Well, I've gone and landed an interview in the U.K. - via videoconference! Next Monday!

Because of the closeness of the interview date, there's no way I can travel home (especially as they would only be paying expenses within the U.K.), so apparently they can set up a videoconference interview (including a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation from me).

Problem is, I have no experience of videoconference interviews. I mean, I am familiar with videoconferences but wouldn't know where to start setting it up at my end (obviously, I can't do it from my current place of employment, where they have all the videoconference facilities you could want). Where would I even look in the Yellow Pages?

Also, has anyone ever been interviewed via teleconference, and if so, any tips? I'd much rather be there in person but it looks like I have llittle choice. It just seems so weird not being able to do all the usual human stuff like shake someone's hand and look them in the eye, and look around the audience at my presentation.

Any clues? This is obviously urgent, so any help greatly appreciated! (I'm going to post on the US Forum too, sorry mods!)

Try these people - they helped me out with a last minute interview once!
http://www.globalvirtualinterviews.c...%20network.htm

Wear dark blue or black with a white shirt as colours zig-zag. Ask them after the usual pleasantries where precisely in your room you move out of their field of vision so that you can give yourself markers. Have a desk in the room that you can sit beside rather than behind. Water - handy and poured if you get nervous. Relish the fact that your stomach can grumble and they'll never know! Best of luck.

Hiya!

I'm really sorry - I can't help you with locating videoconferencing facilities, but I have had experience of being interviewed. The company I now work for brought me in for a third interview in Sydney, however the CTO was in Melbourne that day, so I had had to speak to him in a large board room, with the Tech manager beside me. I guess that helped a bit, because he did the introductions, but the ice is also broken slightly by trying to get the thing set up and focused properly/volume adjusted etc. If the picture is clear, you can of course look them in the eye and if the speaker is next to you it makes it a bit more natural.

It probably took me about five to ten minutes into the interview to really get used to the strangeness of it. I've had cross-site meetings this way before, but never really spoken in them. Its awkward at first -for me there was a time-lag, which only slight, meant there was a bit of talking over each other. However because in an interview you tend to be focused on providing the best answers, you soon forget you are essentially talking at a tv screen and behave 'normally'. By the end of the interview it didnt seem odd at all - I was 'happily' talking it. (as happy as you can be in an interview!)

The other point of course is that they will probably be accustomed to people being nervous about video interviews - if you say something at the beginning like 'please excuse me if I seem overly nervous, as I've never been involved in a video conference before' then they should make allowances for that. Whatever I did must have been fine because they offered me the job! Good Luck

hi d

sorry i cant help you with where to lookin yellow pages (try google search, contact recruitment agencies, colleges?) but a friend of mine did this q a bit lately and she said try not to use your home pc due to quality etc or if something goes wrong theres not an expert fixer to help. also bear in mind, dog barking at the door or other distractions if at home. they enjoyed this type of interview once they done it...and now have a job! so good luck.
at least if you do it by video, you can write out loads of prompts that they cant see, incase you get tongue tied!

let us all know how you get on

c