I have an upcoming interview via Microsoft Teams, I'm frankly new to the whole world of web interviews so I wanted to see if I could get some advice as to how to conduct myself, what I can expect and more importantly how I can be really prepared. The last time I had an interview of any kind was in 2017 so my head was spun for a little bit getting back into the process of preparing my material for this stuff.
I have a work laptop with Teams already on it (it's not a program that I've used before) and a headset, I guess I'll have to do a test call on it to make sure everything sounds and looks okay.
The actual role knowledge is all on me but if anyone can provide some advice on things I should know, who have done this before, would be greatly appreciated.
Best advice I can give is to do a 20 minute practice run with a willing mate. This has multiple functions: it's a hardware and software test, you can see what you look and sound like in the webcam, gives you an idea of whether your environment is appropriate for an interview (especially whether it's too noisy or unprofessional looking) and gets you comfortable with talking to your computer.
If you like to prepare thoroughly, think about some basic questions to go through with said mate. Get used to talking through your CV and get it clear in your head why you want this job versus others. Again, this has multiple functions: your friend can tell you if everything you intend to say makes sense, if you're clear in your audio, and you'll be able to instantly tell whether you're waffling too much or missing out important points.
That second part doesn't suit everyone, and probably isn't necessary for every interview, especially if you're speaking to strangers a lot daily and like the tone to be more conversational, you might like to keep things more spontaneous. Personally, I'm not talking that much to people that aren't already close friends, so I like to practice being concise and clear in my speech and thinking.
In the top right of teams will be an ellipses, click that and do what's in the image for a test call. It has a blur background feature that many people use, if you'd like some privacy, or wish to hide your mantlepiece dildo.
Make sure you wear a microphone/headset and don't use the laptop speakers/mic.
Remember to smile warmly when you meet them for the first time.
>>14121 Make sure you wear a microphone/headset and don't use the laptop speakers/mic.
Steady on. I use my laptop mic and speakers, and I'm never the hapless gimp swearing abut his headset dropping out.
Belay that, I use laptop speakers and the mic in my webcam that sits on my monitor. But I'm still never the person with headset woes.
Obviously if you're not in private, headset away.
Also, any chance of using wired, not wifi connection? Teams will take any chance to fuck up if the network's iffy. All depends if you want to look like a techophobe muppet, really.
>>14123 No, you are instead the hapless gimp who sounds like he's speaking from a tin can on a string and causing echo for everyone in the call. I know you aren't Nigel from my daily stand up, but in the absence of Nigel, fuck you, and fuck Nigel.
>>14124 ha, no. I'm not the phantom echoer, that's the two muppets in adjacent cubicles in another building (continent). My audio is peerless.
I suspect the 4 foot separation between speakers and mic helps, as does the carefully arranged anechoic arrangement of crap filling my office.
I have no doubt that Nigel is a poorly endowed prick though.
>>14126 I work in a team which includes several engineers who have spent years fighting echo cancellation problems in conferencing systems. If my mic was pissing them off, I would hear about it instantly.
Teams may be wretched in many ways, but on the machines we use, it does echo and background noise cancellation tolerably. That said, my Thinkpad is about to be refreshed by something from Dell, so I imagine it'll all go to crap and I'll have to go back to headsets.
