How to Conquer a Video Interview

If you're reading this post, you're probably having butterflies in your stomach because you have just been shortlisted for an interview but you're apprehensive at the same time about what to expect from a video interview. Well, the good news is, a video interview is nothing new and a lot of us have experienced what you are experiencing right now -- that oh-too-familiar feeling of anxiety; that anticipation of the unknown; that sense of helplessness. I've been through enough video interviews to know how frightening and nerve-wrecking those interviews can be. While I wish I could help do the interview on your behalf, you know that you will ultimately have to fight - and hopefully win - this battle yourself. What I can do is to share my tips for success and take the guesswork out of a video interview process.

Here are my 8 tips on how to nail a video interview !

1. Find a quiet room with a clean background and an impeccable internet connection . With the proliferation of smartphones, tablets and phablets, you're probably thinking that you could easily kill a video interview by using one of those gadgets. To that, I'd say no -- you're more likely to end up flubbing it than walking out from the room a victor. If that interview is important to you, do yourself a favor by finding a room that provides you with seamless broadband connection and allows you to have your interview without any visual interruption and noise disturbance. I am speaking from experience -- I've had an interview with company X only to have my interview interrupted by a poor connection. I completely lost my cool and along with it my train of thought. As expected, the interview turned out to be a complete disaster and I was rejected almost immediately. Don't let this happen to you. Oh, and make sure that all unsightly objects (e.g. that poster of a bikini-clad model or a torso-baring hunk) do not appear in the background. You definitely don't want your interviewer to remember you for your taste (or lack of it).

2. Maintain eye contact. Speaking to someone during a video interview is quite unlike Skype-ing your sister or Facetiming your best pal from college. You've to make sure that you maintain your enthusiasm and professionalism. The best way to judge a candidate on video is to look at how he or she behaves in front of the camera and given the limited field of vision a recruiter has, the eyes of an interviewee are what a recruiter looks at to tell whether or not the interviewee is confident. So be very sure that you are "looking" at the other party. To do this, test out the front camera function of the computer you will be using and record yourself to ascertain which part of the computer you should be looking at in order to appear as though you are looking straight at the interviewer. Mark that spot with an "X" -- the recruiter is not going to find out anyway! During your practice and the actual interview, look at the "X" sign at all times. It may feel awkward initially but you're going to appear as a confident individual on the other end of the computer !

3. Avoid and minimize all unnecessary body movements. You probably didn't realize this but a camera magnifies all your actions. So if you are someone who is very animated and tends to have a lot of exaggerated body movements when you speak, it is imperative that you tone down all those movements - or even better, cut them out completely - for that 45 minutes of video interview! People fidget when they are nervous and stressed out. Projecting a steady image in front of the camera just makes it so much more pleasant for your recruiter visually and it also creates an impression - albeit subconsciously - that you are someone who is dependable and level-headed. Clasp your hands in front of you on the table, and interlock the fingers (breaking occasionally to make a gesture) if you don't know where to place your hands. Never scratch your head or face during a video interview. This simply reeks of unprofessionalism.

4. Smile. Remember what I've just said about the camera being a magnifying glass of your actions? Well, this is the time to put on your best Colgate smile ! A smile makes you look good, and more importantly, helps take the pressure off you. Yes, when you smile, you're effectively sending signals to your brain that you're enjoying the process and this will inevitably help you lower your anxiety level, which will all contribute to a great video interview. And remember to put on a smile from the heart -- the naked eye can easily tell a genuine smile apart from an artificial, constipated one.

5. Sit up straight and push your head slightly forward. I can't emphasize this enough. I have seen tons of bad videos of people who slouched in their seats. While this is fine when you are watching a YouTube video at your own time, you've to remember that your posture is going to affect how you are perceived by the recruiter. Sit up straight and take control of your posture. Have your stomach in, chest out and just move your head forward by a teeny bit (this shows that you are interested in making a good conversation with the person on the other side of the video). Check to make sure the screen captures your head all the way down to your upper chest level. A good posture will give you the confidence, or help you fake the confidence that you need when tackling some oddball questions!

6. Record and review your own response. I was flabbergasted by how I first saw myself on video (and I don't mean by my physical appearance). I had always thought that I was pretty darn confident in front of people but that confidence sadly didn't come through in the first video recording that I did of myself. You may loathe seeing yourself on camera but trust me, if that video interview matters a lot to you, looking at yourself on video and being your own critic will go a long way in helping you prep for the big day. In fact, for every single video interview that I am scheduled for, I'd be sure to have my practice interview recorded, replayed, and reviewed at least 10 times. Yes, this is how demanding you have to be in order to be perfect for the task !

7. Project your voice (but don't shout). You think you have a Donald Duck voice that sounded horrible and weak on video? You are not alone -- I wanted to take a speech therapy class, thinking that that would help me project my voice better. However I didn't have the luxury of time to attend a speech therapy class before I was called up for my first video interview. Fortunately, I found some amazing videos online that espouses the importance of drawing on your energy from your diaphragm to "throw out" your voice from the head. Ever since I realized the importance of not speaking from the head, I've been better able to utilize my diaphragm when I speak. And it makes a huge difference to the way your voice sounds on video ! Once you've learnt to take control of your own voice, you will sound that much nicer and more powerful on video.

8. Enunciate and take your time to give your reply. We tend to speak fast when we are nervous. This may make it very difficult for the recruiter to take down notes of the conversation (which simply means the recruiter will miss out on some crucial points that could have been used in the evaluation!). To facilitate the work of the recruiter, slow your speech down deliberately (no one is rushing you) and enunciate your words. Not only will this help you catch your breath, it also makes the entire conversation that much more pleasant to the recruiter. 

A video interview - like all other interviews - is not easy. In fact, it may be harder than you think! So don't underestimate it if you're under the delusion that it's going to be much easier than a face-to-face interview. While you may be physically away from your recruiter, you are nonetheless just as visible to your recruiter. In fact, given that you are framed in a video, a recruiter may be better able to focus on how you present yourself in a video. My experience however tells me that with practice - and some great tips - there is nothing to fear. So go forth, relax and enjoy the experience! I'd love to know how it goes, so write to me in the comments section below and share your experience with others!

Getting the best returns from your mental reserves

It's a rainy night with the occasional cold breeze ruffling my tussled hair. I am especially pleased with my own achievements today -- I am more than half way through my book on how to use HTML, read a few articles in Harvard Business Review, completed my run in the park, spent quality time with my family and even managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping. Believe it or not, I still have energy to do a lot more - I plan to read one more chapter of the HTML book and one article in HBR before I hit the sheets - though it's already way past midnight. You must be wondering, how did I manage to do all that ? From where did I get my energy? 

I am no different from you. I have my share of commitments, duties and errants; I don't have a diet that is specially planned for me by a dietician; neither can I afford expensive supplements to boost my energy levels. What I do have is a wealth of mental reserves that I have carefully built up. And yes, you've read it right - mental reserves. Think of them as gold inventory that the U.S. Government has carefully put away in its vault, except that what I have are stored in my body as mental fuel. 

I first conceived this concept of mental reserves when I was working on my application to business schools while holding down a 100-hour-per-week day job. Those days were simply awful -- I was exhausted every single day and rarely did I end a day feeling satisfied and happy; I led a monotonous life that sucked the energy out of me. It was however not until my birthday that I realized that I should do something about my life and that got me thinking. I  began to consciously keep track of my daily activities right from the moment I got off bed to the time I went to sleep; I started to look at ways to make over my life...and I had a light bulb moment one day when I saw a group of runners sprint past me as I was walking home from yet another dull work day. To last a marathon, athletes have to ensure that they make optimal use of their body fuel that is carbohydrates. And if life is often "affectionately" referred to as a marathon, doesn't that mean that we - as in you, me and everybody else - should be prudent in drawing on our mental reserves in our daily lives?

Mental reserves are accumulated when we have our daily 6-8 hour sleep; we start drawing down our mental reserves the moment we are awake. How you use those reserves to ensure that you have a surplus will determine how successful you are in a given day. Recall that I mentioned at the start of this post that I have a wealth of mental reserves? Yes, I have - over the course of day - taken care to draw on my reserves and use them on things that truly matter to me. I was aware that whatever I do will reduce my mental reserve inventory and this realization made me focus on my priorities. If you are careful with how you spend your income, you will have a substantial amount leftover to put into your savings account; in the same vein, if you are frugal and disciplined with how you use your mental reserves, you will have a mental reserve surplus at the end of the day! 

Now that you are familiar with the concept of mental reserves, here are 5 things that I do to make sure that my mental reserves are optimally used and which I hope you will find equally relevant for your own use :

1. Identify three things that are critically important to you everyday. Good health will allow me to pursue my dreams and complete the marathon of life and I make sure that I invest time in my health and fitness everyday; reading and learning from others is how I'd like to inspire myself and I put aside time to jog my brain; being there for my family makes me feel accomplished and I love to spend time doing things in the house to make life better. 

2. Know how your body functions and listen to it. I work best in the morning and at night, and am bad at making great progress on tough assignments in the afternoon. I used to think that I should focus on one project until I have completed it but realizing that I am not making optimal use of my mental reserves in the afternoon has led me to overhaul the way I do things. Instead of tackling a project through the day, I split my project up and allocate specific times to work on them depending on the demands of the project and the complexity of the tasks associated with it. Knowing that I function best in the morning, I bulldoze my way through all challenging (or mundane) projects in the morning, and devote the afternoon to stuff from which I absorb positive energy, such as interacting with customers, making sales calls and reading  inspirational from-rags-to-riches stories penned by people I admire. I also apply a principle which I call "Just one more" to  push my limits to make sure that each ounce of mental reserve gets me a 101% return. (For more information on "Just one more", read my earlier blog post. )

3. Be acutely aware of your environment.  Let's get real -- you can't function with kids crying around you, parents bickering next door or dogs barking to be fed. I live in a shoebox apartment with my family and my environment is usually quite noisy in the day and peaceful at night. Instead of watching TED talks when it's quieter in the evening, I squeeze in time in the day for a short TED talk when people are having a war around me. This has in essence helped free up time for me in the evening to focus on mentally taxing work like strategizing my life and reviewing disruptive business innovations. And I still get my daily dose of inspiration from TED while conserving the use of my mental reserves! Ain't this perfect? 

4. Identify trailblazers you admire and feed on their wisdom of success. I am on LinkedIn (if you're, look me up and let's get connected), and I follow certain influencers very closely; I am also on Twitter and those thought leaders I admire (such as Jack Welch, Jeff Weiner, Richard Branson, Dave Kerpen and Marissa Meyer) often have inspiring tweets and blog posts that will help refuel my mental reserve. Build your own lists and set aside time everyday to learn from the best to know how you can be better than the best. 

5. Be adaptable yet disciplined and focus. Sounds contradictory? They sure do, but that's what I do all day every day. I adapt my schedule to new changes but remain unwavering in adhering to my priority list. If I have to spend my morning doing something which depletes my mental reserves, I am disciplined enough to know that I need to recharge sometime in the day; I also maintain my laser focus on my list of priorities and be sure to set aside a chunk of my time and mental reserves to accomplish each of those activities. Life is never predictable but how you react to it is within your control ! 

I hope this post has changed your perspective on how you have viewed life and has jolted you out from your lethargic slumber. If you find yourself drained and unhappy, do what I did -- get acquainted with the concept of mental reserves and work on the 5 steps I listed above. Start your day wise, be disciplined and you'd be handsomely rewarded for those mental reserves you've spent - and saved. 

Now, if you'll please excuse me, I'd like to go get my additional readings done! 

Just one more

I love to get outdoors for a jog -- who doesn't like the smell of the evening breeze and the sight of the crimson sunset skies? It energizes me and refills my positive ion reservoir, which gets depleted as the day wears on. Recently, I noticed that I've hit a runner's plateau -- I may look forward to getting out in the open, but that post-workout surge of endorphins seems to have all but disappeared. Sweating it out has strangely become less enjoyable, and I'm actually gaining weight in spite of my daily workout. Something ain't right. Gasp! 

Determined to find my mojo back, I began to look into ways to inject greater variety into my daily workouts. For a start, I alternated my daily outdoor jogs with treadmill running. This was surprisingly refreshing given that I have - for the longest time - been staunchly against being seen as a hamster on a gym wheel. And on those days when I go out for my outdoor jogs, I made a conscious effort to try out a new route - with the added bonus of seeing a new scenery. Not only did this help get me better acquainted with my neighborhood, the excitement of not knowing what will show up at the turn of the corner kept me perpetually curious, got my adrenalin rushing and motivated to go faster! Wanting to burn more calories, I decided to rough it out and push my limits by simply doing "just one more". Just one more push-up. Just one more pull-up. Just one more sit-up. Admittedly, the going was tough especially when the body was pre-conditioned to doing a set of routine exercises. But somehow, if you think about it, doing one more chin-up, pull-up or sit-up wasn't all that bad, as compared to doing say, fifty or a hundred more chin-up or burpee. "Just one more and I will be done for the day" was a common refrain that went through my mind when my body began to protest. Unknowingly, in a matter of three weeks, I soon found myself feeling lighter and somewhat fitter than before. I may not have rock-hard abs and vein-bulging biceps to show for it, but I definitely found myself feeling better and I attribute it to my "just one more" personal motto. 

I was on the treadmill the other day when I had an epiphany -- "just one more" could be applied to other areas of my life too! Just one more chapter of my textbook. Just one more enhancement to my website. Just one more tweet on Twitter. This process of doing things incrementally is actually very powerful. Imagine, if you were an entrepreneur, and were to make just one more tweak to your business daily, you'd have made a total of 365 improvements to your new venture in a year ! If everyone were to do just one more kind deed everyday, can you imagine how much better our society would become overtime? The math is simple; the idea is straightforward but the results are mind-blowing. Mentally, it persuades the mind and deceives it into thinking that just doing one more thing is a simple feat but completely ignores the power of compounding. I believe that if I were to continue to do "just one more" of whatever I am doing in my professional and personal life, I'd see my payback multiply a million fold in no time. 

When I go on my workout later, I plan to jog for one more minute; when I read my textbook tomorrow evening, I plan to read one more chapter. What would you do one more of today ?