Guide to conducting & attending Remote Interviews

Melissa Bruno, VP Head of People at Stack Overflow, reminds us that if the company is not tech-savvy, you will have to start from the basics. With an increasing number of people having to adapt to the rigors of working from home, this has proven to be a challenge for employees across the world. This underscores the importance that your new employees are self-motivated; with the ability to adjust to newfound conditions and work well under pressure.

So give all of your candidates the same information and let them start off on the same foot. Remote interviews are becoming more and more prevalent, especially during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. And they differ from regular face to remote interview meaning face, on-site interviews – the likes of which you’ll have encountered in your career to date. But there are always potential distractions when working from home. It also makes it easier to interview candidates from all over the world.

Practical Tips to Conduct Productive Remote Interviews

With the amount of time and energy it takes to apply for jobs, the candidates deserve it. 94% of job seekers want to receive interview feedback but only 41% have received it before. Now that you have these core tips for conducting a remote interview, see this post for five ways to stand apart from the competition when extending job offers to potential hires. Don’t assume the candidate is familiar with the video platform you’re using, even if it’s a well-known, popular platform like Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

As she explains, they’ve chosen to run brief interview sessions not only with team members the candidate will work directly with, but also cross-functional teams, from various levels. As a way to keep the interview flowing, try to maintain a structured conversation with the candidate, just as you would with a standard interview. Make sure that you not only have the candidate’s resume in front of you but that you also have a list of pre-determined questions ready to ask.

Verbal & Non-Verbal Cues:

It’s a balance of knowing that communicating bad news is part of the business and allowing for humanization to be present as well. Signing up for an ATS is a popular way to help with candidate filtering, but most are still geared towards traditional offices. That being said, an ATS is still a useful tool especially for vetting in a way that can support your diversity and inclusion initiatives, ensuring the process is fair and unbiased when evaluating potential candidates. Forty-two percent of unsuccessful job candidates appeared overwhelmed by their notes, and were obvious when reading from them.

When compiling this list, don’t neglect the fundamental traits that are required of a remote worker – such as teamwork, technical knowledge, and of course, communication skills. If the candidate is presenting their portfolio or a detailed proposal, your video conferencing platform ideally needs to support screen sharing. Consider the structure of your remote interview and select the optimal platform to run a remote interview based on that. Provide Feedback
Reach out to whoever makes it to the last few rounds but didn’t make the final cut with a specific reason.