Tips for a Successful Video Interview

Have you ever been intimidated by the thought of an on-camera interview? Not sure what to expect?  

As a professional video interview team, our goal is to ease those fears and help you feel confident, relaxed, and prepared for your next video interview. 

Before the Interview

When preparing for an interview, most individuals want to know exactly what they are getting into. You might find yourself wondering, “What should I wear?” and  “What questions are they going to ask me?” It’s perfectly normal to be a little nervous before your interview. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• What to Wear: What you typically wear to an in-person job interview might not be what you should wear for an on-camera video interview. Ideally, what you are wearing is representative of your profession. 
  • Items that are ok to wear:
    • Wear clothes that would be typical for your profession.  
    • Stick to solid colors if possible.
  • Items that you want to avoid: 
    • Bright colors.
    • Distracting patterns or intricate designs.
    • Logos and brand names unless it is the company you work for.
    • Clothes with wrinkles.
• Expect a Professional Interview Setup: When you walk onto the interview set, it will be a little intimidating at first. We utilize professional video, lighting, and audio equipment to ensure you look and sound your best during your interview. Your job is to sit back, get comfortable, and relax while the production crew takes care of the rest. Our production team will adjust the lighting, audio, and camera equipment specifically for your height and seated location. 
• Don’t Memorize Responses: The first time you see the interview questions will be during the interview setup. We do this to ensure that your answers are candid, authentic, and don’t sound rehearsed or memorized. 
• Keep in Mind the Ideal Response Length: Ideally, we want responses about 15–20 seconds in length. This allows us to edit together multiple interview responses while keeping the overall video concise. We typically review each question at least twice to ensure a smooth and succinct response. 

During the Interview

Over the years, we’ve conducted several hundred on-camera interviews. This experience has taught us that the most important thing is making sure our interviewees feel comfortable and informed. There are several questions we often get asked before an interview. 

• If You Mess Up, Don’t Panic: Many of our interviewees want to know what happens if they mess up or stumble over their words. If that happens, no worries! Remember that it is not a live recording and that we are recording the entire time. We’ll repeat the question as many times as needed to get a smooth, succinct response that is about 15-20 seconds long. 
• Don’t Overthink Your Hand Gestures: When it comes to hand gestures, don’t overthink them! If you usually talk with your hands, go ahead and do so when giving your interview responses. We want you to be as comfortable as possible, and hand gestures can keep you from looking too stiff and rigid. We want you to think of the interview as nothing more than a conversation.
• Look at the Interviewer and NOT the Camera: It can be pretty intimidating to have several cameras pointed at you during the course of the interview. Before the first question is even asked, you might wonder which camera you should look at. The answer is none! We want you to look directly at our interviewer as if it were just a normal yet structured conversation between the two of you. 

After the Interview

Interviews with our video team typically take fifteen to thirty minutes. Once we’ve completed our list of questions, we like to ask if there are any other topics or questions you wanted to address that weren’t covered.

After your interview, you may feel that you stumbled through the interview. This is completely normal. With the magic of video editing, our team will cut out all of the extra footage and use the best of the best of your interview responses. 

Key Takeaways

We want to leave you with a few key takeaways to keep in mind when preparing for your interview:

• Remember that it is not a live recording.
• Don’t memorize your responses.
• Think of it as a structured conversation.
• We are only taking 15-20 seconds of the good responses.

Finally, relax, take a deep breath, and remember there's nothing to worry about. Just have fun!

Want to see this all in action? Click here to view video examples that include on-camera interviews.