“I’ve seen it all – piles of washing in the background, boxes, junk and rubbish. Push junk and clutter out of sight, maybe put a picture on the wall behind, or a tidy bookcase. “You want a clear, uncluttered background that says something about you,” says Cornish. If you don’t have a spare room or office, commandeer a quiet corner at home and think about styling it for your interview. Photograph: DjelicS/Getty Images Prepare your interview area Warm lighting and an uncluttered background works best. So it’s a good idea to practise with a friend and, if you can, record the call and look at it afterwards.” Do you need to move less or look into the camera more? “Eye contact really matters through the screen and does create an impression of direct communication.”

“The mistake people make is talking to the face on screen and what you should do is talk to the camera,” he says. See how you come acrossĮye contact, especially when there isn’t much else to go on, is especially important says John Lees, career coach and author of Knockout Interview. Or the microphone or camera isn’t working.” If you plan to show slides or share your screen, make sure you know how to do it (and that there’s nothing embarrassing on your desktop screen). “Their username doesn’t come up correctly – it’s the name of their son or ‘iPad’ or something like that, which throws everybody off.

“The main thing I see is, people are uncomfortable with the technology,” says Cornish.

Practise using the technologyĭownload the software well in advance and familiarise yourself with the online meeting place, as well as your device – for added security, consider downloading it on to a second device, such as your phone, and practise using it on there too, in case your computer fails at a crucial moment. However, it depends on the platform and some recruiters will have a “waiting room” and ask you to be there 10 minutes early – again, check the detail. She knows of at least one person who signed in too early for an online interview and ended up crashing another.

Arrive early, but not too early – two or three minutes is fine. Is the interview on Zoom, or Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts or some other platform? Are you sure of the time (and time zone)? “Triple check the details – arriving a day early or late is hard to recover from,” says Ruth Cornish, who runs the consultancy Amelore and is a co-founder of HR Independents, the UK body for independent human resources professionals.

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