10 Tips for a Successful Skype Interview
By Michaela Acuyado
A Skype interview is most common now due to the ongoing pandemic. Being able to familiarize Skype and be confident to undergo an interview through it is a great advantage on your part as an applicant.
An interview via Skype is just like an in-person interview. Everything that happens during a normal face-to-face interview will also happen during a Skype interview. So being able to prepare yourself in a Skype interview will help you most definitely to yield a successful result in your interview.
Below are 10 tips for you to have a successful Skype interview.
- Ready your computer.
- Install Skype.
- Set-up in a quiet room.
- Have a proper lighting.
- Arrange a pleasing background.
- Prepare yourself.
- Wear a professional attire.
- Be early in the interview.
- Prepare and test Skype.
10. Be confident and natural.
1. Ready your computer.
First thing to always prepare in a Skype interview is your computer or laptop set.
Make sure you all have the things you need or you will use during the interview.
Check each one of them so that you will know if they are still properly working and would be able to fix them ahead of time if they are broken or not working properly.
2. Install Skype.
Make sure to install the Skype application on your computer before the scheduled interview. It’s the most important thing of course when doing a Skype interview.
If Skype is already installed on your computer, see to it that the program is updated and after that, if you don’t have a Skype account, you must create an account first and then remember your login details.
The best thing to do is to make a note of your login and stick it on your computer or desk. This will help especially to those who tend to easily forget things.
Remember to install Skype properly or make sure it is installed properly so that no problem will arise most especially during the interview.
3. Set-up in a quiet room.
Just like a usual setup of an interview, you must also make sure that the room for your interview is a quiet one.
Depending upon the kind of house you are staying, you need to always look for a quiet room in that house. There in that room, set up everything needed for your interview.
If you are living with housemates, you should be kind enough to request them to keep the house peaceful and quiet during your interview schedule.
Keeping a quiet background during your interview has a positive impact towards you and your interviewer. Both of you will have a smooth talking without any background noise interruptions. Focus will be established and a very nice conversation will be achieved.
If the amount of noise in the place you are staying is hard to manage, you can try installing noise cancellation apps or make use of noise cancellation headphones.
4. Have a proper lighting.
Having a well lighted room can help you appear to look nice in front of your interviewer.
Also, a well lighted room can help your interviewers see your facial expressions and actions clearly. With that they can properly observe how you behave and react to their questions and how you answer them.
5. Arrange a pleasing background.
Not only will you prepare for a quiet room with a good lighting but also, you need to set up a pleasing background for your interview room.
Doing so will help you gain additional points for having a nice, well arranged and creative background.
The interviewers will not only be observing you but also your environment. So make sure to create a pleasing one.
Also, it’s not really a problem if you want to add a nice background during your interview because Skype offers tools for you to choose a nice background.
Just hover over Skype settings and click the add background button and choose the background that you believe is pleasing for both you and the interviewers.
Just bear in mind that Skype sometimes encounters errors and crashes, so just make sure to prepare a pleasing background in your room. It’s better to be ready than regret at the end.
6. Prepare yourself.
Aside from preparing your room and the things you will need during your Skype interview, do not also forget to prepare yourself.
Preparing yourself involves both physical, mental and emotional preparation. When we talk about physical preparation, you have to make sure that you have a healthy body for you to be able to be physically well during your interview. You should eat properly, exercise and have enough sleep days before the interview.
Second, to be mentally ready means you have to review and study stuff that needs to be learned. Try to make an effort reviewing common job interview questions and answers. Actually, you can find them easily on the internet.
Also, don’t forget to research information about the company and the job you are applying to.
Lastly, be prepared emotionally. This simply means you have to set a positive, happy and relaxed mindset. Don’t be nervous nor be carried away by any negative thing that is happening in your life at the moment. Stay focus.
7. Wear a professional attire.
If an in-person interview requires you to dress properly so also a Skype interview.
Dressing appropriately creates a good impression about you and helps you sell yourself to the interviewers.
Not only the way you talk and behave have impact but also the way you look or appear to the interviewers creates a very good impression of what kind of person you are and that it shows how serious you are to get the job you applied for.
8. Be early in the interview.
A good habit of every successful person is to always be ahead of time for everything.
Set your alarm an hour or 30 minutes before your scheduled interview. This will help you to prepare the things you will need during your interview.
You can prepare the room at the last look. Open the lights. Turn on your computer and sign to Skype.
After everything is prepared, you can be more relaxed because all you have to do is wait for the time of your interview.
Also, being early is a great savior most especially if something unexpected came up like a broken computer, lost internet connection, or having trouble logging in to Skype. So by being early, you still have enough time to fix what needs to be fixed and done.
9. Prepare and test Skype.
This next step is very specific to Skype.
Since Skype is the application we will be using for the interview, we must make sure that we did set up and prepared it properly.
How do we set up Skype to prepare it for the interview?
So first, we must check Skype audio. We open settings and set the audio to the appropriate volume that we believe best suited for the interview.
Next, we set up the Skype Video. Here, we must make sure that we allow skype to access our computer camera.
After that, we will conduct a test call in Skype for us to know if the audio and video are working properly. In this test, we can say that they are working properly if we can clearly hear our voice and see our physical appearance on the screen.
10. Be confident.
In every life undertaking that we have, the only winning weapon is being confident.
It is also similar in undergoing a job interview.
Our knowledge and skills will only be of much use if we have the so-called confidence to showcase them.
Being confident means you have the goal to win. It means that you are sure of yourself, you love and value yourself and most importantly, you are proud of yourself that you believed you have something great in you.
If you are confident, you appear to be relaxed and natural. Confidence really matters in a job interview. Even if you are unsure of your answers but with your confidence in the way you answer, it seems that you are really sure of what you are saying because of that it appears more convincing to the interviewers.
When you are confident, you are seen to be more attractive, mature and independent. Those qualities are what the interviewers or employers are looking for. They need a bolder person to take on bolder tasks for the company. The more confident you are, the bolder you can be.
According to museuly.com, “confidence comes naturally with success, but success comes only to those who are confident.”
