recruitment?

My take would be to get the hell out of dodge and apply to some places where recruitment isn’t run by total A-holes, as that is likely indicative of the robotic soul crushing nature of the employer.  I also appreciate that my take isn’t very helpful to you or your daughter.

Minor tip - look at the camera not the screen, as then it appears you are looking at the viewer.  If you actually look at the head on the monitor (yourself or others) you appear to be looking below the neckline of the viewer.

Otherwise she could do the videos dressed in all black against a black background to look like Holly from Red Dwarf but that’s probably lost on most people these days.  Similarly for dressing as Max Headroom.

Perhaps suggest to her that she starts doing a video diary.  She doesn’t ever have to watch it but it’ll get her used to videoing herself.

If she can find and attend a training course for being interviewed by the media it would likely be helpful.  Unis normally only run these for professors etc but there might be something.  

In reply to hms:

Speak to her University's Careers Service, ours (Bristol) is signed up to a simulator for these kinds of interviews that has a question bank etc that you can use to practice on, accessed via the Careers Services' website.  I found when I gave it a whirl that the most off-putting thing was being asked questions by middle-aged Americans!

More generally this web-site https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Interview/index.htm can be a helpful source of others' experience of various companies selection processes but of course needs to be taken with a pinch (or more) of salt.

Yes, this stuff is difficult and dehumanising but unfortunately it is here to stay for many of the larger graduate employers.

In reply to wintertree:

I think you could look at the video screening process more constructively. It’s difficult to judge the relevance without understanding the nature of the role but a high proportion of intra-office and business to business communication is now carried out over video-link. Meanwhile, the use of online tests might commoditise the process for the convenience of the hirer, but it also democratises the application process by offering an “interview” to a wider field.

Pity the poor hirer. Over on another thread we’re reflecting on a trebling of potential graduates. 80% of graduates end up with a 1st or 2:1. Employers are overwhelmed at the scale of the task of whittling a thousand down to just one. None of them with work experience to distinguish their talents. Is it any surprise that they seek a technological solution?

To the OP I can only suggest your daughter practice, practice, practice. Robo-hiring is the latest productivity tool and it’s spreading fast.

In reply to BnB:

I’m sure I could, but it doesn’t mean I’ll feel any less cumudgenonly about it.

Sure; but I imagine using video links effectively is not a part of the essential criteria being assessed, so why muddy the waters by mixing the two?   If the video is being watched by a human then the efficiency savings of this method don’t seem that great over a face-to-face video interview.  Which is a lot less weird...

I agree.  There’s a big difference however between online tests and a soul sucking video of you answering questions off virtual flash cards...  It just seems wrong - like button mashing to an automated phone system.

These days so many undergrads go for internships each summer as well, it’s a never ending arms race.  

The idea of 2000 fresh faced graduates submitting a robotic video interview for longlisting is horrifying.  I guess they’ve gone with question-response to prevent people getting coached through a written piece or a non-interactive video.

In reply to hms:

Sorry I can't help more than the advice already given but I'm a bit confused here. Isn't this an online test rather than an online interview?

If there is no proper interview aspect (ie no one at the other end observing what is happening or no recording being made) then I agree with the comment about turning the camera off.

Dave

In reply to hms:  Turning the camera off sounds like a sure fire way not to get the job

In reply to hms:

As others have mentioned, graduate recruitment can be a pretty soul destroying experience from both sides.

Without knowing what industry she is trying to get into this may be an irrelevant suggestion but one thing possibly to consider is that these automated interview / application processes are typically only used by the bigger companies. Smaller ones (SMEs) are still likely to use more old fashioned approaches like application letters and CV's where taking the time to find the job is the first step to creating the long list. There is also always the option of a speculative application and with Linked In, finding out who to contact is now much easier than it was in the past.