When the hiring manager sits in Nairobi, Geneva or Dubai, or when security keeps the panel out of the city, the interview happens on Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. The questions are the same as in a room. What changes is that technical problems eat your time and your calm, and that the panel sees only a small rectangle. Almost every problem can be removed the day before.
- 1The day before: download the app named in the invitation and sign in. Open the link once to see that it works. Update nothing on the morning itself.
- 2Choose the place with the best signal and the least noise, and test it at the same hour as the interview. Ask the household to keep children and the television out for one hour.
- 3Buy a data bundle and set up your phone as a hotspot, even if you have Wi-Fi. Charge the laptop and the phone fully; if power cuts are common, borrow a power bank.
- 4Make a five-minute test call with a friend on the same app: can they hear you clearly, see your face, and is anything behind you distracting?
- 5Write the HR contact's name, phone number and email on paper and put it beside you.
- Light in front of you, not behind: sit facing a window or a lamp. A window behind you turns you into a shadow.
- Camera at eye level: put books under the laptop or prop the phone against something; never hold the phone in your hand. Your whole face and shoulders in the frame.
- A plain wall behind you, a tidy table in front. Headphones with a microphone remove echo and let the panel hear every word.
- Your display name set to your full name, not the phone's model. Your phone on silent and other apps closed; notification sounds reach the panel.
- Dress as you would for the office, fully, not only above the waist. Water, a pen, your CV and the advert on the table.
Join five minutes early with your camera on and your microphone muted. When the panel joins, unmute, greet them, and confirm in one sentence that you can hear and see them. If you are joining from an office, a university or an internet café, say so; the panel will forgive background noise it has been warned about.