How Good are You at Video Interviews?

By Soozy G. Miller, CPRW, CDCC, CDP

AI video interviews have become more prevalent in hiring. You may not feel as comfortable or easy speaking on AI video – I certainly don’t – but they are happening now, so I recommend that you figure out how to get comfortable.

If you’re using a laptop or a desktop, your computer screen covers a limited area of your body (usually head to shoulders), so the angle of the camera, the way you’re sitting, the speed at which you’re speaking, your body movements, and your voice tone all communicate things about you that you might or might not want to say. Everything you do from your shoulders up is both limiting and amplified on video.

If you have to use your phone for a video call, that’s much harder, but at least stabilize it or stand it up against something so it doesn’t move. A moving camera during an interview is off-putting. I once interviewed a very nice, very qualified young man for a marketing manager position, and while we were talking he was walking around his house and I was looking up his nose most of the time. I recommended him to the next step anyway, but I told him about my visual and he had no idea and was mortified.

AI video interviews and one-way recorded video interviews are currently a hot topic for everyone. Some candidates come across as polished and look natural in front of the camera; extroverts win here and often appear confident. But as one recruiter said to me, “My (job seeker) accountants hate video calls!” And that makes sense. Administrative people tend to prefer to be behind the scenes, not client-facing. The video interview can definitely be discriminating in this sense.

The first time I heard about AI video screening calls was via my niece. She aced her pre-screening video interview for her first job out of college. No one was talking to her; she just answered the questions as they came up on her screen. She is very smart, very outgoing, very confident, and she prepared by researching the company. So she didn’t mind the video, and it worked for her. She got the job.

I’m an expert in my field, I’m an extrovert, I spend a lot of time on Zoom every day, and I’d rather have my teeth scraped than do a recorded, one-way video interview. Speaking to a green light at the top of my screen without someone on the other side feels totally unnatural and uncomfortable to me. Add a timer (countdown) into the equation and, no thanks, I’ll take the other job offer.

If you are particularly nervous about video, you might get the option to shut off your video to ease your nerves, while the video reviewer can only see your profile picture or your name. But consider the impression that leaves.

AI video is a popular tool and it is being used. Target, Amazon, and Microsoft all use initial AI screen video interviews now. So if you’re uncomfortable in front of the screen, either figure out a way to be more comfortable, get some coaching to feel more comfortable, or find another job.

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