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LIFESTYLE FEATURES

The end of furlough: How to interview well from home for a new job

With job interviews more likely to happen over Zoom these days than in person, Rebecca Goodman looks at how to make a good impression from a distance

Friday 30 October 2020 10:27 GMT

(Getty)

As the coronavirus pandemic shifts from just a medical crisis to both a medical and financial crisis, millions of people are now facing unemployment.

On 11 August the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced company payrolls have plunged by 730,000 employees since March, with 81,000 fewer people employed since last month alone.

Even if the virus is kept under control, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has predicted unemployment is to hit 11.7 per cent, which would see around four million people in the UK out of work.

Many people have already lost their jobs and when the government’s furlough scheme is phased out on 31 October this number is likely to rise, even with the new job support scheme in place.

If you’ve lost your job already, or are worried it might be a possibility in the future, finding a new position in the current climate has its challenges. Not least, doing it remotely.

Many people are still spending a lot of time at home with limited face-to-face meetings. Yet despite the changes, job interviews are going ahead, albeit in a very different way with video interviews becoming the new normal.

With the job market becoming more competitive, saturated with those made redundant or furloughed, it’s more important than ever to stand out for the right reasons. Instead of the internet dropping, a cat meowing, or your pyjama bottoms being in shot, you want to make the best first impression from a distance.

Find a quiet place, away from pets and children

It sounds obvious but we’ve all seen the clips of kids gate-crashing live interviews or pets becoming the star attraction, and this isn’t how you want your interviewer to remember you. For the interview keep pets in another room, ideally in a different part of the house so more than one door away (you don’t want them crying or scratching at the door).

While home-schooling and working from home is a non-stop juggling act, try to find a spot away from your kids for the duration of the interview. If you can, try to schedule it during a nap time, while they are distracted with a new activity, or if they’re out with another adult.

If that’s not possible, you could ask an interviewer to do it when they’re asleep in the early evenings, or at a weekend. If you’re going to really struggle to keep them away, it might be best to mention this either before your interview or at the start – that there could be an interruption but you will do your best to sort it quickly. Working parents across the country are trying to negotiate these situations so an interviewer should be flexible.

If you have housemates, you should also let them know what time you’re expecting to do the interview so they can keep noise to a minimum – this should be easier to arrange than working with animals or children.

Schedule a practice run through to test your tech

While some tech issues are unavoidable, the last thing you want is to be running late because your laptop battery has died, so do the simple checks like ensuring it is plugged in.

You have a slight advantage on video as you can keep notes nearby...

To avoid wifi issues, if you live with others ask them to hold off downloading anything during the interview and make sure you’re not too far away from the router. Call a friend beforehand so you can make sure everything is working correctly, from your microphone picking up your voice at the right level to having the correct software downloaded.

A practice run-through can also help you prepare for the new scenario. Michael Cheary, spokesperson for Reed, tells The Independent: “With any interview it is worth practicing difficult questions and revisiting previous experiences that you can talk about.

“There is a slight advantage with video interviews: you can have handy notes close to your laptop which you can review if you forget anything in particular. Just remember to not use it as a script as you may come across as disingenuous.”

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Show all 13

1/13Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Cheryll Mack, 46, a registered nurse in the emergency department, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift outside the hospital where she works. "The Covid-19 spread has affected a lot of livelihood, a lot of people's lives. It has created a crisis, death in general. So I would like to ask not one single person, but all people worldwide, to converge and join the platform that this is something that nobody can fight individually," said Mack.

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Dr Laura Bontempo, 50, an emergency medicine doctor wears her personal protective equipment she uses when she sees patients, while posing for a photograph after a nine-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moments have actually been separating families from patients, there is a no-visitor policy now and taking people away from their loved ones is very challenging," Bontempo said. "I'm used to treating sick patients. I treat sick patients all the time. It's very different knowing that the patient you are treating, is actually a risk to you as well. That's the main difference here. No one who works in hospitals is afraid of treating sick people. Just want to keep staff safe and the patients safe at the same time."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Ernest Capadngan, 29, a registered nurse who works at a biocontainment unit poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moment during the shift was just seeing Covid patients die helpless and without their family members beside them," Capadngan said.

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Martine Bell, 41, a nurse practitioner in an emergency department, poses for a photograph after a six-hour shift outside the hospital where she works. "The hardest thing in all of this, has been taking care of fellow healthcare providers. It really hits home and it's really scary when you see someone that could be you coming in and now you're taking care of them. It's also hitting home that once healthcare providers start getting sick, who is going to be taking care of the public," Bell said. "It's very stressful, everyone is on edge. We don't know who's coming in next, or how sick they're going to be, or if we are going to get a whole bunch of people or if we're not going to get no one. It's a really stressful and just a completely unusual time for all of us."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Kaitlyn Martiniano, 25, a registered nurse who works at a biocontainment poses for a photograph after a 12.5-hour shift, outside the hospital. "We have a lot of patients and they are pretty sick right now but we have not yet been hit as hard as New York or Seattle, so I feel like we are very lucky with that so far. Every day you have to just be optimistic." Said Martiniano. "I think the reason that we are not being hit as hard right now is because so many things are closed, and because so many people are staying at home."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Tracey Wilson, 53, a nurse practitioner in an intensive care unit (ICU), poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works. "I had a patient fall out of bed today and I had to call his wife and tell her and she couldn't come see him, even though she pleaded and begged to come see him," Wilson said. "There is a lot of unknowns and with that unknown is a lot of anxiety and stress that we're not used to dealing with."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Meghan Sheehan, 27, a nurse practitioner in an emergency department, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works. "I think the hardest moment has been the fear that lives within all of us. There is a lot of unknown right now. We fear what's going to happen tomorrow, how the emergency department will look next week when we come in. We have fears about our own colleagues, whether they will fall ill. We also fear that we could be asymptomatic carriers and bring this virus home to our families and our loved ones. There has been a lot of fear over our supplies and whether we'll run out. And then obviously there is the fear that we will see patients and not be able to do everything we normally can to help save patients' lives," Sheehan said.

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Kimberly Bowers, 44, a nurse practitioner in an ICU, poses for a photograph after a 13-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moment was a young woman who died and her family wasn't able to be here with her," Bowers said. "I think right now, it's just frustrating and scary just not knowing what comes next."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Tiffany Fare, 25, a registered nurse who works at a biocontainment unit poses for a photograph after a 13-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works. "One of the hardest moments was having to see a family member of a Covid patient, say goodbye over an iPad, rooms away. That was a tough one, I can't imagine how hard it would be to be saying goodbye, you can't see your loved one and then they're gone," Fare said. "My team has been really great to me. We've worked really well together and we've really come together in this crisis. We don't really know each other, we all come from different units within the same hospital, so for us to come together and work so well as a team, it's been a journey but I think that's what is giving me hope."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Dr Kyle Fischer, 35, an emergency medicine doctor, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital where he works. "Since it's a new virus, we don't have any experience with it. For most diseases I am used to seeing it and taking care of it and this, I don't have any starting place. I know what I'm hearing from New York, I've read all of the papers it seems like, but no one knows what the correct answers are, so there's a huge amount of uncertainty and people are really, really sick. So it's hard to second guess whether or not you are doing the right thing when you think you are but you never quite know," said Fischer.

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Julia Trainor, 23, a registered nurse at a surgical ICU, poses for a photograph after a 14-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moment was having to put a breathing tube in my patient who could no longer breathe for herself and after the breathing tube went in, we called her family and the husband, of course, couldn't visit her because of visitor restrictions at the hospital. So I had to put him on the phone and hold the phone to her ear, as he told her that he loved her so much and then I had to wipe away her tears as she was crying," said Trainor. "I'm used to seeing very sick patients and I'm used to patients dying but nothing quite like this. In the flip of a switch, without the support, they're completely isolated. They're very sick. Some of them recover and some of them don't. But the hardest part, I would think, is them having to go through this feeling like they are alone."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Lisa Mehring, 45, a registered nurse who works in a biocontainment unit with Covid-19 patients, poses for a photograph after a 12.5-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works in Maryland. "Seeing these new moms have babies has been the hardest moment along with having do their pumping for the new moms and them not being able to be with their newborn children, it's hard to think of the family that they are missing," Mehring said.

Photos Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Jacqueline Hamil, 30, a registered nurse in an emergency department, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift outside the hospital. "The hardest moment of my shift today, I was in charge, and we had a really sick patient that was in a really, really small room and usually, when we have sick crashing patients, we can have a ton of resources and a ton of staff go in and help with the nurse and the doctors that are taking care of that patient. But due to the patient being ruled out for the coronavirus, we could only have five or six people in the room at a time and putting on all the gowns and gloves and masks and face shields to protect us in case the patient does have coronavirus, it takes a while, so the nurse that was in there, ended up being in the room for you know 6, 7 hours with minimal breaks and it was hard being in charge and knowing that she was stuck in the room and really nothing I could do to help her," Hamil said.

Reuters

Always be on time and dress for the occasion

In the same way as an interview in person, turning up on time is crucial. If it’s a video call, make sure you’re ready at least five minutes in advance and enter the virtual waiting room early. “The digital equivalent of a strong handshake is being prompt,” says Martin Ewings, spokesperson for Manpowergroup’s brand, Experis.

And the small signals sent out at an interview in person – like being polite to everyone you meet in the office – are just as important digitally. “Previously, you would be evaluated on how you engage with the receptionist who greets you, small talk, the interview, and all the way to walking to the lift to leave, and these things remain true but are now online,” he says.

What you wear also counts so dress as if you are going to the interview in person. It’s not just your top half either, you don’t want the interviewer to see a shot of your joggers or fluffy slippers if you have to stand up to move children and/or pets, for example.

Maintain eye contact and consider standing up

Eye contact is crucial when it comes to interviews. If you have notes you’re referring to, stick these at eye level so you’re not looking down and away from the interviewer – especially because this sometimes looks like you’re checking your mobile phone while being spoken to.

Posture and body language are important too. Of course sitting well at your kitchen table – without all the right equipment – is much harder than if we were all in the office, but you might want to consider adjusting your setup for the interview.

You could try standing up, which gives a better impression than peering down into a laptop camera, or at the very least raise your computer on a pile of books so it’s at your eye level.

Remember your screen is a window into your working life

Lockdown has given us the chance to see into the homes of everyone from politicians to Hollywood actors, but even if you don’t have a perfectly orchestrated bookcase in the background, you don’t want an unmade bed or the kitchen sink on display.

Even though it’s great to show your personality, it’s worth setting your interview up in a quiet space which is uncluttered...

Find somewhere in your home with a plain background, either a blank wall or somewhere with minimal distractions. Open the curtains and let in as much light as possible (with you facing into the light rather than behind your head, creating an ominous silhouette with no features) and clear any clutter out of the background.

Cheary says: “Your surroundings provide the interviewer with an insight into who you are. Even though it’s great to show your personality, it’s worth setting your interview up in a quiet space which is clean, presentable and uncluttered.”

The setting might have changed, but it’s still an interview

Whether it’s a Zoom call or a Google Hangout chat, interviews can seem less formal now they’re being conducted over video calls. However, just because the format has changed this doesn’t mean the interviewer will be looking for anything different to a traditional face-to-face interview.

Therefore, all the old rules still apply including being as prepared as you can be, researching the company, having a set of questions to ask, and being prepared for uncomfortable answers.

The interviewer will want to see how you’re reacting to the new normal but they’ll also expect exactly the same standards as before. With a highly-competitive jobs market and growing unemployment levels, in order to secure your next job it’s important not to be fooled by the more relaxed setting and if anything be over prepared for what they’re going to ask of you.

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