Do you have any further questions for me?

“Do you have any further questions for me?” 

There is a big chance you will hear the same thing from a Recruiter in your next job interview. I bet you have already heard it before, but it could come up again another time.

If you know already that you might face this question in an interview, there are no excuses to be surprised about it anymore. There is no apology to do not know what to reply when the time arrives. Certainly I can´t predict that you will for sure be asked a similar question, but in any case, why not taking advantage of the situation and think about it before your interview starts?

I personally ask this question in almost 100% of my interviews. I worked with other Recruiters that didn´t find this question that relevant, but I notice that most of the interviewers will consider giving you, candidate, the chance to come up with some questions, most likely at the last part of the interview.

You could wait for the Recruiter to ask you directly “Do you have any further questions for me?” (or the same question, but using different words) , or you can also create this situation, if it does not happen. How can you do that? Well, when you notice that the interview is coming to the very end, inquire politely if you can ask a couple of questions about the company and the job, in order to clarify details that you consider important.

Pay attention to it: a “couple” of questions; three or four maximum. Don´t go for ten questions at this part of the interview. I had candidates who asked me so many things when I guided the conversation to final questions that we spent almost as long as the whole interview duration clarifying his “further questions”. Two or three things to ask should be enough in this case.

I like to think about the interview process as a two-way street. The Recruiter will be evaluating you as a candidate, your skills, your profile and other aspects that he needs to check. You, as a candidate, should not lose the chance to also get to know better the company you are applying for, and make your decision about if it is what you are looking for or not. The interview should be a mutual discover.

If you ask further questions that show you did some research about the company, that you thought deeply about the job description or that you know well about the industry, you should be safer. Maybe those questions will not impress the Recruiter for some reason, but you won´t give a dummy image either. Be careful with the silly questions that you could ask, because those questions will definitely make you look bad and maybe loose the job.

We Recruiters want to see that you care about the job you are applying. Every interviewer will love to see that this is not “just one more job” for you. One way to show that is to spend some time getting ready for the interview and doing some research about the company you want to be part. If you don´t know a single information about the business, and you ask obvious or inappropriate questions, the Recruiter can start having doubts about your commitment and interest for the job. It happened to me more than once: I changed my mind about making a job offer to a candidate after hearing his extra questions.

If you get the chance to ask further questions to the Recruiter, take it as a gift. You have the power to improve the image you showed the Recruiter until that point. You can shine skills that you didn´t have the chance to demonstrate before. You can clarify aspects that are important for you about the job. So use this chance to promote your professional image as a candidate and increase the chances of getting the job.

Do your best and go ahead!

As you know, English is not my native language. I use it because I can reach more people and share my experience with you. Feel free to visit my blog at julianarabbi.blogspot.com and find more articles and videos.

Click here to watch the video on You Tube.

Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Skype interview, Video interview and video presentation: which are the differences?

Most of people have done at least one job interview in their lives. Some have done thousands of interviews in the last years. If you ask your friends, they might associate the situation “job interview” with something like “two people talking, one in front of the other, one is taking notes, etc”.

However, things are changing fast in the Human Resources area, and technology is playing a big role in the recruitment field nowadays.

Companies’ wants to optimize their employee´s time, save money and reach candidates from all over the world. You might need your smartphone or your computer ready when you start your next recruitment process.

If you are still not familiar with other kinds of interview, or even if you are, but you are not very comfortable with that yet, the following information might help you.

I personally prefer to do a face-to-face interview, and have the candidate in person in front of me when I do an interview. But I know that, in a Recruiter´s daily schedule, that is not always possible. The more dynamic and international you go in the company and position you are applying for, the most likely you are to have to use technology even to start the recruitment process and send your CV.

I have selected thousands of candidates for entry-level positions, staff level and Managers, and most of them, at some point, were submit to an interview with the Recruiter or his future Manager, and this interview was not in person.

Telephone interviews are frequently used, but normally for a quick first screening of the candidate, to confirm the key aspects of the CV and check if the candidate is ready to go to the next step – which could be another interview.

I do not take the relevance of a phone interview, because if you fail, you won´t go ahead in the process. Still, at some point, you will have to show yourself more, literally “show your face” to the Recruiter, and there are different ways to do that.

Skype interview, Video interview and Video presentation: do you understand the differences between them? Do you know how to prepare yourself for each of those situations? Let´s review case by case shortly.

There might be slightly variations from company to company about the following Recruitment tools, but in any case, you will be able to get a general idea about it with the information here. Your spotlight in any interview is being present in the moment and show the best version of you as a candidate. Nothing else should be distracting you from that.

If you already know what to expect when you are invited for one of those kinds of interview, your stress level will be lower and you will be able to focus only on what is relevant.

Video presentation:

You receive an invitation to record a video about yourself and send the final version to the Recruiter. Most likely, this video will have to be upload on the company´s webpage, so follow the instructions you will receive in each case.

Typically,  the company suggest some topics that the candidate could speak about – for example: “Introduce yourself, tell us about a moment that you exceed the guest´s expectation with your service; tell us about a difficult situation at work and how did you solve it”. Try to speak about the subject recommended by the Company, but also fell free to add any other relevant information you consider. Show your unique skills as a candidate. This is your chance to exceed the Recruiter´s expectations about this video.

Although many people feel totally paralyzed in front of a video camera, and can be nervous only by thinking about it, the good aspect about the video presentation is that you can record it more than once if you need. You can practice what you want to say, write down a script and record the video as many times as you want, until you are satisfied enough with the version you want to send.

If you try to be perfect, you will never get things done, so rehearse a few times, but do it at some point.

Please be careful with the size of the video, because as a rule, there will be the maximum size mentioned somewhere in the instructions. If your video is bigger than the limit the web accepts, you won´t be able to upload it.

Video interview:

You receive a link and the instructions, and once you click on the link, a specific question will show up on your screen. You are supposed to answer that question in a period, and most likely, there will be a watch or a live counter showing you the time passing.

You could have for example 2 minutes to answer each question. Once the time for the first question is over, the next question will pop up on your screen, and you should answer now the new question, considering the time limit. Interview follows this dynamic until all the questions are “asked” by the computer and you record your reply.

In some companies, you have a “practice time” before your reply starts to be recorded. It means you have some extra time (like 30 seconds, for example) to think about the answer you want to give to that question and to organize your ideas, before the official recording starts.

You can do a quick rehearsal of what you want to say, and once the practice time is over, the precise time for recording the reply will start automatically. It is helpful to have a “practice time”, but you might not have this option in all the cases.

Skype interview:

It is very similar to the Video Interview, but in this case, you have a person on the other side of the screen at the same time that you are online. This person will talk to you, you won´t deal with a video nor a text in which you have to read the questions.

There is no “practice time” on Skype interviews. Once the Recruiter online asks you a question, you should start to answer immediately.

Commonly the candidate cannot choose the interview method that the company will use to evaluate him. At some point of the recruitment process, you should be informed about how the interview will be conducted, and that´s it.

Because things work like that, try to be familiar with those three methods and do not be afraid of the web cam.

You can record some silly videos of yourself at home, watch then and record again, just to be more comfortable speaking to a machine. You can also exercise speaking in front a webcam recording a video about any topic you like and fell confident about it, as a training (for example, speak for 2 minutes about your hobbies or your morning routine). A part from that, think about the time and money you are saving by not going in person to the interview place.

We are facing modern times, and we all need to adjust to them…

For any of the Recruitment tools mentioned before, you will need a good internet connection; a web cam; a microphone; enough light (so the video recorded will show your face in a clear and visible way, not a dark and unclear face) and headphones with microphone. Headphones are not mandatory, but if you decide not to use then, at least make sure there is enough silence in the room, so the sound of your voice can be record in a clear way and you can hear the Recruiter or the computer´s instructions.

You should read carefully the instructions sent by the Recruiter or by the company, to see if there is any specific requirement for computer programs that you need to install on your computer before the interview or video recording starts. The technical requirements will be on the instructions, and normally the demand is easy to fulfil.

In case you have doubts or problems, try to contact the company before the interview time to clarify things in advance. If you get all dressed and ready for the interview, and for some reason the program does not open, you will for sure be nervous, so try to avoid that.

As in any job interview, please watch your appearance and try to avoid external noises and interruptions during the process. Also, it´s always good to keep a glass of water close, a pen and a paper (in case you need to write down something) and a copy of your CV, just in case.

Do your best and go ahead!

As you know, English is not my native language. I use it because I can reach more people and share my experience with you. Feel free to visit my blog at julianarabbi.blogspot.com and find more articles and videos.

Click here to watch the video on You Tube.

Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

CVs with wrong information on it

 There is nothing new about how important your CV is on a job interview. This is not an original topic at all. However, I am afraid we still need to talk about it. As a Recruiter, I see terrible CVs on daily bases. This document can affect the image you give as a candidate and even eliminate you from the recruitment process.

A good interview should go beyond the text written on your CV. But the CV could be a starting point for the interview, or maybe the Recruiter might want to talk about it or about some specific aspect of your curriculum at certain point of the interview. The CV is a document that you present to the company you are applying for, so you should take it seriously.

I have seen thousands of CVs every month at work. Some were normal; some made me feel impressed; some had very unique pictures; some were so short that it seems that the candidate took literally three minutes to write it; and some had so many spelling mistakes that I could barely understand what was written on the paragraph.

There are many websites already talking about how to write a good CV, and sharing helpful tips. At the end, you are free to choose how to create your CV. There is not only one correct way to do it. But my point is: which impression do you give to the Recruiter when you present your CV? It doesn´t matter how you format your CV and which information you decide to write on it: the CV is a document that represents you and it will cause an impression on the Recruiter.

During the interview, keep a copy of your CV printed on your hands. A similar idea works also for Skype interviews: you can have your CV open in one-half side of your computer screen and the Skype open on the other half. It is very confusing for the Recruiter when the candidate say some information that is different from what he had written on the CV.

Let´s imagine the Recruiter asks you how long you worked for the company “X”, which is listed on your CV. You reply three years, but on the CV, you had written only one year. Giving a different reply to the Recruiter than the one on your CV can mean two different things:

You are not telling the truth in person or by Skype to the Recruiter now, or you were not telling the truth when you wrote your CV.

Maybe this interview is not “that important” to you, because you didn´t take the time to review your document before presenting it.

In any case, those two situations won´t make you look good at all during the interview. It´s better do not risk, take the time to review your CV, and have a copy of it in front of you.

If you have written one thing on your CV, and now you are telling a different story to the Recruiter, your interview will probably take longer than it was planned to last. The Recruiter might need to write down or make notes about the different information you are adding, or correct the dates on the file, or also do any other adjustment on your document that will increase the interview time.

In general, Recruiters have a busy interview agenda, sometimes even with one candidate scheduled for interview right after the other. Loosing time because the information you are giving is contradictory can cause some delay on the daily interview agenda. Maybe this unplanned delay will create the feeling to the Recruiter that the interview is a waste of time. If the candidate didn´t care and worked on his CV, why should the Recruiter spend his time with this person? Yes, it can be cruel, but that´s the reality.

You can be a good candidate, but if you create doubts on the Recruiter´s mind during the interview due to inconsistent information, you are playing against yourself. The Recruiter needs to make a decision about giving you a job or not, and there is a chance he won´t be comfortable giving you the job if he has doubts about you. Try to minimize the chances of creating hesitation in the Recruiter´s mind.

Let the Recruiter doubt only about things like “Candidate A has more work experience then candidate B, but candidate B can speak Chinese and candidate A can´t, so which one should I choose?”. Do not add unnecessary vacillation in the recruitment process, especially about if you are a trustable person or not. Doubts like this could lead to stop your process soon.

If you have to do last minute changes on your CV for any reason, please make sure you mention that as soon as possible to the Recruiter, ideally at the beginning of the interview. You can also have an extra copy of your CV for the Recruiter, so he will be able to conduct the process having the updated information in hands. You might also want to have the new version on a file that can you send by e-mail immediately, so the Recruiter can open it even before the interview begins.

The CV is something you can prepare before the interview and take all the time you need to show the best version of you. Go for a real, objective and professional way to reflected that. It can only help you on your recruitment process.

Do your best and go ahead!

As you know, English is not my native language. I use it because I can reach more people and share my experience with you. Feel free to visit my blog at julianarabbi.blogspot.com and find more articles and videos.

Click here to watch the video on You Tube.

Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Do you speak another language?

 In a job interview, there is a big chance that, at some point, the Recruiter will ask you about the languages you can speak. For some positions, a foreign language (or even more than one) is mandatory, so you should be ready to answer this question eventually. Even if it is not a requirement for the position, your communication skills in a different language can still be used as an aspect that could make a difference in case there are two candidates with a similar profile, and we have to choose only one.

There is a funny thing I heard more than once in my interviews when I started speaking to a candidate in a language he wrote on his CV he had a bilingual level:  “I was bilingual, now my level is lower”. Whether you are bilingual or you are not! There is no such thing as “I was bilingual, now for some reason I will try to explain you, I am not anymore”. Please name things right.

If you have an official language certificate that confirms your fluency level in a foreign language, make sure you mention that in details on your CV. If you do not have any official certification for your language level, try to make your real level as clear as possible in your CV. Let me repeat that: REAL level.

What is the point of writing “English” on you CV with no other information besides that? If you write only the word “English”, the Recruiter can´t guess, by magic, if it means that your level is basic, intermediate or advanced. We can´t deduct if you can read better than you write, or if you just started taking classes related to that language 2 weeks ago. It´s better not to leave space on your CV for confusion.

If you write “English” (or any other language on your CV), please make sure you specify:

-  Reading, Writing and Speaking Level – some people classify the levels in “Basic, Intermediate and Advanced”, others use percentage (like English speaking 70%), and other use the European Language classification (like A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2).

-  Specify which your Native Language is. Make this information clear.

-  Mention language courses you have done (places and dates).

-  You can also mention relevant experiences you had related to that language – for example: I lived for one year in the UK in the year 2008; I have been using Spanish daily at work since 2013.

Don´t be surprised if the Recruiter starts the interview with you speaking directly in Portuguese, in case it´s written “Fluent Portuguese” on your CV. I have done it myself many times.

Writing on a document like a CV that you are “Fluent” in a certain language can be risk. If you write you are fluent in Russian, but you are not, and the Recruiter decides to switch languages and speak to you in Russian, it can make you feel nervous. You might lose your concentration and show without further doubts that you were not telling the truth on your CV.

If you write “Fluent” in any language, our expectation as Recruiter increases, and most likely, we will want to check that fluency during the interview. It is better to be realistic and fair with yourself.

Another interesting aspect about speaking a different language is that you not always need to speak it fluently to reach the level the Recruiter is looking for. Depending on position and requirements that the company asks for, if you are able to communicate, write and ready in a reasonable way, your language level could be fine.

If you can communicate in a foreign language and people can understand you; if you say or write something and people can get your message, sometimes this can be enough. I emphasize that the language requirement is directly connected to the job position you are applying for: the higher the position, the higher the expectation about your language skills.

Don´t panic if you are in the middle of a sentence and you can´t find the exactly word you want to say. If your mind goes blank, probably you will stop the sentence you were saying, and will keep trying to find “the” exactly word you want to say. This situation will probably increase your anxiety level, you might lose the idea you want to say, and the Recruiter will probably lose his interest on you.

So what to do in those cases?

- First, make your peace with that. Sometimes we can´t find the right word that express perfectly what we want to say. If it happens, we can always go for a synonym or a similar word that gets closer to the idea we had in mind, but could not express before. Not finding the word in the moment that you are speaking happens even when you are speaking your native language, so imagine when you are speaking a second or a third language! Do not be so hard on yourself.

- If you still can´t find a synonym or a similar word, try to explain your point in as many details as you can. Doing so, the Recruiter will be able to understand clearly what you are talking about, even if you didn´t mention the specific word for it.

- You can exercise that at home with any word you pick up, just to see that it´s possible to manage that.

For example: Imagine that I am a Cook and I want to say I was doing fruit carving at my previous job, but due to the nervous during the interview I can´t remember the word “carving”. I can explain my point saying: “I was using knives and other objects to create different shapes with fruits and vegetable, in an artistic way, making then look like roses, or animals, or even faces”.

- Last, but not least: We Recruiters understand that you are under stress during the interview, and probably won´t show your best language performance in that moment. So you won´t lose the job just because you made one or two grammar mistake.

We have been in the candidate´s position before, and we had to speak in a foreign language in front of somebody that was evaluating us, so we know how hard it is.

The worst thing you can do is to be blocked and do not say a single word in the language that you wrote in your CV that you could speak. It´s always better to try to say something, and show the Recruiter your positive attitude about it, then just say excuses like “Sorry, but there is a long time I don´t speak this language”, or “Can we just skip this part of the interview?”.

If you are thinking about saying anything similar to that to the Recruiter when he starts speaking to you in one of the languages you wrote on your CV you could speak, please review the language level you want to write on this document.

There might be also a background and references check about you during the recruitment process. That complementary information can show the Recruiter a different reality then the one you illustrate until now. Misleading the information you write on your CV or the one you give during the interview can cause automatically removal of your application from the process. Don´t play with that.

Do your best and go ahead!

As you know, English is not my native language. I use it because I can reach more people and share my experience with you. Feel free to visit my blog at julianarabbi.blogspot.com and find more articles and videos.

Click here to watch the video on You Tube.

Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Shall I send an e-mail after the interview asking for some feedback?

The Recruiter working schedule is normally busy with many interviews, reports, meetings, and other tasks. Shortly after he interviews you, he might not have time to reply to your e-mails asking for feedback.

Some candidates like to send a new e-mail to the Recruiter every two or three days emphasizing how good they are for the job, how much they need it, and asking for some news. It´s normal that the person wants to know his interview result, but patience is the main key here.

Too many e-mails from the same candidate asking for the interview result can give a bad image about you. It can sound desperate and impatient. Imagine if all the interviewed candidates decide to send a single e-mail to the Recruiter to wonder about the result. The Recruiter won´t do any other thing during his working hours but reply to those e-mails!

Luckily, every time more and more companies work with internal candidate tracking systems, which already sends an automatic e-mail to the candidate once the recruitment process is over. If you were the candidate, you would receive at least a typical feedback like “Thanks for your time, but we decided to choose another person”.

Those e-mails can seem a bit a cold, like “copy and paste” (and they are template messages), but at least there was a reply sent to you. At least you won´t be waiting for weeks or months without knowing what happened with that interview. I know we all want to hear that we got the job. Although when we talk about job interview results, a “no” is better than an eternal silence.

I try to be very careful with the candidate´s feedback, because I consider everybody deserves a reply. It can be painful and frustrating not knowing what happened after your interview, if you are still on the process and it is just taking longer than you thought, or if there is somebody else already there working on that position.

Apart from that, if you are in an active job search, you might receive another offer while you are still waiting for that reply, and you don´t know what to do. So, for me, even a “Thanks, but no, thanks” feedback is better than ignore the candidate forever after the interview.

Some candidates would like to receive a personalized feedback from the Recruiter, with the details about the reason why there were not select. There are people that send e-mails or call me after the process is over to ask for the specifics about why we choose another candidate.

The person can justify it saying “I want to learn from this situation to improve myself for future opportunities”, or he can just say he is curious about it, and both options are fine. The problem is that most of the time, we, Recruiters, can´t give you much information about it.

Sometimes, due to confidentially aspects and commitments we made with the company, even if we wanted, we would not be able to share more details.

There are times that the reason why the other person got the job offer and not you is very objective and clear. For example, the other candidate has three more years of experience than you, or he can speak an additional language that you can´t. Other times, it´s a mix of many things that we need to consider when making the final decision about who will get the job offer.

If the Recruiter´s answer for you is a “Yes, we would like to make you a job offer”, you will know it. Believe me, we will find you in 99% of the cases (sending an e-mail, calling you, leaving a text or voice message on your mobile phone, writing you a private message on LinkedIn, etc). If you do not receive any answer or feedback at all about the interview…. then, better start planning your next step in a different direction.

There is nothing wrong if you decide to send an e-mail to the Recruiter after the interview, thank him for his time and ask for your interview result. Some Recruiter´s strongly recommend a follow up e-mail as a way of showing that you are interested in the position. Just consider that any recruitment process takes some time, and that by sending one e-mail per day, every single day, to the Recruiter, won´t help to make things faster. 

If you decide to do it, do it once and please wait at least one week before you send it. By doing so, you give sometime to the process; respect the Recruiter´s agenda and at the same time, show that you are still interested in the job. Then maybe, you will get your reply.

Do your best and go ahead!

As you know, English is not my native language. I use it because I can reach more people and share my experience with you. Feel free to visit my blog at julianarabbi.blogspot.com and find more articles and videos.

Click here to watch the video on You Tube.

Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Why the Recruiter was not friendly with me?

We all like to feel welcome when we are doing a job interview, right? Who disagree that a big smile on the interviewer´s face, a friendly tone of voice and a nice behavior helps to make us feel comfortable since the very begging? However, because the Recruiters are humans, it does not always happen.

I have been in the candidate position many times in my life, in different countries, having different Recruiters in front of me, and I know exactly how it feels to be there. Even if you are very good at what you do and you are an expert in interviews, there is always a bit of stress involved in this process. You know that the other person is evaluating you and needs to make a decision that will affect your life.

What you might not know yet is that the interview process affects the Recruiter´s life too. Yes, you read it right: the interview process also affects the person who is interviewing you.

Candidates normally don´t see the interview situation from the Recruiter point of view, and that´s normal. The candidate is already doing his part in keeping himself together and trying to cause a positive impression,  and that is a lot! However, let me tell you one thing: the main goal the Recruiter have in his job is to fill up an open position with the right person, in other words, hire somebody for the job.

It doesn´t mean the Recruiter should select the first candidate he sees (although sometimes it happens). But believe me, the Recruiter wants to give you a job if possible, because that´s his job, match the candidate with the position requirements, finish that, and then go to another position, another candidate and start it all over again.

Doing interviews all daylong can be tiring. Like in most of the jobs, Recruiters needs to try to keep the same energy level, concentration, interest and professionally with the first candidate early in the morning, and with the last one of the day.

The interviewer needs to be friendly during the interview, even if he has a big headache or didn´t have time to eat lunch because there was a delay in the previous interview. He should treat you in a professional way even if he just left from a meeting with his boss and the feedback he received was not good at all.

I guess I can imagine what you are thinking right now: “Yes, I see that, it all sounds real and possible to happen, but as a candidate, I don´t care. This is MY job interview, can´t this Recruiter do at least MY interview in a nice way, and then release his stress in some other candidate but me?”

Well… I wish I could say you will never have to deal with a Recruiter with a long face, or not smiling at all during the interview, or giving signs that he seems to be busy with something else. However, that´s not the reality, sorry. There are bad Recruiters, that´s a fact, and there are good and professional ones, but even those might have a bad day… and you might be right in front of him in one of those days, to do your interview!

There are no excuses for the Recruiter´s inappropriate behavior, and this is not what I am trying to do here at all. Respect the candidate´s time and availability to do the interview should be the background for every single contact between candidate and Recruiter, it doesn´t matter if the person is qualified for the position or not.

We can never guess the sacrifices the candidate in front of us made to be there. Maybe the candidate is taking a day off from work to be available for the interview. Maybe he paying a cybercafé to have a good connection in case of a Skype interview. Maybe he decided to buy a new suit to look good for the interview. Maybe he is coming straight from a night shift without sleeping to do the interview. Maybe he was not working, but he couldn´t sleep at all due to stress, thinking about the interview. I have seen all those cases myself, and many others.

My point is: do not take it personally if the Recruiter seems a bit impolite with you and does not treat you the way you wish and deserve. This situation probably has nothing to do with you personally, but with his “bad day”.

As I mentioned before, I know it should not happen, but if it happens, it might increase your nerves during your interview… So please, do yourself a favor and don´t assume the problem is with you. Don´t take it personally.

We Recruiters are humans, just like you. If we do not manage to deal with stress, bad days, work schedule and pressure during your interview, I hope at least we will be able to manage that later when making a fair decision about your process. In any case, you can´t control the Recruiter´s behavior, so do your part, keep confident and let´s hope you get a positive reply!

Do your best and go ahead!

As you know, English is not my native language. I use it because I can reach more people and share my experience with you. Feel free to visit my blog at julianarabbi.blogspot.com and find more articles and videos.

Click here to watch the video on You Tube.

Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Skype interviews (Part 3) - What NOT to do in an interview.

I had doubts if I should go ahead with this video or not. The information I want to share is relevant, and it can help candidates in their future Skype interviews. But it can also be misunderstood and considered as lack of professionalism from my side. Nothing further from my intentions here!

Due to all the respect with the thousands of candidates I had the chance to interview by now, some interviews were really amazing, but others were terrible. If you think for a while, can you guess what makes a job interview really bad, in a way that it remains in your mind for months and even years after it has happened? That is exactly what I want to share here.

There are no perfect pre-defined steps to do a memorable interview. Of course, there are things that helps, just like there are behaviors that do not help at all the candidate to give a professional impression and succeed on the interview. If you are smart and use a bit of common sense, you will probably avoid some of the most basic mistakes you could do to fail in an interview. Nevertheless, as I have confirmed already in my experience, “common sense” is something relative, and can vary tremendously from one person to the other.

For some reason, I realized people still take a Skype interview as something less serious and important than a face-to-face interview. I don´t know why it happens, but this is the only explanation I can find for facing the situations I had to deal with while doing Skype interview. Similar situations never happened to me before in personal interviews, so I guess we should all start taking Skype interviews into a different level.

Here comes a list of real (and also funny) situations I had to deal with in previous Skype job interviews:

Situation 1

A male candidate appeared on the screen without any shirt, t-shirt nor polo. Nothing was covering the top part of his body. Well, I don´t really know about the lower part of his body, as I could not see it on the video, but the upper part was naked, I could see that.

He might have noticed the surprised look on my face once his video turned on, so he immediately justified himself, saying that “It was very hot on his place, so he decided to take the shirt off to do the interview and stop sweating”.

I am afraid to imagine what this candidate would do in case he is at work and he feels that the ambience is getting warm…

Situation 2

I could see a cat, or a dog (or even both sometimes) moving behind the candidate during the interview. I love animals, so I can say it was quite distracting for me, and I assume it could be distracting for most of Recruiters. At some point, the dog started barking loud, and the candidate had to stop the interview to take the animal out of the room.

Maybe the animal should not have been on his interview room since the first moment, right?

Situation 3

In the middle of the interview, the candidate´s father showed up in front of the webcam to say “hi” to me. The father also emphasized that his son was really in need of that job, and that I should give him an opportunity. The father didn´t want to leave after he said his speech, so I politely had to ask him to let me speak again with his soon alone.

Which kind of candidate needs his father defending his qualities to the Recruiter, during the interview? Is it to show how competent he is for the job? Be careful with those situations, because it might create some serious doubts in the interviewer´s mind about the autonomy and empowerment of the candidate.

Situation 4

When I was interviewing a woman, at some point I could see a baby´s hair in the lower part of the video on the computer screen. The “hair” was moving, and I could hear his voice saying “Mammy, Mammy”. Of course, the woman got distracted, and although she tried to ignore the baby…. babies do not understand that.

The kid started screaming during the interview. The candidate apologized, explained it was dinnertime for the baby, and asked if I could call again in about 15 minutes to finish the interview.

I did call her later, but maybe, this interruption should not have happened.

Situation 5

In another interview, I could hear a kind of “echo effect” in the room, but it happened before the candidate opened his mouth and could speak. It was like this: a few seconds before the candidate was going to reply my question with a word, I could hear the exactly same word in a lower tone. It was coming from another person, but the microphone could capture that.

I started being suspicious about it, kept my ears alert, and I finally understood the real situation. There was somebody else in the room, whispering the answers to the candidate, so the candidate could repeat the exactly words to me.

Seriously? Why to do that?

Situation 6

A candidate was checking the watch on his arm from time to time, every minute or so. I asked him if he had to leave, and he said yes, he had to leave, because he was already late to meet his girlfriend.

I apologized for taking his time, and wished him a lovely afternoon with his partner. If the interview didn´t seem to be important enough to him, why should I care too much about it?

Situation 7

Another story about boyfriends and girlfriends. A candidate seemed to be tired and was almost falling asleep during the interview. I thought he could be sick, so I asked if he was feeling well and if we could go ahead with the interview. He said he was feeling good, just needed some rest. He explained he didn´t have much sleep “because he went to his girlfriend´s place on the previous night, and they didn´t stop having fun all night, so that´s why he was tired today”.

No further comments.

Situation 8

Last but not least… A classical “phone ringing situation” during the interview. We all know we should turn off our phones before the interview starts, but still, we can eventually forget about it, right? What we should not forget is to think properly in case it rings, when you are in the middle of the interview.

So, the phone was ringing. The candidate apologized to me, answered his phone and spoke to whoever was on the other side of the line for almost one minute – I could see that from his webcam and hear him speaking. After, he turned the phone off and told me he was ready to start his interview again.

I could not understand what he spoke about during his phone call, because I do not speak his native language. For sure, it was something funny and interesting, because he was laughing a lot during the call. I think the person on the other side of the phone was more interesting to him than his interview result…

I could go on and on with more examples, all situations that happened to me, but I guess I have made my point. Skype interviews are important, as important as any other kind of interview. Do not forget about it.

Do your best and go ahead!

As you know, English is not my native language. I use it because I can reach more people and share my experience with you. Feel free to visit my blog at julianarabbi.blogspot.com and find more articles and videos.

Click here to watch the video on You Tube.

Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.