-: Strategies to use
with a Skype or phone interview.
'Kay.
Video or phone interviews can be really really hard
because if the quality is not great
and for other reasons whatever,
the interviewer can't read your body language, okay?
So I don't recommend using any humor
with interviews on the phone or video-based
because the delay,
they might night be able to see a smile, etc.
And so if it's an audio interview,
obviously make sure the connection
of your cellphone is amazing as well as
you have a high--
great high speed internet connection, okay?
If you're doing Skype.
So, in the past, I've actually had all of my answers
to my questions they could possibly ask me.
In Microsoft Word.
Kinda like you have right now, 'kay?
And when I would have audio interviews,
I have my headset on,
it, sometimes when I wasn't as well prepared
or maybe I wasn't as confident
or I was more insecure than I am now.
I would do Ctrl Left and do a search on the keyword
when they asked me about it on the phone.
And I do this in sales as well for a while.
When I worked on Wall Street.
I didn't know what I really doing.
Right early on.
So I had this huge spreadsheet and word document.
I just do a Ctrl Left search on the keyword.
It's a little trick you can do. 'Kay?
So please be careful though.
You don't ever wanna sound like you're reading.
Okay?
It's obviously you can't do any of this
searching stuff if it's a Skype video call.
Obviously. But
if you're doing a video interview
then please don't look at the screen instead of the camera.
Okay?
So, the camera actually is at the top.
Right? Of the screen.
Right?
A lot of people think that that for some reason,
they look at the middle of the screen.
So I'm looking right now
at hypothetically the middle of the screen.
And it looks, it looks odd.
Instead of me making eye contact with them.
With you.
Okay.
So,
if you look at the screen only,
and never at the camera then you might come across
as a little bit less confident if you look down too much.
Okay?
And I do that every now and then to be honest.
So, if you speak quickly,
which I do sometimes unfortunately.
Try to slow down for the Skype call
because of internet buffering issues
or connection issues, 'kay?
In addition,
try to use a little bit more lighting than you think.
And so for this, I've got a light there.
And a light there.
And I know it sounds out there,
but you wanna make sure the lighting is the same color.
If you have two lights, make sure it's the same color.
Just these video experts whatever told me I have to do that.
And use a little bit more lighting than you think
and a great example of people not using the proper lighting
was the first televised debate, right?
In politics.
In US, at least, was Kennedy vs. Nixon in the early 60s.
You can look at it and Nixon,
there wasn't enough light on his face
so you could see four o'clock shadow, his beard.
And he looks a little bit sinister.
So make sure you use enough light, okay?
And prepare the lighting well in advance as well.
And you gotta ask the kids (laughs)
to play in the backyard or go to a friend's house
for that day for obvious reasons.