Preparing for your Video Interview

First, let’s take a moment to applaud your bravery for agreeing to participate in a video interview. This is no easy feat, so if you’re feeling a bit apprehensive, just know that is a totally normal human reaction.

Find comfort in the fact that you’ve been selected for a reason and the brand you’ll be representing believes in your ability to speak passionately about their product or service.

If you’ve still got some nerves, you’ll be pleased to hear that nine times out of ten you will be speaking directly to a person and not looking into the camera lens. An interviewer will sit across from you, just off to the side of the camera, and will run through the questions one at a time.

In most cases, there will be two cameras capturing your video interview, a wider angle from the waist up and a zoomed in angle from the chest up. This setup will allow you to pause if you lose your train of thought or stumble on a word without having to repeat the entire answer again.

You can never go wrong with a comfortable, business casual outfit.

Suit coats, shawls, or anything button up are easiest to mic so consider choosing an outfit that incorporates these pieces. Choose something with solid colors over bright and busy patterns and avoid long and dangling jewelry that might make noise as you move around.

When it comes to grooming, try to wear makeup that has less shine to it, the lights will give you plenty of that, and be careful when shaving not to nick your neck or face.

There are a few simple things you can do prior to your interview to prepare and settle your nerves.

1. When you receive the list of questions that you will be expected to answer, jot down some bulleted thoughts.
2. Read your notes over a few days before and on the morning of the interview.

Do not write paragraphs or try to memorize your answers. You will have time in between each question to reference your notes if needed.

After the interviewer has asked their question they will sit quietly as your answer. They will not verbally respond to you until you have finished your thought completely. 

Here are a few tips for answering questions:

1. If you mess up your line, take a deep breath, recompose your thoughts, and start from the last sentence you were on.
2. Don’t start your sentence with “So” or “Yeah”.
3. You might find some of your answers repetitive and that’s ok! However, refrain from using the phrase “as I said”.
4. It’s okay to talk with your hands, but don’t smack the mic clipped to your chest.
5. At the end of your answer continue to look at the interviewer for a few seconds and do not make any weird faces.

You’ll be reminded of these tips on the day of the interview. If you forget to follow any of them, don’t be embarrassed or discouraged. The videographer is there to ensure you look and sound your best in the final product, even if that means repeating a line a few times.

This is not the traditional interview setup that you might be used to seeing on the news. While the interviewer’s questions are captured on the recording, they will not be included in the final edit, only your answers will be. So it’s important to remember to reframe the question in your answer.

As you can see in the most basic example below, viewers will have no context as to what the answer means.

Q: What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
A: Cereal and a banana

Cereal and a banana could be mean anything without the context of the question. Instead, try reframing your answer to be more like:

Q: What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
A: This morning I ate cereal and a banana for breakfast.
or
A: For breakfast this morning, I ate cereal and a banana.