How Skype Is Changing the Job Interview

Marc

Hunkered Down for the Duration with a Mask on...
Staff member
Admin
#1
How Skype Is Changing the Job Interview
Time said:
Get ready for a closeup: your next job interview might be on webcam. Looking to save time and money, companies are turning to video-chat software as a cheap, low-hassle way to vet job candidates. That means a growing number of people looking for work are meeting their prospective new bosses not at the office but in the comfort of their own home. Naturally, the transition from in-person to online isn't without its hiccups. Fuzzy transmissions, dropped calls (especially on wireless networks) and unusual disruptions are all par for the course. Tip No. 1: Get your dog out of barking range before you start the interview.

What's the draw? Largely money. Last year, as executives at online retailer Zappos.com looked to cut expenses, they noticed how much the firm spent on travel. In HR alone, it easily cost $1,000 a pop to fly out job candidates and put them up for the night. The firm had used Skype internally, so about six months ago, recruiters started trying it for interviews.

Their opinion: a video link does a pretty good job of replacing an in-person meeting — and in a way that a phone call can't. "If you see facial expressions and body language, you have a different sense of what a person is saying," says recruiting manager Christa Foley. Now, instead of flying out 20 finalists for a job, the company first screens with Skype and then brings in only the best two or three candidates.

Job seekers are hopping on board too. Last spring, after Stephen Bhadran got laid off, he quickly realized there were more openings for computer programmers in Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles than in South Florida, where he lived. So he cast a wide net — and got a bite from the University of California, Los Angeles. The university wanted to interview him but wouldn't pay the airfare. "I was laid off and running out of funds," says Bhadran. "I couldn't fly on my own dime." He suggested interviewing by Skype. He got his request — and the job.
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Wes Bucey

Quite Involved in Discussions
#2
Really interesting!

Now -will we see this move from tech jobs to "regular jobs" where folks are only sort of tech savvy?

This is a far cry from the 60s where some recruiters used to videotape "informational interviews" with high caliber candidates to provide preliminary "look-see" before incurring employer expense and time of both candidate and employee in flying a candidate out and wining, dining him for a day and a night. They'd work with the employer's script. it was a one-way interview, of course. This Skype thing could be much better for the candidate since candidates ALSO get a feel for the employer and its executives.
 
A

amanbhai

#3
Its a good option specially countries like US, where candidates sitting in other cities/ towns.
Is this service avialable for candiadates living in other countries?:notme:
 

amjadrana

Involved - Posts
#4
Skype can be used everywhere in the world. You and the other person need to download the software from www.skype.com and choose a skype name. The persons wanting to talk invite each other and then at an agreed time, when both of you are on line, you can start to talk. A webcam can help you see each other as well.

I have used skype to talk with friends all over the globe.

Amjad Rana
 

ScottK

Not out of the crisis
Staff member
Super Moderator
#5
I did a video interview once about 6 years ago. It wasn't skype - I was at the company's plant and did the interview with a person at HQ in France so it was via their system.

I did not enjoy it. Not one bit and would likely pass on an interview like that unless it was a job I was EXTREMELY interested in.

IMO it's no better than a phone interview, worse probably because the camera distorts. There was a lot of *pardon me* and *I'm sorry,I didn't catch that* on both parts. And continually looking at the feed of my own face to make sure I was centered. And the interviewer had someone off camera asking questions too.

---------------------------------
Finishing the story: although the site general manager and I hit it off very well and he wanted to hire me on the spot (accroding to the HR manager), corporate held out for someone with more med device experience than I had at the time. I don't think the video interview had anything to do with me not getting the job.
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#6
This is a far cry from the 60s where some recruiters used to videotape "informational interviews" with high caliber candidates to provide preliminary "look-see" before incurring employer expense and time of both candidate and employee in flying a candidate out and wining, dining him for a day and a night.
I'd be very suprised if video tape was used for this sort of thing in the 1960s. There was no portable equipment, unless you count the truck-mounted type as "portable." Here's what a typical 1960s VTR looked like:



Not only that, but studio time, if you could get it, cost thousands of dollars per hour, a cost that would far outweigh that of an in-person interview.
 

Wes Bucey

Quite Involved in Discussions
#7
I'd be very suprised if video tape was used for this sort of thing in the 1960s. There was no portable equipment, unless you count the truck-mounted type as "portable." Here's what a typical 1960s VTR looked like:



Not only that, but studio time, if you could get it, cost thousands of dollars per hour, a cost that would far outweigh that of an in-person interview.
Yep! The employment agency my company owned part of back then used to rent studio time from a studio that shot commercials for many of the advertising agencies near our offices on North Michigan Avenue. Through the 60's we shot in 16 millimeter sound film (we only became an owner in 1968.) In the 70s, we transitioned into videotape. As I recall, only Ampex brand was being used. Studio time was NOT that expensive. A half hour shoot cost about $500 (at night) and the editing down to a 15 or 20 minute tape cost about $100 to $150. The big killer was that, in the earliest years, a one hour reel of tape cost about $300, so the tapes were returned, erased, and reused. Many companies had 16 mm sound projectors, but corporations didn't start getting videotape playback equipment until the middle 70s, when they became more widely available and prices dropped, but their advertising agencies did have them. We viewed ours at the offices of J. Walter Thompson. Once Betamax came out, though, it seemed like every company got one because it was relatively simple for the studio to copy the professional videotape into the Betamax format.

Understandably, these videos were reserved for exec candidates in the $100K level and up (equivalent to a lot more today) who were still employed and couldn't/wouldn't take two days off to fly to see a prospective employer. Ditto for the top execs at the client company who couldn't/wouldn't take two days off to fly in to interview a candidate - not a preliminary screening they entrusted to a $12,000/year HR employee. We didn't have a big exec recruiting division, so only 5 or 6 candidates a year (out of 200 or so in that pay category - scrambling for 25 to 30 jobs nationwide) got this treatment from us through 1978 when we sold out the last of our interest in the employment agency.
 

Pancho

wikineer
Super Moderator
#8
:topic:

In most companies is hiring decisions are based on the candidates verbal communication skills (the interviews), but performance at many jobs is better correlated with written communication skills. A 45min essay-writing session beats a second interview any day - even a first one sometimes. And it can be done over Skype too!
 

reynald

Quite Involved in Discussions
#9
:topic:

In most companies is hiring decisions are based on the candidates verbal communication skills (the interviews), but performance at many jobs is better correlated with written communication skills. A 45min essay-writing session beats a second interview any day - even a first one sometimes. And it can be done over Skype too!
Now that it has been raised, if you are the hiring manager how would you know that the person you are hiring is a performer? If an applicant claims he did that, and knows this, expert in this area and so on, how to seperate those who bluff from those who are genuinely good? Would the essay do that? (Is that a part of a "standard" hiring process--even for mid-level to senior level positions?)
 

ScottK

Not out of the crisis
Staff member
Super Moderator
#10
Now that it has been raised, if you are the hiring manager how would you know that the person you are hiring is a performer? If an applicant claims he did that, and knows this, expert in this area and so on, how to seperate those who bluff from those who are genuinely good? Would the essay do that? (Is that a part of a "standard" hiring process--even for mid-level to senior level positions?)
That's one of the uses of references.
Of course that can be misleading too, because who is going to use a reference that would give the "wrong" answer?
But still - it's another avenue to check - "How does/did Scott handle people who didn't really buy into the ISO9001 standard?"
The essay might be useful for someone who will be writing a lot of reports or procedures or customer emails. But who is to say you couldn't get someone to write it for you, unless you write it where you are interviewing. In which case you wouldn't have reference materials... it's tricky.

I think in our particular profession, a face to face interview is an absolute necessity because in many cases we are the "the face" of quality and need to be judged by how we handle people face to face.

Call me old fashioned, but the handshake is still key to me.
 
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